The Democrats and lefties seem to be casting this election victory as one born out of fear, ignorance, and primitive religious values.
Now, I’m an uber-partisan who votes for pretty much anything with an ‘R’ next to its name anyway, but I was somewhat motivated by fear of Kerry being elected as I know people who are out fighting the good fight or will be and could make an intellectual argument of why a Kerry victory would make them less safe. Also, I was motivated by an optimistic view for the future where we can actually do something about all the evil out there in the world. All Kerry offered was a retrograde vision of going back to the blissful ignorance of the nineties.
Anyhoo, the question is whether Democrats will stop underestimating voters anytime soon or can we expect another gain for the incumbent party in the off-year election of 2006?
Doesn’t look to me like the Democrats have gotten a reality check yet. What do you think?
Barring another 9/11, the Dems will gain in 2006. History has shown that it always happens (except in 2002–because of 9/11–and back in the 50s somewhere).
Although, they should be concerned. It’s not about religion, it’s about values. As Scott Adams has said, most people profess a belief in God … not necessarily believe in Him. At the same time, however, people are generally wholesome and moral, and want their leaders to be the same. If the Dems continue to think its about religion per se, they’re going to go about it wrong and botch it in 2008.
they are out of touch, thats why we need more Democrat hunting license… we need to kill them in order to save them…
If the Dems don’t wise up (they’re already pushing the introspective types to the side), they’ll lose seats in the 2006 midterms too.
Actually, the Democrats gained in the House in 1998.
Agree. The DNC is seemingly on a self-destruct course..don’t know what could turn it around. I think with the showing that we had in this election, they better pull out someone spectacular in ’08 (can’t imagine who that could be, after all they are Dems). As improbable as it may seem, we may have more than 4 more years. Tho’ not with W.
Heh, well I’ll be, they gained five seats in the house in ’98, but that was just Lewinsky backlash. There was no change in the Senate (which may be what I was quoting, but even then my statement is incorrect).
I’ll retract my earlier comment regarding mid-term elections due to recent history. I want everyone to remember, though: we thought the Dems were dead in early ’92 (Dilbert: Are you running as a Democrat? Dogbert: No, Communist, I want to have a chance). And we got 8 years of Clinton as a result. So let’s not start bleeping each other’s bleep yet.
So, when the WTC was flattened in a terrorist attack and thousands of Americans lost their lives, the Left exhorted us to stay calm; study the root causes; understand what we’ve done to make them hate us so much; under no circumstances do anything to insult their religion.
Now when the Democrats get trounced in an election, the Left blames it on everyone but themselves and mocks the red-staters as a bunch of religious fanatics.
My question: what do you have to smoke and/or ingest for this to make sense?
There are two masters of today’s DNC. The “Clinton Legacy and Election Faction” and the angry-left. The first views the DNC as a tool to use in order to obtain power, the second views the DNC as a way to stage a bloodless coup over the ig’nant unwashed.
The problem with the left-wing of the party is that they cannot concieve of any ‘intelligent and enlightened’ person not agreeing with them so, therefore, any opposition is by ignorant, homophobe, etc., etc., right-wing nuts.
Their mistake after 2002 was to belive that their failure was because they didn’t get their message out so they redoubled their efforts. IMO, that was a fatal mistake since most of their messages either cater to the fringe or have been disproven by History.
The mistake they seem to be making now is to assume that since they got their message out, the greater portion of Americans are just too stooopid to get it.
Now it gets dangerous. They will belive that since we can’t “get” it, it is up to them to force the issue for our (54% of voters) own good. There will be a two-pronged attack. If you thought the bashing, lying, and cheating was bad this time around, just wait. The second prong will be to paint whomever they run nationally cough – hillary – cough as a middle of the road moderate to give this year’s defectors a change to come home.
Actually, I just ran from the Democrat Destruction of NYC, Im sorry – if Im working, Im working for a reason. So I can better my life. Not pay over 1k for a 1 bedroom apartment, another 3k a year for car insurance, 2 bucks a gallon for gas, 6 a pack for smokes. And why? States got everything taxed to hell to pay for its programs.
