Those on the losing side of the election appear to be struggling with two different responses. Some are pessimists, fearing that W2 will be more of W1. As the New Republic put it:
In their first term, without a popular mandate, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney governed in a radically sectarian manner, in conformity with only the wishes of their hallowed base; and there is no reason to think that the popular mandate that they have now secured for a second term will provoke them to reconsider their virulence and their smallness and their indifference to the evidence of experience beyond their own.
Others are more hopeful. Andrew Sullivan writes:
I've been more than a little frustrated by the president's handling of this war in the past year; but we have to draw a line under that now. The past is the past. And George W. Bush is our president. He deserves a fresh start, a chance to prove himself again, and the constructive criticism of those of us who decided to back his opponent. He needs our prayers and our support for the enormous tasks still ahead of him. He has mine. Unequivocally.
I'll have much more to say on this, but it appears to me that the Democrats - or any other political opposition - have little to lose at the moment by giving Bush the benefit of the doubt.
NPR reported yesterday that the victorious Republicans are making overtures to the Democrats to find gestures that promote greater unity. The Democrats would be fools to reject these overtures, even if they think they're fake. They should accept them, with great public fanfare.
As far as I can tell, Bush won the election because he appeared as an image of principled, focused, determined leadership in the face of a mortal enemy. Now he must win this war in this fashion to fulfill this mandate. We should all hope he succeeds, but if he fails it can't be because political opposition distracted him from this work.
All the other things will come back into play in about three years. If Bush fails to narrow the deficit, fails to create more jobs, fails to improve Social Security, and fails in all other respects, the Republican party will see 2004 as a Pyrrhic victory. Now that they have all three branches of the government, they have no excuses.
I think - but may be wrong - that this campaign truly humbled Bush. Until he hit the road and ran into real, unfiltered political opposition, he had lived in a bubble on Pennsylvania Avenue. I think - but again, I may be wrong - that he has exhausted the "what would Jesus do" approach to policy. I wouldn't even be surprised if Fahrenheit 9/11 jolted him a little.
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