Plongée dans mes archives de novembre 2004 (eh oui, je garde tout!).
George W. Bush est réélu le 2 novembre contre John Kerry (et Ralph Nader dans le rôle de Jill Stein) alors que son bilan est terrible et que “tout le monde” pense la victoire de Kerry nécessaire et évidente...
Les articles du New-York Times pourraient être publiés ces jours ci en changeant juste quelques noms propres, si ça vous amuse de les relire...
Si l’analyse est bonne (mais ça se discute toujours: est-ce la “faute” des pauvres, incultes, sexistes et racistes, qui votent mal ou de l’establishment démocrate dans sa tour d’ivoire qui a perdu le contact avec la réalité?), les leçons, douze ans après, ne semblent pas avoir été tirées.
D’autre part, l’un des articles (et un autre de Michael Moore que je n’inclue pas ici) insiste sur le fait que les jeunes, eux, ont “bien” voté, sous entendant que le vote républicain est un vote du passé et que l’avenir appartient aux démocrates. Douze ans plus tard, les jeunes sont devenus vieux et la promesse n’a pas été tenue...
Op-Ed Columnist: Living Poor, Voting Rich
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, The New York Times Company, November 3, 2004
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/opinion/living-poor-voting-rich.html
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OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: The Day the Enlightenment Went Out
GARRY WILLS, The New-York Times, November 4, 2004
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/the-day-the-enlightenment-went-out.html?_r=0
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The Red Zone
MAUREEN DOWD, The New-York Times, 4 November 2004
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/the-red-zone.html
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A Blue City (Disconsolate, Even) Bewildered by a Red America
JOSEPH BERGER, The New-York Times, November 4, 2004
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/nyregion/a-blue-city-disconsolate-even-bewildered-by-a-red-america.html
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Scrooge’s nightmare
Leonard Steinhorn, Salon, November 25, 2004
▻http://www.salon.com/2004/11/25/new_silent_majority
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On recevait aussi à l’époque des messages plus ou moins humoristiques sur la situation. Aujourd’hui ce serait plutôt sur Facebook, mais ce sont à peu près les mêmes:
Blue America Charter
Barbara Moran and Brian Collins, November 3, 2004
Fellow citizens!
It gives me great happiness to unveil our plans for the liberation of Blue America. For the past three years, we have, in conjunction with a handful of MIT engineers, been constructing a giant, cordless circular saw, which is now complete. With this saw, we plan to carve our thriving, prosperous eastern Blue nation away from the spreading infection of red america. We will then set a mighty sail, which will carry us around the tip of South America and allow us to join our Blue compadres on the West Coast. We will use our giant saw to free our friends, then join our two lands together and sail to a designated point in the Pacific Ocean. There, we will establish our new country: Blue America.
Basic Tenets
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Blue America will be founded on the same ideals as the former United States of America. These ideals, sadly, have been decimated by the same red plague that scrambled the brains of so many of our unfortunate former fellow-citizens. These ideals include:
- The Separation of Church and State
- Freedom of Speech
- Freedom of Assembly and Protest
- Equal rights for all and due process under the Constitution
Blue America will have many additional aspirations not shared by red america, including:
- The goal of giving every citizen high quality education and health care (even prescription drugs!), regardless of their race, ethnic background or income
- The right to a satisfying career with fair pay, job security and an eight-hour workday
- Respect for other cultures and honesty in our dealings with other countries
- The right to worship the deity of your choice (or not)
- Family values, meaning the right of anyone to form a family if they wish
- Compassion for the poor and sick
- Belief in the value of: fresh food, recycling, renewable energy, independent bookstores and movie theatres, literacy, the free exchange of ideas, clean air, clean water, sushi, Julia Child cookbooks, Scrabble, humor, honesty, exercise, art, poetry, community gardens, mass transit, local cheese, the scientific process, the theory of Evolution, national parks, bicycles, music, sidewalks, trees, books, family farms, locally-owned diners with revolving pie cabinets, and decent coffee.
Membership
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Membership in Blue America will be limited to residents of states that voted “blue” in the 2004 election, with the following exceptions:
1. Red “carriers” (or “vectors”) who are currently living in Blue America are kindly asked to leave before the liberation.
2. Members of certain Blue outposts in red america (like Austin, Texas) will be allowed to apply for Blue America citizenship.
3. Members of Blue outposts in Ohio (Oberlin) will also be allowed to apply for citizenship. However, if accepted they must accept a one-year probationary period. Similarly, members of Blue outposts in Florida (South Beach) will also be allowed to apply, but must accept a two-year probationary period.
4. Members of the Bush family are excluded for life, as are members of the Bush cabinet and all Fox News anchors, and Kid Rock. (Sorry, Colin Powell, but you had your chance.)
Sports
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The first official sports team of Blue America will be the Boston Red Sox (hereby re-named the Boston Blue Sox). However, red propagandist Curt Schilling will be cut from the Sox and banished to the worst team in baseball. Also, we’ll take Derek Jeter, if he’s interested.
Timetable
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Engineers have already begun separating northern Maine from the continent. We plan to be fully liberated and set sail on Blue Inauguration day, January 21, 2005. Pack your guitars, books and Hawaiian shirts, and let’s hear it for the blue, white and blue!
Bring on the saw!
