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New York Times Asks: Why Do They Hate Us?

Howard_Dean.jpg

"Remember, more people voted against George Bush than any President in history!"
Gov. Howard Dean
November 3rd 2004.
( Howlin' Howard - The man who could not even win the Iowa Caucuses...)

I’ve been watching the reaction from the Democrats to the election. The best part of living in a blue state when you are a Republican is you get to watch the recriminations up close and personal. I sat at lunch yesterday next to a couple that could not get used to the idea that 59 million people voted for President Bush. They were not aware that Kerry had conceded the election and were still talking about the provisional votes as if they were going to bring victory. They honestly could not accept that there were so many people who would vote for Bush.

You see this throughout the Democrat party. The “Blue States” folks are in utter shock. There is no other word for it. The cycle of recriminations and the assignment of blame has already begun. First that this was an example of "Red State Homophobia", that the “gay marriage” issue was manufactured by Karl Rove to turn out the church going populace. Second, that people in the “Red States” are just backcountry rubes who can be sold anything, and Bush just scared them to death.

I was tempted to write a piece that would help illustrate to Democrats what the need to do to win. After reviewing site after site of Democrat reactions and their own analysis of their failures, I decided it was a wasted effort. They dont yet accept that they have lost, or how deep the loss is.

What the losses of the Democrats to the Republicans comes down to is this:

You cannot make fun of people and then expect that they will vote for you.

I'm not sure the Democrats understand that everytime they said "Bush is Stupid" a small part of a "Red State" slipped further out of their grasp. I'm not sure they yet understand that many,many people identify with and even empathize with President Bush and when Democrats say he is stupid that the Democrats are also saying that they the simple minded "Red State" folk are also stupid.

In my opinion, what cost the Democrats the election was the way they treated the President with a complete lack of respect. Out here in "goober country", we don't think highly of that kind of thing. People in "Red States" believe in common decency, even between adversaries. For every bit of vitriol that was ginned up for the Democrat base, it probably cost them an equal amount of undecided voters in "Red States" who on election day, swung to the President.

Democrats cannot win unless they can take some of the Red States back into their fold. Fundamentally, the “Red States” are growing in population; the “Blue States” are losing population. Unless Democrats are willing to expand their membership they are doomed to a minority party status for a good long time.

I’m not entirely sure at this point that Democrats want to win elections. I think that for some Democrats, its much more important to remain ideologically pure. “Ideologically purity” is the necrosis of party politics. Once upon a time, Republicans had a solid litmus test for people in the party, you could not support gay rights, you could not support government funding of any sort, and you could not support abortion rights under any circumstances.

When they ran the party under that sort of ideological standard, Republicans held a minority position in politics within this country. Today’s Republican party has a wide variety of positions, from Rudolph Giuliani to Dick Cheney, and yes, George W. Bush. Even George W. and George H.W. express opinions that differ from each other greatly and Giuliani from the other two to Andrew Sullivan, who I think is still a Republican, although he takes a very different view of things.

The Democrats on the other hand have become the closed minded, “Ideological purity test” party. There are no “Pro-life” Democrats; there are no “Hawkish” Democrats. Sure there’s Joe Lieberman, and there was Richard Gephardt, but Dick Gephardt is gone now, and Joe is an exile. Frankly, Southern Democrats are going so fast I wonder if there will be any at all in 10 years. Where's Sam Nunn? Wheres Scoop Jackson or Carl Vinson of Todays Democrat Party? These men used to be commonplace in that Party, today you will be hard pressed to find anyone of their like, unless you look in the Republican party.

For so many people in the Democrat party, their party’s ideology defines who they are, and to suggest changing it is a thought akin to heresy.

Shhh Heretic! There will be no talk of "defensive war" because we in the true church of liberal-ity know that all war is caused by greedy capitalists against the poor and is never good under any circumstances.

Silence heathen! We in the true church know that marriage is a form of property over other human beings and the only valid marriage is the type that destroys the institution!

Be still underlings! We in the high church of socialism know that all religion is a form of brain damage and anyone belonging to any church is suspect and possibly a lobotomy victim.

For so many people in the Democrat party, where they live defines who they are. I’ve seen this phenomenon before, people who give anything to live in a particular zip code for no other reason than they feel that by having that zip code, it makes them a better person. I know people who judge people by where they live rather than who they are.

