US elections

I recently moved from the US back to Europe, in particular Portugal. (The move partly explains why I have posted here less regularly). I left the US shortly after the RNC, which gave me a chance to join in the protests against Bush&Co. I'm still following US politics quite closely. As was most of Europe. It was impressive to see French TV channels, British channels, Spanish and Portuguese channels, following the Bush/Kerry race more closely than the recent elections for the European Parliment. It was a testemant to the importance of the US, and to the European fear that Bush would be re-elected. I was reluctant to wage on either candidates victory for the longest time, and was conformed to it being a razor-sharp close race. But on the morning of the election, the voter turnout gave me hope that Kerry might actually win. I went to sleep that day (Portugal has a 5 hour difference to EST) listening to NPR on the internet, and was transported to when I lived in the US. The next day I was stunned, that Bush not only won, but won without any recount, won the popular vote as well as the electoral college, that the GOP won seats in both houses, that Daschele lost his post, the gay marriage bans, the advances in the education of "creation science". Yes there were a few important vitories (Obama, Feingold, McKinely), but all in all, it was a marked defeat for the Democrats, while of course Bush didn't really gain a big victory, afterall he only got 51% of the vote. Certainly not enough to really claim any "mandate", or confirmation of his policies. If anything, the election demonstrated, that contrary to Obama mantra, the nation is deeply divided. The map of red and blue states illustrates this (although an interesting map with shades of purple, rather than the bicolor states, is revealing). Bush gets 69% in Wyoming, but a mere 9% in Washington DC, or 17% in Manhattan (ironically, these latter two places are of course where the 9/11 attacks occurred). Of course, its important now to keep a critical, vigilant civil society and not return to the post-9/11 acquiesence to the chief. One that does not take assaults on civil liberties without opposition. One with a press that asks questions, rather than simply transcribing white house press releases.