POST-ELECTION ANGER/OBSERVATIONS

48 hours after the general election, I have a few observations. I am warning the wary that this is possibly the angriest column I will ever write, but there are some things I have to publicly get off my chest because I'm listening to coastal liberals telling me why I voted the way I did. And they just don't get it:

-BIG MEDIA IS NO LONGER TRUSTWORTHY
Reporting that the exit polls showed a Kerry victory??? At 6:01pm??? Not only were they wrong, the major news organizations (other than Fox) exposed themselves yet again: They Are Not Objective!! Come on people, they so wanted to either a) believe that Kerry would win or b) influence the Central through Mountain time zone states into not voting if you were for Bush (because it was over) or insuring you’d vote if you were for Kerry (to make sure that he won). No other way to say it: that’s horse shit. Shame on NBC, shame on CBS (doubly), shame on ABC, and shame, shame, shame on CNN. I hope you all get your just rewards for hijacking a once-proud institution.

Consider this: the major news organizations were talking about how South Carolina, West Virgina and Virginia were too close to call, even though every single poll for weeks had showed them strongly in the Bush camp. The final results? Bush wins Virginia by 9%, West Virginia by 13% and North Carolina by 13%. These races were never, ever, ever in doubt, and it’s disgraceful that B.M purposely spun them as such.

At 10:00 Eastern Time I could tell that Ohio was Bush’s, yet no network would call it or even paint a grim picture for Kerry like they did with the states above for Bush. Why was it obvious? Because Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) was 80% in, with Kerry winning 65%-35%...and that’s the single most Democratic county in Ohio. Also, at that time, Bush already had a 90,000 vote lead, and they hadn’t even gotten 30% of the returns from Hamilton County (Cincinnati), the most Republican area of the state. It was obviously over, yet the networks wouldn’t call it. Some didn’t call it until Wednesday, even after Bush’s lead grew to over 130,000. So…you think there’s an obvious bias there? Do you think that B.M. is going to win any fans? Make any new Democrats? Give me a break; this makes me more Republican than ever, even if it’s just to spit in the face of so-called journalists.

-THE DEMOCRATS DON’T GET IT
How disappointing is it to someone like myself that the Democrats put up a pansy-ass blueblood liberal with not a political conviction in his body, who chooses a disingenuous, economically ruinous running mate because he might be glib? At the federal level, Republicans are running dangerously to the right, which makes them ripe for being picked off. But the Democrats inexplicably think that the best response is to yell louder from the opposite corner.

How could a party who had success with a centrist President in Bill Clinton so quickly revert to the formula that brought us Walter Mondale, Lyndon Johnson and Michael Dukakis is mystifying. This is the party that skewered Bush Sr. for being out of touch with real lives. So their answer is John Kerry? Vietnam-bashing, sushi-eating, French-speaking, ultra-millionaire, ultra-liberal Kerry? Who brings along an ambulance-chasing used-car salesman for a running mate?

And they wonder how they lost Ohio.


-LOTS OF COMPLAINERS, BUT NO DOERS
Those who think that George W. Bush didn’t deserve a return to office have a point. Yet how many of them are involved in their local political scene? Can they even name their state representative and senators? Not their congressperson or U.S. Senators, but the state and local folks. How many of the complainers are politically involved on any level other than voting once in a while? How many don’t even bother to vote in the primaries, much less know what they're voting for in their local officials?

The local level is not only the place where people affect your daily life, it’s where the candidates get chosen from. It’s Precinct Committemen/women, ward chairs and state representatives. No, they don’t decide who to choose for President, but they do decide who to choose for governor, U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House, which are the only places that Presidential candidates realistically come from. So if you don’t like your choices, you might want to start paying attention to local races and actually electing people who not only are there when you actually need a politician, but who will choose who runs this country.

IT’S NOT RELIGION
I live in the “God-Fearing Vast Wilderness of the Midwest,” which is what the coastal liberals seem to believe is everything between East Orange, NJ and Las Vegas. Well guess what? I’m hobnobbing with the local hayseed Indiana pols, who have spouted all sorts of reasons they either hate John Kerry or love George Bush. You know what? Not a single one has ever brought up a religious or moral reason for why they’re vote is going in a certain direction. Oh, there have been plenty who talked about Clinton as amoral, but not a single one who has ever mentioned voting for Bush because they like his religious stance, or won’t vote for the Democrats because they hate the prospect of gay marriage, or think that Kerry is untrustworthy because he’s divorced, Catholic, or any other religious reason. Their reasons for voting the way they did are usually partisan and political, and some are downright simplistic and even ill-thought out, but they’re not religious.

One final note: for 44 years every elected President, regardless of party, has come from Texas, Arkansas, Georgia or southern California. (I’m leaving Ford out because he was not elected). And since the 2 from California were both Republicans, this means Orange County and San Diego, not Hollywood.

The northeast may want to believe it’s still the center of the universe, but the rest of the nation doesn’t buy it. Democrats, it’s pretty simple: give the voters a candidate with an actual stance who hails from someplace other than the Corridor, and you will probably win. But all you have to do is look at that red & blue map. If you put up Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, you're going to get soundly defeated. And you'll be scratching your heads in 2008 looking for other spurious reasons as to why you can't reach the majority of Americans.