Oh – and nevermind the fact that I could never afford the house I grew up in. Wonderful for my parents that the value nearly tripled in the years since we have been there, but thats no good for me.
Upstate NY should kick NYC/LI out and let them work it out for themselves before they get screwed too.
My taxes went to pay for a person who cant afford an apartment at market price, to live in that apartment while the tax payers pay market price PLUS utilities.
Oh Im too tired to make this cohesive, suffice it to say Ive known good – level headed Dems, and stupid smelly ones. The good ones have left the area.
I will never go back to NY to live, no matter how much I make or wether or not the mayor has my kids held hostage.
We have to remember most of the reaction we’ve seen is from Dowd / Moore / DU / Kos. Whether or not all the leadership really buys into it or not, I don’t know, but I have a hard time they could entirely miss the root causes.
Anyway, if they want to pull it together, all they really need to do is check out Indiana Democrats. We voted for Bush by 60%, but incumbent Democratic Senator Bayh by 62%. He’s a decent guy. Actually, looking at his record and given Bush’s federal spending, he’s pretty much a modern Republican.
So hopefully (in the sense I don’t major Marxist party in this country) they’ll at least be impressed by his (or someone similiar’s) numbers, jetison the hard left, and move back to a kind of JFK / populist position. Otherwise… how’s filibuster-proof Senate in ’06 sound? (Are the seats up?)
Well, let’s see…
The current big name to run for president for the Democrats is Hillary Clinton. All the lefty pundits, both web and dead-tree, are busy with the “people are too stupid to vote for us” line. Kos is out there calling for blatant bold lies to be told in order to attack the President. In general, the Democrats are behaving like a bunch of little kids who didn’t get the toy they wanted at Christmas. They’ve got two years to catch a clue. However, in order to fix the problems they have, the Democrats are going to have to swallow their pride and make some real changes. That’s an awful lot of pride to swallow.
The left seems intent on making Gavin Newsome their fall guy for bringing up gay marriage (along with the Mass courts), and they delude themselves into thinking gay marriage was the only moral issue of this election.
Courage. Conviction. Integrity. Resolve.
More voters thought Bush had these qualities than Kerry did.
Let them keep thinking otherwise, and please let them serve up Hillary in ’08.
Judging by the blather over at DU, they haven’t learned a thing, and I see no-one in the Democratic leadership speaking out for restraint and a reality-check. They are just letting the self-flaggelation(sp?) go on and on….
Of course, as moore and moore of them move out of the country, the din should die down a little.
I don’t vote for Goobers. 🙂
Big Dog,
“However, in order to fix the problems they have, the Democrats are going to have to swallow their pride and make some real changes.”
Never happen. Democrats suck but they don’t swallow.
(Sorry, but someone had to say it.)
Truth be told, rabid Democrats are no better than rabid Republicans. Extremists, on either side of the equation, don’t do any good for anyone really. The majority of this country voted for Bush…that’s fine, it’s democracy at work. I voted the other way, and I can see why Kerry lost. Am I bitter? Not really. What bothers me is the big rift in the collective consciousness of this country. I mean, 51% vs. 49% is almost a complete split down the middle, and when a country’s views are that polarized, there can be a big problem.
The problem with the morality debate is that there are two kinds of morality…private, personal moral standards, and societal moral standards. Two different things. There is never going to be ONE religion, or ONE way of government that is going to work for this large of a populace. Our only chance is to work together to come to some sort of compromise…like living in a house with roommates, right? If you wish to keep your room a pigsty, then fine, just keep the door closed so no one else can see it. However, let’s work to keep the “common areas” clean, folks. Pick up after yourself. Do your own laundry. And please don’t shove your ideas of what’s right and wrong down my throat.
