Between Pelosi's 'fight til the end' rhetoric, and everyone else's begging Bush not to be to much of a republican you would think that this was a hugely divided nation. But honestly it's not very divided at all. The social liberalism that permeates the Democratic party these days was soundly rejected on Tuesday. The exit polls show that moral values were the number one issue they voted on. Now most democrats will say that this is only speaking about gay marriage. I disagree, I believe that people were very comforted by our President's moral clarity and absolutism in calling our enemies evil. Something he has been called a religious extremist for saying, the claim being he is out of touch with the mainstream. When we can see now that it is the liberal extremism of the Democrats and Hollywood types that is out of touch. No Mr. Democrat it is YOU who needs to come back to the middle, YOU are the ones out of touch with the mainstream. We won the election by a sizable margin, YOU are the ones who are going to have to work with us to get things done. And here is how you can start.
Stop accusing us of doing things that you are doing yourselves. Stop patronizing us for things that you have created. What am I talking about? The Draft is a good example. There was never any serious talk by Republicans about bringing back the draft. In fact almost all conservatives are against ever having a draft again. But you accused us of it anyway. Two democrats introduced a bill into the House that would have brought back the draft. They knew it wouldn't pass they just wanted to get people "talking" about it. The bill was defeated almost unanimously with the two writers of the bill voting against it. Then emails went out all over college campuses trying to scare students into voting against Bush. The emails claimed that a second term for Bush meant that they would be drafted. This lie was repeated in college newspaper ads by MoveOn.org and was talked about by Michael Moore on his lecture tour of college campuses. John Kerry even mentioned it in a stump speech not more than a month ago.
Another example is the gay marriage issue. Marriage is defined as a relationship between a man and a women. It is a Government sanctioned religious institution. Marriage, as it is currently defined, is one of the foundations of our society. That's what it is, and nobody alive today is responsible for making it that way. It was not invented as a way to discriminate against gays. When the gay marriage amendment was defeated soundly in all 11 places it was on the ballot, you accuse us of bigotry and hate mongering.. In other words you attack one of the very basic pillars of our lifestyle, and call us "hate filled homophobes" for resisting the your ideas. Regardless of what the newspapers or the Village Voice say, gays are attacking marriage not the other way around.
Need more? How about the issue of Allies in the war on terror. All we have heard from you on the left is that we needed more Allies before going into Iraq. And that we should not wage war without a coalition backing us up. Bush was called a renegade cowboy for "going it alone" in the war on terror. But you never missed a chance to put down or insult the Allies we did have. You called them "The coalition of the coerced and bribed". When Ayad Allawai addressed the Congress John Kerry didn't even show up. Instead he held a press conference and dismissed Allawai a "Puppet of the Administration". John Kerry's own sister was campaigning against the PM in Australia, one of our greatest Allies. How can you say we need to bring more allies to America's side, when you can't even demonstrate that you yourselves our on our side?
Do you see? We can't let this country heal until you demonstrate that you want to start the process. In his first term the President reached out to you in a big way. He was the first President ever not to veto a bill. He let Ted Kennedy write the education bill, much to the consternation of his own party. And yet you accuse him of being a radical and the most divisive President in history. Indeed from all accounts you didn't even like your candidate in this past election very much. He was chosen for his "electibility", just someone who was "Anybody but Bush". Your entire campaign was based on perceived failings of the Bush administration. Any bad news that came out was blamed on Bush. Any good news to be found was not reported or dismissed as optimistically out of touch. You tried to use forged documents to smear the sitting president. You ignored the fact that we have destroyed around 400,00 tons of explosives that used to be in the hands of Saddam, and tried to use one stockpile that the UN couldn't account for to claim that Bush had made Iraq unsafe. In the face of overwhelming evidence you refused to acknowledge that the economy is doing very well, claiming instead that millions of jobs had been lost under "Bush's watch". Why should we cuddle up and compromise to you when you are acting like that?
In the end America gave overwhelming support to our President and the values he demonstrates. It is clear that America does not consider him to be a radical or religious extremist. But that it appreciates and supports his moral clarity, fiscal responsibility, and the proactive protectionism abroad. It is the Democratic party that needs to look in the mirror. It is the Democrats who need to move back to the middle, towards traditional American values. It is they who need to let this country heal by distancing themselves from the Michael Moore's and Paul Krugman's of this world. They need to stop representing their ideas with vitriolic hate towards any opposition. Those things have to happen before Bush or any Republican can be asked to do any uniting. After all why should we unite with something like this:
