This one doesn't take a rocket scientist. Hell, rocket science doesn't take a rocket scientist for some.
The reason why the Republicans lost is the War in Iraq. Regardless if it was right or wrong, that's what happened. The public was fixated on it. The difference between Bush's re-election bid and these Congressional elections can be summed up with that primary difference.
Kerry wanted to make the election about Iraq. He failed miserably. Instead Karl Rove was successful on making the election about those contentious Moral Issues... You know the ones we're told repetitively make Conservatives loose elections both in the Dominion and in the US?
Social Conservatives for the most part can be broken down into two groups: religious people, and everyone else. The "everyone else" category I think is safe to say a minority group among Social Conservatives.
Religious people aren't exactly raging Bush-a-holics. They've supported Bush in the past only for his moral stands. Many of these people are in fact very liberal. They frequently have an overabundance of charity and don't see Republican laissez-faire economics as being quite so. No matter how wrong they are that's what the majority of them believe as far a Your Humble Servant is concerned.
I've had the unique experience of learning that first hand. Being quite politically conservative before becoming religious, I understand quite clearly that most Christians see the world in an economically liberal, socially conservative bent.
Now part of that bent comes from the fact that western society is just quite frankly very Liberal today. We have to admit that fact. We live in a society that believes firmly in government intervention in our daily lives. The days of distrusting the state are in the dust bins of history if it ever existed at all.
And for the most part these types of social conservatives don't like war, and especially not the War in Iraq. When the focus is on moral issues they flock to Republicans. When the focus is on the War in Iraq the opposite happens I think.
I believe that despite their small size, the dwingdling love-in between social conservatives in the US and Bush because of the War had a large part to play in the loss last night.
But that's just one Canuck's opinion.
Well that's certainly the line the MSM is selling. But watching coverage last night, Iraq only registered as the #4 issue - even when CNN was asking the exit poll questions!
ReplyDeleteThe #1 issue was corruption, and that'll kill you no matter who you are. It also follows with the 'it was simply time for a chage' theory after more than a decade of Republican control.
Exit polls show a majority of Americans said corruption and scandal, and the need for change drove them to the polls. Sounds familiar, no?
ReplyDeleteMost of the Christians I know including myself have never thought of the government as a cure for anything, but a protector of our rights.We tend to be morally and fiscally conservative.Bush is a moral conservative, but lets face it he spends like a drunken sailor. The Bible tells us to help people as we encounter them not to give our money to government to dole out for us;part of the problem is that people don't give to their churches anymore,so people have to go to the government. I haven't met many true Christians that could look at the Democrat platform of abortion, soft on crime, free and easy welfare for not just the down and out but the lazy as well, and a general tilt toward socialism,and still vote Democrat. I agree with you that the public tired of the war, but the war in Iraq was made unpallatable by the constant demoralization of the war effort by the media who believe that nothing is worth dying for. If the Democrats take the US in the same direction as Clinton had it we can look forward to more attacks on the US just like before Bush came to power.People seem to forget that 9/11 was planned and well under way by the time Bush sat down in the oval office.War is an ugly situation were parties refuse to get along until their is submission on one side. I hope the Democrats realize that it's the other side that is supposed to submit. And finally their are plenty of us that don't trust the government "left or right". Once you know the truth you can't believe the lie.
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