So, Bush Wins

By Matthew B. Robinson, PhD (Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Appalachian State University), guest contributor:

George W. Bush has just won the most important election of my lifetime. It is even more important for the health and welfare of my daughter, who is 3 1/2 years old, and my son, who is only 8 weeks old.

Imagine that -- my daughter will have lived her first eight years under the rule of one George W. Bush. And my son will have lived his first four years under the most divisive President in recent history, as well as the most loathed at home and abroad.

But now it is time to be philosophical about it all, even four more years of looking at and listening to George W. Bush.

George W. Bush's win means we will likely:

Be in Iraq for 5-10 years and lose as many as 5,000-10,000 military personnel -- sons, fathers, brothers, daughters, mothers, and sisters who should be home safely with their families.

Start another war against a country not involved in the 9/11 attacks (can anyone say Iran? Syria?).

Continue to swell the ranks of al Qaeda, thereby creating more enemies and putting our country at greater risk.

Be attacked again by al Qaeda (the Bush team incompetently missed the largest ever attack against our country, and terrorist cells are still here plotting against us).

Continue to dismantle protections afforded by Medicare and social security.

Get two or three new Supreme Court justices in the mold of Rehnquist, Scalia, or (God forbid) Thomas.

See the rich get even richer.

See more increases in poverty, child poverty, and true unemployment (as measured by the number of people actually not working).

See even more Americans lose their health insurance (even with caps on punitive damage lawsuits).

Continue to pollute our nation's air and water and rely too heavily on foreign sources of energy.

Continue to fail to fund a proper education for our children.

Pass more laws that diminish civil liberties.

Since all of this is all right with the American people, it has to be all right with me, too. Look at it this way -- George W. Bush will finally be forced to take the responsibility and the blame for it.

After all, on whom could he blame it? Bill Clinton? Nope. Gone for years. Democratic Congress. Nope, it's Republican (even more than before!). Terrorists? Probably, but Americans won't fall for it this time (will they?).

People will finally ask, "If he can't even keep us safe from terrorism, what can he do? If he can't even achieve his primary goal of protecting America, what can he do?"

Basically, I have found a way to be comfortable with tens of thousands of more poor, uneducated, uninsured, polluted, sick, threatened, hated, suffering, monitored, and even dead Americans.

The next four years of George W. Bush will assure a pendulum shift to the left that will be unlike any other pendulum shift we have seen in our lives. And Democrats will benefit from this shift for decades to come.

And then we Democrats can get back to fixing the problems thrust upon us by eight years of the Bush Administration.

Try to be philosophical about it.

Oh, and one more thing ...

Ugh. I feel sick.