DOOM GLOATS

L.C., a Republican, sent this to me moments ago:

I've given you the proper, respectful day of mourning you so deserve. Now, it's time to gloat!!!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

My reply:

I didn't mourn at all. A couple of percentage points in the popular vote means he has no mandate, just like he didn't have last time around — without the benefit of incumbency or the fictional "wartime president" status he created.

There won't be much to gloat about when we're less safe, our troops are even more strained under a failed iraq policy, social security is bankrupt, we're paying more in local & state taxes, prescription drugs, et cetera.

All it proves is that the politics of division and obfuscation work, something antithetical to the idea of an informed, critical electorate that understands the constitutional protections the Founding Fathers intended — church & state and balance of powers being chief among them.