Basically I will raise my children to believe in what I think is right. What I think is moral. And I will always give them the tools to make their own decisions so that if my son wants to grow up to be Alex P. Keaton, so be it. I’ll love him anyway, and enjoy arguing politics with him.
In the end, to paraphrase both Kerry and Bush, we are all Americans…and some would say that’s the problem. I say it’s not a problem, but in order for us to rise to the greatness that America stands for and can achieve, we’re gonna have to do it together.
I just remember those days after 9/11…when it really seemed like this country could band together in their mutual shock and pain at what had just happened. There was a sense of American pride, tinged with sadness, that made us all realize, for just a minute, how vulnerable our nation is. I think it also struck home for many of us not old enough to remember WWII or even Vietnam clearly how much we really do love this country, and how proud we are to be Americans.
Okay…I’m done now. I’m going back to my rainbow hued world where everyone loves each other. (What can I say…I’m a native San Franciscan. Or, in the words of my dear Republican friend, “brought up in the devil’s lair.”)
Oh, yeah…and if they decide to bring out Hillary in 2008, we’re toast. Even I know that. (severe eye roll here.)
LG,
I just don’t get the “polarized” talk (51%/49%, country split down the middle, a house divided unto itself).
Would you be happier if Bush had won with two thirds of the vote? I can’t imagine so.
Also both sides need to remember that the electoral split is an imperfect measure of people’s values, even in the safe blue state of Oregon the gay marriage ban passed by a good margin, so even some people who vote dem for economic or traditional reasons are more socially conservative then the national Dem party.
Lets hope they get tired of being called gay bashers like the rest of us and switch sides.
Myth about the split: it wasn’t 51-48.
In reality, Bush has the support of more than 70% of this country.
Those who do not vote give tacit support to the winner of the election (otherwise, if they had a preference, they would have voted for him). Therefore, the 40% non-voters effectively voted for Bush (if the results had been reversed, and Kerry had won, I’d argue the same thing).
So Bush has 40% + (51% of 60% = ~30%+) = 70%
I caught a few minutes of a NPR show on Media review. No. They don’t get it. They won’t get it.
In the same sentence, a commentator was acknowledging the bogus nature of the exit polls, then going on to examine (with a straight face, at least on radio) the “moral values” data from those exit polls.
You would think “Media Complicity with the Loser” would have been a more interesting topic for a media review show, but it wasn’t to be.
The Republicans will only continue to gain barring a huge scandal (and I mean HUGE since we are all numbed to scandal at this point). It has been 31 years since Roe v. Wade and that’s a lot of missing democrat voters’ offspring (not that Republicans don’t have abortions but studies have shown they don’t have as many). The un-aborted offspring of the conservative right are reaching voting age and they are not sleep-in slackers who forget to vote. So my prediction is Republican gains due to superior breeding practices in the conservative camp.
First to Bill either 33 or 34 senate seats come up for reelection every two years, so I suppose fillibuster-proof is possible. To formerhostage, Micheal savage charactorizes me as a person with a mental disease, and that kind of charaterization on either side is not fair. I do believe people voted for Bush on the terrorist issue, whether it was fear, as some of my friends have told me, or if they felt Bush would be a better leader. I don’t think we were able to assess that in the last few months because of the election, had Bush bombed a mosque, my party would have dry roasted him in the, not so liberal as Rush thinks, media. So I concede that to Bush and am waiting to see how this Fallujah thing works out. As to the moral question, the minute Kerry said in the debate that he couldn’t force his views on others I knew he was gone. That is what the Christian Right wants to do. They want the ten commandments in my classroom and for the school day to start with a prayer, after all we have to mention God in the early part of the day. I’m not saying that these people were wrong to believe how they do I just don’t agree. Finally I too vote for my party almost down the line but I am very conservative on immigration issues living in Southern California and teaching at a school that I know has kids who don’t live in this country. Two radio talk show hosts out of LA tried to get David Drier ousted from his seat and the conservatives could not step up and vote for a D. I would’ve done it in a millisecond or less. I hope the people have gotten who they wanted to lead us and I will wait the agonizing four years of a Bush presidency the way that my counterparts who disagree with me agonized over Clinton’s second term.
