Couldn't sleep. Got up about an hour ago to see if somehow America had suddenly realized last night was a huge miscount. Instead, I heard someone calling on all Americans to "get behind our President."
I never know what that means. Seriously. When someone says "support the President" (whoever it is), I never know what they're expecting me to do or not do.
The only thing I can think of is that they don't want to hear negative comments or criticism. This is generally for their own benefit, not the country's. The right to say you think any elected official is a liar or a cheat or an idiot is one of our most sacred rights in America. It's much more important than any right they may have, or think they have, not to hear words that distress them or call their views into question.
Honestly, I can't think of any other thing that "support the President" means, other than to shut up about him. And let's be honest. People who didn't like Bush yesterday will, if anything, like him less today. And they won't shut up about him any more than all those people who loathe the Clintons have ever shut up about the Clintons.
A friend this morning wrote me that he thinks I understated how much Democrats are still questioning the legitimacy of the Bush election of 2000. Yeah, maybe. But it mostly came down to little snide comments about "Our Commander-in Thief." This time, I think the anger is going to be such that it will have to turn into something more palpable. This is not necessarily what I want…just what I think is going to have to happen with so many Americans out there feeling that we have a very bad man (bad in terms of values but also in terms of competence) in the White House.
As I was writing the above, someone called to say Kerry had phoned Bush to concede and will soon make a public statement. Not surprising, of course, and I'm sure he will be gracious and say things intended to bind wounds. I don't think it will help. I think there are too many people out there who were once unfairly accused of being "Bush-haters" who will now embrace that label; who will feel that the way to win elections in this country is to lie about the other side as egregiously as they think the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" lied about John Kerry; who will think not that every Bush supporter was stupid but that the Republican margin of victory consists of people who believe we found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, Saddam Hussein was the mastermind of 9/11, and that there was something "French" about John Kerry.
When Bill Clinton won, there was a lot of rage at him…people who felt that even though he might have won by the rules, he had not won in a moral sense. To them, he lacked any higher entitlement to the presidency. That rage had to come out in some form, and it came out in books and talk radio hosts claiming he'd had people murdered or was running a cocaine-smuggling operation. It came out as a large chunk of America saying, "He's not my president." It came out as an impeachment that, whatever you think of its merits, sure did a lot of damage to a lot of this country. Today, you have what is probably a larger group of citizens who have a rage at George W. Bush, and also the very real fear that a guy who's driven up the deficit to record proportions, harmed the lives of folks at the bottom of society and made the whole world a more dangerous place will now feel he has a mandate to do a lot more of all these things.
I'm not saying all those fears are justified but they're there, and so is the rage. It's got to manifest itself somewhere, and it won't be pretty.