philip sherburne

I am with you on the 18-29 year olds. That is just unbelievable.

Yeah, there were assumptions made on that group of young voters. Amazing.

c

Good to have you back. I was getting worried with nothing to read and nothing to look at on your site.

Well, the conservative swing marches on - we got a taste of it here in Australia a few weeks back. Control of both houses too! It's a bitter day. We better brace ourselves for the next four years..

At least Kerry attracted more votes than the ALP in Australia though!

A triumph for backwardness and the 'me' generation.

In Australia... people didn't have a 'kerry' to move to either unfortunately.

Philip, I share your pain. But your figures are screwy. Maybe you were up late drinking like me? According to exit polls, 17% of total voters were ages 18-29. Maybe that's where your 83% number comes from. But the portion of eligible 18-29 year olds who voted was 52%, and significantly higher in battleground states-- way up from previous years. Only in this age group did Kerry win the popular vote. The kids are alright!

Amazing about the 18-29 year olds. I have a couch, but I am not sure that you wanna come here (Denmark):
1) Our prime minister is best pals with W.
2) If you move here, you'll be a victim of your own foreign policy.

Condolences to you and to myself,
J.

Philip,
We’ve been working at our place for over a year and we already have an extra room for you. As the country is still in default and quite away from everything, we hope to continue unnoticed for the next four years… Of course you are welcome whenever you want (and as long as you want).
We are sorry too, greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina,

Hey Philip,
I know the leave-the-country impulse all too well. What about the stay and fight impulse? You know, the breakaway Republic of Cascadia has a passport for you whenever you want. Just think, you'll get to live near your folks AND participate in the secession first-hand! ;-)

Mr. S.,

Come to Toronto! Free(ish) healthcare, cheap pharmas when you reach the age of needing 'em. We've a multi-party political system. The CDN dollar hit $0.83 US today. Rush. Broken Social Scene. The Globe and Mail. Stronger beer. Snow. No year-round fog. Multi-cultural town. Good public transit. Snow (again). A hip, right-on mayor. More beer. Tim Horton's.

As far as the apathetic 18-29'ers - just wait 'til conscription comes back.

Good to have ya back.

Philip -

Let's have a drink when you're back in NY. Unless I'm gone by then.

those idiots that you watched the election results with must have told you the bad info regarding the youth vote.

looking forward to seeing the excellent photos from your travels!

as someone in that demographic who wld NEVER vote, and who isnt planning on dying anytime soon with any luck, all i can say is that maybe im not the only one who feels that casting a vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil

Kerry wasnt about to bring in universal health care anyway, so get over it

Nice one Rob... What a way to 'make a choice'... Dope.

well, when the choices are so limited....

read a great quote from one of the survivors of Treblinka...he said, "when the tyrants offer you two choices, make sure you take the third"

people arent buying empty gliberal promises anymore...if they were so keen on introducing universal health care coverage, why didnt Clinton implement it when he was in power?

anyway, this post was barely worth a response it was so dumb...wishing disease and death on an entire demographic of people is heinous...the epitome of mean-spirited gliberal sour-grapes

granted the post wasn't too nuanced - an expression of frustration over rationality. i don't actually wish death and disease upon you. (other individuals, voting and non-, i will evaluate on a case-by-case basis.) i don't agree with your lesser-of-two-evils theory; i think that's the kind of ideological purism that's hamstrung the left for far too long now.

fair enough, Phil...we all have our moments...so i also retract the nasty stuff i said about you on my blog :)

i wld like to add, though, that the lesser of two evils isnt a theory based on ideological purity...ive watched the liberals present themselves as some kind of alternative to the "evil" Repubs for years...but, the last time they were in power, they were too busy bombing other countries and introducing nasty, hurtful welfare reforms to implement universal health care

Kerry is a hypocrite...he voted for the war in Iraq, then opportunistically criticized Bush every step of the way

now...given the choice between the scummy Republicans and people like John Kerry, you will have to excuse a certain portion of the electorate for not getting excited enough to vote...like i said, with such choices......

we call em Fiberals where im from

you may not agree with the stance such people have taken, but i understand it completely

a word of warning to close...we've started to hear rhetoric from lib/dem supporters (not offical party spokespeople, though) blaming gay people, young people, etc......if such rhetoric continues, the only thing you can be sure of is alienating those people forever

or, in the words of the skinny kid in "rushmore," "truce! truce!"

it's all good, my skin's thicker than the pile of uncounted ballots sitting in an ohio broom closet.

