Of course we all understood how close it would be, and of course Ohio is technically still in play, but it appears to be all over but the shouting. Hard to imagine the provisional ballots, and drawing this out almost another two weeks, can make a difference. There will be endless analysis of how this happened but faced with the prospect of four more years of the most destructive and inept president of my lifetime I have two things to say. First, this was a referendum mostly on the intelligence of the American people and the bankruptcy of the political process; people get the leadership they deserve. And, secondly, he is not my president.

Almost as discouraging as Bush’s win would be if the chastened Democrats conclude from Tom Daschle’s defeat in South Dakota that they should be less obstructionist. Quite the contrary; the only chance for American politics is if there is a genuine principled, nonopportunist opposition. Let us hope the Democrats on Capitol Hill do not roll over with the outrages we can expect the Bush Cabal to commit with a claim of popular mandate. And let us hope for the growth of a new and truly effective movement of popular resistance and ongoing civil disobedience as well. Let me make it clear — I don’t think we are just talking about another four years of a terrible president. Bush and his madmen are already well on their way down the path of irreversible and catastrophic damage to the economic stability, peace and freedom, and environmental liveability of the US and the world, as well as everything I hold dear in social values. Their agenda is to dismantle most of the social progress of the second half of the twentieth century, and they are well on their way, and I will be damned if I will passively accede to living in a crypto-fascist theocracy.

I am not at all sure how effective a role FmH, and weblogging in general, can play in what must be done; I have to reassess how best to devote my energies. Although it was not clear when I started this weblog, it has been increasingly clear to me that its value is as a change agent. Indications are that the fundamental divide in US society is not around specific political issues like the war or the economy as much as around social and cultural values. I know I have said this before and, with the compelling nature of the electoral struggle, I have gotten diverted, but I think that my narrow-minded obsessive focus on political issues, and certainly the short-term ones of any particular campaign season, is a waste. FmH and other progressive weblogs have to be tools for a broader culture jamming and subversion of the dominant paradigm.

A word about the electoral college. My first reaction was that it is disingenuous of progressives to have made so much of Gore’s winning the popular vote in 2000 and now to deemphasize the fact that Bush has polled three million more votes overall than Kerry and focus on hopes for an electoral college win. It is clear that the really insidious effect of the electoral college system lies in the disempowerment of those not in “battleground” states. The candidates do not have to be accountable to voters elsewhere, who thus have no impetus to consider their merits in any depth. In that sense, it is a sham to say that even a majority vote is a reflection of the popular will. It is a reflection of media spin, ignorance and manipulation.