Commie Pervert Geek Girl, Dec 2004
Originally published in Express

The election of George W Bush - and it appears that he was more or less legitimately elected this time - as President of the USA is being touted as a triumph for "moral crusaders".

But before we write off the entire United States as a cesspool of bible-thumping imperialist bigots, a closer look at the numbers is in order. Voter turnout was high by US standards, but still appallingly low by the standards of civilised democracy. Although the Bush vote has almost universally been reported as 51%, a more meaningful statistic is that only 30% of eligible voters supported him.

In other words, both serious candidates were massively outpolled by the 40% who didn't see any point in voting.

A lot of the blame for this rests squarely on the shoulders of the Democrats. Beating Bush should have been a cakewalk. He's an incompetent liar and murderer who's alienated virtually the entire world, brought unprecedented numbers out on to the streets in protest, and doesn't have a single positive achievement to point to from his first term. But instead of offering a real alternative, the Democrats put up a candidate who fundamentally agreed with most of what Bush had done, and merely claimed that he'd do the same things more competently.

The Democrats ignored the scores of millions of non-voters, not to mention their principles, in favour of fighting over the small right-wing group that wavers between Democrat and Republican. This should not be a surprise, as the Democrat leadership are almost as tied to big business as the Republicans, and rousing the mostly poor non-voting masses would require genuinely left-wing policies. Health, education, and jobs would easily trump homophobia and fear of terrorism as key election issues if the Democrats had the will to fight for them.

While Kerry was better than Bush in some respects, the difference was nowhere near enough. Both approved of the invasion and occupation of Iraq despite the pretext being exposed as a lie and the result a disaster. Both support using the chimera of terrorism to curtail freedom. Both put the interests of corporations first. Both oppose same sex marriage.

The low turnout was a big factor in the marriage issue as well. Not one of the 11 states that voted to ban same sex marriage managed to get 50% of eligible voters to support the ban. In all cases, even Mississippi, a majority either voted against the ban or didn't vote at all.

One promising sign is that in places where same sex marriage has already taken place - like Multnomah County in Oregon - homophobia is much weaker. It really is just fear of the unfamiliar that motivates much of the opposition to same sex marriage, and unfamiliarity can be addressed.

Many Americans deeply regret the election results, and are well aware that it affects the whole world, not just their own country. Messages from some of them to the rest of the world can be seen at http://www.sorryeverybody.com/.