In reading this blog and other liberal blogs, I see the argument that the Dems won by so many votes that we have a clear mandate from the people. From the language used, it sounds as if we won a Reagan-like landslide and that we had changed hearts and minds in this election. Maybe i am a pessimist, but I think we need to look at the reality here if we are going to win in the future:
- This country has been a divided nation for the last 20 years and not much changed in this election.
- We won because we had an ingenious candidate and campaign team that knew that the only way to win was through organization, voter registration, and GOTV.
- If the Republicans had a better candidate, or we had a candidate that did not focus on organization, then it would have been a dead even race or even may have lost.
Really think about that for a moment, after all Republicans have done, we may have lost this election if just a couple of things had changed. What is wrong with Democrats, that it takes a disastrous administration and all of the right conditions for us to win?
I think that if we want to maintain a majority in the country, then we need to learn a few lessons from this election, not just celebrate and think that we have changed hearts and minds. Take some time and really think about this:
- George W. Bush led us into an illegal disastrous war that most Americans believe was a mistake and a second war that we are now in our sixth year and Osama bin Laden is still on the loose.
- The Republican Congress and Senate led us into the biggest deficit in history, a recession, possible depression, and some of the biggest core companies in the United States are on the brink of disappearing.
- Poverty has risen dramatically, 50 million people do not have health care, unemployment is at a 15 year high, the stock market is evaporating and with it many people's retirements and 401ks.
- Our infrastructure is falling apart to the point that bridges are collapsing, much of our drinking water has been deemed unsafe, and a large amount of other problems that would be too long to list.
- Our standing in the world was at its lowest point in generations.
- The government was committing many illegal and unconstitutional actions.
- The Government literally stood by and watched an American City destroyed by Katrina and failed in response.
- Congress was full of corruption - Mark Foley, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Ted Stevens, and many others.
- Over 75 percent of this country thinks that we are headed in the wrong direction.
And this is only the start....
In thinking about all the Republicans have done wrong with our country for the last 8 years and beyond, think about the fact that we only won by 6 percent of the vote or 6-7 million votes. Then consider that, in my opinion, we had one of our best candidates in our generation, they had one of the worst candidates, Obama ran a near-flawless campaign, McCain ran one of the most flawed campaigns, and that most of that 6-7 million vote win came from the campaigns ingenious organization and McCain's inability to organize.
In other words, even though Republicans drove us off a huge cliff, they would have come close to beating us or possibly won if it were not for all the things I listed above all aligning in our favor.
So, I think that we have had enough time of basking in our victory, we now need to really navel-gaze as to why this election was even close. Why did we not blow them out? Why is it that it took the Republicans destroying many parts of the country in order for us to win the presidency?
There are probably an enormous amount of theories on this, which I would love to hear in the comments, but my theory as I have argued for over a year now, is that we are losing the culture wars - especially on abortion. I strongly believe that there are tens of millions of voters that should be Democrats on every other issue except they are Republicans because of abortion. Of course, gay marriage is also a hot button issue, but not nearly as much as abortion.
In my circle of friends and family, I knew dozens that would have voted for Barack except they couldn't because of abortion. In calling people, canvassing, and writing blogs I have met hundreds of others where this is the case. Even if we are only losing 10 million votes per election because of this issue (I think it is more than that), that made the difference between president Gore, Kerry, and future presidents. I truly believe that finding some common sense solutions to abortion reduction could skim us a couple million voters that could swing elections for the next generation.
So, while we shape our agenda for the next for years, I think an important aspect of this is to push Obama's hand on abortion reduction. Of course, this will come with his agenda on poverty, health care, education, women's programs, etc., but if we can encourage him to take even more steps on this front like crisis hotlines, adoption/foster care reform, and many other areas, then we can make this a Center-Left country for decades to come.
If we do not address this issue, then we will lose every election when Republicans have not literally destroyed parts of America, run horrific candidates and campaigns, and we have incredible candidates. If we continue to let Republicans win on this issue, then we will lose.
Update: Please Digg if you feel so inclined.