Like most liberals across the country, I'm still in a state of residual disbelief. Those people who gave their time to try and unseat George W. Bush will no doubt be licking their wounds and dwelling on what might have been for some time. And that's important; the wounds from this election will take long to heal. Still, I've been disheartened by the angry epithets, the half-serious jokes about moving to Canada, and the expressions of hopeless disillusionment.
If anything this election should remind Democrats of the reasons we were fighting in the first place. We were fighting to help those in both red states and blue states, and against a man who has propagated ignorance while professing compassion. We were fighting to improve the lives of the less-fortunate among us, and against attempts to flag-wrap economic policies that hurt the vast majority of Americans. We were fighting for inclusion and equality, and against a man who in the end pandered to bigotry to help ensure his reelection. We were fighting to change the direction of America, and we were fighting to make amends with a world to which Bush has turned his back.
But we lost on November 2, and it stings. Moreover, the fact that Americans re-elected a man whose four years in office have been disastrous and whose next four may be nothing short of catastrophic has taught us that the ideological disconnect between ourselves and much of the nation is perhaps wider than we suspected. That is profoundly alienating, and it stings as well.
But it is also all the more reason for us to attempt to bridge that divide, to attempt to make clear to the Bush supporters whose jobs are being outsourced that his economic policy will not help them, to fight with understanding the bigotry that made people in eleven states legalize discrimination against gays, and to rail against the belief that it is unpatriotic to oppose an unjust war.
In the end, Democrats must remember that we fight most of all because, despite our oft-criticized cynicism and wry remarks, we liberals love this country as much or more than anyone else. We love this country because we realize that we are blessed to live in a place that lets us openly voice our dissent. And we love this country because, as Barack Obama (the future of the Democratic Party) asserted, despite the divisiveness engendered by this administration, "it's our fundamental belief in unity?I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper?that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family."
Of course, this is not the only election we will lose, but electoral votes are no reason to stop working. Throughout our history, people who have fought for change and against ignorance?abolitionists, suffragists, union-organizers, feminists, civil rights activists?have done so by challenging us to see the truth, and in every case this has not happened without time and serious setbacks like the one we just experienced.
At the same time, what those same groups teach us is that in America a vocal minority can enact positive change with the demand that "I will be heard." So despite our sorrow at the results of this election, liberals must remember that America is still the greatest nation in the world precisely because it is a land where anyone can be heard, and as long as that is true there is hope.
Even in the shadow of this election, hope springs eternal in groups like the Bowdoin Democrats, whose limitless energy helped to win the state of Maine, and hope springs eternal in people like Barack Obama and my little cousin, who responded to the news of Bush's victory by saying, with a clarity and perspective only 8 -year-olds possess, "Don't worry. We can fix it."