Expats Against Bush

More Map Fun

Now this is interesting: a comparison of Red vs Blue states from the election and Slave vs Free states in the pre-Civil War period. Check it out.

The Onion nails it again

If you can take time off in your busy schedule of mourning the passing of Yassir Arafat (no, me neither), check this out. In one of those "I don't know whether to laugh or cry" moments, the Onion has yet again hit the nail squarely on the head in its latest feature, entitled simply "Nation's Poor Win Election For Nation's Rich":

"The Republican party—the party of industrial mega-capitalists, corporate financiers, power brokers, and the moneyed elite—would like to thank the undereducated rural poor, the struggling blue-collar workers in Middle America, and the God-fearing underpriviledged minorities who voted George W. Bush back into office," Karl Rove, senior advisor to Bush, told reporters at a press conference Monday. "You have selflessly sacrificed your well-being and voted against your own economic interest. For this, we humbly thank you."

Added Rove: "You have acted beyond the call of duty—or, for that matter, good sense."

Diana Kerry on Voting Issues

I just received a mailout from Diana Kerry through the Americans Overseas for Kerry list, in which she discusses her disappointment in the result of the election, and, equally importantly, in the failures of the absentee ballot system and the support for expat voters in general:

Poor customer service, inaccurate, conflicting and outdated information, blocked websites, last minute rules changes and all the rest: it was an unmitigated disaster. As a result, many voters saw their absentee ballot requests wrongly denied, and a large number of duly registered voters did not receive ballots from their States in time, or at all. Based on preliminary results collected reported by local election officials, perhaps as many as 30% of registered overseas voters did not return their ballots in time to have them count. A great many of you have been effectively disenfranchised during this election, either deliberately or through blunders, bureaucratic negligence, and worse. Whatever the reason, depriving you of your vote, never mind how you intended to cast it, is wrong.

I’d also like to acknowledge that I know many Americans abroad felt my brother’s concession Wednesday morning was premature, as all the absentee votes in Ohio and elsewhere had yet to be counted.  Please rest assured that thanks to the data available from local election officials, the Kerry-Edwards campaign was aware of scale of remaining uncounted absentee ballots, and conceded only after it was abundantly clear that even a massive overseas vote in favour of the Democrats would not have made a difference.  And despite that, we are still going to make sure that every overseas vote—military and civilian—is counted, as the law required.  As for possible vote-counting fraud, let me simply say that I hope we have learned out lesson about un-audited black-box voting.

Regarding that last piece, I know there has been a lot of talk on the web about vote tally irregularities, but I haven't seen anything that's seemed too much more than circumstantial yet, and I think that unless someone has been caught with their hands in the cookie jar at a high level and in a way which irrefutably would change the balance of the electoral votes, there is a huge danger of coming off sounding like sore losers - even Salon is saying there's not much to go on. However, I do think that next time round, there will be even more attention focused on the process - and I do hope we have a paper trail in the next election.

County by County: Red Vs Blue

There are a couple of county-by-county red/blue maps floating around now that give a much more nuanced view of where Kerry and Bush's real support came from on Tuesday.

First off, this one from Electoral-Vote.Com operates on an all-or-nothing basis, much like the state-by-state maps you've seen.

If you want an even more nuanced view, this map from Princeton assignes counties colors on a spectrum between red and blue based on how far to either side they leaned.

The Guardian: Election Blues

The Guardian has a piece up on how Britons received the election news yesterday:

"As REM once sang: 'It's the end of the world as we know it.' Only unlike REM, I don't feel fine."

At around 11am, shock gave way to group therapy through shared experience: "The time difference was particularly cruel on Brits, who yet again went to bed thinking the Democrats had won." This was from a friend of a friend. "Did anyone else hear supposed-polling guru Bob Worcester say something on ITV along the lines of, 'I'm Bob Worcester, it's 2am, and I am calling it - it's PRESIDENT KERRY!'? A real bloody Michael Fish moment."

At lunchtime, friends from America woke up and joined the chorus. With a defeated sneer, the Brits among them threatened to move home in protest; it isn't hard to imagine a Republican reply to this. "There's going to be a brain drain from this country which will leave the Red-State [Republican] morons to fend for themselves," wrote an American on the Guardian talk-boards. "I wonder what the immigration requirements are like in the UK?"

Yet again, more idle talk of expatriation. Wonder if it will amount to much?

Blumenthal's take on what happens next

Amidst all the "let's keep fighting" missives (including my own) that are flying to and fro, some of the more somber analyses are starting to appear, and they make for scary reading. Try this one from Sidney Blumenthal in Salon:

The new majority is more theocratic than Republican, as Republican was previously understood; the defeat of the old moderate Republican Party is far more decisive than the loss by the Democrats. And there are no checks and balances. The terminal illness of Chief Justice William Rehnquist signals new appointments to the Supreme Court that will alter law for more than a generation. Conservative promises to dismantle constitutional law established since the New Deal will be acted upon. Roe vs. Wade will be overturned and abortion outlawed.

