I'm NOT gloating. That would be unseemly. I'm just blogging this story from today's SFChron, about how distressed Bay Area Kerry-ites are dealing with the election's outcome. I blog. You decide.

Some highlights: a shrink says seven of his eight patients on Friday were, in the words of the reporter, "upset and frightened to the point of tears."

One woman began "eating chocolate and speaking in obscenities," another said she attempted "suicide by desert."

Someone "found her neighbor on her knees, weeping."

This is denial: A woman "refuses to take the 6-foot cardboard image of Kerry out of her Passat."

Call this apocalyptic anger: "....Penny Greenberg, who feels as if she does not belong in her own country anymore, offered, "My only consolation is that someday this planet will be a dead cinder in the universe and all the stupidity, greed, and intolerance and their sad, sad consequences will be lost to all memory."

Others still, the Chron reports, "are taking anger management classes, starting Web sites with names like 'Not a Mandate' and sending e-mails. Popular items include the text of Kerry's concession speech; a list of the names and ages of all American soldiers who died in Iraq, and rejiggered maps that attach the blue states to Canada."

Turning tail is another option. "Of those who chose flight, many meant it literally. Chris Simpkins of Oakland and his wife looked up Canada's immigration rules on the Internet and added up their assets to see if they had enough money to emigrate." One woman "is moving to France."

More constructive approaches (well, theoretically - at least) include renewed activism with groups such as NOW, Planned Parenthood, and Bring Them Home Now.

Finally, the Chron gets to the grown-up contingent of disappointed Ds.

Some who chose flight are already changing their minds, and not just because Canada is cold and New Zealand is lacking in street life.

A friend told Keith Thompson of Petaluma he's decided not to head north. "He said to me, 'sitting down and refusing to budge is one of our nation's greatest traditions. ... Remember Rosa Parks: first things first. Keep your seat.'

...Marti Geiger of Sacramento can't worry about her own damp hell. She is too busy trying to set a brisk example for her dejected 18-year-old son, a first-time voter, who watched in disbelief as his side lost.

The day after the elections, my job was still there, food was still on the table, and life resumed its normal course,'' she said. "I told him that he should rejoice in this country, the day after a defeat he could still go to his university classes, I could still toil away to pay for his tuition, and life would still go on.

The sun rises and sets, no matter who is president."

Words of wisdom.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 7, 2004 04:21 PM

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