The do-over meme

[chhotii]

Of course, there are so many things I would do better, if I knew then what I know now-- I would start exercising earlier, be a more focused student, get out more and meet more people in college, put up with less bullshit from my ex-- but one pivotal thing? Hmm.

A couple of years ago I would have answered, "not slept with the guy I caught herpes from," without missing a beat. But now it doesn't matter at all. If someone doesn't want to spend quality time with an intelligent attractive geeky fit woman because of a slight risk of catching an annoying skin virus, then they can go fuck themselves! Funny, I've been aware of the do-over meme for days, and I specialize in obsessing over do-over kinds of regrets, yet I didn't even think of the herpes thing until I started typing.

The winner for what one thing I would do differently: I would get interested and involved in the 2000 election before election day (the day the shit started hitting the fan). I was in favor of Gore winning-- I knew that Gore was a smart, sane man with good ideas, and Bush struck me as a bad apple right away. But I stayed indifferent to the campaign, and gave neither time nor money. I might have even-- horrors!-- voted for Nadar, the thought of which now fills me with revulsion. (Although, N.B., I voted in Massachusetts, so no way would that have ever made any difference in the outcome. I'm no dummy, had I been voting in a state with any chance of going either way, I would have definitely voted for Gore.) Even though I strongly preferred for Gore to win, I stayed aloof from the campaign. I was miffed at Gore for being kind of mealy-mouthed on some issues, for neglecting the left, for not having the charisma to communicate what needed to be said, and for distancing himself from Clinton over that stupid Monica thing. I was miffed at the DNC for not being able to find another Clinton. I should have put every bit of myself passionately into campaigning for Gore because Al Gore is not George W. Bush. As famously observed, a hamster would be better than George W. Bush. Instead of the somewhat wooden guy I was miffed at, we wound up with a complete monster in office.

I single this out not because I could have personally made enough of a difference to change the outcome of the election, but because I'm sure there a lot of other people who feel the same way now. Grant just a handful of Democrats the magical do-over wish, and we could change the outcome, because the election was so frustratingly, breathtakingly close in some key states. Gore won the majority of the popular vote even with many hard-core Democrats like myself feeling miffed and indifferent, just think how he would have done with some energy and passion among the base. So it's not so much an individual regret, as regret on behalf of many people across the country who must be feeling the same way.

And had Gore won, he would have continued the Clinton administration's careful watch on al Qaeda rather than getting distracted by silly diversions such as "let's think of an excuse to attack Iraq", and the destruction of the World Trade Center could probably have been prevented.

(Why, yes, I am consumed with hatred for George W. Bush. Why do you ask?)

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

you have no idea how happy it makes me to read that paragraph on herpes. go you :)

i did the campaign-for-gore-but-vote-for-nader-because-i-live-in-massachusetts thing. i was already a democrat and convinced that gore would be an okay president, which neither bush nor nader would. but i'm still sorry the greens didn't get their six per cent, b/c i think having a third national-level party would do us an enormous amount of good. oh well.

i'm still horrendously worried about voter fraud in the next election and trying to work that angle as an activist. having a whole slew of elderly, democratically-inclined family members in florida really brought that home to me. (i was in palm beach the week before the last election...)

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm very worried about dirty election tricks this year, now that the Republicans have seen how effective the slimy tactics can be. I've been feeling kind of helpless about this. More and more, the power is not with those of us that vote but with those of them that count the vote. Ah, Stalin really had it pegged. What are you doing to work this as an activist?

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

my activism tends to be "a little of this, a little of that". workingforchange.com had a petition on voter fraud which i suspect is still up -- check their site. www.blackboxvoting.com has a lot of information and stuff to do -- i keep that as a bookmark and check back for folks to call and stuff to sign.

i'm also considering engaging in the kind of voter-registration volunteer work that hammercock did at her hamster party -- i don't think that'll necessarily obliviate fraud directly, but it may make it harder to pull off.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

If you are interested, I still have a whole slew of names of single moms in Nevada from http://www.themmob.com, for the purpose of writing to them to convince them to register to vote. If you think you'd like some, or if you'd like to host a group of people to write letters, just say the word. Kitchen table activists unite! :)