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I'm a complete genius
Nov. 3rd, 2004 05:32 pmBush didn't win. Kerry lost.
Man, I was really busy doing some student gov't stuff and watching the election party. Then LJ gets swamped by the election. Yes, yes, we've heard it all. But I need to write down my thoughts so I can truly see whether I was a complete fool or a complete genius.
At first glance, I'm a complete genius. But it's really not that hard when it's a 50-50 coinflip.
One of the more interesting statistics I heard was the young voter turnout was lower than expected. Of course, more young people had said they were going to vote for Kerry. This loss of votes may have accounted for the unexpected margin of victory for Bush.
The sad thing is my roommate and I talked quite a bit about the election at the beginning of the school year. The question he kept pounding home was how could an intelligent guy like me vote for Bush? Social issues shouldn't matter (even though America likes to vote for social issues more than others). I really didn't have an answer for him then, and I even told him I thought Kerry was going to win. The Democrats should have been able to take back the presidency on the anti-Bush tide.
Then I started reading LiveJournals, which I found strangely to be overly to the left. For every conservative writer, there seemed to be five liberal ones. Liberals tend to be more vocal because they are trying to change the status quo. They represent the revolution, and revolution requires a lot of thinking to properly implement it. And you know what? It actually made me understand why I lean more towards the Republicans than the Democrats. They say you don't improve yourself by hearing your friends agree with you all the time. You only grow when you are challenged by others in your beliefs and ideas.
Most of the LJs that I came to friend all made valid points about Bush. They hit home the point how weak of a leader he was. How much of a front man he was. How much of an ignoramus he was. I heard many of the same points Kerry was making.
I expected to be convinced to vote for Kerry. Yet, it never happened. Yes, I read great posts on why Kerry would be better for our country, but I could sense something lacking in them. Confidence. And then I understood more than ever that liberals can be patriotic, too.
Man, I was really busy doing some student gov't stuff and watching the election party. Then LJ gets swamped by the election. Yes, yes, we've heard it all. But I need to write down my thoughts so I can truly see whether I was a complete fool or a complete genius.
At first glance, I'm a complete genius. But it's really not that hard when it's a 50-50 coinflip.
One of the more interesting statistics I heard was the young voter turnout was lower than expected. Of course, more young people had said they were going to vote for Kerry. This loss of votes may have accounted for the unexpected margin of victory for Bush.
The sad thing is my roommate and I talked quite a bit about the election at the beginning of the school year. The question he kept pounding home was how could an intelligent guy like me vote for Bush? Social issues shouldn't matter (even though America likes to vote for social issues more than others). I really didn't have an answer for him then, and I even told him I thought Kerry was going to win. The Democrats should have been able to take back the presidency on the anti-Bush tide.
Then I started reading LiveJournals, which I found strangely to be overly to the left. For every conservative writer, there seemed to be five liberal ones. Liberals tend to be more vocal because they are trying to change the status quo. They represent the revolution, and revolution requires a lot of thinking to properly implement it. And you know what? It actually made me understand why I lean more towards the Republicans than the Democrats. They say you don't improve yourself by hearing your friends agree with you all the time. You only grow when you are challenged by others in your beliefs and ideas.
Most of the LJs that I came to friend all made valid points about Bush. They hit home the point how weak of a leader he was. How much of a front man he was. How much of an ignoramus he was. I heard many of the same points Kerry was making.
I expected to be convinced to vote for Kerry. Yet, it never happened. Yes, I read great posts on why Kerry would be better for our country, but I could sense something lacking in them. Confidence. And then I understood more than ever that liberals can be patriotic, too.
