From Catholic Exchange, more on the U.S. election.
The leftists thought they were on the ascendancy; that Christians were a dying breed with little chance to shape the culture. They thought that Hollywood and media were creating a new America where the views of Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Moore were becoming mainstream. That is why Bush’s victory troubles them more than Ronald Reagan’s victories, even though Reagan was at least as conservative as George W. Bush. When Reagan was elected in the 1980s, the leftists in the media and the academy were not yet fully in control of the institutions where they were labored. They did not expect to get their way back then. They understood that they were still the young upstarts, the proponents of the 1960s counterculture’s and new Left’s understanding of America’s role in the world. The Clinton victories at the polls changed the equation; led them to believe that their time had arrived, that they were the new establishment that would drive the agenda for the country in the decades to come. Instead, they now have to confront the map with the tiny atolls of blue in the vast sea of red counties that voted for Bush. The map was a jolt to them. They can see that the country has not been won over to their agenda. They have been knocked from their perch, and they don’t like it. They get the point when they hear the wisecracks about Michael Moore and Bruce Springsteen winning more votes for Bush than for Kerry.Even though I know that the famous red / blue map is simplistic, given the way states hand out their electoral college votes (all or nothing), and knowing that many voters could easily be swayed back to a Democratic party that is too friendly with people who do not have America's interests at heart, I am still quite pleased with the result. I thought it would have been even more lopsided for Bush if he had fared better in the debates, especially the first one. But the barbarians have been kept from the gates for another four years and there are signs that it might be that way a while. Maybe. As I read articles like the one above, I keep wondering if the day will ever come when Canadians rise up and kick their robed masters (Paul Martin, justice Abella) into the street and reclaim their country, burning P.E. Trudeau in effigy in ecstatic riots that make our traditional Stanley Cup crack up look like a tea party hosted by Ann Murray, and let loose the hounds of... What am I thinking? This is Canada. ... I say, old chap, would you like more tea? Dreadful about that Bush fellow, eh?
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