The"mandate" meme's gonna hurt us unless we react.......

[senseandsensibility]

Of course * is claiming a sweeping mandate for further tax cuts and wars. And just as predictably, the media is going along with it. I know....shocking, they're usually so skeptical. Nevertheless, fifty one percent (and it's only that high because all the votes weren't counted) is NOT a mandate. In fact, Cheney is claiming a NATIONWIDE mandate. People, if we don't react, this will soon be established fact, and will be used to ram everything we hate down our throats.

If you'd like more information, go to Joshua Marshall's blog at http://talkingpointsmemo.com/ You will see why this is such a dangerous and UNTRUE meme.

What can we do about it? E-mail your Dem reps and Dem journalists. They should be nipping this stuff in the bud. They should be on TV saying that fifty one percent is not a nationwide mandate, and reminding viewers that * didn't carry any northeast states, west coast states or the majority of big Midwestern states. So how is it a mandate? Also, our representatives should be talking about how unpopular * is with half of the American people. Get it out there. No one else will.

[John_H]

1. We should put the Kerry/Gore campaign team in charge of the response

[jdj]

3. yes, they better fucking do something after conceding so easily.

[Toucano]

2. I'm not so sure of that.

The mandate meme could really backfire when the country starts circling the drain.

Let's face it. The next four years are going to be a disaster and that disaster will have a big "W" all over it.

None of that "my predecessor" shit.

[NewHampshireDem]

4. I think we should let the 'mandate' run its course ...

All we have to do is sit back and watch as the GOP tears itself apart. * does not even have a mandate within his own party and it won't be long before the mainstream right and the religious right start beating the crap out of each other.

[senseandsensibility]

5. I don't agree that we can

sit it out. We've basically done that for four years, and they've screwed up beyond anyone's wildest dreams. But have they paid a price?

[Don Claybrook]

6. Screw it...let him have his mandate

The peepul has spokted....and boy are they stupid. Let them have what they've begged for.

[senseandsensibility]

7. The problem is

WE pay the price too, not just the people who voted for him.

[Don Claybrook]

8. I know, but that's where the hypocrisy comes in

I have a 12-year old son. I'm going to have to decide in a few years whether to break his kneecaps to keep him out of whatever misadventure Herr Bush wants to send him on. But MY SON isn't going to war. I voted to stop this insanity. It's about me and mine.

And yes, I really am a progressive, a bleeding heart liberal. I really do care about the downtrodden. But we need some help with our causes. And I don't think we're going to get that help from the rest of the electorate until this country is in a really bad way. So let's hurry up and get there. Bring that depression. Get those wars going. Unleash a nuclear weapon for the first time since 1945. This is the shit he's going to do anyway, so let's just grease up that mandate and slide it on through.

But not my kids. Fuck that. Send the Republicans' kids. Hell, send the poor who didn't bother to register to vote. Send someone, anyone, just not mine. Send the people who were so afraid of gays that they voted for the destruction of the world and our country.

And when the rest of the people start to come around, I'll make a point of stopping with the hypocrisy. In the meantime, I have a family to look out for.