One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State

Sunday November 7 2004

If you are like me, you have been a little depressed since the elections earlier this week. Not only did same sex marriage get voted down in 11 states but your fellow citizens, and mine, elected at least one right-wing religious zealot to our state governments and bought us four more years of the cowboy diplomacy that has made enemies of our friends around the world. For three days and four nights I stayed in bed flipping endlessly through the cable news channels; hoping against hope that good news would ultimately come out of Ohio.

The disenfranchisement of millions of black voters in Ohio has not yet been deemed newsworthy by the mainstream media. Should anyone be surprised? For months upon months leading up to the election the mainstream media pounded on John Kerry; painting him in a portrait of cowardice and as a waffling “flip-flopper”, unfit to be President. The Bushies clearly had the press wrapped up into a nice neat package; designed to sell the American public a draft dodging, incompetent as the savior of the free world.

The Republican’s brilliant manufacturing of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did considerable damage to John Kerry's campaign. Were it not for the press’ relentless coverage, the American voters would not have become confused about Kerry's abilities to lead. Curiously, there was virtually no mention of Bush’s less than admirable service record or the missing stockpiles of weapons in Iraq or his miserable failure on foreign and domestic policies until the last few days before the election. Dan Rather, had more than two years to investigate the documents which would have proved that Bush was a slacker, but could not summon the courage to act until much too late in the race.

I am sure that in the coming days there will be much talk of red states and blue states. The pundits will all analyze what went right and what went wrong but clearly the re-election of George W. Bush was a product of the Republican biased media orchestrated and manipulated by none other than Karl Rove.

The question that remains is what are we to do now? Certainly there will be numerous conservative appointments to the bench. Isn’t the Supreme Court conservative enough? Justices who believe that the “culture of life” outweighs a woman’s right to choose and who believe that marriage is an institution reserved for heterosexuals. How are we to combat the inevitable onslaught of radical Christian fundamentals?

Many people have talked about leaving the country and finding a place where freethinking people are welcomed not ostracized. There are many such progressive countries that are waiting with open arms. I can only hope to make it out before the Republicans seal the borders; step one in their evil police state agenda. They have already begun to cracking down on the poor migrant workers who cross back and forth between Mexico and the US just to find work that they might feed their families.

In the tradition of Alec Baldwin and many others I have decided to move to Canada. It is of no consequence to me to forfeit a fourth my income to live in a country where diversity is accepted; even celebrated. Half my income is a reasonable fee for living in a country where I can marry another man or buy a bag of weed should I choose. Three quarters of my income is a small price to pay for free health care and cheap prescription drugs. And should I decide to raise a family, I will never have to worry about a war mongering Prime Minister sending my children to die for foreign oil. Perhaps the best thing Canada has to offer is the fact that all of her states are blue.

Copyright © 2004 Quaid Davis. All rights reserved.