Bush Won

***Election Analysis***

We have taken a week's break from Blogging at this site, first as a rest from the fury of the days and weeks leading up to the recent election, but also as a way of reviewing the post-election positions of the MSM (mainstream media), the Democrats, Republicans, and all those in between and on the fringes to either side of the major parties.

We are obviously delighted at the re-election of George W. Bush, and at the gains by the Republican party in the House and Senate, as we believe that the overall direction of the country under Republican control will be the right direction. That is not to say that we agree completely with all of the positions of the Bush administration or of those in Congress, but the general goals of less government, less regulation, lower taxes, and more local control are worthy and noble goals that should be vigorously pursued. Conversely, we believe that the general goals of John Kerry and the Democrats—more government, higher taxes, more regulation, less local control— are not desirable goals, and should be resisted with equal vigor.

We are struck by the post-election analysis that has been generally discussed in the MSM that the people who voted for GWB did so for reasons of "morality", and that a 'bunch of redneck hicks from 'flyover country'' could have been so stupid as to have voted for the 'idiot' Bush.

According to exit polling conducted by a consortium of MSM organizations, the most important factor in deciding which candidate to vote for for president was "moral values" (22%), followed closely by "economy/jobs" (20%), "terrorism" (19%), "Iraq" (15%), then a big drop to "healthcare" (8%), "taxes" (5%), and finally "education" (4%). As near as we can tell, respondents to this survey were only given these choices, and could choose only one from the list.

Based on these results, 83% of those polled felt that moral values, economics, and the war on terrorism (we're lumping together those who ranked "terrorism" and "Iraq" together) are the most important issues facing the country, whereas only 17% feel that healthcare, education, and taxes are the most pressing issues. If that is true, then why didn't pre-election polls indicate such a low rating for healthcare? We thought, based on listening to the barrage of MSM converage prior to the election, that healthcare would be at least 2nd in the minds of voters to terrorism.

By examining how those polled voted based on their answers to the above categories we may find a possible answer. Those who replied that they thought 'moral values' was the most important reason to choose a candidate, 80% voted for Bush, while just 18% voted for Kerry. For those who thought 'economy/jobs' was the most important, 80% voted for Kerry, and 18% for the president. For people who thought 'terrorism' was the key to choosing their candidate, 86% chose the president, while just 14% voted for Kerry. For those voters for whom 'Iraq' was the key issue, 73% voted for Kerry, while 26% voted Bush. For those who thought that 'healthcare' and 'education' were the most important considerations in choosing a president, about 75% voted for Kerry, and about 25% for Bush.

Could it be that the MSM, so closely aligned with the Democrats and John Kerry, don't accurately reflect the true "will of the people"? Apparently not.

The most interesting part about the post-election analysis, particularly by the MSM and those ont the Left, is the absence in their analyses that any of their policies could be wrong. That's, of course, impossible. To listen to them, they believe that the reason people in "those red states" voted for Bush are because: a) "They're stupid"; and b) "We didn't get our message across".

These two messages are related, of course, but in ways the Democrats and the Left don't want to admit. First, they really do think that anyone who doesn't agree with their view of the world is stupid. Some of these idiots can be brought around, according to the Leftist way of thinking, especially if they (the Left) haven't spoken slowly enough or used simple wording to educate those common, simple people in the Red States.

If they have gotten their message across well, in their view, and they still lose elections, then it's obvious that the people who continue to disagree with their brilliant point of view are not smart enough to vote or to govern themselves. It is for that reason that they believe in government action: they are convinced that they know better, and if you idiots can't see it then goverment needs to re-educate you. It sounds eerily similar to the socialist revolutionaries of the last century. In the words of Karl Marx, the father of modern socialism, "Religion is the opiate of the masses."

We don't believe those on the Left have the ability to move even closer to Marx's position on religion than they already have, but we do believe that the Democratic party has been taken over by anti-religious zealots who have been slowly, methodically, and relatively quietly working to eliminate all references to religion from society, and to try to marginalize religion and religious people to such an extent that religion is considered a crude artifact of a society that no longer exists.