Four More Years of Fear

I’ve been struggling all day with my thoughts on the election. I started by feeling completely defeated, personally defeated, like I was the one who was running and I was the one who lost. Anger came next along with the names of Canadian cities in which I could tolerate the cold long enough to set up permanent residence. There was also sadness, ambivalence (for but a moment) and a more violent version of the previous incarnation of anger. Above all though is confusion. I simply don’t understand how this could happen. I don’t understand how a nation founded and fought for with such bravery, such courage could be defeated by such fear. We as a nation have allowed our own President to scare us into submission. The war on terror is a war on us.

And it would have been a lot worse too if it wasn’t for everyday people who had already had enough. MoveOn is the prime example but not the only one. Grassroots baby. It is a beginning and one that I only hope will snowball into the discovery of a candidate of who we can truly be proud to stand up and support.

Out of all the emotions that I lived through today, I think that my genuine love and appreciation for this country has finally prevailed and now I am choosing to see this defeat as an opportunity. Bush cannot make things any better. He will make them worse and apparently that is the only way people will start to open their eyes. Kerry might have been a better choice but that doesn’t mean he was a good one. It occurs to me that I never wanted Kerry to get elected. I wanted Bush out and that was all. I know I’m not alone. That way of thinking will never lead to a true victory. I am tired of settling. How long will it take? I don’t know. All I know is that it has too. Canada’s too cold.