A MANDATE...

Michelle Malkin put this county-wide electoral map of the US up on her site yesterday, and it obliterates the new found mantra of the left that we are a 'nation divided' and in 'need of healing'. If anything, it shows how truly out of touch the left is with the American electorate and it is the Democratic Party's platform that is in 'need of healing'.

As I wrote in this space on election night as George Bush began to pull away " the gloom of the mainstream media is...palpable"; I was truly unprepared for the almost funeral-like mood that had set in among the liberal talking heads as the reality of another Bush presidency set in the next day. Katie Couric, obviously holding back tears, shoud have asked the wardrobe people at NBC for a black dress and black veil to complete her look as she struggled through her set. The folks in CBS are stuck in the classic first phase of grieving--absolute denial; someone should offer Dan Rather some counseling (has CBS even given the electoral votes for Ohio to Bush yet?)

What really struck me, though, was the new spin being put on the election to deny the President his obvious mandate. The arguments range from the sublime to the bizarre, but usually pan out along the usual, tired old lines. The first one pits the intellectual elite versus all those deranged bible-thumping whackos out there. The emerging theory is that Karl Rove and his evil minions knew Bush didn't get enough of this vote in 2000 because of the DUI charge, so by introducing the gay marriage issue into the campaign, they would surely anger the Christian right into coming out to vote this time. The theory is wrong from it's jump point, however, because it was the gay rights advocates who insisted on making gay marriage an issue in this election, not the Republicans. Nice try, though. The whole notion of conservatives as nothing more than "bible-thumping morons" being perpetuated by the left is irksome to me. This nation was founded on a belief in God and strong Christian values. It was born, has grown, prospered, and has  become a shining beacon to all of humanity(as evidenced by the sheer amount of people risking their very lives just to come here) because of those values. When did it become a 'dirty' thing to believe in God, family values, and a strong sense of morality in this country? I don't know about you, but I will not sit back and let some self-appointed liberal-elite try to brainwash me into thinking my cultural values are wrong. Judging by the map above and the results of the election, it is their view of the world that is wrong.

The second argument states that the coasts of America, more correctly the Northeast Coast and the entire West Coast are bastions of liberal and higher intellectual thought; while the backwards-ass folk living in the middle of the country are obviously in need of an education. Look at the county-wide map again. Are you seeing any dominance of liberal thought in this country? Once again, the major cities are Democratic strongholds, as the poverty pimps convey their tired old message of oppression. But that message is losing it's chokehold over minority communities, and the once 'automatic' black vote was not so automatic this election cycle. Bush grabbed 11% of the African-American vote this time around, surprising the Democrats who take for granted that this vote is in their vest pocket. The Democrats offer the same old plans to keep minorities where they want them: relying on Big Government. When you can control how much a man earns, where a man goes to get his health care, how much he gets for food, what his children are taught in school (and where his children will go to school, for that matter) where he will work and so on; all through the guise of 'helping' that man with government programs, you truly control that man's life. This, to me, is the ultimate form of racism.

As for the great unwashed in the middle of the country not being 'smart enough' to vote the liberal ticket; perhaps if this position had been voiced on occasion, they would have  at least tried to decipher its 'nuances'. I mean, for all the talk about those wonderful  'plans', did you ever get to actually hear one of 'em? I'm sorry, but "I can do better..." is just not much of a platform to run a campaign for me, apparently all the 'dumb' people in the middle of the country were smarter than that, too.

The map above is a sea of red--and it's growing. The founding fathers were wise enough to design this goverment as a representative republic, not a true democracy. This means that the will of the majority cannot simply ignore the concerns of the minority. In his victory speech yesterday, President Bush rightly reached out to those who did not vote for him, and promised he would 'earn their repect' as he should have in a Republic like ours. But calls from the liberal media for a 'time of healing' and referring to our country as a 'nation divided' is nonsense and more partisan spin. The people have spoken. George Bush has been given a mandate. Just look at the election results. Just look at the map.