The Guilfordian

Issue date: 11/19/04 Section: Forum

Media Credit: Rachel Chaffin/The Guilfordian

If John Kerry had won the election, this article would be about how the battle is not over and that a Democratic victory was only a very small step in the right direction.

Now that we have instead taken a giant leap backwards, my article is even more about continuing the fight.

I have spent so much energy over the last four years hating the Bush administration and surrounded myself with so many people who have done the same that I started to believe everyone detested George W.

I haven't gone a day since Bush took office without hearing someone criticize his policies or stupidity. My friends wore shirts that said "Not my president," and I constantly received e-mails from my family about the necessity of getting Bush out of office.

I knew some people supported the president, but I thought they were a minority-just ignorant rednecks and wealthy businessmen.

I took it for granted that smart people realized that George W. Bush is a horrible president, and because most of the people I spent time with were intelligent, I assumed we were the majority.

On Nov. 3, my illusions were slain.

I stared at the television until 4 a.m. on Election Night, becoming angrier and angrier as state after state turned blood red, but I went to sleep with hope.

"Ohio," I told myself. "We still have Ohio."

My mom broke the news to me on Wednesday. It didn't feel real.

How could 51% of America have given its approval to everything we had been fighting so bitterly against for the past four years?

I am angry. My home state, West Virginia, went for Bush. West Virginia, a state troubled by poverty and unemployment, voted for a man who will only make its situation worse.

This was largely because of a fear that John Kerry would take away their guns, and a belief that Bush, with his opposition to gay marriage and abortion, was the "moral" candidate.

I am angry that so little was done to educate West Virginians and other rural states otherwise.

I am scared. Not only was Bush re-elected, but Republicans have control of the Senate and the House. Conservative legislation will now be passed much more easily.

Eleven states voted to ban gay marriage. It terrifies me that so many Americans voted to limit other people's rights on an issue as personal as marriage. What does it say about our country when we pass laws making life more difficult for others and no better for ourselves?

Continued...

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