The globe cries, America says "Fuck you, pussies!"

There seems to be a good deal of sentiment on both sides of the post-election fervor (and yes, 'libertarian' is a side) that is downplaying or trying to assuage the fear and depression in those of us who voted Kerry.

"Downplaying" is actually a very nice way of describing the "Lost respectfully and shut up you crybabies" attitude of the Republicans, who of course would do the same.

And as you can see from this post, saying "Well Bush will probably be kept in check this time around, even though he will control all branches of government and democracy is in ruins" doesn't quite work to 'assuage' me.

What's implicit in both of these points of view is that this is just an election like any other, and not the "most important election of my lifetime" as Kerry put it. Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror in the UK says "How can 59,054,087 be so dumb!" and the French TV satellite feed we get in my house has been on live since lastnight trying to decipher what the hell is going on. My friend at JMU who is French tells me "the whole world is down" and "this is pretty much the worst thing that could happen for the world." Many believe a terrorist attack is a given, now (11.9?) and the European Union has interpreted this as a reason to accelerate their own militarization.

My mother saw her T.A. crying today and asked "Why are you crying? You're from France, anyway." She replied, "I'm a citizen of the world, too."

Pessimism and negativity are easy traps to fall into and should be avoided and called out, but sometimes you have to be realistic. Somehow this type of talk doesn't strike me as "whining" or "hyperbole."