You simply cannot be a good and smart person if you choose to live in Idaho. You must desire to live in San Francisco or Seattle or Manhattan, and if you don’t, you must pine to do so someday.

Suburbs? Ugh! Only breeders live in the ‘burbs!

Many feel that to be a Democrat is to be given a “pass”, you cannot be a bigot, you cannot be a homophobe, you cannot be a dumb hick if you are a Democrat. To live in San Francisco or Manhattan is to say “ I’m not like those little oh so common people, I’m a better person than those people…” It's sad to watch their faces when I tell them, as I often do, that no matter where you go, there you are.... Places don't make you, you make places. If you need to live in Manhattan to be excited and joyous in your life, it's because you are probably too boring to make your own fun somewhere else. I've seen beautiful things in Manhattan, I've seen stunning things on the Paluxy river in Texas. I've learned to appreciate them each for what they are. I guess thats what makes me a small minded knuckle dragging breeder. it's ok,I'm comfortable in my own skin.

I don’t think the Democrat party of today can change. To do so would cause too many currently in the party to reject it. They cannot belong to a party that would welcome openly the silly and ignorant people who follow NASCAR. They cannot stand side by side with people who work in factories and go deer hunting on their weekends. To do so would be to lower their sense of self worth to admit that there were in fact just like that which they openly hate and despise. The common every day folk...

Even though I am a Republican, I really want a strong and solid Democrat party. Our political system is an adversarial system like that found in courts of law. Having one party rule is like having a court system where only the prosecutor gets access to lawyers. There is no more certain way to corrupt a system than to leave it unchecked. Democrats, by allowing their party to be taken over by coastal cultural elites have doomed their party to regional, almost cult like status.

To win, Democrats must drop their anti-religious bigotry.

To win, Democrats must find another candidate from “a town called hope”.

To win, Democrats must decide that America is worth defending.

To win, Democrats must again sing " Happy days are here again".

To win, Democrats must cast aside Al Sharpton, Michael Moore and Al Franken, they must learn to embrace Zell Miller.

They must learn that to win, they must reach out to the very people they despise.

People like me.

According to this map, they are going to need some mighty big arms.


UPDATE I: New York Times Local Reaction

San Francisco Local Reaction

Seattle Local Reaction

Portland Oregon Local Reaction

Posted @ November 04, 2004 06:05 PM | Current Events

Comments

You are so dead on with your observations.

I hail from Michigan, a "blue" state (even though the only blue is Detroit) and all I've been hearing is how can 59 million people be so stupid.

Well jackass, you just called me stupid, I resent that and now you just made me hate you.

I fear it will be decade at least before the Democrats realize what they are doing.

Posted by: Machelle at November 5, 2004 06:03 AM

Yes, it is delicious to be GWB supporter living in the bluest of the Blue states (although, I must say this colorful imagery of dichotomy is counter-productive to robust political discourse). Here in Manhattan, you have to be careful walking down the street...a pretentious elitist's head could explode at any moment. I've seen it happen, it's messy. "They hate gays and you can't even get good sushi in any of those Red States!" Argh! SPLAT! As I said, delicious.

Anyway here is a little tidbit I posted elsewhere, which is a modest analysis that might be helpful to the powers that be in the Democratic party and blue-staters in general:

For those who arrogantly feel that Red States are populated by gun-toting, gay-hating boobs, the truth is that Red States are increasingly populated with refugees from Blue States. Red State boomtowns like Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, and Jacksonville, for example, are booming because of the ex-Califorians and ex-Northeasterners who fled the liberal paradises that were created for them back home beginning in the 1960s. They brought with them their economic activity, their civic administrative experience, and a simple desire to have the garbage picked up, the schools run properly, and their businesses not regulated into the ground. After the Census Bureau caught up with them, they wound up bringing some electoral votes with them too. This process is continuing. After the next census, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, NC, and Florida will likely get even more electoral votes.

Posted by: Don at November 5, 2004 07:19 AM

Well said.

