by Gena Gorlin | Values win the day.
On this momentous Election Day, November 2, 2004, America proved that despite bitter political division, its fighting spirit still lives strong. Polls show this election was not about healthcare or taxes or abortion or even Iraq; on all these issues, Americans were evenly and hopelessly divided. This election was about basic convictions. It was a test of whether Americans still believe in the existence of true, objective values, including the value of living in a free nation that proudly and unapologetically defends itself. The election, both on the state and federal level, showed that, overwhelmingly, they do.
A look at statistics reveals that moral values were the decisive factor in this election. President Bush was the first president in 16 years to win more than 50% of the popular vote, with the highest percentage of eligible voters taking part since 1968. Although voters were evenly divided on the issues of Iraq and the economy (Gallup, October 29-31, 2004), they came out to support Bush on the deeper issue of moral conviction. With the War on Terror looming large as one of the dominant election issues, voters elected the candidate who takes a stand, versus the candidate who declares with polished eloquence and gusto whatever he thinks the electorate will want to hear at the moment.
Interestingly, the Democrats who relied on the young college students’ vote suffered a disappointing blow; despite active rallying by Rock the Vote, far fewer than the projected 80% of student voters actually showed up at the polls. Apparently, despite their zealous liberal activism on college campuses, students did not stake enough of a personal concern in the election’s outcome as to actually vote in it.
Meanwhile, some find it ominous that Midwestern evangelical or “born-again” Christians showed up to the polls in unprecedented numbers (significantly higher than in the 2000 election) to support President Bush, that church attendance was a major statistical factor in this election, and that 11 out of 11 states passed resolutions to define marriage as between a man and a woman—drawing support even from many Democrats. But what everyone can agree on, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike, is that these statistics reveal a clear pattern: Bush supporters turn to him because he represents the existence of moral values.
Another noteworthy trend in this election was the divide between rural and suburban America, which overwhelmingly supported Bush, and the heavily “intellectual” urban strongholds and college towns, which went predominantly to Kerry. Few students at Tufts can deny that life on campus is at best a simulation of life in the “real world;” students and intellectuals spend a great majority of their time writing, reading, arguing, and partying in luxury, while the American white and blue-collar workers alike go about supporting the foundation from which all those luxuries ascend. While Tufts students and faculty cried over Bush’s anti-intellectualism and his “foolhardy” rush to act, America elected him; for unlike the “intellectuals,” America knows that action is more important than hollow, bombastic words.
The working Americans who elected Bush make decisions about their own security and the security of their children every day; they do not rely on large coalitions of neighbors and enemies alike to “legitimize” their decisions for them. They use their best judgment to decide what policies will keep them safe from harm. Thus, though they may not agree with his every particular policy, they elected President Bush—who loves America sincerely and believes in its right to unilateral action. Kerry, for all his smooth talk, does not know what he believes. No spirited American would elect a man who throws out his and other soldiers’ ribbons and war medals and then declares with feigned pride, several decades later, that he will fend for America’s best interest, citing his participation in said war as evidence. It is no wonder, then, that on the issue of the War on Terrorism, polls show that Americans came out strongly in favor of Bush. Whether or not they agree with his strategy to date, they recognize that Bush is prepared to fight in defense of America. Kerry’s plan, to the extent that anyone could discern it, was to drown America in a stagnant swamp of “negotiations.”
Whether religious or secular, Democrat or Republican, the majority of Americans still share something in common: they still believe, despite the “intellectuals’” efforts to convince them of the contrary, that conclusions can be reached with or without global consensus, that there is a real distinction between “good guys” and “bad guys,” and that our lives depend on recognizing that difference.
Miss Gorlin is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.
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