Reflecting on the election, Sandy Andina put it equitably in a post to the Indiegrrl list today:
We learned a little cultural humility–that we cannot afford to write off the South and the Heartland. We now know our philosophical adversaries, and must learn what is important to them. The challenge will be how to resonate with them without either condescending or abandoning our own principles. Without them, no national candidate can win. We’ll figure out how to do it, just as Carter in ’76 and Clinton did. We can begin by reminding the nation that compassion, governmental honesty, and the Biblical imperative of peace are “moral issues” too.
But we have our work cut out for us. The Left Coaster reports on a conversation with a pair of Bush voters:
They clearly understood the negative implications for their own lives of a Bush reelection. It didn’t matter. For them, a vote for Bush was a religious act of self-affirmation, a way of proving to their god (or to their community of fellow worshippers) that they are “faithful.”
Reminded that John Kerry was a lifelong Catholic, their response was chilling: “He’s not as Christian as we are.”