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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (369)	11/15/2004 4:09:13 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224647

Learning to Live With GW, in Five Uneasy Stages Yes, George W. Bush is still your president. You allowed your hopes to get up, didn't you? Sparked by the Kerry campaign's last-minute surge of energy - not to mention those distressingly bullish early exit polls - there was the glimmer of a different world. And all the skepticism you had to overcome in order to silently hold the thought that Kerry could win made the moment of defeat all the more bitter. If you're wondering how you'll make it through the next four years without the bitterness eating you alive, relax. It should pass quickly so long as you recognize that you're going through the five stages of mourning. STAGE 1 - DENIAL - Here are telltale signs you're not yet a member of the reality-based community: You're still playing with Electoral College vote tabulators on the Web. You're writing pedantic letters to the editor about how electronic voting is a vast right-wing conspiracy. You're on a plane to Akron to oversee the processing of provisional ballots. STAGE 2 - ANGER -This may take a while. First is the adorable passive- ive-aggressive: flipping the bird at the Fox News channel; writing anti- Bush graffiti on whatever space for it still remains; adopting "Guliani" as a vulgar verb. And then there's the borderline criminal: assassination reveries; plots to use swing voters as stem-cell test subjects; fantasies of hijacking the Supreme Court for some long-overdue Bush v. Gore payback. But most will fall somewhere between these two extremes. You'll bitch incessantly to friends and make crude jokes about ignorant red-staters. Still, try not to blame Ohio - or other swing states that let you down - as if they were monolithic formations of turncoats. A petition circulating online to "boycott" the Buckeye State presumably would hurt the 49 percent of Ohioans who agree with you. STAGE 3 - BARGAINING - It's too late for that Voter-gasm ballots-for-sex thing. Sorry. STAGE 4 - DEPRESSION - Again, not something that Democrats need a great deal of instruction in. However, you may be experiencing symptoms specific to the prospect of hearing your commander-in-chief mispronounce "nuclear" for another four years. Do you have dreams about goose-hunting - only to find that you're the goose? Are you lying awake at night replaying Swift Boat ads in your head? Do you still feel guilty about giving money to Dean? There isn't a cure for this syndrome, but you can treat its more painful manifestations. This would be an excellent time, for example, to learn how to make bathtub gin. It will keep you busy - and distracted from such grim pastimes as handicapping future Bush nominees to the Supreme Court. More important, it will orient you toward the future: Once every state has outlawed gay marriage by voter initiative, it's but a short step to reenacting Prohibition. STAGE 5 - ACCEPTANCE - Ah, yes. You've stopped fighting it. You may even have started to give in. Have you purchased a membership in the NRA? Has NASCAR replaced "Sopranos" reruns on your TiVo? Maybe William Kristol's foreign postions are starting to sound reasonable. But remember, you don't have to go that far. Acceptance doesn't have to be surrender. You can come to terms with Bush-Cheney II, but only as a challenge. In fact, combine your bitter politics with your obsessions. Buy Michael Moore a hot dog. Get Eliot Spitzer moving on a suit against the Diebold company. Oh, and by all means: Kick Curt Schilling in the ankle. November 15, 2005 New York magazine By Ana Marie Cox