A Tale of Two Cities
Why is it that the two cities that actually suffered terrorist attacks on September 11 voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry?
All the rest of those places in red on the map... they didn't get struck by planes or dusted with anthrax (OK, Florida did) and yet, quivering with terror, they voted out of fear. In that sense, you might say the terrorists won, by causing one issue to dominate over so many other important ones.
Three thousand people died on September 11, and it was a horrible evil thing. But our response to that evil has distorted out worldview and warped our internal sense of priorities all out of proportion to the actual damage done. As a result we have eroded civil liberties, a war quagmire in a country unrelated to the attacks, a huge and growing deficit, and a distrusted and disrespected place in the world polity. And Osama bin Laden is still out there patting himself on the back.
Once again I find myself living in a place that surrounds me with the like-minded. DC went 91% for Kerry. That's why I make a point of reading the blogs of people with whom I disagree vehemently about politics. It's too easy to live in an echo-chamber.
I'm disappointed, though I know the world won't come to end. But probably it means that things will have to get a lot worse before they get better.
All the rest of those places in red on the map... they didn't get struck by planes or dusted with anthrax (OK, Florida did) and yet, quivering with terror, they voted out of fear. In that sense, you might say the terrorists won, by causing one issue to dominate over so many other important ones.
Three thousand people died on September 11, and it was a horrible evil thing. But our response to that evil has distorted out worldview and warped our internal sense of priorities all out of proportion to the actual damage done. As a result we have eroded civil liberties, a war quagmire in a country unrelated to the attacks, a huge and growing deficit, and a distrusted and disrespected place in the world polity. And Osama bin Laden is still out there patting himself on the back.
Once again I find myself living in a place that surrounds me with the like-minded. DC went 91% for Kerry. That's why I make a point of reading the blogs of people with whom I disagree vehemently about politics. It's too easy to live in an echo-chamber.
I'm disappointed, though I know the world won't come to end. But probably it means that things will have to get a lot worse before they get better.
Labels: politics
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