The Fight Goes On

‘It’s been a week and a half now, and I’ve had that time to let the events of November 2nd sink in a bit. After hearing the results of exit polls from key states as Ohio and Florida, it seemed that Kerry was on his way to victory. But it was not to be, and the shock of knowing that there would be another four years of Bush was, and is, extremely difficult to stomach. But I have had a bit of time to observe the reactions of both sides and process what has been going on.

Kerry’s concession speech in Boston, George Bush and Dick Cheney gave their victory speeches in Washington D.C. In his speech, the president thanked John Kerry for being gracious and commending the former Democratic candidate for “waging a spirited campaign”. Bush then attempted to portray himself as a uniter of the people by saying:

“Earlier today, Senator Kerry called with his congratulations. We had a really good phone call. He was very gracious. Senator Kerry waged a spirited campaign, and he and his supporters can be proud of their efforts. Laura and I wish Senator Kerry and Teresa and their whole family all our best wishes.”

“America has spoken, and I’m humbled by the trust and the confidence of my fellow citizens. With that trust comes a duty to serve all Americans, and I will do my best to fulfill that duty every day as your president.”

“Reaching these goals will require the broad support of Americans. So today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation. We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us. And when we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America.”

That may sound like someone attempting to take the high ground after a bitterly fought election that lasted over two years and over $1 billion spent by the two parties. But after reading that speech, I looked at the speech Bush gave four years ago on December 13, 2000 after the Supreme Court gave Bush the gift of the presidency. In that speech, Bush said many of the same things for Al Gore as he said in his speech for John Kerry. Even the words were the same. He talked of a “gracious” phone call with Gore and congratulated him on “waging a spirited campaign”, giving the impression that his speech writer simply copied and pasted those words from 2000 to 2004.

But there are things Bush said this time around that he did not mention four years ago, and the sole reason for that is that this year Bush won the popular vote, unlike in 2000. Considering that Bush governed as if he had a mandate after the contested 2000 election, I shudder at the thought of how he will govern now that he has a 51% vote that some people call a mandate, even though 49% of voters tried to throw him out of office.

Additional comments at the victory celebration give clues as to the attitude of a second Bush administration. Cheney, in his introductory remarks for the president, pointed out that Bush had received the greatest number of popular votes of any presidential candidate in history. That is true, but Kerry also received more votes than any previous presidential victor. Such a figure is misleading since the population of the United States is now 290 million people, 9 million more than in 2000 and 55 million more than in 1984. Bush received just 20% of the vote out of the total population, whereas victors of previous elections have received higher percentages. In 1984, Reagan received 23% of the total population, and Nixon and Roosevelt won 22% of the vote in 1972 and 1936 respectively. Bush certainly does not deserve to be put in the company of these men, as the high number of voters comes from the election being such an important and contentious campaign, not as a confirmation of Bush being the great leader he thinks he is.

Pointing out such a figure is an attempt to create the notion in people’s mind that Bush has a mandate to carry out a very conservative agenda, something that voters did not exactly give him. 51% is not a mandate when 49% of Americans tried to vote you out of office. Reagan (59%, 1984), Nixon (61%, 1972) and Roosevelt (61%, 1936) had mandates . Such a comment by Cheney is clearly a way to create the excuse for Bush to push through an agenda that a majority of Americans do not approve of. But I do not think Bush will think twice about this. After all, it was Dick Cheney who said:

“From the very day we walked in the building, [there was] a notion of a sort of restrained presidency because it was such a close election — that lasted maybe 30 seconds.”

If it’s even given a thought, I’m sure it will last one or two seconds this time around.

Bush may be trying to give the impression of being a unifying leader now, but it will not be long before Bush begins ramming through Congress the making of his tax cuts permanent, appointing a replacement for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, partial privatization of social security, officially proposing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, requesting $70 billion in Iraq funds for 2005, and so much more. But as history shows, second term presidents have always had difficult times. Johnson had Vietnam, Nixon had Watergate, Reagan had Iran-Contra, Clinton had Monica and Bush has many potential problems from his first term that are likely to give him major problems in a second. If indictments are handed down in the Valerie Plame CIA case and the Iraq war continues to worsen as it has, Bush’s second term honeymoon will hardly have existed at all.

Next up to bat, the 2006 mid-term elections!