I’ve been poking around some liberal web sites since the election, and at first reflection I was disappointed at their reaction to losing the election. Ive seen all sorts of vitriol, arguments of voter fraud, juggling of maps and statistics, and even talk of secession. But then I remembered a little bit of psychology I learned a while ago, and I realized that the liberals are actually showing their mental health and are working their way through the Five Stages Of The Loss Process.
1) Denial
“They didn’t count ALL the votes! Once they count all the provisional and absentee ballots, the exit polls will be proven RIGHT and Kerry will have won!”
2) Bargaining
“The blue states ought to just secede and join Canada, and all the red states can just rename themselves ‘Jesusland’ and get it over with.”
3) Anger
“The Republicans stole the election! They rigged the voting machines! The suppressed the vote! They disenfranchised minorities wholesale!”
4) Despair
“It’s Kerry’s fault for being too weak a candidate. Besides, Karl Rove is the ultimate evil genius, and we just didn’t have a chance against his vile schemes…”
Now, if they could only get to the final stage, Acceptance, perhaps we can all finally MoveOn as a nation…
J.
If we’re lucky, very, very lucky, ’bout the second week in November 2008.
Of course, then they’ll be crying over another lost election and the process will start all over again.
I hope you’re not holding your breath until the liberals accept that the American people just plain don’t like or trust them, much less want one of them running the nation.
It may never happen.
I hope it’s acceptance next and not what’s being discussed at HBO’s Bill Maher’s site.
See powerlineblog.com and Ace of Spades HQ.
The left is still fixating on the election and a small minority, the loony left, will stay fixated on the conspiracy theories for some time to come. Think of this as a growing pain, those destined to grow up will become centrist democrats as the scales of blindness fall from their eyes or even evolve further into republicans. A small minority, the MoveOn lunatics or those destined for academia, will remain intellectual children for the rest of their ivory tower cheltered lives.
They never got over the 2000 election. They will never get over this election. They will not get over the next election.
Funny, I decided that I had gone through the 5 steps of grief myself when Kerry lost.
Denial:
Who cares? This election will have zero impact on my live. I’ll admit that deep inside my heart I thought Kerry might have the smallest, remotest chance of winning late Nov 2, until I realized that Bush shares had shot up to a $1 and Kerry shares were worthless.
Bargaining:
Didn’t do it, because it makes even less sense than imagining ridiculous scenarios like Kerry could pick up every single swing state besides Ohio or that Ohio’s provisional ballots would go 95-5 to Kerry.
Anger:
My away message was “fucking shit.”
Despair:
I spent a whole morning reading political commentary with a general feeling of malaise.
Acceptance:
Well, maybe Bush will privatize social security – that’s probably a good thing. And now that Bush has freer hand he can be more effective in Iraq. Plus, the election thing just stopped bothering me.
Soeaking of, what are the movon.org people saying right now?
that we shouldn’t move on?
Blaming Kerry is still denial. For goodness sake he was nominated as the most electable candidate. That means a majority of Democratic primary voters thought the other candidates were less electable. The only interpretation I can come up with is that at this moment in history Democratic primary voters are unable to nominate an electable candidate.
And until they acknowledge that one and start the process that leads to actual change (rather than just re-packaging) they’ll never nominate an electable candidate.
The lesson of what has just happened in America is that the wider world is drifting away, alienated. Liberals find it difficult to understand why this should be so. For decades the belief has taken hold that, if decent, warm, modern values are carefully explained, then goodness will prevail.
Years ago, summing up the defiant optimism of a generation that was determined to change an ossified older order, Bob Dylan sang: “Something is happening here and you don’t know what it is. Do you, Mr Jones?”
Now, weirdly, all that has changed.
The Mr Joneses, beleaguered by forces that they do not understand, belong to the liberal elite. Where a previous generation deployed police and tear-gas to protect its position, resistance today is of a gentler, creepier kind. Those who disagree are shifted out to the margins and ignored. Commontators who break the consensus are forced to apologise. Politicians who let slip inappropriate views are vilified. Anyone who unbalances the equilibrium of decent, middle-of-the-road liberalism is quietly excluded from debate.
Clearly, it will not work. Far from winning new converts, it hardens positions on the outside. The time has come for liberals to take a less truculent approach towards those who disagree with them, to try persuading rather than mocking and patronising. The alternative is a smug, smiling intolerance that will eventually defeat itself.