The worst for me has been the Disenfranchisement Realization

[liveoaktx]

I already didn't feel connected to Congressional politics, due to having, in Texas, 2 Bush-loving Senators, and a blue-dog Democrat, Charlie Stenholm for House Rep. It isn't as if anything I wrote to them made any difference aside from getting me a form letter letting me know why they decided, without any input from the citizenry, to vote a particular way. Texas redistricting gave me, potentially (and now for real) Chet Edwards, who was one of the few Democrats who voted with the Republicans on issues that concerned me most (like the Patriot Act Amendment a few months ago, the Defense of Marriage Act, etc). So that, in my state, I still do not consider that I have a representative in Congress that not only speaks for me, but even cares what I believe.

Despite all that, I had a strong feeling that the people of this country knew, on the morality issue, how immoral Bush is, and would vote him out. I believed that my vote would count along with a majority, even though I secretly worried if I would ever trust the vote when a proportion of it would be done on non-auditable BBV machines. I joined the local Dem party and felt part of the political process, on the train to making sure that Bush would have to stop despoiling the environment, killing innocents, being fiscally irresponsible, and morally irresponsible, etc.

Kerry lost........ and I considered that the Presidency will not represent me, nor Congress, nor possibly the Supreme Court, nor most of the television media. And it will be this way for at least 4 years or possibly longer if the Rabid Right has its way to have one party ruling this country.

I had an illusion that I was still part of the democracy before this, even though realistically, I was disenfranchised. Now I can clearly see the disenfranchisement and have to decide how to deal with it.