Two Americas and Four More Years

The Dream Is Lost

Bush gets mandate for theocracy. Only the right can stop him now.

Yes it's four more years. Kerry snatches defeat from victory.

With so many good issues, how could Kerry lose??

The answer: it's moral values, stupid.

According to the AP wire:

_The president had the support of 78 percent of white evangelicals, 23 percent of the voters.

_Bush won 52 percent of the Roman Catholic vote on Tuesday, and got the support of 56 percent of white Catholics, defeating the first Catholic presidential candidate from a major party since John F. Kennedy. In 2000, Bush narrowly lost the Catholic vote.

_Bush was favored by 61 percent of people from all faiths who attend services weekly; they made up 41 percent of the electorate. Democrat John Kerry drew 62 percent of Americans who never attend worship, but they only accounted for 14 percent of voters.

_When respondents were asked to pick the one issue that mattered most in choosing a president, "moral values" ranked first at 22 percent, surpassing the economy (20 percent), terrorism (19 percent) and Iraq (15 percent).

In the end, the majority of Catholics preferred an anti-abortion, Methodist incumbent to one of their own - underscoring that today's religious divide cuts across denominational lines.

To Frank Newport, the editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, religion was "the untold story of this election." Newport, a sociologist who has written extensively on the role of religious faith in politics, said voters subordinated their concerns about Iraq and the war on terror
"and looked at moral values. But it's more than that. It's just about religion as well." (San Fancisco Chronicle)


bush vs kerry by county
From the county bush/kerry red/blue map (courtesy of the Boston Globe), it's easy to see that the Kerry majorities live in a small slice of America: "The urban and/or educational elite slice". If you throw a dart at a map of the U.S., you are overwhelmingly likely to hit Bush country. Two Americas starting to throw bricks at each other.

A big issue crawling out from under the carpet: abortion rights for women. Four more years of Bush may mean a Supreme Court majority for overturning Roe vs Wade. But there are many ways Bush and his compadres can whittle away at choice for the women of America.



From The Village Voice:

"Mondo Washington
by James Ridgeway
No Choice
The 'culture of life' could become real life
November 4th, 2004 4:35 PM

WASHINGTON—When Bush says, "I've earned capital in this election and I'm going to spend it for what I've told the people I'd spend it on," he's not just talking about revamping the income tax and Social Security. It's payback time for the Christian conservatives who gave him vital votes to win the election and then go on and call the win a mandate. They want cultural changes—what Bush himself calls the "culture of life," and that starts with women's place in society.

The administration already has sought to limit a woman's access to abortion and contraception; to shut up clinics, individuals, and providers of abortion around the world; and to cut funds from women's reproductive health services.

Now it's time for more. Here's a partial listing put together by the Center for Reproductive Rights:

• Get rid of Roe v. Wade through new Supreme Court appointees who think like Thomas and Scalia can knock out the ruling when given the chance. Bush will also fight lawsuits challenging the partial birth abortion law.

• Promote federal statutes and regulations that use the term "unborn child" to describe the fetus—opening the prospect of murder charges against doctors and their staffs engaged in abortions and women who have them.

• Push for enactment of the so-called "Child Custody Protection Act" (CCPA), which would prevent teenagers from crossing state lines to get an abortion, and once enacted, enforce it, the Center says, "with intrusive investigatory techniques such as issuing subpoenas for private medical records, and aggressively prosecuting aunts, grandmothers, religious counselors, and physicians who counsel minors or assist them in obtaining abortions"

• Deny Medicaid funding for abortions

• Place new restrictions on funding abortion in cases of incest, rape, and where a woman's life is at stake

• Restrict access to contraception and push new legislation to withdraw contraception coverage for federal employees (including military personnel)

• Continue to deny over-the-counter status to emergency contraception claiming it amounts to an abortifacient


Minorities have rights too. The progressive minority of America needs to resist (especially in Congress) a new thrust by the religious right to take advantage of this close election. We still need to maintain a sense of proportion and a sense of humor. In that cause:


bad knees will not stop determined voters