Saturday, November 06, 2004

Mandate Caution

I really hate the fact that they say Bush has no mandate so of course I say it's overwhelming...but this suggests not to overplay our hand. I agree. My pessimism tells me that we've got a tenuous hold on this country now so Bush better do a good job leading to bring more into the fold. And get those justices in!

4 comments:

vetes said...

That post makes a good point but I think that you have to look beyond the raw data this time and make sure to include how high a hurdle that the President had to clear in order to even win after the thrashing he took in the media.

TimDido said...

Yeah dude, he had a huge media hurdle to clear. Our counter-media was running full force and was able to avert a travesty. My question is, has the new media done all it can do, or will we be able to continue to roll them back? In other words, is 51% of the electorate all we have? Same as I've been wondering for the past few days, are we witnessing a seismic shift or a natural realignment? Am I just being paranoid? Do I need to be slapped?

vetes said...

Who knows exactly how much of the electorate would vote on our side if they had a clear definition of who we really are. One of the problems faced by our party is that we are too nice. For much too long we have allowed ourselves to be defined by the dems who have no idea what it means to be a Republican. It sickens me but as Republicans we are mostly respectable and it is unmentionable for many of us to sink to the dems level. It's why they continue to run fundamentally dishonest campaigns. I believe that deep down the democrats fear the vast electorate, who as a whole is not as inclined to pay all that much attention to politics, learning the true definition and differences between the parties. It explains their often shameful behaviour.

TimDido said...

All right, I agree with you. They have caricatured us pretty successfully. And after thinking about it and actually experiencing it, our caricature of them is accurate. They are condescending, arrogant, and intellectually vain elitists for the most part over here. At least around Princeton. I kept hearing about how 'nobody but religious bigots lives in the red states anyway'. Maybe a few trips outside of Princeton will prove me wrong but that's the attitude of the average liberal around here. Maybe that's the end result of this election - our caricature is proved right, while they still think their caricature is accurate. I say keep it up - as long as they think we are uneducated boobs we'll keep on whipping them.