What are some consequences of George Bush being re-elected? Plus, how can I myself help make positive changes?

October 13, 2004 11:05 AM

After reading this, and especially this, I'm wondering what will happen if Bush is relected? I'm not asking for an answer based on fear, but conjecture on actual policies he's supported in the past, and has said he would support in the future. Because someone pointed out to me that Kerry can't fix most of those problems (at least with the plans he's made public). So would life here in America be the same either with or without Bush; and if so, how can someone like me, just one stay-at-home mom, make positive changes?
posted by FunkyHelix to law & government (9 comments total)

I think that re-election would mean more of the same, but with more confidence. I mean, him winning would make him feel justified in his agenda, and thus he would carry it out more enthusiastically. Plus, I expect that whatever lip-service he has been paying to the moderates would be thrown out the window, as he will not be running for re-election again.

My conjecture would be that a very conservative and religious supreme court candidate (or two) will be nominated by him next term. Iran will be targeted. Patriot Act 3 will be passed. Gas will be $3/gallon. Annual budget deficits will be close to $1 trillion. And I will be living in another country.

My answer is not based on fear.
posted by eas98 at 11:19 AM on October 13, 2004

Don't think it's going to be a "Escape from LA/NY" theocracy if he wins again. He's running on the GOP ticket and even though he doesn't want to get reelected, another GOP will want to.

I expect more of the same. He's not going to attack anywhere else because even though he won't admit it (to himself, or publically) -- we do not have the resources to stage another Iraq. It would be hugely unpopular and start involving real sacrafice from the American public. Right now Iraq is still "that nice little war" from the perspective of Joe Average. Yes it's costing a bundle but we're getting tax cuts and the economy is doing okay (considering we're waging two wars, post 9/11, post dotcom... we managed to escape a depression).

And I think that having Bush in office will help energy prices. Look at the Saudis helping lower oil prices when they can. Right now the world supply of oil is too stretched thin that even a small disruption causes increases in prices, no president can solve that.

There will probably be some lumber, evnironment, whatever exploitation as Bush tries to help those who help him, at least in his first few years in office. He'll tone down the last couple of years to avoid keeping a GOP out of office (Cheney '08!).
posted by geoff. at 11:38 AM on October 13, 2004

"Hi Canada, you are now an American state. What are you going to do about it?"

Resources or not, if Bush wins the election, there will proably be some sort of "military intervention," especially if there is another terrorist attack.
posted by Quartermass at 12:20 PM on October 13, 2004

And I will be living in another country.

Need help packing? A ride to the airport maybe?
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 12:46 PM on October 13, 2004

And I will be living in another country.

Everytime I see someone trot out that tired, cliched line I wish we had stats on how many people actually go through with it. I'm guessing .0000001 percent? (and this goes for both sides...ie republicans during the clinton years.)
posted by justgary at 1:15 PM on October 13, 2004

I think a lot of people think that they want to leave if the "other side" gets in power, but if it happens, they back away from the idea once they find out how big the immigration hurdles generally are in prosperous, industrialized Western countries such as Canada and the EU states.

I swore I'd leave the country if Bush won in 2000. My friends and family thought this was just more big talk. But I did leave the country, as it turned out. However, I'm the first to admit that my eventual departure had nothing to do with the 2000 election result. I wouldn't have been willing to jump through these immigration hoops over that--I would have stayed and become part of the resistance. The reason I moved is that I fell in love with a British woman, and we could not live together legally in the US due to the Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids INS from considering gay couples as a "family" for immigration purposes.
posted by Tholian at 1:31 PM on October 13, 2004

can't speak to the "what will it be like is bush is re-elected question" but the "how can someone like me, just one stay-at-home mom, make positive changes?" is one of my soapboxes. the only thing anyone can do is have a positive effect on the life of the person standing right in front of her. so after you spend the day raising your children to be responsible for themselves, to admit to their own mistakes and face/clean up after the consequences, to be proud of themselves, and to be polite, you go out into your community and help a person.

me, i defend grade schoolers who are getting kicked out of school for having picked up an empty shotgun shell on the way to school. and i work at a local organization which sorts clothing donations and runs job skills workshops for poor women trying to enter the professional workplace. and i help raise money to save distinctive architecture in the city.

so figure out which issue you would most like to see changed and then find some organization in your community that addresses the problem at the groundlevel and get your hands dirty. pick up some trash; deliver meals to invalids; teach an illiterate adult to read. anything else is just foaming at the mouth.
posted by crush-onastick at 1:48 PM on October 13, 2004

It'll be more of the same, but it certainly won't be the world-is-ending scenario everyone thinks it'll be. If anything, Bush'll have more time to fuck up more, making everyone glad to be done with him by the end of his second term. It's how these things work.
posted by angry modem at 1:57 PM on October 13, 2004

A journalism teacher from a few years ago said something which I think works in the US as much as in the UK. He said that it actually doesn't matter who is in power in the long run. Over the span of a lifetime, there will be troughs and booms -- but that it all balances itself out eventually. There will be wars because there have always been wars no matter who is in power and there will be scandal. But the best thing we can all do is focus on first ourselves, then our families, then the people beyond and make the most of what we have. In other words its very rare that whoever's in charge effects you as an individual. It's actually only really a minority of us and in this case the US who need to worry.
posted by feelinglistless at 2:22 PM on October 13, 2004