Let the healing begin

[edschweppe]

Let the healing begin


I just watched John Kerry's concession speech.

It hurts a lot to realize that Kerry lost this election. I'm disappointed, and discouraged. Over the last several years, George W. Bush has demonstrated absolute disdain for anyone who dares disagree with him. He has shown massive incompetence,

I very much hope that President Bush will echo the key theme of Kerry's speech and emphasize the need for healing and going forward together as a nation. I'm not at all sure that he will, but I'll wait and see.

BUT.

The United States is still a great nation, and a good nation.

Turnout was huge. That, in itself, is good.

And, for the first time in four elections, the President-elect won both an absolute majority of Electoral College votes and an absolute majority of the popular vote. (Clinton won popular-vote pluralities in 1992 and 1996; Bush (in)famously lost the popular vote and won the electoral vote in 2000.)

1992	Popular Vote	Percent
Clinton	44,908,254	43.28%
Bush	39,102,343	37.69%
Perot	19,741,065	19.03%
Totals	103,751,662	100.00%
1996	Popular Vote	Percent
Clinton	45,590,703	49.95%
Dole	37,816,307	41.43%
Perot	7,866,284	8.62%
Totals	91,273,294	100.00%
2000	Popular Vote	Percent
Bush	50,456,002	48.36%
Gore	50,999,897	48.88%
Nader	2,882,955	2.76%
Totals	104,338,854	100.00%

Source data for 1992 and 1996: http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/scores.html
Source data for 2000: http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/scores2.html

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Thank you Ed.

[edschweppe.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, as always, Bill.

For those of us on the liberal side of the spectrum, this is a time to mourn lost opportunities, to wonder what went wrong, to reflect and to acknowledge and to regroup.

I, however, REFUSE to despair - or to quit - or even to run and hide.

I just posted this in rivka's LJ:

where do we go from here?
humanity is being ravaged by a disease
doctors are powerless against it
pollution is everywhere
men and women die everywhere in senseless ethnic conflicts
homelessness is rampant
people can't read
children are being killed in the streets
the year is 1350
it was the beginning of the Renaissance
they made it
so will we

And it's as true now as it was eleven years ago, when I saw it on a United Way poster and brought it to Callahan's Place.
(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=28sems%248lv%40news.bu.edu)