Posted on 11/05/2004 1:25:18 AM PST by LibWhacker
That enormous cloud of dust on the horizon is being kicked up by the long line of celebrity limousines slouching toward Canada. Alec Baldwin, whose plane has been idling on the runway for four years, can take off for Europe now, as he threatened to do if George W. Bush defeated Al Gore four years ago. This time there's no ambiguity to take refuge in, and he is at last free to leave.
Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Bette Middler and lots of others who sang for their supper at Kerry rallies in hopes of invitations to dinner at the White House can go back now to doing what they do best, actually entertaining us.
The Europeans, who took their tutelage in American politics from Michael Moore and Jon Stewart, might even think about being nice to the man they derided as a moron with the IQ of a carrot. The war against terror is serious business.
Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, watching the tide turn on election night, called the result, as incredible as it is, an opportunity to work again with Washington: "We have many things to do, both on the current crises - in Iraq, the Middle East, Iran, the fate of the African continent - and to renovate the transatlantic relationship." Let's all hope.
The biggest losers of all are the wise guys of the media, who turned their front pages and cameras over to the task of ridding the world of George W. They forgot that their readers and viewers could, and would, find alternative sources of news. The elephants in their own parlors were "the guys in pajamas," the Internet bloggers who exposed the "fake but accurate" (in the famous New York Times formulation) Rather papers about the president's long ago service in the Texas Air National Guard.
The bicoastal intellectual elites are miserable, too. The New Yorker, which published its first presidential endorsement, can go back now to the culture. Evangelical Christians, once described by The Washington Post as "poor, uneducated and easily led," can celebrate being not so poor, smart, and leading the way to victory. President Bush won three-fourths of the white, born-again Christians who are now one of every five American voters. More than half of the Bush voters said "moral issues" were most important to them.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court galvanized these evangelical Christians with its endorsement of same-sex marriage, which led to 11 states across the breadth of the country amending their state constitutions to define marriage as exclusively a rite binding man to woman.
Many pundits define the culture wars as a war between religious people vs. secularists. This misses the point. The culture wars are about the values of common sense that underwrite traditions that have undergirded Judeo-Christian moral codes for centuries. The culture wars are about how we raise our children, what the schools teach them, how we teach them what's right and what's wrong.
The marriage amendments, after all, merely attempt to protect the tried and true status quo. The culture wars are about how the political culture reinforces, or contradicts, the popular culture. The voters understood that this week and the elites didn't.
Pundits are puzzled that the president could win such a ringing vote against all their advice. The voters were not puzzled at all. Voters told the exit pollsters that the president says what he believes and believes what he says, and John Kerry says what he thinks the voters in front of him want to hear. They determined that this is no time to choose a commander in chief who can't make up his mind about the war in Iraq, nor the time (if there ever is such a time) to ask an American soldier to die for "a mistake."
The senator was gracious in defeat and the president was generous in victory. In the end, the choice voters made was not difficult at all, and the result, as always, reflected the judgment in that vast reservoir of American common sense.
I'm just wallowing and gloating in all the lib-dem misery, teeth gnashing and breast beating, LW.
Maybe we should pad the walls and cover-up the electric outlets, so they don't hurt themselves too bad?
We still have work to do - W has said nothing yet about gay marriage. This should be at the top of the agenda. That's what I voted for.
They remind me of that Renfield character in Dracula, mad as they can possibly be, running around eating flies, lol. It's wonderful that they don't get it and have no intention of changing their tune.
All the Gay Marriage Ammendments were defeated. The last thing our President has to do is preach and beat a dead horse. That's not his job. I hope that's not what you're expecting. It's not going to happen.
Exactly. If you voted based on the issue of gay marriage, then in my estimation, you voted for the wrong reason.
I can support a man I don't always agree with- I can't support a man I can't trust.
*ping 4me*
Gay marriage is a state issue and in all 11 states it was introduced in, it was shot down. The President has more important issues to concern himself with. He does not need to get down in the gutter with the deviants trying to push this down our throats.
Voters told the exit pollsters that the president says what he believes and believes what he says, and John Kerry says what he thinks the voters in front of him want to hear.
What a surprise for the MSM - Americans vote their conscience.
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Bye, bye don't let the kitchen door hit you in the fanny on the way out of the country. And while your at it renounce your citizenship..since you apparently don't LOVE the USA or support traditional values.
Please know I mean the left whackos not you LibWhacker.
One could say that all around the
Pajama Party and
the Blogocalypse
were both a success.
OOOH Susan hammer it home!
For half of us, their credibility is shot, the other half is complaining that they weren't more biased.
As to TV, I think there is room for maybe two of the alphabets to vye for that dwindling number of info-seekers who need the media to affirm their worldview. For two of them, continuing to go after the lefty niche is a viable financial business model, and they will thrive. Soon, at least one of them will have to follow the Fox model in order to stay alive, I'm not sure which one, we will soon start to see evidence of a move toward the right.
Many pundits define the culture wars as a war between religious people vs. secularists. This misses the point. The culture wars are about the values of common sense that underwrite traditions that have undergirded Judeo-Christian moral codes for centuries. The culture wars are about how we raise our children, what the schools teach them, how we teach them what's right and what's wrong.
Good observation, the election was far more than a simplistic “war between religious people vs. secularists.”
By most standards I would be considered a secularist. I personally know only a few religionists. I personally know of no one who voted for Kerry. Gay marriage was never much of an issue. Watching Hanoi John stand up in black churches delivering a campaign speech was an issue for many – it was seen as the height of political hypocrisy.
Plain old patriotism was an issue. How could we vote for a man who bragged about committing sedition and openly committed treason?
Kerry was promising everything to all people – and claimed it would be paid for by taxing “The Rich”. If The Rich were taxed heavy enough to pay for it all, The Rich would have to include everyone not on welfare. The balance would have to be made up by slashing defense.
Our “esteemed” news media played its part – I often heard people at my favorite watering hole laughing at the lame spin put on election coverage.
Hollywood can’t be left out - watching celebrities stepping out of their jets and limousines to protest SUVs, and later to tell us that we would have to be very ignorant to vote for President Bush. Belittling a candidate never helps.
And of course President Bush and John Kerry played their part. We watched President Bush talking with the people, walking around his ranch, and being a normal human being. We watched Hanoi John pontificate on the issues and about what a Great War Hero and Savior of the Nation he is. We listened as he talked down to us peasants in a stentorian voice.
Fortunately enough of us peasants are smarter than the democrats gave us credit for.
Very good article. I particularly liked the opening salvo about "slouching towards Canada".
I don't think W has to say anything about Gay marriage at this point..His beliefs are clear and the voters in various states have spoken through the ballot box. The Democrats want to make this election solely about the Gay Marriage issue...it would be to our detriment to fall into that trap. People voting on "morals" do so on more than just this one issue, even though the MSM wants to frame the Bush's win in these terms.
"Watching Hanoi John stand up in black churches delivering a campaign speech was an issue for many – it was seen as the height of political hypocrisy."
Interesting point..but the TRUE hypocrisy is the media's horror that Christians voted for Bush (separation of church and state, blah blah blah)
...yet Kerry's electioneering in Black churches received blanket approval.
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