The Dartmouth Observer |
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Commentary on politics, history, culture, and literature by two Dartmouth graduates and their buddies
WHO WE ARE Chien Wen Kung graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and majored in History and English. He is currently a civil servant in Singapore. Someday, he hopes to pursue a PhD in History. John Stevenson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a BA in Government and War and Peace Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in teaching and research. Kwame A. Holmes did not graduate from Dartmouth. However, after graduating from Florida A+M University in 2003, he began a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign. Having moved to Chicago to write a dissertation on Black-Gay-Urban life in Washington D.C., he attached himself to the leg of John Stevenson and is thrilled to sporadically blog on the Dartmouth Observer. Feel free to email him comments, criticisms, spelling/grammar suggestions. BLOGS/WEBSITES WE READ The American Scene Arts & Letters Daily Agenda Gap Stephen Bainbridge Jack Balkin Becker and Posner Belgravia Dispatch Black Prof The Corner Demosthenes Daniel Drezner Five Rupees Free Dartmouth Galley Slaves Instapundit Mickey Kaus The Little Green Blog Left2Right Joe Malchow Josh Marshall OxBlog Bradford Plumer Political Theory Daily Info Andrew Samwick Right Reason Andrew Seal Andrew Sullivan Supreme Court Blog Tapped Tech Central Station UChicago Law Faculty Blog Volokh Conspiracy Washington Monthly Winds of Change Matthew Yglesias ARCHIVES BOOKS WE'RE READING CW's Books John's Books STUFF Site Feed    |
Saturday, November 06, 2004
The Election More coming from me on the election soon. However, I would just like to note a few things from the outset for some of my very confused liberal and conservative friends at the moment. 1. This is election is not the end of the world as we know it. Unlike what you hear from the embittered members of the opposition party, or from the triumphalist Bill Bennects of the world, the election of President Bush with solid Republican majorities in both houses is not going to so completely transform the American landscape that fleeing to Canada will be a necessity. The Republican is not going to legislate 'proper morality' into the American people. 2. The Democratic party is not the party that a majority of Americans would vote for if they weren't being duped by Republicans. Higher turnout in the electorate did not necessarily mean a Kerry victory, nor are millions of persons voting "against their interests" when they cast their votes for President Bush. The Dems do not have the philosophical and moral superiority to Republicans that the masses are just missing. Any advice given by any person telling the Dems that the reasons they lost is because they aren't liberal enough (far left), or have the right ideas but need to dumb them down/ dress them up for the general population (DLC), is just wrong. 3. The election was not inevitable. It literally came down to Ohio, and regardless of the spin to the contrary, the nation is quite "divided." The Democrats are just as confused as now as they would be if Kerry had won. The "anyone but Bush" strategy isn't really a viable, though cogent, strategy if the Democrats want to re-emerge as a major player in national politics. The outcome of the election was never even clear or inevitable. |