[I received a letter today from MoveOn.org, asking me to sign a petition to try to get Congress to investigate the election. This is my response. -Ed.]
Dear MoveOn,
I think it’s time to move on. Seriously.
Were there voting irregularities in the 2004 election? There almost certainly were. Were these irregularities worse than other elections? Probably not. Electioneering has a much longer tradition in America than the 2004 presidential race. I live in Chicago, where we have a fine tradition of that.
But no manner of outcry from the liberal half of the country about voter fraud or rigging the election is going to change the outcome. No magic scandal is going to cause the party that now holds the executive, legislative, and is working towards the judiciary from reigning for another four years. It’s crying over spilt milk.
We now have a critical choice before us: we can spend our money, our time, and our energy engaged in bitter disputes about the perceived wrongs of this election or we can turn to the future. I vote for the future.
If we put this election behind us and took the energy many are now expending trying to challenge it, and instead, focus on making our message clear, reorganizing the leadership of the DNC/DLC, and getting back to the core values that we all believe in–there is no limit to what we can accomplish!
Or we can spend then next four years mired in the past, wallowing in our own self-pity, and watch as the Republicans gain even more control in the House and the Senate and as the religious right joins forces to try to inflict their will on the 48% of American’s who didn’t give a “mandate” to Bush and his policies.
The right has its sights set on the future and here we are, trying to fight them in the past.
I’ve supported MoveOn in the past and I had hoped it would continue to be an organization dedicated to forward thinking and change.
Seriously: move on.
Amen to that, brotha.