A Clear Result
One week after an election in which more Americans voted for the winner than any other time in history, the sore losers and fantasists of the Left are still rambling on, making up stories and excuses for their loss. While not all of them believe that the majority "voted for an extremist Christian regime," many do, and many more are hatching conspiracy plots of a stolen election. The denial is palpable, and Occam's Razor is nowhere to be seen. The simple conclusion, that more people voted for the candidate that they wanted in the White House, seems out of reach for these people.Not much has changed since eight months ago, when John Kerry was selected by the Iowa caucuses as the candidate of the Democrats. Terry McAuliffe's master plan to allow the good people of New Hampshire and Iowa to decide the primary race by March netted the party another soulless northeastern liberal lawyer. At that time I predicted a 40 state victory for Bush with confidence, and while I missed the margin of vistory by a bit, I was not alone in my confidence in that victory. We believed that our moderate-to conservative electorate would never stand for such an extreme ideologue, such a wealthy elitist, and they didn't. The only reasons for the closeness of the election I have stated before. The massive propaganda onslaught by the media is misunderstood in many quarters as a depiction of Bush as an incompetent. The truth about it is that they unfairly, and quite successfully, painted him as an extreme conservative. They falsely claimed that the nation is bitterly divided, a prophesy that they managed to make real to a certain extent. They allowed lies by the Kerry campaign to stand without scrutiny, such as the claim that this was the worst economy since Herbert Hoover, that jobs have been lost on Bush's watch. They underestimated the American voter. Almost two thirds, or 71% of the voters who participated in the exit polls said that their personal economy was as good as or better than it was four years ago. A majority had indeed been convinced that the national economy was worse, yet not enough of them voted for the Democrat as a result, since only 45% trusted Kerry to handle the economy any better than Bush had.
For the third of the electorate that is worried, or even bitter, about the result, we on the right can relate. We went through the same thing twelve years ago. Therein lies the good news - nothing so bad happened when Clinton "caught the pickup truck" then, nothing so bad will ensue for the next four years. We can expect four more years of freedom for more and more people around the world. Four more years of jihadi terror masters on the run. Four more years of positive GDP growth spurred by low taxes. None of this is a formula for disaster. The only disaster that is on the horizon is the disaster that will surely befall the Democrat Party if they fail to heed the message of this election. If they continue in the Nancy Pelosi - Hillary Clinton - Howard Dean direction, they can expect less of the vote next time. They need to understand that they did get their message out, and most Americans rejected it. The last two national elections they won, their candidate ran to the right of their Republican adversary. It is simple for me, as a businessman, to see that you should reinforce positive statistics, and run away from negative ones. Simple. Say no to liberal lawyer. Yes to Southern Governor. Realize that Nancy Pelosi's district has 35% home ownership, and the rest of the country has 70%. Remember that Bill Clinton won on welfare reform and the castigation of Sister Soulja, and Kerry lost with all of Hollywood, and Michael Moore, on his side.
This election was not so much about George W. Bush as it was about his mandate, which couldn't be clearer - continue stomping the Jihadis wherever they are, keep taxes low, and reform Social Security. Appoint some conservative, meaning non-activist, judges, including (hopefully) replacing a few superannuated Justices of the Supreme Court. The most breathtaking thing about the election result is that its mandate demands that Bush actually become a conservative President. We on the Right can only wait, and hope, that he gets the message. He needs to curb his liberal tendencies, especially in the area of entitlements. Creating new bureaucracies, and pushing legislation authored by Ted Kennedy, both things he did in his first term, he should eschew in his second. In the face of all the propaganda, all the election fraud, all the dead and illegal voters voting against him, we still elected him. He needs to heed his mandate, and act accordingly. The early noises he has made are encouraging. With a result this clear, he needs to turn noise into action.