I believe the actual word is “misunderestimating.”
The demos will never get it, because they live in their little world and constantly tell each other how right and good they are. The SMSM adds to their egos by publishing the same pap.
I have a PERSONAL PROBLEM I have to deal with, however. As a healthy, midwestern male I have always had a preference in women. I first fell in love with a redhead, and although I have an absolute preference today for dark eyed brunettes, I’ve always admired good looking redheads.
Then came Maureen Dowd…..I saw her on a program with that lowlife Chris Matthews yesterday…. Unbelievable. I’ll never look at a redhead again. What a self absorbed, semi intelligent, skank!
Where can I get help?
How the Dems do in 2006 will depend a lot on how the coming battle between the three segments of the Democratic Party shakes out, and on what sort of candidates the GOP is able to recruit.
MONGO:
redhead fantasy
Here’s why I voted for George Bush:
1. I would’ve anyway
2. John Kerry Quotes:
– I couldn’t think for 30-40 min. after 9/11
– 9/11 Really didn’t affect me much
– We need to get back to where 9/11 was only a nuisance (to who?)
3. A million other reasons relating to Kerry’s ignorance, pathological liar and sociopathic traits.
4. Osammi’s tape threatening states like Ohio wher I live. (I would’ve crawled miles to the voting booth to vote for Bush after that)
– No, the Dems don’t get it.
– I expect the Dems will lose more seats given reasonable competition
Finally, the more ignorant you are the more you must feel superior. As proof, I offer that bald guys usually have the most facial hair, and the smallest cars usually have the biggest spoliers on the back.
Woo Hooo. I’m happy.
PS – Thanks MONGO!
It will be difficult for Dems to win votes from people that they consider too stupid, backward, or “religious” to vote for the “right” candidate.
The fact is that the Dem Party is as secular as it has ever been and will continue to write off millions of voters because of their anti-Christian views, especially if they continue to legislate by judicial fiat what they can’t achieve through popular opinion.
P.S. Down with Specter.
Too early to say. Their messages are mixed up right now, and the denial message is not a reliable one. Wait and see what happens over the next 12 months, and who they pick to head the DNC.
That’ll tell you all you need to know.
As I heard a talking head say on TV:
“The Democrats have to figure out a way to communicate to rural Christian voters”
That statement sums up the delusions the democraps still suffer under.
Communicating secularism, taxpayer-funded abortion and defeatism to “rural Christians” aint about to win you any votes. In fact, Kerry’s message DID reach the American people. And they soundly rejected it. Net, the dems still believe the American electorate is too stupid to see that the dems are right. And that’s why (hopefully) they will continue to lose in the coming years.
HEY MONGO…I’m a redhead and I am sexy, smart and a diehard Republican…and Sarahk’s mom. Is that a better image?
PS: Is anyone upset about the fact that now a judge has ruled military tribunals as unconstitutional??? Do they just beg to have us attacked again???
This is from an article in the NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/politics/campaign/09kerry.html
“The slide worsened as the final days of the campaign were dominated by two overseas topics, Osama bin Laden’s videotaped message that was released on the weekend before the election and the missing explosives in Iraq.”
Wasn’t Kerry the one to keep harping on those two issues, especially the missing weapons? Haha, play with fire, prepare to be burned. Of course, I’m sure him and his aides feel the evil republicans made him do it.
Most all Dems have the same
mental disorder- that being
Liberalism!
there is no hope for them.
I have been viewing a county-
By-county map of the country
showing each county as being
Red or Blue! All of the Blue
counties are adjacent to
Coastlines.
So, before 2006 rolls around,
We simply need to rig up some
Big bulldozer/road graders
and push those Liberals
into the ocean, shoot them,
and let their miserable bodies
become crab/shark food.
that’s the only solution
I can think of.