Barb and Brian
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Disaffected Americans look north to ’better government’
MARINA JIMÉNEZ, 4 November 2004
Some Americans are willing to do anything to avoid another four years of George W. Bush — even move to Canada.
Joe Auerbach is so disappointed with Mr. Bush’s election victory that he is planning to give up a job as a systems analyst and leave his comfortable life in Columbus, Ohio, to move to a country with “a better government and more reasonable people.”
“Today, once the Bush victory was clear, my e-mail was burning up with people vowing to leave the U.S. for Canada,” said Mr. Auerbach, 27.
“I don’t want to be living in the U.S. when China decides we are a threat and when George Bush starts drafting computer engineers into the army. I’m morally opposed to the Bush administration.”
He and several other disenchanted Americans are contacting immigration lawyers north of the border to see whether they qualify to immigrate to Canada. It is too soon to say whether this is political hot air or the start of a new trend in immigration.
But among some middle-class, liberal Americans, there is a growing sense of political disengagement as they realize the majority of their fellow citizens support the conservative agenda of Mr. Bush, who received 51 per cent of the popular vote, winning more votes than any other president in U.S. history.
“Mr. Auerbach is one of many middle-class Americans who have a philosophical difference with the direction the U.S. is taking,” said Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer. “I have received several inquiries from people like him who want to move here.”
Jacqueline Bart, a Toronto immigration lawyer, said she recently attended a conference in New York and more than a dozen U.S. lawyers asked her about sending their children to study in Canada. “There is a sense of hesitation about the direction Bush is taking the country in,” she said.
Clyde Williamson, a libertarian from Ohio, feels the Bush administration is too conservative on social-justice issues such as gay rights, abortion and the medicinal use of marijuana. He is also opposed to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
“I don’t think the U.S. is going to turn into Nazi Germany or anything. But it is going to become a much more conservative country,” said the 29-year-old computer-security engineer.
Others feel Mr. Bush’s unilateralist foreign policy is more troubling even than his social conservatism. A former U.S. diplomat who has already applied for permanent-resident status said yesterday that Mr. Bush’s election victory has accelerated his determination to relocate permanently to Vancouver.
“I’m watching this administration preside over the virtual destruction of relations with the Muslim world — and, I fear, end up strengthening the forces of terrorism as a result,” he said.
“The values of Canada are what I thought the values of the U.S. used to be: personal freedoms, a sense of need for a global community and consensus. The U.S. is losing its way.”
A Toronto lawyer representing three U.S. soldiers who have fled to Canada to avoid fighting in Iraq said Mr. Bush’s re-election means more U.S. deserters are likely to seek refugee status north of the border.
Jeffry House, a Vietnam-era draft-dodger who is steering the refugee claims of the three young men, says he has received about 80 e-mails from other U.S. soldiers stationed around the world, inquiring about escaping to Canada to avoid serving in Iraq. At least five U.S. soldiers are believed to have fled to Canada.
Maria Iadinardi, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said it is too soon to say whether there has been a spike in the number of Americans being granted permanent residency, noting the number has fluctuated in recent years from a low of 4,437 in 1998 to a high of 5,604 in 2001.
So far this year, 5,353 Americans have become permanent residents.
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“Ladies and gentlemen, drop your borders: Now that George W. Bush has been officially elected, single, sexy, American liberals - already a threatened species - will be desperate to escape. These lonely, afraid (did we mention really hot?) progressives will need a safe haven. You can help. Open your heart, and your home. Marry an American. Legions of Canadians have already pledged to sacrifice their singlehood to save our southern neighbours from four more years of cowboy conservatism...” To be continued on:
▻http://www.marryanamerican.ca
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“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
–- H.L. Mencken, journalist and satirist (1880-1956)
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THINGS WE SHOULD DO NOW WHILE WE STILL CAN
Get that abortion you’ve always wanted
Drink a nice clean glass of water
Two words - doggy style
Cash your social security check
See a doctor of your own choosing
Hug your draft age child
Visit Syria, or any foreign country for that matter
Get that gas mask you’ve been putting off buying
Move out of the red states
Horde gas
Buy all the porn you can carry
Borrow questionable books from the library - constitutional law books, Catcher
in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer
If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix - do it now
Two words - come out - then go back in - HURRY!
Jam in all the Alzheimer’s stem cell research you can
Stay out late before the curfews start
Get within 6 feet of a stripper in a state where its still allowed
Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his “accident”
Go see Mount Rushmore before the “W” addition
Use the phrase - “you can’t do that - this is America”
If you’re white - marry a black person, if you’re black - marry a white person.
If you’re gay, learn to pass.
Take a snowmobile-noise free walk in Yosemite, without being hit by a base-jumper.
Enroll your kid in art or music class
Start your school day “without” a prayer
Pass on secrets of evolution to future genes
Learn French
Let’s go and live in France.
Attend a commitment ceremony with your gay friends.
Take a factory tour anywhere in the US.
Try to take photographs of animals on the endangered species list.
Visit Florida before the polar ice caps melt.
Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive.
Visit Alaska before “The Big Spill”.
Visit Massachusetts while it is still a State.
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Et deux sites web qui sont encore valables, 12 ans plus tard:
▻http://www.sorryeverybody.com
▻http://www.apologiesaccepted.com
#Etats-Unis #Donald_Trump #Hillary_Clinton #George_Bush #John_Kerry #2016 #2004 #histoire #élections_présidentielles
