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Saturday, Jul 11, 2009
Pop star Moby, from his blog:
... some of us might long for a secession wherein certain parts of the country declare their sovereign autonomy, but given our current state of quasi-united states, well, bush won. tonight i realized that although america is possessed of a lot of progressive people, america is essentially a right-wing republican country. we might resist this fact, but it is a fact. it's not a fact in manhattan. it's not a fact in l.a or san francisco. but for 100+ million people it's a fact ... and now we ask ... what now? with another 4 years of a republican president/senate/house, well ... what do they want? the right-wing have re-asserted their dominance. what do they want? i do hope that the democrats in the house and senate do their best to impose sane restrictions upon the more extreme tendencies of the newly empowered right-wing ... the sun will rise tomorrow, and the people who voted for bush will: a) send their sons/daughters off to war in iraq; b) complain about unemployment; c) lament their lack of health care; d) complain about the high price of prescription drugs; e) complain about a low minimum wage; f) complain about high gas prices/heating oil costs; g) and so on; h) and so on ... the people have made their choice. and now, for better or worse, they have to live with their choice ... can someone remind me why secession is not an option at this point? i mean let's be realistic, we live in a divided country. can't we have the breakaway republics of 'north-east-istan' and 'pacific-stan'? wouldn't the red states be happier without us?"
Sean Wilentz is the Dayton-Stockon Professor of History at Princeton University.
What now? Take the full measure of the religious fanaticism that has seized control of the federal government. Senators who advocate capital punishment for abortion. A Supreme Court about to be filled for the next 40 years with certified John C. Calhounites and theocrats. A president who stands up for "the right God." A mass media apparently dedicated to lobotomizing the America people and hiding these facts. An honest recognition that this isn't because of some cheating or deception or false impression the American people have received. Participation in this election, after all, went up. This is what an electoral majority of the American people have become in the current mood. We should, in short, face facts. No recriminations: just facing the fact that, for now and the foreseeable future, we really are two countries.
Harvey Weinstein is co-chairman of Miramax Films and partner in the Fellowship Adventure Group, which produced "Fahrenheit 9/11."
We need to make a bipartisan effort to work together and ensure proper checks and balances. The country needs to unite.
Heidi Julavits is a novelist and co-editor of the Believer.
This much has changed for me in the past few hours, after raging at 51 percent of the people in this country. To be honest, I didn't really care much about the feelings of that 51 percent -- I far more cared about rectifying our terribly tarnished image throughout the world. (As my Italian friend just wrote to me, "The fact is four more years of aggressions, lies, destruction of social systems all around the world, are just too much. It's medieval. I'm scared.")
Now, however, I realize that we have to treat our own country as a foreign country, with whom our relations are strained beyond the point of communication. Do we compose for that 51 percent, our alienated brethren, novels or poems to mend this rift and sway their minds? My cynical guess is that Roth's "The Plot Against America," for example, didn't experience soaring sales in Mississippi -- which is not to discount the importance of writing politically engaged and evocative fiction. This choir loves to be preached to. But in terms of lessening this divide, I think straight activism is the mandate -- continuous visits to these red state communities in an attempt to mend this divide, person by damned person, starting with ourselves. I cannot -- cannot -- understand why 51 percent of the people in this country voted for George Bush -- and that is a problem. We need to understand why, and if we understand why, then perhaps our attempts at communication will be more effective.
