My life really doesn't and shouldn't matter to anyone on this website, but here's a little background as to why my father was so distressed about Bush's reelection:
As I've already said, my dad is the head of migratory birds for US Fish & Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska (and actually, he just got a pretty huge promotion, so he's even farther up the political ladder). USFWS is owned and run by the government, so anything to do with politics affects him, if for solely that reason. To expand on the migratory birds thing: when people discuss drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and how it would affect the wildlife, pretty much all you hear about are the caribou. What most don't realize is that there are numerous species of migratory birds that have their major breeding grounds on the ANWR, and on there alone. Drilling (which, as you well know, Bush and others have been pushing for for years) would compromise those breeding grounds and, therefore, put the future of entire species at risk. This is everything his job is based on, particularly population management of these animals. Not only is he passionate about them, but no birds means no job.
Furthermore, the Bush Administration and those underneath have been giving MASSIVE pay cuts to USFWS (especially in Alaska), and multiple people have been laid off. Budgets are significantly smaller, which means less money for paychecks, airplanes to do surveys, and significantly less people to do the same amount of work. My dad supervises a ton of people now, especially since his boss just retired and he now has that job, and pretty much the only people above him work in Washington (D.C.). Every decision made by those who run our country effects my father. With the extra workload comes a massive amount of stress. Bush's actions and decisions are really debilitating my dad, when it comes to his job.
To summate what I just wrote, in case you care not to read any of it, my father was not seeing a shrink because he's merely just upset that a Republican (Bush, for that matter) was elected into office. He had to see one because his stress level went through the roof, and he had no idea how to deal with it. If you could see the amount of energy, effort, passion, hours, and everything else my dad puts into his job, you might get a better understanding.
An example others might be able to better understand or relate to would be if a Democratic party was elected into office to run the country and passed bills or whatever that said that we were no longer going to use gasoline to fuel our vehicles, but rather some alternative method (keep in mind, this is just an example, so don't take me seriously); starting immediately, drilling, importation/exportation, and sale of gasoline will gradually be cut off until it comes to a complete halt in, say, the year 2015. EVERYONE connected to the oil industry (including an extremely large chunk of Alaskans) would be affected by this decision. A CEO, foreman, or everyday slope worker for a petroleum company would be losing his/her job within the next few years and would, obviously, be extremely stressed and freaked out by this. Owners of gas stations would be losing nearly everything. You don't think this would cause severe emotional distress for them? Similar deal.
Does that clear things up a little? So you're wrong - my life HAS changed since the Bush family came back into a position of power. You have no idea how my life has been, so I don't feel you have any reason to be telling me such.