Now, without constraints, Bush can pursue the dreams he campaigned for -- the use of U.S. military might to bring God's gift of freedom to the world, with no more "global tests," and at home the enactment of the imperatives of "the right God." The international system of collective security forged in World War II and tempered in the Cold War is a thing of the past. The Democratic Party, despite its best efforts, has failed to rein in the radicalism sweeping the country. The world is in a state of emergency but also irrelevant. The New World, with all its power and might, stepping forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old? Goodbye to all that.

God help us all.

Dean: Keep the faith

I got this email from Howard Dean through his Democracy for America organisation, and it bears reading:

Things you won't hear today:

Montana, one of the reddest states, has a new Democratic governor.

First-time candidates for state legislatures from Hawaii to Connecticut beat incumbent Republicans.

And a record number of us voted to change course -- more Americans voted against George Bush than any sitting president in history.

Today is not an ending.

Regardless of the outcome yesterday, we have begun to revive our democracy. While we did not get the result we wanted in the presidential race, we laid the groundwork for a new generation of Democratic leaders.

Democracy for America trained thousands of organizers and brought new leadership into the political process. And down the ballot, in state after state, we elected Dean Dozen candidates who will be the rising stars of the Democratic Party in years ahead.

Tens of millions of us are disappointed today because we put so much of ourselves into this election. We donated money, we talked to friends, we knocked on doors. We invested ourselves in the political process.

That process does not end today. These are not short-term investments. We will only create lasting change if that sense of obligation and responsibility becomes a permanent part of our lives.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

We will not be silent.

Thank you for everything you did for our cause in this election. But we are not stopping here.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

Electing to Leave

Good Lord. Harper's has a guide up online for folks who feel they need to expatriate from America following the election. I think if you're thinking of giving up your US passport or renouncing your citizenship then perhaps this site will cease to be of interest to you.

But it does make me wonder how the ranks of expats will be swelled by this election result. I don't mean to suggest that a heap of people will immediately start packing, but I'm sure that some people who may have been bandying the idea about of living in another country may be slightly more inclined to try it out now. I could be talking nonsense, though.

What next?

Well, now that it's official, and we know that Bush has won a second term - it makes me shudder to say that - we need to think about what happens next, both with this site, Democrats Abroad, the Democratic Party and the left in America.

I have to be honest, I had given some thought to what I would do with the site today had Bush lost. Something along the lines of a post simply saying

"Thanks for all the great work. It paid off. Good bye and godspeed."

It wasn't to be.

I had given very little thought to what would happen if Bush won. I guess I got so outraged at the thought that crazy ideas started popping up in my head:

If, after everything he's done, and everything we've all done to stop him being reelected, America still voted to keep him on board, well then maybe America ain't worth saving. Maybe I've done all I can and I can be justified in ripping up my passport, turning my back on my homeland and condemning it to spiral into a theocratic, fascist nightmare state. After all, if people vote Bush back into power, they get what they deserve. It's not my problem anymore.

But you and I both know that's not the right approach. The response to this defeat is not to run away with our tails between our legs like a kicked dog.

We will roll with the punch. And then we will punch back. Hard.

As Meteor Blades says over at Daily Kos, Don't Mourn. Organize.

This site will continue as long as there are Expats Against Bush who need a place to come and vent, and, more importantly, to plan for how we return power to sane representatives. Our next big challenge is 2006, and planning must start now.

For my part, my only regret is that I did too much typing and not enough doing. I didn't get to volunteer as much as I would have liked, nor did I take an especially active part in Democrats Abroad. Starting tonight at the Speakeasy, I plan to volunteer myself for whatever is required to lay the groundwork for victory at the next election.

I hope none of you come away from this defeat with apathetic hearts - rather that you turn disappointment to anger, and anger to resolve.

Remember: Bush wants you to give up.

Fuck him. Let's get organized.

-Luke

Breaking: Kerry concedes

This from CNN:

Sen. John Kerry calls President Bush to concede presidential election, CNN has learned. Details soon.

More from the AP:

Kerry ended his quest, concluding one of the most expensive and bitterly contested races on record, with a call to the president shortly after 11 a.m. EST, according to two officials familiar with the conversation.

The victory gave Bush four more years to pursue the war on terror and a conservative, tax-cutting agenda — and probably the opportunity to name one or more justices to an aging Supreme Court.

He also will preside over expanded Republican majorities in Congress.

"Congratulations, Mr. President," Kerry said in the conversation described by sources as lasting less than five minutes. One of the sources was Republican, the other a Democrat.

The Democratic source said Bush called Kerry a worthy, tough and honorable opponent. Kerry told Bush the country was too divided, the source said, and Bush agreed. "We really have to do something about it," Kerry said according to the Democratic official.