American Exceptionalism

The message of Tuesday’s verdict.

In this essay, Victor Davis Hanson takes a look at how the American electorate voted and what messages it sends to those who fought so hard to eject George W. Bush from the White House. And indeed, there were many, many losers who are now asking themselves what happened. For many of these people are very surprised indeed at the outcome. How could those yokels in Fly-Over-Country be so stupid as to vote for that cowboy? And how is it that all of the money, time, effort and publicity from Hollywood, the UN, academia, Old Europe and The Elite Media Monoculture failed to achieve the desired result?

Certainly the elites all around the blue states, and elsewhere, did everything they could and spent as much as they had in order to defeat the President. But in the end, it mattered not at all and the American people voted in record numbers to keep George Bush right where he is for another four years. The dejection coming from academia, newsrooms and other left-wing hang-outs is palpable. The bitterness which one sees from the leaders of the left and the Democratic party is sad, pathetic and completely predictable, given just how far over the cliff they have gone in the last four years. It is a wonder they are not throwing themselves off of bridges and under buses all across the country.

In the end, a clear majority of the American people sent a clear message to the elites. The message is that the views and values of the leftist Democrats are not those of middle America and will not win votes in the red states. And America is moving more and more in a conservative direction. The country is far more red than blue, if one looks at the county by county map of this election as well as some of the recent elections of the past. The era of Democratic dominance is over and a new era has dawned. The leftist dream of a Socialist Utopian America is dead and gone and the baby boomers who came of age during the 60's, such as John "war criminal" Kerry, and who tried so hard to make that utopia happen, will never see it come to pass. The trends are all in the other direction; the direction of free markets, a strong defense of the country and a resurgence of the basic ideas on which the country was founded in the first place.

To Old Europe the message is, "run your countries as you like, but stay out of American elections, we don't need you as much as you need us. French and German obstruction will not be rewarded." The message to the UN is similar. A debating society of dictators will not get to run our foreign policy and no Massachusetts leftist war protester will get to have lunch and go windsurfing at taxpayer expense while getting to bad mouth America to the rest of the world. The message to The Elite Media Monoculture is that your day is over. The Alternative Media is now on the lookout for perfidy wherever it may rear its ugly head as it did time after time in this election. Try as they might, Dan Rather, The New York Times and the rest of the dinosaur media will not be able to pull the kind of thing that they have in the past. The days of monopoly are over forever. We in the blogsphere will now be watching: Like A Hawk.

And finally, the regular people in Fly-Over-Country delivered a stinging rebuke to the self-appointed guardians of culture in Hollywood and the entertainment media. The message is, "Shut up and sing."