Election 2004 - Some thoughts

JEFFHEAD.COM - ELECTION 2004 ^ | 11/05/2004 | Jeff Head

[Jeff Head]

ELECTION 2004 THOUGHTS

The election is over. The only real poll was taken on November 2nd and it was not a sample. The largest numerical turnout in history spoke...Bush by 34 electoral votes (exactly what Texas is worth) and by 3.5 million votes. Although my own predictions were significantly higher for Bush, in my opinion, when it comes to traditional American values and to the foundational principles upon which this nation was founded, although he's not be the epitome of constitutional conservativism, nonetheless, the country is far better off with George W. Bush than John Kerry.

The impact of this vote on our security, on the House of Representatives, on the Senate and on Supreme Court will be significant We must continue to remain active and do all in our power to make sure that impact is a positive, constitutional one.

Here is a map of the final vote by state (using blue for the GOP and red for the DNC...much more fitting in my opinion).

...and here is perhaps an even more telling map, a tally by county across the nation using the same color scheme.



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[Nowhere Man]

I would not worry about that their leadership is so messed up, and their choice going to be Hillary Clinton. Even a high school drop out can beet Hillary on the right of the issue. She has so much negatives, it isn't funny.

Yeah, I think Hillary is overated. A lot of people do have a sense of disgust when they hear her name although I admit Terry Kerry even makes Hillary look good when you compare them together. B-P I think she has al ot of liabilities because of it. I think if you want to keep an eye out for a possible powerful chalenger is Barak Obama "bin Shaprton," it seems like at the Democratic convention, he was sort of like a "Black Bill Clinton," like Bill Clinton, he does have the gift of gab that can charm the stink off of a corpse. Maybe he might not be ready for Prime Time by 2008 but I look for him to come around in 2012, 2016 or 2020.

[Jeff Head]

Well, I believe that the electoral college works and is a large part of what makes us a Republic...along with our three branches of federal government and the great power vested in the states (who created the federal system in the first place).

The reason 140,000 votes became important was because of the work in the other states and areas of the country. Last time it was 500 votes in Florida.

Education, reason, commitment to principle and faith are the keys...coupled with a sustained hard work effort. We must keep as many of our Republican principles in place as possible. The electoral college is one such principle. We have already turned the Senate into a pure popular vote...which it was never intended to be. Hopefully in time we can get that one back.

Our enemies want everything to become pure democratic in nature...and that will lead to more and more chaos and strife. We are a republic and our unique method of electing our President allows a big part of that to continue.

So...in a word, for me, the answer is no. The electoral college should not be meddled with or trifled with. It is in the hands of the states where it should be. We just need to spend the time and hard work necessary (years of labor) in turning more and more people and more and more states back to Repubicanism.

[Nowhere Man]

I see an unalterable divide. I really suggest everyone here go to Democratic Underground (where we are not allowed to post, per their rules) and read what they are saying. Expect a lot of anger, profanity, anti-religous bigotry and hatred. See a lot of mischaracterization of who we are and what we believe.

I see this divide as somewhat permanant. On a personal level people can and do change. In my experience getting people to either become involved in the shooting sports or going to church and over time their politics are going to change. I run a discussion group that is mixed liberals and conservatives and there has been movement to our side, in a few cases dramatic movement.

But this is change at the margins. In general I feel the lines are hardening, not softening. It may even be that there are some pretty big internal population shifts going on. In my own case I left California a decade ago to escape the new, liberal driven anti-gun agenda. More recently I moved from Oregon to southern Washington to remove myself from the absurd tax jurisdiction. This may be happening more and more, "red" people moving to "red" states. (Jeff, I don't think you can reclaim Blue, sorry).

Yeah, myself, I'm kicking the idea in my mind of moving to a "Red" (I know Jeff uses Blue, but since Bush and Republicans were Red in 2000 and 2004, I'm going by that) State although economics play the part of that too where I'd like to start a new life. I love the Pittsburgh area here but it seems a bit stagnant.

I think with a Bush victory, I feel a bit more optimistic for hte future although I do see a great divide coming in the country. I do foresee the collapse of America as we know her, I just think the two sides are getting further and further apart. We are not just in the debate of general economic policy where it's FDR vs. Reagan, true you had differences but both side can generally live with each other. Both sides generally agreed on moral issues, crime and punishment and so on.

Now it's different, it's like we have two parallel worlds existing together on the same plane/country. One side represents the old morality and America we all generally love and believe in and the other side does not. Take homosexual marriage, many of us here say no, it is wrong the other side says, yes all the way. They see right in wrong, white in black, down is up, and so on. It is like a parallel world. Like the Star Trek episode, "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk, Uhura, Dr. McCoy, and Scotty end up in a parallel universe where evil is good and meet up with an evil (although he wasn't too evil as he seemed, well he was a Vulcan) Spock with a goatee.

Basically the "Other Side" wants "Holland on Steroids," we don't. The middle ground is disappearing. BTW, had a scary thought, hopefully we don't have evil goateed doubles of ourselves posting on DU. B-)

[ForGod'sSake]

So...in a word, for me, the answer is no. The electoral college should not be meddled with or trifled with. It is in the hands of the states where it should be.

You've probably read some on the EC, but as regards tampering with the system:

Origins of the Electoral College

It was originally designed to operate much differently than it does today. I'm not saying something needs to be changed, but that it might be prudent to have another look given the current set of demographics in the country.

