It seems I may be the only liberal on this site, but I guess the world needs balance, no?

I'm frustrated about the election results, that we've now got four more years of Bush.  I voted on Tuesday, stood in line before work, it was great to see everyone out. 

I won't rant too much on here about the Electoral College, and how it would be so tough to destroy, and how news networks would have no suspense on election night with a simple tally of votes: 1 person, 1 vote.  Or, how 200,000 Vermonters get 1 electoral vote, yet 500,000 Connecticutians (sp?) get only 1 electoral vote.

No, I'm more concerned with the state of the US and of the world.  What states voted for Kerry? States that face real, present danger in the norm of terrorism!  The states that voted for Bush are rural...I doubt Al-Qaeda's planning to blow up a cornfield in Indiana.  Look at the Democrat/Republican state split, what has changed since the 1860 election, since the Civil War???  That's amazing!

Iraq, Iraq, no need to go into detail...I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat to world stability.  However, we threw the post 9/11 sympathy out the window by rushing into Iraq.  Build a true global coalition, not just a few English speaking countries!  Not to mention W. was just avenging daddy's 1991 failure.

Yes, the US is the world's superpower.  But things will not stay that way.  We may be the international police/bully (depending on your view) at the moment; but look at the EU - 25 countries! An economy that can only continue to gain on US economic power.  Also, China, 4 times the US population, an incredible superpower that will have arrived in 20 years.  Things will not stay the same, and I fear that countries may remember how we behaved when the US held the reins.

2nd term presidents - have got nothing to lose.  We already invaded a country against the wishes of the entire world sans the UK!  Yes, stop Hussein, but attack with the global community's support if you are not immediately threatened (i.e. no WMD).  What is to stop W. from invading Iran in a week? Syria in January? N. Korea come February?  The draft?  If God tells him to do it, well then, gotta do it...

The Christo-fascism scares me.  I am hardly an outsider to religious zealots.  I grew up as one.  It's an environment based on fear, fear of being punished, fear of hell, fear of authority.  My father was an Assemblies of God evangelical minister.  I love my family dearly, but I can't understand the Faith in Bush.  The values are great: loving your neighbor, respecting other people.  But this is a secular society!  We are not the Taliban, we are not the German Nationalist Party of the '30s, not yet.  But what about Ashcroft, the Patriot Act, locking citizens up without due recourse???

Personal, religious faith is important.  Running a country on religious doctrine is scary.

What about the environment?  Ok, maybe Kyoto was flawed...but fix it, don't walk away!! The rest of the world is moving forward, trying to prevent ecological catastrophe, shouldn't we be at the forefront?  Ok, so oil cronies need their due, fine, but at what price?  Our very existence?

The War on Terror is a brand-new war.  You cannot be successful by bombing a country anymore, or by preventing certain ethnicities/nationalities from entering the US!

This is a War of Ideas; as long as the Internet exists, the free flow of ideas, there are thousands of sleeper cells, potential terrorists in NYC, LA and across the US.  Some are just waiting for further disenfranchisement from the government to become sympathetic to terrorists.  We need to change ideas, change how people think, that can only happen from the ground up, with a new generation, new ideas, a new world.  Countries are in some part arbitrary constructs, entities that have not always existed, yet to which we hold so tightly.  It is a global world, the solutions will have to be different for this generation.  I am not anti-American, nor am I anti-troops....I'm anti-bullying the rest of the world, because if we continue this way, we will pay a large price in backlash in the future.            

This War requires a new answer, a new solution.  Bombs don't work.  We've spawned many more terrorists across the Middle East than we have killed.  How can we change ideas and thinking? 

Religious ideas are very similar between America and the Middle East:

Islam - Allah - one almighty God, everyone else is wrong

Christianity - Jesus - one almighty god, everyone else is wrong

Where's the tolerance? Where's the world peace?

If Bush can provide strong, effective leadership that brings the rest of the world back to our side, I will support him.  He has not done that the last four years.

I'm sitting here at work, just typing out a whole bunch of thoughts about this election.  I respect everyone else's right to their opinion, I hope you can read what I've written and empathize somewhat, as I've tried to do with others on this site.

One of the most poignant issues for me in this election is gay marriage.  I tried real hard not to cry when I was reading the results of the 11 states that voted on gay marriage.  One of the things I want most in the future is to marry the guy I love, when I find him.  It's nothing more or less than what other people want....love, happiness, fulfillment...discrimination is an evil, dirty word. 

Well, thanks for reading my viewpoints.