and i definitely feel you on the distrust of kerry & the dems in general. i guess my calculation of the "lesser of two evils" equation ultimately depends upon the small(er) (?) stuff -- not just universal health care (would canada please just invade us already?) but also the preservation of roe v. wade, the preservation of the ANWR, etc. of course, we don't have to look too hard into the way they've distance themselves from gay rights to see that the party certainly isn't committed to a universal preservation of rights. so yeah, i understand the non-voting stance completely, even though i don't agree with it.

here's to a rebirth of actual grassroots (god, i hate that word, but whatever) activism. for what it's worth, i'm not advocating expatriation or secession (though i love the rhetoric: "free cascadia!"). i'm just coming to terms with my role in a right-wing, increasingly evangelical christian, selfish and complacent america. what that role will be, i don't really know yet. but i'm sure as hell looking for an answer.

To ignore the differences between Bush and Kerry is to comdemn all those who WILL be affected by these differences to a fate that many of them don't deserve. Gays, the working class, and the population of Iraq would all have likely faired better in the next four years had Kerry been elected. Even though the differences between the two may not have been enough to excite you, Rob, there are those for whom the differences will have a huge effect, and it is to aid those people that you should have voted.

The American political system is fucked, I agree, but it's a bit callous to just abandon ship entirely.

Me confused also. Suffering post election trauma I believe. Strange that it didnt seem so bad last time even though it was just as horrible if not more so.

As for Rob above, what do you propose as an alternative to Kerry or similarly styled future Democratic canidate? I have friends that agree with you completely yet have no alternative to the political muddle we are in. Did you vote for Nader or opt out altogether?

Kerry pissed me off with that vote to support Bush in the invasion of Iraq but somehow I don't think that Kerry would propose a constitutional amendment to gay marrige. I may be blind but I didnt see the Democratic Party attempting to disenfranchise voters by tossing their voter registration out or spreading rumors of arrest for voting in black neighborhoods. So yes the lesser of two evils was what I was voting for.

It would have been great to vote for a candidate with the ideals of Dennis Kucinich but unfortunatly he didn't get the nomination and with the current two party system a politician like him isn't likely to for a while.

Just frustrated and rambling without a good tune to clear my head.

hey look . . . in australia here we get fined if we don't vote. voting is compulsory. and we still get bad results.

however, and this is a big however, at least each political party has to aim its campaign towards ALL the people - rather than just mobilising its core supporters.

of course, if you really don't want to vote then you go to the booth, get your name crossed off, and walk out again.

I'm sick of hearing the bitching about the Democratic Party. Look, we don't live in a representational, parliamentary system like Germany or France or Israel where you can vote your conscience and know that your party's percentage of the vote will yield that percentage of seats for your party in the coalition-directed parliament. Sadly, the US democratic system is a two-party system because it is a winner-take-all system, not a proportional one. All you need in 50.1% of the vote and you get ALL the representation for the jurisdiction (state, local, national). This means that essentially any third party is taking away votes from your chance at competing against the other hegemonic party to get over 50% hurdle. Because of this, the US system is inherently about compromise and you have to compromise some of your values and positions and go with the party that is going to represent more of your values than the other party to over the halfway mark. For better or for worse, for many of us, this is the Democratic Party.

"here's to a rebirth of actual grassroots...activism"

amen! i know the political climate in the US is scary right now...and i dont think ignoring the electoral system is all too callous at all...i dont wish to portary myself as being completely APATHETIC/a corrosive nihilist...i choose to fight my battles on the ground...i feel that as long as we keep fighting on THEIR turf, we are bound to lose

i know a LOT of people are suffering from post-election trauma right and are demoralized/frightened...but, we have to pick ourselves up off the ground and start the fight anew...but more on our turf

if there is anything positive about the disillusionment with the electoral process right now, it may be that more people will focus more on standing and fighting in their communities/workplaces, using direct action and civil disobedience instead of just voting every four years

That clarified your position Rob. I must admit that I was viewing your position as completely nihilistic.

I agree with your points Rob...but I still think you shoulda voted. These people are straight out ballot tossin' election fixin' alaskan drillin' amendment trashin' gay bashin' religious zealotin' scumbags. While Kerry had a few bad points he's nowhere, NOWHERE in the league of these suckas.

Do you think your battles on the ground that you're fighting are going to be easier now? Or less in number? I'm not saying Kerry is a saint, but fuckin' a. He probably wouldn't send in a goon squad to confiscate your computer cos of your 'activism', or as they may say, 'terrorism'. Then where will your blog be?

Yeah America's political system sucks. The next 4 years are not going to help.

I think people should fight daily battles, and get out there and do what they can, AND vote every 4 years, 2 years, whenever. As long as they get a 'receipt'.

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