The alleged Blue States of America and their scattered sympathizers aren’t taking the presidential election so well.
Hits to the Canadian immigration Web site went up six-fold after the election, amusing some Canadians.
A site to help “single, sexy, American liberals” marry Canadians was set up as a magazine promotion at www.marryanamerican.ca.
With apparently legitimate e-mail-bearing personals, the site is slightly less tongue-in-cheek than you’d expect.
At least one citizen apparently took the election badly enough to end his own life.
Against this, I’m arguing here for the extremely obvious.
First, there are not two United States. We are not at civil war, and we have no irreconcilable differences, not even any important differences of opinion. Well, nothing more important than asking incredulously, “How could you vote for him?!”
More importantly, a division of a nation based on which presidential candidate they found less horrible reflects little about us.
So many views exist within each camp that two colors could never express them.
There are abortion rights Republicans and some-even in Congress-who think the Iraq war was thinly justified, at best. By the same token, some Democrats believe we are better off for invading Iraq, and that abortion and gay marriage are never permissible.
Claiming that these people are in the wrong party or are “in name only” ignores our political diversity.
Second, the Republicans have not taken over…except maybe Utah, but that happened a long time ago.
I know it’s distressing that Bush said after his 3 percent victory, “I earned political capital, and now I intend to spend it,” but there have been worse elections.
Reagan won nearly every state in 1984, and so “blue states” consisted entirely of Minnesota and Washington, D.C.
Granted, Republicans retained both houses, but their margins are close enough that the government won’t run unchecked.
Finally, differences between the candidates were minimal, especially on issues that separate the United States from most of the industrialized world.
Neither supported gay marriage nor universal health care. Neither opposed gun rights, capital punishment, nor, apparently, large campaign contributions.
In my view, the election wasn’t a war between two Americas, it was more like Mary-Kate whipping Ashley Olsen in a mud wrestling match.
It might seem strange that I claim the candidates had similarities. After all, commentators (except for people like Ralph Nader), insisted there had never been such clear distinctions.
The losers should take heart. We’re one nation under God, but our original motto also holds true. E pluribus unum. We are a radically pluralistic society, but one nation. We have the same values-justice, liberty and the Constitution. From war protesters to President Bush, we want what’s best for the United States.
Even if this administration takes steps backward, and even if rot infests the walls of our republic, we’re a breathtakingly great country. We’ll survive another four years.
Although I imagine most threats to move to Canada were just talk, I exhort all liberals: Don’t leave us! We need every last one of you.