How did the Democrats blow the election?

By ANNIE JENNINGS

George W. Bush is the winner of the United States presidency. Republicans have kept control over the House and Senate, and in the next four years, there may be the opportunity for Bush to appoint as many as four new Supreme Court justices. All of them will undoubtedly be Republicans in the same vein as himself. Four more years of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice, Powell, and Rove. And so that is where we are.

The big question is: How did we GET here?

Was it because the Bush campaign managed to stimulate their conservative base and get them to vote based on issues like partial-birth abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage? Did Karl Rove shake the big scary God stick at them and make them all worry about what us radical hippie kids might want?

The only fact that came out of unreliable exit polls was that for most voters in this election, the most important issue was not homeland security, the economy, or even the much-debated war on Iraq. Instead, it was moral values. Twenty-two percent of voters said moral values were the most important issue to them. Almost 80 percent of those voters voted for George W. Bush. Even more interesting is that voters who answered the same question with "Iraq," – one of the most hotly-debated issues during the election – overwhelmingly voted for John Kerry.

In other words, Bush's campaign distracted people from their big shiny mistake of a war, using Jesus and God and the Bible to do it. They got evangelicals in swing states like Ohio to get their asses to the polls in ways that no one else has ever done, and they did it by promising to keep the queers in the closets and the babies in the wombs. In a race that was supposed to be determined by young voters, was it instead determined by God?

And speaking of those young voters, was it maybe their fault for not turning out? Possibly. After all, election night numbers showed only 17 percent of voters were of the Democrats' targeted young-voter age – the same percentage as in 2000. Did young people just not care? Did they ignore messages from celebrities and musicians? Did they forget Eminem's plea? Did they get high and forget to vote? Young voters did have an improved turnout in total number, but it wasn't enough to make a difference, and it wasn't enough to change the world. For a group of people who are supposed to be the future of this country, it's time we started caring about that future.

Or, maybe voters in the Democratic primaries chose the wrong guy. Should they have picked a maverick candidate like Howard Dean? After all, most people said from the beginning that they didn't know what John Kerry stood for. They didn't trust him in the face of a candidate like George W. Bush, who presents the front that he stands for everything that is "sacred" and "good" and "American." Maybe it's easier to feel good about voting for an evil you know than voting for a mystery. Would this have happened if it were Dean versus Bush? Did the Democratic Party, make a mistake in picking a predictable dullard rather than a more pissed-off, energized candidate? Would Dean have been able to rile up the youth and fire up the liberal base? Sadly, because of the media's love for the word "YAAAAAAARGH!," we will never know.

Most frighteningly of all possibilities, maybe the Republican Party is unbeatable. CNN political analyst Jeff Greenfield said it best, and it scared the pants off me: "The plausibility and possibility of the Republican Party becoming the permanent majority in this country has been dramatically demonstrated tonight." It's not alarmist. It's true. Barack Obama aside, the Republican Party had a major victory Nov. 2. Is this the new strong-arm of America, Conservatism? If so, we have larger problems than just the presidency.

Alas, the time has come and gone for votes, campaigns and spin. We are where we are, and as lovely an idea as Canada is, I don't think I could live with myself if I turned tail and let this happen to my country. We need change. We need to learn from our mistakes this time and figure out how to take back our country. Because I don't care what the majority says: this is not right. It will never be right. And if we don't fight for what we believe to be right, and true, and just, and AMERICAN, then we're not American in the first place.

God help us all.