DEMOCRACY

I knew I was not long for the United States when I saw the second plane crash into the World Trade Center. My faith in America had been shaken by the 2000 election. Where is the democracy in suing to become the Leader of the Free World? The war in Iraq pushed me over the edge. I watched as public opinion polls slowly grew in support for invading Iraq based on talk of smoking guns, mushroom clouds and resolve; echoes of the rhetoric that fabricated the power crisis that bankrupt California and put Schwarzenegger in the Governor’s chair.
Just two years I had been celebrating New Year’s Eve on the roof of my apartment building. All the tenants were there and friends from work. I was sitting on the ledge of the building with, Eric, a co-worker on the ledge of the roof. “Isn’t this wonderful? Fireworks exploding above the Ferry Building, people on the rooftops, helicopters … gunshots. This truly is a golden age.”
“This can’t last forever,” Eric said.
“What do you mean?”
“This. All this … the city, government … It’s all going to fall apart.”
“I don’t believe that. I have enough faith in mankind that he can always bring himself back from the brink.”
“I don’t. I see total anarchy.”
I was rather taken aback by Eric. He was one of the more happy-go-lucky people I knew. At the time I just wrote him off as young - every generation thinks theirs is the last. But as things changed, almost over-night, as they did when Bush took over, I was beginning to realize that Eric might have a point. Many hours after the second plane hit the Trade Center I was hanging out with Daria, watching CNN give a play-by-play account of the day.
“You know what this means don’t you?” Daria said. “Four more years.” Three years later, her prediction came true.
“Who do you think is going to win?” Peggy asked, holding up the cover of The Post.
“Bush.”
“Fuck off. He doesn’t have a chance.” Peggy is a card-carrying member of the Church of Michael Moore. “After that movie, those debates, P-Diddy …there’s no way he’s going to win.”
“But what about the October Surprise?”
“What Surprise?”
“Osama Bin Laden’s tape. As soon as I saw that, I knew Bush had it in the bag.”
“You’re being pessimistic.”
By the time I saw the returns at around five in the evening, I knew I was right. I left a message with Daria in San Francisco, and got a hold of Emme in Boston.
“I don’t like how this is going,” I said.
“It’s early still. Take a nap and call me in a few hours. I’m going to see ‘Team America.’ There’s no way I’m going to sit through this election bullshit.”
Daria was equally re-assuring. “This is how they predicted it to pan out. The polls still haven’t closed in the West. The Daily Show is live tonight. You should watch it, it will cheer you up.”
But The Daily Show didn’t cheer me up. Even Jon Stewart seemed poised to admit defeat. Although Steve Corel’s speech on dissent was brilliant. After the Moment of Zen, I considered going to the Pilsner for a beer, but couldn’t see the point. Why sit in a room full of like-minded people bitching about something that was beyond your control? So I went to bed.
The first thing I saw on the TV was the Republican Party declaring victory. Luckily, I had pot. I couldn’t get high fast enough. Just as my eyes were starting to feel heavy-lidded, they posted the results of the popular vote; Bush had 51%. Had I the ingredients for a Bloody Caesar, I would have mixed them there and then in my mouth.
I knew better than to engage Peggy in conversation as soon as she walked into The Shop. Instead of the usual, “Hey,” I let her drag the patio furniture onto the sidewalk and into the parking lot in silence.
“Can a mook a cigarette,” she asked.
“I’ll have one with you.”
The sun was still a couple of hours below the horizon. We sat on the cement slab in the disabled parking spot in front of The Proletariat Bookstore. I looked for my old apartment in the columns of Bay windows along the back of the Oxford Apartments, waiting for Peggy to say something.
“Well, it’s not over till it’s over,” she said.
“Peggy, he won the popular vote and there aren’t enough votes for Kerry to win the Electoral College. It’s over.”
“I just can’t believe knowing all there is to know about Bush, they would re-elect him.”
“It’s hard to vote out a president in the middle of a war.”
“Wait till he re-instates the draft.”
The past few weeks we’ve had this older guy show up on his bike as soon as The Shop opens. He has worked his way through the breakfast menu twice. He always wants a receipt, so he can expense his breakfast – something I’ve never really understood. I nicknamed him The Quiet American because he has an American flag bandana and a U.S. Postal Service cycling jersey – and he’s pretty quiet.
“Can you believe he wore that bandana?” Peggy said, as soon he left. “He’s got to be a Republican.”
“Then how do you explain the pot leaf bandana he wears sometimes?”
“I forgot about that. Still, he should not have had that thing on after what happened last night.”
A couple of days later, The Quiet American, thanked Peggy and I both for making him breakfast. “I was here on business, and I’m going home tonight. This was my favourite part of the day.”
“Where are you from?” Peggy asked.
“Oakville, Ontario.”
Peggy and I traded glances.
“We just assumed you were from the States because of the stars and stripes bandana.”
“I got that impression the morning after the election. You could cut the silence with a knife. I put it on without thinking. But I made sure to wear the marijuana leaf bandana the next day.”
“I noticed that,” Peggy said.
“I’m going to miss him,” I said to Peggy as he rode off into the morning night on his bike. “He was so pleasant to serve first thing in the morning.”
If nothing else, Bush’s re-election is good for the Loony; it’s almost eighty-five cents American. It figures that now that I can afford to go to the States, they want to start fingerprinting Canadians who enter them. And if there is one lesson to be learned from this election it is there is no such thing as “Democracy Building, ” or leading by example. Eleven States banned same-sex marriage even after it has been legal in Canada for almost two years; they banned it despite the fact the Church has fallen to its knees, the country hasn’t been swallowed by a sink hole and, that after several set-backs, the economy keeps growing with a surplus to fall back on.

GarpinBC