Posted on 11/07/2004 10:53:35 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's election victory reflected a marked shift to the right which Republicans hope will usher in a generation of conservative rule by the party, analysts said.
The biggest voter turnout since 1968, which defeated Democrat John Kerry and expanded Republican majorities in Congress, is being seen by some as another milestone for the conservative movement that put Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980 and gave Republicans control of Congress in 1994.
"Reagan defined the new majority. The Contract with America in the 1994 election won the new majority, and Bush in 2004 has reaffirmed and strengthened the new majority," said Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
With Republicans holding a majority of state governorships and influencing the shape of the federal judiciary, many in the party are hoping for a return to the dominance the party enjoyed from President William McKinley's election in 1896 to the 1930s.
Chief Bush adviser Karl Rove said Republicans could become the governing party for decades. "The country is still close but it has moved in a Republican direction," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
"The Republicans are quite well-placed -- even if they don't win every election -- to shape American domestic politics into the next generation," said New York University professor Tony Judt, a Bush critic.
A striking feature of the Bush victory is the ascendant role of Christian evangelicals in key states including Ohio, where Republicans parlayed opposition to gay marriage and other so-called moral issues into record voter turnout.
"It's unprecedented," said historian Joan Hoff, who fears the United States could be heading for a period of regressive policies similar to the 1920s, a decade marked by Prohibition and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.
Others disagree. Kevin Phillips, a former Republican official and political analyst who has become an outspoken critic of Bush, sees no evidence that Bush's 51-48 percent win over Kerry will lead to a significant new chapter in American politics.
"A man who would have lost in 2004 if 9/11 hadn't come along, was lucky 9/11 came along," said Phillips, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. "It gave his whole brand of simplistic politics a hook."
Gingrich, who engineered the 1994 Republican victory in Congress, said party gains could be short-lived unless steps are taken to build on Tuesday's winning coalition. "The Republicans will determine whether this is a high-water mark or a launching pad," he told Reuters in an interview.
Despite his strong win, Bush faces obstacles in putting his policies into practice -- including a U.S. Senate in which the minority Democrats have the ability to block important legislation by filibustering.
"If you want to pass something legislatively you've got to get 60 votes in the senate that means you have to reach out to Democrats," Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday.
Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?: How the Conservatives Won the Heart of America," said the election demonstrated a Republican ability to shape popular opinion through a strategy he calls "conservative populism."
Frank said the strategy wins elections by using hot-button issues such as gay marriage to stir anger among rank-and-file voters. But after election day, little is ultimately done about those issues, which must be preserved unresolved for future election victories.
What succeeds instead are tax cuts, deregulation and other policies backed by the party's business constituents.
"Overturning Roe vs. Wade won't happen," Frank said referring to the Supreme Court ruling endorsing the right to abortion. "What's the first thing Bush said he's going to do? Privatize Social Security. That's been a dream of business since 1936," he said. (Additional reporting by Donna Smith)
What makes me happy is the firm tone that President Bush used when he said that he had earned political capital and was going to spend it. I hope that also means kicking butt in the Senate and not letting them betray us in the name of "bipartisanship".
NOBODY was lucky 9/11 came along. Jerk!!!
""If you want to pass something legislatively you've got to get 60 votes in the senate that means you have to reach out to Democrats," Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday. "
There goes ol' Scottish verdict/magic bullet again.
Yup - and ?
I'm so tired of Kevin Phillips.
There are several Senate DemocRAT incumbents from states W carried. I don't think they'll want to be the next Daschles.
doesn't each new senate set the rules of the new session by majority vote...
I think Kevin Phillips has had a lot of cogent things to day, but thinking that continuing the liberal tradition that has caused all of the problems in the first place will solve anything is insanity.
Stopped right there.
On Fox this afternoon, Newt Gingrich said that if the DemocRATS in the Senate continue in their attempt to obstruct Bush's agenda, and now his mandate, the Senate Rules may have to be changed. Hahahaha
RIGHT ON!!
"There goes ol' Scottish verdict/magic bullet again."
Not according to Gingrich. See #11
Progress! The FUD's in the middle instead of in the headline.
Believe me when I say that they won't stop the obstruction. There's nothing else left to them.
This statement means we will need another Democrat on our side to cancel out this damn RINO.
Typical Democrat trick. Associate the Republicans with disgusting and despicable groups such as the horrific KKK to make people connect conservatism with racism, anti-semitism, and other evils.
The 1920's saw the rise of the new American ecnomy, strides in civil rights, and great leaps in women's rights. It was not called the "Roaring 20's" for nothing. This Joan Hoff person is not much of a historian.
I've been wondering for about twenty years when the Boomer generation was going to grow up. Demographicly we cannot be challenged. We have ALL the money and if we would exercise some common sense ... ALL the power. Folks becoming conservative is a natural progrssion of getting older. It just took the boomers a looooooooooong time. We were so busy extending our adolescense as far as possible. Clear into our fifties for some.
If Bush can turn Iraq into a shining success our dominance for the next thirty if not forty years is assured. Surely Carl Rove understands this. Come on Mr. President SMASH Faluja and crush with extreme prejudice all resistance in Iraq. Then push Iran into revolution. DO IT !
Interesting! And, I seem to recall, the adoption of the rules requires only a majority vote.
Stopped right there.
I take whether Hoff actually said this with a grain of salt when the author paraphrases instead of actually quotes him. This has been done too much to others (including Bush). It's easy to twist the meaning of someone else's words.
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