I’ve heard a number of well-meaning Republicans talking about how Democrates need to get over themselves and accept the will of the people. This, of course, means letting Republicans do whatever they see fit, I suppose. How, though, are we supposed to believe that anything resembling a spirit of bipartisanship will exist when we’re faced with crap like this?
The Democrats threw everything they had at this election. They ran a phony Vietnam War hero and a phony Southerner. They had middle-aged women executives at MTV hawking “Rock the Vote” to entice the most uninformed young people to vote for Kerry. They had Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews and New York Times darling Eminem. They had documentaries, books, the universities, Hollywood (and the French!) on their side.
So? Bush had Ted Nugent, Ron Silver, and Curt Schilling on his side. Is that somehow more acceptable to Republicans, since they were on their side? Does the hypocrisy never stop?
Bush won the largest popular vote in history with a 3.5 million margin. Indeed, simply by getting a majority of the country to vote for him – the left’s most hated politician since Richard Nixon – Bush did something “rock star” Bill Clinton never did. Bush maintained or increased his vote in every state but Vermont. Republicans picked up seats in the House and Senate, and continue to dominate state governorships.
Ignored in this “fact” is that George W. Bush had more votes cast AGAINST him than any successful Presidential candidate in history. Bush won a large number of states; how conveniently the revisionist historians are already beginning to forget just how small some of the margins were.
Yes, George Bush won the election with a 3.5 million vote majority out of 115+ million votes cast. C’mon, y’all…stop acting as if Bush was beatified with some sort of Divine Mandate. He won 51% of the vote, fer’chrissake. So many Republicans are caught up in looking at how many states Bush won. Yes, if you look at “red” states vs. “blue” states, it looks like a convincing drubbing. The reality, though, is a fair bit different.
If this sort of ungracious gloating is going to be the rule for the next four years, things are going to be ugly. George W. Bush won 51% of the popular vote; that should hardly be taken as proof that Republicans are morally superior to Democrats. It simply means that y’all won this go ‘round. Remember, what goes around will eventually come around. It won’t feel so good when the shoe is on the other foot- and it WILL happen
