(November 23, 2004) — On Nov. 2, the American people elected George W. Bush president for the first time. No Supreme Court ruling, no campaign manager in charge of counting votes. He didn’t even have to call his brother. Bush won 51-49, prompting the Daily Mirror, a British newspaper, to ask “How can 59,054,087 be so dumb?” Good question. Issues like the economy, the environment and the war didn’t seem to matter in this election to the majority of voters. So-called values voters won it for Bush. What’s values voting you ask? Gay marriage and abortion basically. The amendments against gay marriage passed overwhelmingly in the 11 states that had them on the ballot. Each of those states voted for Bush. So how is it that New Yorkers, who were the most affected by terrorism and have a substantial gay population, voted 85-15 against Bush? And yet those in the red states, who face neither issue closely, voted for Bush. Do they really outnumber us? Evidently yes. There are more people who will take a false war, a giant deficit, corporate favoritism and social intolerance just so long as two men can’t get married. So if gay marriage essentially decided the election, what happened to the war and terrorism? Well, terrorism is not nearly the huge issue that most people have been led to believe. There was no increase in terrorism after Sept. 11; we are just as safe as Sept. 10. Sept. 11 wouldn’t have even happened had it not been for the blatant indifference of this administration. The only thing that increased terrorism is the war in Iraq. It’s mind boggling that 49% of American still support the war. How is that possible? Saddam was a bad guy, okay; that doesn’t mean you can go to war with him. It irritates me every time I hear a war supporter say, “Well, Saddam was a terrible dictator.” Fine, Kim Jung Il is worse. Why aren’t we in North Korea? I do not understand how people can support the war in Iraq. Do they not have newspapers in the South? The world isn’t safer; it’s more dangerous because of the war. Now with everything said and done, George Bush has the task of uniting the country. Yeah, right. Now that he doesn’t have to worry about reelection, he can do whatever he wants. Our generation is going to be directly in the middle of the major problems. Bush promises there won’t be a draft. FDR’s major campaign point was promising to not enter WWII. What did he do after he got reelected? He entered WWII. This administration has created a huge debt, and the youth are the ones stuck with it. Our generation will be faced with decreasing this deficit, as this administration certainly doesn’t seem to care. In his next term, Bush could appoint up to three Supreme Court Justices, so we will be facing the influence of the Bush doctrine for many years to come. The Democrats lost because they don’t understand Republicans. The Republican point of view is just that, a different point of view. I don’t take issue with the Republican point of view; I take issue with those who blindly support Bush. Well, nicely done America; you elected a stupid, elitist, ideologue as president, and this time you really did. So congratulations George W. Bush, you have been elected the president of the Divided States of America.