The dust has now settled in America and the presidential campaign is over. There will be no more Swift Boats for Truth ads or Bush Lied, People Died ads.
The media elite have roundly declared that “moral values” won the election for Bush. Forget the rules about incumbency, not changing horses’ midstream in a war and the war on terror; the elites with their ubiquitous wisdom have declared this the election of rednecks, Bible thumpers and homophobes. They ignore the fact that Bush increased his share of the vote among Hispanics, Jews, women (especially married women), Catholics, senior citizens and even African-Americans.
The prevailing myth is that Christian values are limited to abortion and gay marriage. What about pop culture decency, freedom of religious expression and other issues important to Christians? What about the fact that Americans are tired of Whoopi Goldberg and Bruce Springsteen telling them who to vote for?
Many have stated that this was a defeat of Democrats who wanted to protect the rights of gays versus the Republicans who hate gays. The developing common wisdom is that this is a replay of the 2002 midterm elections were they claim Republicans questioned the patriotism of a quadriplegic Vietnam veteran.
This is especially hypocritical considering Democrats ran ads in Colorado this year against Republican Senate candidate Pete Coors identical to the 2002 Republicans ads which flashed a series of pictures which included an image of Osama Bin Laden culminating with a picture of the target opponent. To top it off, Democrats ran another ad against Coors, CEO of Coors Beers which highlighted that his company had sponsored a gay appreciation festival in Canada.
Although it is apparent that conservative Christians in America sent a message to Michael Moore, CBS and the leftist liberals; there were also many other deciding factors.
Some general exit poll figures were:
* Education, 4 percent.
* Taxes, 5 percent.
* Health Care, 8 percent.
* Iraq, 15 percent.
* Terrorism, 19 percent.
* Economy and Jobs, 20 per
cent.
* Moral Values, 22 percent.
Of all the choices, moral values is the vaguest option as opposed to Iraq or health care.
In spite of that, it is astonishing how many have minimized the terrorism and war issues. And yes, Iraq has become a front for fighting terrorism, therefore making terrorism and Iraq intertwined.
Many Americans were unsure about the Democratic approach to fighting terrorism and prosecuting the war in Iraq. Christopher Hitchens, a devout socialist and former editor of the liberal New Republic has consistently argued that there are too many liberals who want to cast suicide bombers as victims and dictators as visionaries.
He said, “The blood-maddened thugs in Iraq, who would rather bring down the roof on a suffering people than allow them to vote, (are) pictured prettily as “insurgents” or even, by Michael Moore, as the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers. If this is liberal secularism, I’ll take a modest, God-fearing, deer-hunting Baptist from Kentucky every time[…].”
The belief in not “changing horses mid-stream” seemed to run in the president’s favor for his re-election. Voters tend to support the incumbent president in a time of war, whether they believe it is worth it or believe that it has been a resounding success.
This election gave us the largest turnout since the ’60s, and it also gave a presidential candidate the first vote majority mandate since 1988. Sore losers should get over it and stop blaming Baptists and bigots for their defeat.
Don’t nominate Hillary Clinton in 2008 because the result will be the same. Bring back the days of nominating moderate people like governors of Arkansas and Georgia; then maybe you will win and pick up a few of those “values voters.”
Edward Sanders is a sophomore political science major. He can be reached at [email protected].