The makers of Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil got a boost in sales, as did the number of hits on the Canadian immigration website last week in the wake of George Bush’s re-election. Some of the mentionable quotes from some of those 55-plus million and counting Americans who voted for John Kerry include, “I’m outta here,” “Game over,” “Put a fork in the Democratic Party,” “Pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”
I admit that I too was devastated on “The Day After,” (named after the 1983 movie about the day after nuclear holocaust in United States). I even joined 115,016 of my fellow citizens and logged onto the Canadian immigration website that has had a six-fold increase in hits this past week. While I am still simultaneously experiencing the five stages of grief, I am slowly getting some perspective on Campaign 2004 and moving towards acceptance.
First, this election is anything but a mandate for the president. Yes, George W. Bush got the largest number of votes of any presidential candidate in history, but John Kerry got the second largest number of votes of any presidential candidate in history. And despite the fact that John Kerry gracefully conceded in order to move the nation forward, all the votes have not been counted and it appears at least 4,000 votes were counted wrong in Ohio. So the president’s margin of victory is certain to narrow with thousands of ballots yet to be counted nationwide.
New Mexico, for example, arguably the heart of the American West, may still go to John Kerry. As of Friday, Bush was ahead by 673 votes. We may not know the New Mexico outcome for two more weeks. This election came down to around 135,000 votes in Ohio – 114 million people voted – mandate-schmandate.
Second, this nation is not, as one friend of mine said, “One nation, divided by God.” Everyone on both sides of the church aisle is anxious to reach the conclusion that this election was won by GOD vs. GOP. Again, nothing could be further from the truth.
First, their theory is based on exit-poll results. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I distinctly remember the exit polls showing what one network chief executive called, “A blowout for Kerry” in the early evening of election night. So either there was voter fraud, or the exit polls were bogus. For the sake argument, I will say that the exit polls were bogus. So why is it that the same people who claim that exit polls were erroneous on the question of “who did you vote for?” want to use these polls to declare there is a conservative social mandate in this country?
Those of us who call ourselves Democrats need to let the dust settle before we react by calling for a more conservative social agenda in order to pander to so-called conservative social values. In fact, the statistics show that contrary to popular belief, plenty of “Christians” voted for John Kerry and, as of this writing, it appears they did not go to Hell for doing so. These voters obviously believe that Jesus Christ is the son of GOD, not of GOP. They did not buy into George W. Bush’s anti-Christ-like proclamation that he was chosen by God to be president. They prioritize Christ’s agenda of social justice over the GOP agenda of self-righteous piety.
While it is true that the Democratic Party needs to, as George W. Bush says, “strategerize,” we should not be over-reactive to the results of this election. I have done some exit polling of my own and I would characterize the vote for George W. Bush with the title of an excellent book written by Bert Becker titled, “You’ve Got to be Believed to be Heard.” These voters were not happy with the president, but they were not compelled to believe John Kerry could do better.
This lack of believability is something we need to work on as a party. Contrary to the belief of many, John Kerry and the Democratic Party love this country as much as any flag-waving Republican. We need to properly communicate the real difference between the two parties. The Democratic Party was founded on the rock of social justice, a strong defense and investment in the individual vs. the corporation. These are the values every American can embrace.
