Kedwards concedes, Nov. 3, 2004.
Kerry Spot
[ jim geraghty reporting ]
[11/04 02:53 PM]
'THE MOST FORMIDABLE CHALLENGE TO AMERICAN LIBERALISM IN OUR TIME'
"This is not the apocalypse. But it is the most formidable challenge to American liberalism in our time." That is the reaction from the editors of the New Republic.
Let me offer two cents: This is the end of American liberalism, as we know it. After every previous defeat, they denied reality and made excuses. Reagan was just a charming actor. The 1994 GOP takeover of Congress was a fluke. Gore was the real winner in 2000, Bush just stole the election. The entire 2002 results were a result of an attack ad on Max Cleland. Voters who keep throwing Democrats out of office are just simple-minded fools, swayed by Karl Rove's Jedi Mind tricks.
When the turnout improves, the Democrats would sweep into office, they kept telling themselves.
Well, turnout did improve to the best level since 1968, and the Republicans won. Not by a landslide, but decisively. The only big races that went right for the Democrats were Ken Salazar and Barack Obama.
All of the biggest guns in the left's arsenal - Hollywood, the trial lawyers, the unions, the New York Times, CBS, newly-minted strident liberal talk radio, bombastic and inaccurate "documentaries," all of the skewed members of the MSM... all of them brought their A-game, threw themselves into this fight... and lost to the blogs, talk radio, alternative media, conservative religious groups, and a well-organized GOP ground game.
It's over. None of the left's old tools works anymore. They have to scrap it and start over, and that's why you see the weeping and the wailing and the hair being pulled out.
Reagan's win in 1980 occurred before I was politically aware. I wonder if this is what it felt like. |