Again, this one was much too close to putting a traitor in the White House. IMO.

We just need to spend the time and hard work necessary (years of labor) in turning more and more people and more and more states back to Repubicanism.

Couldn't agree more.

FGS

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your insight and concerns!

[ForGod'sSake]

Some troubling thoughts you got there, but I suspect more accurate than most of us would like to consider. The "march" continues?

FGS

[knarf]

That's a beautiful map.

I remember being very angry after the first map came out and I found a way (I forget how, now) to reverse the colors.
I posted it here and said "There, that's better", but folks here seemed, at that time, to prefer us as red and them blue.

[philosofy123]

Barak Obama "bin Shaprton,"

I don't know much about this guy. He was introduced to us during the Dem's convention as the best thing since flush toilet. The reporters could not stop praising him, and I did not find him to be any thing so special. I have to admit, I only listened to him once as a biased Republican, but perhaps he had some charm that I could not see. When Clinton gave a speech during the time he was governor of Arkansas, I also did not see any thing special about him, and he ended up being president twice. So perhaps, they can be right about the charm BS, but I just happened to be an insensitive Republican?

[Monti Cello]

The whole WMD albatross would have sunk a lesser President. Particuarly combined with the unprecedented media assault, and the emergence of Bush-hating as a pop phenomenon.

On the other hand Kerry was a horrific candidate -- it is alarming and frightening he was that close. But hey, a win is a win.

[Grassontop]

The real key is faith, education and reason.

One good reason that the democrats also lost this election for is because of the fact they have a lot of blood on their hands. What I'm saying is that they have all those millions of aborted babies. I seriously believe that God Almighty is not to happy with those democrats and probably RINO's who support abortion~! Just think, those babies could have been educated in our schools, but those evil butchards were afraid that one of those babies might have been a good president, preacher, teacher, etc.etc.

[Nowhere Man]

I don't know much about this guy. He was introduced to us during the Dem's convention as the best thing since flush toilet. The reporters could not stop praising him, and I did not find him to be any thing so special. I have to admit, I only listened to him once as a biased Republican, but perhaps he had some charm that I could not see. When Clinton gave a speech during the time he was governor of Arkansas, I also did not see any thing special about him, and he ended up being president twice. So perhaps, they can be right about the charm BS, but I just happened to be an insensitive Republican?

True, our biases can be dangerous to us in what you just said. I thought, Obama, just another Democrat who wants to pass the goodies out from the "Gravy Train" to the masses. In 1989, I was on a family trip to Texas where I stopped in Little Rock for the night. Well, I was channel surfing and I saw the then Governor Bill Clinton in a local newscast, I thought, "what a jagoff/idiot." If you can to my then and said that he would be President one day, I would have laughed you out of Little Rock. Yeah, I know we are biased and I'm glad for it, but even though Hillary is on the radar screen, the ones that are not are the most dangerous and we need to keep "checking our six."

[Jeff Head]

It displays very graphically what is going on in our nation.

Basically, there are some very liberal/elitist areas like Jackson, Wyoming, Sun Vally, Idaho, the resort areas of Colorado, Hollywood, etc that go for the DNC. They are the ones who pull the strings there. Then you have your modern day reservations...the inner cities and their masses who are dependents of the DNC, who will vote for whomever will give them the handout and lartgess (just as our founders warned)...and thereby keep them dependent. They are true modern day "reservations", and like most of the carry-over Indian reservations...they go for the solicalist/marxist/elitist dems almost every time because they are utterly bought and paid for.

Most of the places where people work for a living, carry on a traditional life-style and have their roots firm in Christian faith...go for the GOP...at least from what one sees on the country wide county election map.

[Jeff Head]

A win is indeed a win...and I am glad we have it over Kerry. On to the next ones.

[Jeff Head]

I believe there will be severe consequences for our nation over abortion at some point. Best thing to do is to have and practise our faith, do all in our power to educate others about the founding principles of this nation...and reason with all.

Then hold our ground and pray we can turn it around ala II Chron 7:14, or failing that, to be in a position to support others and pick up the pieces should there be a train wreck.

[Grassontop]

Then hold our ground and pray we can turn it around ala II Chron 7:14, or failing that, to be in a position to support others and pick up the pieces should there be a train wreck.

Lots of prayer is what re-elected Bush, and much leg work as well as internet communications!

[SrBirdman]

SrBirdman

[dougd]

The bad news is: compare 2004 county map to 2000 county map and you'll see that almost nothing has changed - counties that changed from red to blue or vice versa are hard to find.

We did a great job of getting out the vote, but so did the dems - just not quite as good. Will we do as well in 2008? Will they?

We have 2 big challenges to make significant progress in: urban vote and countering the media wing of the dem party.

As to the media - we like to hope that our 'new media' is an effective counter to the 'old media' - but most of the new media really just opines on the stories created in the old media. Our new media really needs to develop its own original reporting and more effectively reach the population at large - especially those not in our choir

Finding ways to swing a significant portion of the urban vote is where we really need some creative thinking and serious action.

[Rightly Biased]

Jeff put me on that ping list I like the way you think.

The "blue" or red for your purposes went democrat majority and therefore are shaded as such but the margins are not as close as we are led to believe by thier shading.

RB<><