Cheer up Mates; not all is lost... yet.
By Miguel Guanipa (11/10/06)
Don't get me wrong. Republicans got beaten like a one legged stepchild in this election. It was a thumping, as the president said. There's no two ways about it. But in terms of ideologies, I submit that it was liberals who got the thumping, or at least a cautionary reminder that their militant crusade to win the hearts and minds of the American people has failed miserably.
The only victories the left will ever be able to boast of will tenuously hinge on the capriciousness of a slim Senate majority’s ability to deny a seat to any Supreme Court nominee who does not subscribe to their ideology; in other words, the old liberal tradition of procuring victories through judicial coercion.
A nonpartisan review of the key ballot measures across the country should afford a pretty clear picture of the political instincts of the average American voter and their tendency to lean more towards a conservative worldview. Bear in mind that these sentiments were registered in the midst of a savagely biased media assault against conservative values.
All but one out of the 28 states that voted on constitutional amendments to ban Same-sex marriage agreed to implement it. An amendment to legalize marihuana and another one to allow the drug to be used for medicinal purposes were both defeated. A referendum that would have legalized domestic partnerships did not pass. Even an amendment to declare English as the official language won the support of a majority. The only dark spots for conservatives were the defeat of a parental notification amendment and an amendment in South Dakota to ban all abortions; and even those losses serve as a testimony to the very conservative principle of limited government intrusion.
Add this to the fact that the majority of democrat candidates who unseated republican incumbents ran on moderate or openly conservative platforms and you have to wonder if the far left ideologues have anything to cheer about other than the fact that an ultra-liberal Senator from San Francisco will be the first woman speaker of the house. I admit that in itself is pretty bad news but not what I would call an insurmountable defeat.
As far as the war is concerned, if the results of the ballot issues are any indication of how the majority of Americans feel, there is going to be a call to moderation, and the perpetual cries to cut and run from the far left will very likely be repudiated just as they were when there was a “republican” majority.
Is it possible that the moderate platforms democrats were running on were simply a ruse in order to get elected? It’s possible. Whenever politicians and power get mixed you usually find a lot of corruption and hypocrisy. Just look at the departing republican incumbents and the scandals that doomed their campaigns.
If that is the case, these Democrats will have compromised their own integrity and voters will eventually realize that they were taken; but it will not be the first or the last time that fallible men are unduly burdened with the grandiose hopes of a wearied people.
If on the contrary, they were indeed sincere, these new Democrats on whom so much hope has been pined should not underestimate the task at hand. It is going to be hard to effectuate reconciliation and progress by standing up to those in their own party who acquired their leadership posts by proxy and are irrevocably committed to the politics of destruction.
But for the moment, I will take the vulnerable stance of giving them the benefit of the doubt and hope that they will live up to their promises to uphold the values they espoused during their campaign for the remainder of their careers. It is after all a better choice than mourning for a half empty glass.
If fortune decrees that to be the way things go then there is also hope that Democrats will be amenable to working with their peers on the other side of the aisle and will refuse to allow the payback mentality and the spirit of retaliation to override their original pledges to serve the American people.
The obvious lesson for Republicans is that they need to clean house and reclaim their basic conservative moorings, behave in an ethical way and trust that the voters will see through all of the incorrigible media bias. They need to realize that they got complacent, and allowed too much corruption to fester during their watch. They also need to finally respond more aggressively to the media’s constant negative attacks on their vision and hold them accountable for their lack of objectivity.
The American people are fundamentally a conservative people. The vociferous fringe left are not the majority; they just sound like they are. Conservatives need to regroup, get their act together, activate the vision that has been practically delineated for them by the voters, and move forward full speed ahead, regardless of how intimidating the opposition may look. We owe it to them.
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