There is at least one piece of encouraging news from Tuesday's election, regardless of your affiliation: Voter turnout was at its highest since 1968, when Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey. Nearly 60 percent of registered voters went to the polls.
Then, as now, the country was involved in a bitterly divisive war in a faraway land — a war with no end in sight. Then, as now, young people were energized to make a difference. Then, as now, we had a bitterly divided electorate.
The young voters did make a much better turnout this time than in 2000. But higher overall turnout meant our votes were about the same percentage of the electorate as in the last election. And the election's outcome left many shocked and angry.
For the predominately liberal student body here, Tuesdays' results were a disappointment. But let that disappointment not temper our newfound fervor. Let it not leave us dispirited or angered.
"When we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America," President Bush told supporters yesterday. In the last four years, our country has faced tremendous challenges that have left our nation divided. In the next four year, we must work to heal these divisions as we face the same uncertainty in the world around us.
Sen. John Kerry set us on the right path by conceding without a legal battle in Ohio that could have been as numbing as the Florida debacle. But there is clearly bitterness, and it goes beyond the predictable promise of a Hollywood exodus to Canada. It didn't take long Tuesday for the Bush balloons in Frist to become deflated, hanging pathetically against the wall. And as the results came in, many members of the University community were angry — at America, at Bush, at Kerry, at anything.
But such anger must come to an end. We have a president who comes to us with a majority of several million votes. The time for disrespect and anger is over. George W. Bush is our president, and it is time for us to go about making America as great as it can be. And though many of us dislike — even fear — the result, it should not inspire anger and divisiveness. We must not drop our passions or principles, but we must proceed without rancor. The challenges we face are too great to do otherwise.
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