Posted by: bkw at November 5, 2004 10:46 AM

I live in a marginal blue state, Wisconsin, which has a double whammy of the elite intellectuals in Madison and the blue collar/black, votes in Milwaukee. We also have 2 Dem senators, Kohl and Feinstein, who are all but invisible until election time. The one exception, of course, is Feinstein as in McCain/Feinstein Election reform bill. Senator please stops doing us favors. If we all recall there were election reform laws in place until Al Gore declared that he could break them because there was “no controlling authority”.

The reason for my post is to express why I voted for George Bush and to answer the many elitist writers who have called us obtuse creatures who are un-teachable and some infer that we even may be “untouchables”.

Why did I vote for George Bush?

He is a decent person who restored dignity to the Whitehouse after 8 years of Bill Clinton, who decided that it would be cool to get a blow job from an intern in the Oval Office on the Seal of the President of the United States.

He has the support of our Military.

He has faced a devastating barrage of personal assaults with dignity. Rather with his forged documents, CBS, Moore, Imus, Streisand, Hollywood Phonies and many others hurled incredible vitriol at this man and he never lost his dignity, he never lowered himself to their level. Whoopee Goldberg’s comments at a Kerry fund raiser are so repugnant that they aren’t even repeated on the Internet while John Kerry and the audience laughed at them. John Kerry declared that these people were the heart of America. John Kerry, your fatal flaw is that you never discovered the Heart of America.

John Kerry took the headlines from the New York Times to form his daily stump speech. 380 tons of disappearing explosives carried him for 4 days until the story was de-bunked and then we never heard it again in his speeches.

I was not persuaded to vote for Bush because of religion, gay marriage, gay rights, abortion or any of the other popular causes that ignite people. I know a decent man when I see one. George Bush is a decent man.

I read about the people sitting in New York’s sidewalk café’s expressing how embarrassed they were by the outcome of the election and apologizing to the EU for the gauche underbelly of America. These people never asked John Kerry why he didn’t he sign DD Form 180. I asked that question many times. George Bush signed Form 180, under pressure from the MSM.

The records didn’t show what they had hoped for so Dan Rather and CBS invented false records that would be the final hit piece and the Coup de Grace of George Bush. Wrong again. John Kerry, Joe Lockhart, Mary Mapes, Dan Rather and CBS News waited with breathless anticipation for the Guillotine to fall. Guess what? The Guillotine was made out of straw. God bless the decent people on the internet who exposed the fraud that Dan Rather was trying to foist onto the American people. At the same time Dan Rather and the MSM ignored the real time bomb of John Kerry’s hidden military records and his obstinate refusal to sign Form 180. That time bomb is still ticking because guys like John Edwards are going to ride John Kerry’s coat tails into 2008.

The hatred and vitriol leading up to this election astounded me. Nobody has guaranteed that our way of life and our form of government will prevail forever. This country has a lot of scars and wounds that do not heal. We must stop the hatred. Now! If we don’t we will be divided again as we were during the Civil War .


Posted by: Joem at November 5, 2004 06:26 PM

I also live in a blue state although I think my neighborhood is red (I live in Delaware - it's small). Since I teach I get to hear what people think through their children. (Note that I do not work in what anyone would consider a normal school. Very high poverty level, mostly drawn from the city)

Anyway, Wednesday was an interesting day. According to my lovely sixth graders (who have zero investment in their education and get no encouragement to do so from home) George Bush is going to bring back slavery and the draft. And we are all in danger of dying - from what I couldn't tell you since they didn't seem to know. And many of them were yelling me and the other sixth grade teachers that we voted for Bush because we are white. I finally had to raise my voice and insist that they stop since it was hardly a topic for science. But not before I got exactly how their parents are thinking and what kind of BS they are feeding them.

My sixth grade team all had a good laugh at lunch since the five of us all did vote for Bush. (There are teachers out there that aren't liberal nutcases!)

And Frank, you hit the nail on the head when you compared the Democratic party to the Republican party of years past. While I was in high school and college, it always felt to me that the Republicans were on the verge of having happen to them what has happened to the Dems now. Luckily, I they got it together. Can't say as much for the Dems. They've become the party of intolerance because if you don't agree with them, they aren't going to tolerate you. Irony isn't wasted on me.

Posted by: Maureen at November 6, 2004 11:46 AM

Poor Howard, he screws up again. In 1992, Bill Clinton's opponents got 58.8 million votes.

Posted by: Jim C. at November 6, 2004 05:58 PM