Wednesday, November 10 2004
MANDATE? NO. CONSEQUENTIAL? NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: There has been a lot of back and forth over just how big President Bush's victory was and whether he now has a mandate.

Numerically, there really shouldn't be an argument. In the 29 elections since 1888, only four have been closer in the popular vote: 1960, 1968, 1976, and 2000. It's pretty hard to suggest some kind of national mandate when a difference of 135,000 votes in one single state - out of a country of nearly 300 million - would have changed the final outcome.

Tactically, it's easy to understand why the Bush Administration and Republicans are talking up the idea of a mandate, but you can't make a 51-48 race into some kind of FDR or Reagan landslide. A greater percentage of the population voted for John Kerry (48.1) in this election than voted for George W. Bush (47.9) in 2000. This was not a mandate.

In many ways this is what is so infuriating to the Democrats, because they know President Bush is going to govern and lead as if he has a mandate. That is why the Democrats and their friends in the mainstream media or the "old media" put everything they had into this election to unseat George W. Bush.

This was the equivalent of The Alamo for the mainstream media. CBS News and the New York Times, and to a lesser extent their colleagues at the other major networks and newspapers, exhausted themselves in a near-pathological desire to remove George W. Bush from office. They know the days of the liberal elites in New York and Washington setting the news agenda for the American people are coming to an end. Which is why they fought so hard to eliminate President Bush and restore a Democrat to the White House.

The Democratic Party and its allies were no less aggressive. George Soros and his billions, the 527's and their millions, Michael Moore and his propaganda "documentary" - all were thrown at this president in the most comprehensive, coordinated attack ever marshaled to defeat a sitting president.

The Democratic Party registered more voters than ever before, got more people to the polls than any time in history, and far exceeded their numbers and goals. And at the end of the day, it was all for naught. George W. Bush steamrolled to a majority of the vote while picking up 4 critical Senate seats and expanding the GOP's margin in the House.

This is why the Democrats are apoplectic and find themselves staring into the abyss. They know they gave it everything they had and it wasn't enough to defeat the Bush Juggernaut. And they know they are left with an empty shell of a party that is unlikely to put together as focused and disciplined an effort any time soon.

The Left's lashing out at Christian conservatives and attempt to downplay the Republican victory by suggesting that it is all because of the bigotry and ignorance of the "religious right" just shows the pathetic state of denial in the Democratic Party.

The truth is the Democrats are still running on the fumes of FDR's New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society even though from an intellectual and policy standpoint that tank ran out of gas years ago.

To further complicate the situation, the activist base of the Democratic Party has been taken over by the anti-war, anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-religious Left. That's a big problem in a country that is overwhelmingly religious, capitalist, patriotic and very proud of the men and women who fight and die for our freedom and security.

But what really makes Democrats and the liberal elites sick is they know what George W. Bush is going to do with this hard fought victory. They saw him take a 500,000 popular vote loss and ram through massive tax cut after massive tax cut. They saw him in a post 9/11 world radically shift American foreign policy to embrace the doctrine of American preemption and military dominance. They know full well what George W. Bush can do.

For an average President, a 51-48 win wouldn't be that big of a deal. For this President, however, a majority of the popular vote coupled with expanded majorities in Congress is all he needs to permanently change the political course of this country.

Democrats know that on a whole host of policy issues a world of hurt is coming their way. Private accounts for Social Security, medical savings accounts, tax simplification, tort reform and much, much more are all in the pipeline.

And let's not kid ourselves with the idea that any of this is going to be bipartisan. There will be no negotiation with the Nancy Pelosis, Charlie Rangels or Barbara Boxers in this Congress. The bipartisanship will come from Red State Democratic Senators who have seen what happened to their former Red State Democratic Senators who obstruct and side with the far Left.

We haven't even mentioned the Big Kahuna: the Supreme Court. In many ways the battle for the Supreme Court is the single most important issue. Democrats know they were lucky to go four years and not have a single appointment from President Bush. They won't be so fortunate this time.

With 55 Republican Senators and the ghost of Tom Daschle echoing in the Senate chamber, President Bush is going to seriously reshape the third branch of our government. While the press may reduce this to being all about abortion, in reality abortion and Roe vs. Wade will only be a very small part of what the Supreme Court is going to have the final say over in the next 30 years. And liberals know that it is not just the three or four appointments to the High Court, but the dozens, even hundreds of lifetime appointments to the entire Federal bench that will lock in conservative jurisprudence for an entire generation.

This brings us back full circle to how devastating to liberals that 135,000 vote margin in the Buckeye state will be to the future course of this country. Was this a mandate or a landslide for President Bush? No. But it was one of the most consequential elections in this nation's history, the ramifications of which will be felt for decades. And behind all the vitriol, blather and post-election spin; that sick feeling among Democrats is because they know this to be true. J. McIntyre 9:47 am Link | Email | Send to a Friend