I believe it's fair to admit that the post-election articles from our country's marginalized embittered liberals have been done. These liberal screeds are now as ubiquitous as trucker hats or Ugg boots once were. For sure, I definitely see the merit in these articles being written - I mean, election night I was sitting in a friend's chair, muttering to myself between swigs of beer and asking a friend of mind to gouge out my eye, just so I could feel something different from utter misery and helplessness. She mockingly obliged, but I was not kidding. I was dead-set on blinding myself from the red stain that was spreading across my the map of the United States on my television screen, and even more set on shielding my eyes from the mental image of "uniting" with these ignorant fools who seem to make up a clear majority of America.
I guess my anxiety over "uniting" is evoked from the word itself. It's a term that is about as loaded as the phrases "compassionate conservative" and "acid reflux": They all hold absolutely no meaning or significance and are expressly applied to overshadow the obvious. The "obvious," in this case, is that in America's turbulent history, our country has never actually been united.
For every slaveowner, there was an abolitionist; a civil rights activist for every overt racist; a feminist for every disillusioned misogynist; a hippie for every Pentagon official. The list clearly carries on, but what one should understand is that these arbitrary examples help illustrate the fact that Americans' greatest enemy has always been ourselves. It is only during an election that we actually go the extent of color-coding our disgust for one another and gain access to the true perspective of this fair country.
In fact, in the whole spirit of "color-coding," I wish to direct you to Exhibits A and B, which are, sadly, pretty self-explanatory. If you'll notice, the free states of the pre-Civil War era adequately represent the blue, Democratic states of today. The brown territories, which now comprise the Midwest, were open to slavery but not necessarily slave states like their Southern neighbors. Over time, however, they evolved not only geographically but also politically and linked themselves with the overwhelmingly conservative South. If this map fails to convince you of the inherent national divide, you should simply recall how the Southern states refused to ratify the Constitution unless they were given more representation - which we all know equates to more electoral votes.
Thus the idea of uniting is merely an illusion, a Band-Aid to an aged and festering wound. But even more, it seems to evoke a sense of compromise, especially of one's values. This entire election season, it seemed Christianity was getting both the lauding and lashing of its life by either side of the political spectrum. People cared very little they were unemployed just as long the government still controlled the uteri of all American women. Health care? Pshaw! The increasingly expensive and debased Iraq war? Not a concern if Bush can guarantee the old "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" rhetoric.
But being a Southern Baptist myself, I can tell you that this wasn't Christianity's fault but rather the interpretation of the religion's mantras. The notion that Democrats lack faith and would never be found with a 700 Club membership card is ridiculous. Democrats can still pursue their fight for civil liberties and red state votes without compromising themselves, especially with the considerable influx of minorities into the South - an influx that sent Tom DeLay into overdrive to redistrict all of Texas and keep Democratic votes from barely even influencing the overall outcome of elections.
Liberals just simply need to separate ourselves from the Right with unwavering resolve and forget all of these farcical attempts at "bipartisanship," but just embrace a full-out divide. So feel no guilt when you openly admit you are a "divider" and scoff at the idea of post-election comradeship.
As "The Daily Show's" Stephen Colbert said on election night, "Uniting? Ha! I mean, who am I, if I am not not you?" I have never heard truer words.
Marjon Carlos '05: superfly.
