A Plea For Graciousness

Megan McArdle at Instapundit has some good advice for all of us who are delighted with Bush's victory:

A DEMOCRATIC FRIEND OF MINE JUST GOT A PHONE CALL from a Republican she doesn't speak to that often, allegedly to "say hi" but transparently to gloat. This is my plea to Bush voters to give peace a chance. If we have any chance of ending the sniping and bitterness that characterise the current political scene, it's going to start with Republicans being gracious winners. If you have to indulge your schadenfreude, do it silently by lurking on Democratic websites and reading hair-tearing left-wing editorials, not by alienating people with whom we'd like to eventually build a better America.

Having endorsed Ms McArdle's plea for civility Viewpoint has to confess that we did, though, laugh at Glenn Beck's riff on the radio this morning. Beck is, in our mind, the most talented, the most entertaining, talk radio host on the air and that includes Limbaugh and Hannity. If you can find him on the dial give him a listen. In the Harrisburg, PA area he's on WHP 580 at 9:00 a.m. Sometimes you just have to laugh even though you know you shouldn't.

Random Thoughts

Yesterday's election brought the Republicans a coup of four net Senate seats, including that of Tom Daschle, which puts the count at 55 R, 44 D, and 1 Independent. There are two things about this that bode well for Bush's agenda.

First is that it will now be much more difficult for the Democrats to stonewall Bush's judicial appointments, most importantly to the Supreme Court, on which there may be as many as four vacancies over the next four years. This will reverberate through our polity for the next two generations. Secondly, some Democrats may well lose enthusiasm for serving in the minority for the foreseeable future and may soon choose to retire (or even switch). This could well produce an even larger Republican majority in 2006 and 2008.

Eleven states had a referendum on the ballot yesterday that would amend their constitutions to ban gay marriage. The measure won in all eleven states bringing to seventeen the number of states whose constitutions prohibit legal recognition of such unions.

Californians approved a $3 billion measure to fund stem cell research. How a state which teetered on the brink of insolvency a year or two ago will pay for this is not yet clear.

George W. Bush received the highest vote total ever awarded to a winner. He is the first candidate to win over 50% of the vote since his father did it in 1988. The Clinton years are looking more and more like an aberrational interruption of an otherwise steady march toward a political hegemony of traditional and conservative values that began with Reagan in 1980. The long march through the institutions continues, and there is still a long way to go, but it's conservatives which are doing the marching and it's the left which is finding itself on the wrong side of history. At least we can hope.

Winners and Losers

With word that Senator Kerry is prepared to concede the election to George Bush, Viewpoint sees a number of winners and losers in the aftermath of this national exercise in democracy. Perhaps readers might wish to add some of their own (or delete one or more of ours:

Winners:

The American People

The People of Iraq and Afghanistan

Israel

The Republican Party

Compassionate Conservatism

The Swift Vets

Hillary Clinton

The New Media (Talk Radio, Blogosphere, Fox News)

Civil and Optimistic Political Rhetoric

Political Honesty

Losers:

Jacques Chirac and Old Europe

Islamist Radicals and the Axis of Evil

Palestinian Terrorists

The Democrat Party

Leftism/ Liberalism

George Soros, Michael Moore, and Hollywood Glitterati

Terry McAuliffe

Mainstream Media (esp. CBS, ABC, AP, NYT, WaPo, LA Times)

Hate and Pessimism

Political Lies and Fraud

Exit Polls, Presidential Debates, Trial Lawyers, NEA/PSEA, Gay Marriage