The Morning After: The “Party of the People” Goes Nuts

After November 2nd, the Republican Party magically transformed itself from a group of white men smoking cigars at the country club to a mess of slack-jawed yokels with their eyes cast towards the sky looking for signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Analyses of the 2004 election made much of the fact that “moral values” became the deciding issue in American politics, apparently superseding social security, the Iraq War, or prescription drug benefits. That eleven states passed popular referenda banning gay marriage reinforced this fact. Since then, Kerry supporters and others on the Left have been huddling in the Northeast and other designated “blue” states and safe zones as they wait for Republicans to create an Iranian-style theocracy in America. Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, claims that George W. Bush “ran a jihad in America so he could fight one in Iraq.” The “Southern white Christian soldiers” could not resist Bush’s intoxicating message. They went to the polls, “opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.” Dowd named the enemy that day. With the checklist of issues she offered in her column, it would seem important for those progressives still confused over whom to court in 2008 to get a copy of this article to stuff in their wallets.

Brown students offered their own caricatures of those who voted for Bush. My favorite reaction came from The Brown Daily Squeal. Rob Montz ’05 pointed out that his support for Kerry’s policies did not derive from any personal advantage to himself. Kerry supporters voted as they did, you see, because of “altruistic leanings.” Of course, Bush voters do not know what is best for themselves. When speaking of Bush voters, Montz was apparently referring to those wandering around Wal-Mart attempting to find a big enough Nascar shirt to fit on their obese figures, not the greedy ones who hate poor people or the neo-conservatives willing to wage war in the Middle East to suck the country dry of its oil.

Other than dismissing the Bush supporters and revealing their distrust of the American electorate, some on the Left appeared bewildered by the creatures often called “conservatives”. It was almost as if some students had not yet made contact with a social conservative. In an article on the defeat of gay marriage and civil union initiatives, Natalie Korth ’08 tellingly said, “I really had no idea that entire states were against gay marriage. I thought it was just small, radical groups.” The idea that there are people who believe in marriage as an institution reserved for a man and woman is apparently foreign to some at Brown. Perhaps we should devote courses to the anthropological study of social conservatives, ensuring a proper subject is extracted from a state south of the Mason-Dixon.

After being at Brown in the aftermath of the election, I realized my upbringing was more privileged than I had originally thought. Instead of being introduced to the children of various political figures in prep school, I became familiar with the group that surpassed soccer moms as the hottest political constituents. I was raised in a place where I could count more churches than stoplights while driving to my own Sunday services. I know people who go to church twice a week—once on Sunday and again on Wednesday. And yes, I was even exposed to Confederate flags on a regular basis. What I hadn’t been introduced to was the snobbish Northeastern elite. Long thought of as a myth perpetuated by Rush Limbaugh and various commentators on Fox News, this caricature materialized as I absorbed people’s reactions to the election. As far as they were concerned, “those with the Confederate bumper stickers on the back of their pick-up trucks,” as Howard Dean once said, made a mistake by voting for George W. Bush. Democrats have the biggest bag of goodies, promising nationalized healthcare, a secure retirement, and affirmative action. And morals values—well, everyone knows Democrats love minorities, women, and poor people. They are the ones attempting to eradicate poverty and a slew of “isms” most in this country don’t even know exist.

Well, I guess its time for some progressives to realize that voters do not always go to the polls with their hands out waiting for goodies from the federal government. Perhaps in is time that they consider re-examining many of the tenets of the Leftist canon which has guided them since the New Deal. Even more important is to prevent the condescension that emerged on campus from entering into mainstream political dialogue. If that were to occur, Zell Miller’s famous assertion will become true beyond any doubt. The Democratic Party will be a “national party no more.”