Inching back from despair...

Why despair? because i came across this piece of shit today which perfectly summed up why i feared a Bush election (i refuse to call it a re-election):

The Democrats are now talking about how this is a signal that Bush should “bring the country together”. Translated into American, this means “now that you’ve won, you should surrender to us.” The hell with that. We’ve won. Winning means not having to say you’re sorry. Bush already brought a majority of Americans together: they voted for him. He doesn’t need to reach out to them: they need to reach out to him.

Let’s face a hard truth: this was the bitterest Presidential campaign in living memory. The Democrats and their allies staked everything on the defeat of this President. All of the resources they had accumulated over a generation of struggle were thrown into this battle: and they have failed. Despite all of their tricks, despite all of their lies, the people have rejected them. They mean nothing. They are worth nothing. There’s no point in trying to reach out to them because they won’t be reached out to. We’ve got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and out boot above their head. Now’s the time to curb-stomp the bastards.

But, whatever, we won: to hell with the rest of them. Those who didn’t support Bush can go and perform a certain anatomically impossible act. They lost, now they can sit in the back of the bus.

Some people would like to say that this guy is a nut, and most people Republicans/conservaties don't think like this, much less put it in writing. to which i say, "read the title of the blog". i titled it like that because me and my co-authors are all hyper-aware of the way rhetoric tied to racial tropes is used to inflame and frighten mainstream america.

so, why do i not despair as much? i'll give you the best examples: one from Orcinus and another from somebody i respect.

it's eerily symbolic that last week i ran a protest against White Privilege (read about it here). some suburban kid ran up on the table and told us that we were "stigmatizing" white people by informing them that they possessed privilege. at the time, i laughed him off (after he left, of course - i'm only a jerk 17% of the time). but now that i look at the election, i realize that white people really do feel "stigmatized". enough so, that they voted for white privilege over economics, job security, and foreign affairs mishandling.

last word belongs to Ian over at Different Kitchen.