In the hours following this year's presidential election I, like nearly half of the population, was left wondering what happened. We had a president that by all accounts was unpopular and who had blown a tremendous amount of goodwill following 9/11 and yet did not win the election.
Sure, you can believe that the election was rigged by computer voting fraud. However, given that all of the pre-election polls showed an extremely close race, there must be something more. Ultimately, this election came down to the very thing I feared it would -- its hard to win an election when your electoral base is more "anybody but Bush" vs. "Kerry's our guy."
The bigger question is how have the republicans become the party of mid-America? Or even more importantly, how do we get it back? Do we shift farther to the right? Return to the left? Stand on our heads and spin in a circle?
I'm not going to pretend that I have all of the answers, because I don't. Why is an easier question. The majority of conservatives believe the lies that are constantly spoon fed to the by the republican talking heads.
With this understanding in hand, the answer to what do we do now becomes even clearer -- we need to build upon what we did in this election. The president won reelection by one of the smallest margins in history. We need to expand the oposition to the right-wing lies that are perpetuated by the Limbaughs of the world. In short, we need to counter the republican machine with one of our own.
And that is the purpose of this blog. I'll be posting random thoughts, musings and rants to do my small part in keeping the left's voice alive! In the mean time, welcome.
