Wrong again
November 4, 2004
There is plenty of talk today about how Bush’s key to victory was “moral values,” as if the Left Behind-reading, Bible-thumping, abortion-clinic–bombing, spawns of Laramie, Wyoming, have infiltrated all but the most core cities of the United States with their godly, theocratic, intolerant, hateful agenda of baptizing every heathen. Behold the Children Of The Corn! They have grown up, and now harvest the blessings of He Who Walks Behind The Rows.
What a load of bullshit.
The Democrats need only look into their history as a party and former political power to see how the Republicans did it. Believe it or not, and this goes to my friendly Conservatives as well: the Republican party is now the party of patronage. It is the party of pluralism, and the party of keeping a big tent. Sure, the evangelics get centre stage. It is so easy to write off this election because of them. I know human nature; it follows the path of least resistance. And it is much easier for the talking heads on every channel including FOX News (which I do believe is even proud of the claim) to blame a flying squadron of angelically-lifted Middle America morons than to analyze the issue and express the most disturbing truth that every political junkie needs to admit. The Republicans won the game by playing like Democrats.
Not the Democrats of the past four years. In fact, they do still play the game the way they did, which is to form coalitions of minority interests willing to work together to form a majority. Why do you think more women voted for Bush than in 2000? Why do you think the same number of gays in 2000 voted for him now, despite the lip service to Constitutional amendments? Why do you think more Jews, and more Hispanics, more Blacks voted for Bush in 2004 than in 2000?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his Republican Convention speech, pitched the tent wide:
If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government…then you are a Republican! If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group… then you are a Republican! If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does… then you are a Republican! If you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children … then you are a Republican! If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world … then you are a Republican! And, ladies and gentlemen …if you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism … then you are a Republican!
Despite the big-tent approach of the Republican party, what made it work was some sort of common-goal “glue.” It isn’t the “moral values” that these talking heads talk about. I think that Bush ran on a platform of strength in foreign policy, and many people have decided to hire him because either they think his record is worth hiring, or he is the better man. The mainstream media will never admit, nor will the Democrats, that they have been on the wrong side of foreign policy for a very long time. For the media analysts to say this will be to further nail the pinebox coffin shut on the Democrat party.
The Democrats also pitched their tent wide, and they offered the warm comfort of like minds in the common masturbatory release of hating George W. Bush. With no regard nor respect whatsoever for those who differ in opinion or world view, they have engaged in the soft bigotry of groupthink.
I think that plenty of those who voted for Bush wouldn’t call themselves Republican. I am sure plenty voted because they took the Virginia Postrel approach: that he does a better job. Sadly, those who voted for Kerry (and his supporters who couldn’t) just couldn’t see past that. Everything had to be a heartfelt, emotional investment. Now that the only pedestal that holds the hateful left has been pulled from under their base, I await to see if we shall see the Democrats learn, or continue to sunder their party to oblivion, obliterating from within their own legacy.
8 Comments to Wrong again
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– Barack Obama, Keynote Speaker, DNC 2004
I’m glad someone else said it as well. They aren’t just pink, punked, and pinko, but they are also out of touch.
Andrei, I have very little bone to pick with Barack Obama, despite fundamental policy differences. Besides there’s plenty of time to discuss his politics soon enough. If this is about the high profile, whining libloggers who just don’t get why they lost, I’ll have to say that Obama isn’t part of the group either.
Jay, your last two posts pretty much sum up everything I’ve been feeling. I wonder if the Democrats will come back to the middle or embrace their hatred and drift further left.
I beg to differ.
The moderate Republicans owe the Christian Coalition and ENORMOUS debt of gratitude. The exit polls estimate that 4 million of our voters turned out last Tuesday that did not vote in 2000. Bush’s margin of victory? 3.5 Million.
We put Bush over the top. Get used to it. And give us our due.
If not, we will sit home on November 4, 2006. Yes that date is already in our calandars. Perhaps it should be in yours as well…
I don’t think that’s the point. Moderate Republicans are what set us apart from the Democrats! We allow members to have disagreements in our party and that’s what makes it so strong.
When was the last time who heard of a Pro-Life Democrat? Never, they’ve all been run out! But there are plenty of Pro-Choice Republicans. We are the TRUE big tent party and it’s going to stay that way.
I’m a Christian but I deeply resent all Republican voters being denigrated as religious fanatics. Being a Republican doesn’t mean that you’re a Christian, it just means that as Republicans we belive that you have the freedom to believe if you choose… something the Democrats only look down on and belittle.
Big Tent? Are you going camping? With Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition?
The moderate republicans are basically the same people who voted for Bush in 2000–basically 51M votes. This year year approximately 2M MORE evangelical christians (who in total equalled 23% of his votes) and over 3M MORE Catholic voters turned out. So here’s a math quiz:
Q: What does 59,459,765 minus 5,000,000 equal?
A: President John Kerry
Oh, and the last time I heard of a Pro-Life Democrat was yesterday–Harry Reid, the next Senate Minority Leader. So what was your point again?
Larry,
That 5 million of the faithful turned out in droves does not necessarily mean that all of them are voting with a Christian agenda in mind. Sure, there is a return to “moral values,” but exactly what values were those? The exit polls were wrong in using the very term in the first place. Sean Hackbarth writes:
I’m not one to explain my own posts when a commenter has derailed the thread the way you have, but here’s one point of my post and I’ll say it again:
The liberal media wants the rest of the world to know that Kerry was defeated because of record turnouts by ignorant, Middle America Bible-thumpers who came out in droves out of fear that the “queers” are going to get married and “offer their kids to NAMBLA.”
It may seem that I have downplayed the participation of the evangelics. What I am downplaying is the condescension of the media towards them. The big-tent application, steeped in game theory, still applies, and you’d be deluding yourself to think that all of those who brought Bush over the top to win with a resounding blow are all followers of your agenda.
I have written before that one’s vote is both private and irrational. I hate these exit poll vocal essay contests, for the very reasons that you have demonstrated.