| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, November 08 2004 |
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| There is no doubt about it. President Bush won, and won big. He surpassed the necessary electoral-vote mark to get re-elected. Fifty-nine million Americans voted to give him a second chance, and his party got to keep control of Congress. That certainly gives him a mandate to govern. But there is something that cannot be taken for granted: There are 55 million people in the United States who did not want George W. Bush as their president.
Bush did not get to keep his job because the American people think that all is fine and dandy. There's concern about the state of the economy, the lack of good paying jobs, the high cost of health care and the quality of education. And, of course, there is fear -- better yet, a collective hysteria, as I heard someone put it -- that we are under the constant threat of another terrorist attack.
The majority of Americans believed President Bush's promises to promote economic growth and create new jobs through his tax cuts. They believed his promises to make health care more affordable and make sure every child gets an education. They believed he would protect the country from those who would do us harm.
Of course, they also believed the relentless attacks on Kerry, painting him as a flip-flopping liberal and even questioning the seriousness of the wounds he suffered in Vietnam. You gotta hand it to them -- Republicans are masters of character assassination.
Now the president will have to deliver on his campaign promises, but the real challenge will be for him to do exactly what he said he would do following his telephone conversation with John Kerry on the day after the election. He said he would work to earn the trust of those who did not vote for him, calling this a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation.
It seems to me like we're right back where we started four years ago. Here we have a president who claims to be a uniter, not a divider, in a country that is bitterly divided following a nasty presidential campaign that took no prisoners. Sure, this time it took one day -- not 36 days -- to figure out who actually won the election, but a good portion of the electorate is still walking around in a zombielike state of disbelief. Their candidate did not win, and they must now get used to the idea of four more years of W., Cheney and gang at the White House.
President Bush's words reaching out to those who did not believe in him sound good, but let's not forget that the conditions that so fiercely polarized the country did not disappear on Election Day. Still with us is the belief that we went into an unnecessary war under false pretenses that cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. Many strongly believe that their civil liberties are being curtailed. Others believe that radical religious beliefs are being imposed on their lives. And then there are those who simply dislike Mr. Bush, the man.
If Bush has the tough job ahead of him of reuniting the country, Democrats have the even bigger challenge of dusting themselves off, picking up the pieces and putting their party back together. Democrats took a severe blow. Not only were they not successful in convincing the country that John Kerry could lead us in a new direction and restore international alliances, they also lost seats in both the House and the Senate.
Pollsters might tell you that Republicans did a better job of mobilizing their base, especially the religious right. But the reality is that Democrats have a lot of soul-searching to do. Are they really so out of touch with the values of America? Do they need a new strategy to deliver their message? Or do they need a new message?
The burden of reuniting the country should not fall only on the shoulders of President Bush. If we are to move forward, as the president vowed to do, our elected officials from both parties need to put aside their pride, arrogance and partisanship and get things done for the sake of the people who gave them their jobs. |
