Much to the surprise of liberals around the country, the Republican Party achieved an overwhelming political victory Nov. 2.
The re-election of President Bush, compounded with a widening of the GOP majority in Congress and the pickup of a number of gubernatorial seats, does not fit with the picture that was painted for us by optimistic left-wingers in the days and weeks leading up the election.
We were promised an energized Democratic base that would come out and oust the incumbent who had become out of touch with the American population. We had the wrong president, fighting the wrong war at the wrong time. Seniors were going to remove the president who was hurting their tight budgets with rising health care costs. Baby boomers were poised to vote Kerry and protect their future social security payments. Democrats worked hard to take back the country from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and give it back to their people.
Election Day, things didn’t go exactly as planned. George Soros, Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon must have cried their eyes out after watching the horrible failure of the significant wing of their party. The post election mindset is not surprising. Bush’s win can be attributed to the combination of Karl Rove’s success in scaring security moms and energizing ultra right-wing hicks to come vote against gay marriage and in fighting disorder within the Kerry campaign. Unfortunately for the left, that isn’t what this loss was about. My colleagues on this page have suggested that if the Democrats keep up their current strategy of grassroots campaigning and getting out the vote, they will be successful. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The Democrats did get their message out. Voters heard what John Kerry had to say. Voters listened when Kerry surrogates got on their pulpits and told us that the Republicans were out of touch with what we wanted. Americans from all walks of life showed up at our designated polling places to tell John Kerry that we heard, we listened, and most of all we understood. The people have spoken and their words are clear: “lies, scare tactics, pandering and trickery will lose to substance every day of the week.”
The far left wing has hijacked the Democratic Party. When lifelong Democrat Zell Miller spoke at the Republic National Convention, Democratic leadership should have realized they needed to change direction. The likes of John Kerry and Al Franken have become louder voices than Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh. Baring a catastrophic failure by the second Bush administration, if things go as they are, it is likely that the Republican majority will become structural for the foreseeable future.
If the left wants to regain any semblance of significance, it needs to stop demonizing the right and look to within for the source of its salvation. Bush brought relatively innocuous moderates such as Rudy Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McCain on board for the closing months of his campaign while keeping the likes of John Ashcroft and Newt Gingrich in the spotlight. Kerry, on the other hand, made no attempt to keep fringe elements of the left wing in the closet. The Bush campaign showed that the Republican Party is moving toward the middle and appealed to the significant portion of the country that finds themselves in the middle, while the Kerry campaign showed that the Democrats are far out on the left and have no plans of joining the rest of us here on earth. The wounds of Nov. 2 are still soft, and there is already talk of Howard Dean taking over leadership of the Democratic National Committee. Such a move would guarantee the alienation of a sizeable portion of moderate voters.
The lesson that Democrats need to take home with them is simple: we got your message, and we don’t like it. Get back in touch with voters or don’t expect anything new to happen at midterm elections or beyond. We’ve heard your message, we’ve counted every vote, and we didn’t bite.
Adam Smith ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in economics and political science.
