This is my first diary. I have lurked for several months, and finally was able to take my first time off to work the last two days of the election with ACT in Youngstown, OH. (FWIW, the precinct I walked on 11/2 had over 90% turnout).
I'm not liberal, at least as the term in used now; in many ways, I am a classical conservative who believes, for examiple, that the state recognition of heterosexual marriage (as anything other than an encapsulation of contracts) is silly and that outsourcing is primarily a result of the weak currency. I supported John Kerry because I thought his priorities and his thought processes were in the right place, and the values that those priorities and processes reflected were important.
I read some diaries earlier today that talked about how to reshape the anti-neocon message for the future, and the following speech began forming in my head. I wanted to meld that idea with defining what it means to unite following an election. So I guess this is my concession speech. I haven't the time to really proof-read it, so here goes...(below the fold)
"Thank you. I started this campaign in these same storied halls last September with two goals. I wanted to know my country and its problems and I wanted to unite that country around real solutions and a vision for a stronger America for all Americans. And on those two goals, I rise here to claim victory.
I was opposed on my journey by our President, a skilled campaigner and the man who stood on the rubble of September 11th and showed us what America had to be to survive in this world. And in the end, he was chosen. I congratulate President Bush and his team and wish them Godspeed in the next four years.
This campaign has been long and difficult for us. It has divided this country more deeply than any I have ever seen or studied. Our side had more volunteers, more money, and more fervor than in any other election, and produced more votes than in any other election. President Bush's side did all those things as well.
A losing Presidential candidate must pledge to help reunite the country, to work with the Administration to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare. And despite the fervor and rancor that has so poisoned our political landscape for the last months, I do make that pledge.
And despite the long hours and sacrifice all of you have made for me, to raise our money, spread our vision, goals, and plans, and get out our vote, and the clear differences we have with our adversaries, I urge you to do the same.
Today, I ask you to join me and unite with our adversaries to recognize our shared values and goals and act to ordain and establish the fulfillment of those values and goals in a concrete vision for America and its government.
We will unite behind our country. We will unite behind our brave troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world, as well as our veterans, providing them the numbers, armor, health care and support systems they need to fulfill their missions.
We will unite to defend America against the terrorists. We will unite behind the effective operational units defending our homeland, providing them better systems to share information and better technology to respond to events. We will unite, not around merely increasing funding for homeland security, but around a complete, and completely funded, strategy for working together to avert attacks and respond effectively should one occur.
We will unite to keep America's fiscal house in order. As we come out of recession, we will unite to fairly assess the impact of tax cuts and monetary policy before we try to do more--we will unite to make decisions based on real data, not politicized predictions. And we will unite to ensure that we leave a sound fiscal structure to allow our children to pay down the debt that every one of us in government, Republican or Democrat, has let run up the last twenty-five years.
We will unite to raise and educate our children as well as possible, not merely by increasing funding for educational and social programs, but by ensuring that we are doing everything we can to provide the opportunities of our new economy to our youngest citizens. We will unite to make our children the leaders in competition for the jobs of the new economy, through both the best education and a monetary and tax policy that helps our corporations calculate that yes, the best option for our skilled labor is here in America.
Those are not red values or blue values, liberal values or conservative values. They are the values of hope and harmony. They are American values. They are the values of strong, informed leadership and the values of a powerful, validated vision for a new America. And we pledge to unite behind those values.
However, we do not pledge to unite behind the animus that has colored our politics. We will not unite behind the use of fear for raw political gain, whether that fear be of terrorist attack or the loss of civil liberties.
We will not unite behind the idea that some Americans cannot love the same way as others, and that those loving Americans do not deserve a shared life, shared health, and shared property along with their shared happiness. And we will certainly not unite behind the politics of calling that sharing dangerous to our own lives and our own love.
We will not unite behind isolating America from its allies and holding grudges against our closest friends for individual decisions.
We will not unite behind deceiving Americans into believing in something or voting a certain way, whether through ambiguous statements, misrepresentation of ourselves or our faiths, or premeditated intimidation.
Those are not red values or blue values, liberal values or conservative values. Those are the values of hate and hurt. They are not American values. They are the values of scared, divisive leadership and the values of a scorched-earth politics that has no measurable benefit to anyone, except political consultants and columnists. And we pledge never to unite behind those values, and to call out those who do for their short-sighted and un-American lack of leadership.
We are all disappointed here today. Many of you are angry. But America was founded when a band of patriots channeled their anger and disaffection into the energy to establish an organized nation, with wise and elegant compromises that ensured a lasting, democratic, republic--a more perfect union. And as we pledge today to unite with our fellow patriots to represent real American values and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, we say to America, we're here, we're energized, and we're ready to go.
God bless you, and God bless America."