Well, we tried.

Rural America and the South, however, tripped up the effort to dethrone Bush.

The only thing I'm left wondering is, "How could someone actually vote for Bush? Really?" I just don't understand that. I don't understand how the status quo right now benefits people in those areas, or anyone (apart from the obscenely wealthy) for that matter. I don't understand how the Republican party benefits anyone (apart from corporations). I really don't understand this.

I also don't understand how anyone could honestly vote Libertarian (sorry, laudre; nothing personal) or Constitution. Those parties' platforms are just insane. But considering that those fractions of the votes aren't even drops in the bucket, that doesn't worry me much.

What does worry me is what we have to look forward to:

- 4 more years of No Child Left Behind (let's punish schools that need to improve by cutting their funding, thus eliminating their hopes of improving! And let's force already-strapped schools to retrain/recertify their existing teachers and not help them pay for it!)
- 4 more years of missing out on the lucrative emissions exchange market opened up by the Kyoto treaty (which Bush ditched after we'd already agreed to it)
- 4 more years of pro-wealthy economic policies (because really, the rich need more money, right? Let's not help out the poor or anything. That would be liberal thinking. Disregard that ever-growing disparity in US wealth distribution)
- 4 more years of a "Fuck You, World" foreign policy
- 4 more years of randomly throwing around our military might, disguised as a war on terrorism (I was all for the war in Afghanistan. Iraq, though? Way out of left field)
- 4 more years of the Patriot Act (because you don't need rights when you're at "war," apparently)
- 4 more years of the religious right trying to legislate morality (and as a Christian, I want to say that honestly scares me)

I'm just left utterly, utterly boggled, confused, and disappointed.

But hey, at least I did my part.