This is what a mandate looks like

The last four years that the Democrats have spent lying that Bush stole the election in Florida and ginning up hatred against the president has done as much to divide this country as anything Bush has done. It's time for the Democrats to stop whining that Bush is a divider not a uniter and start thinking about their own role in widening the political divide and what they intend to do to bridge the gap. And now that Bush has strongly won re-election let's hear no more talk that his presidency is illegitimate.

Here's the evidence of the mandate:

George Bush: 51 percent, 59.1 million votes, 274 electoral votes and counting.
John Kerry: 48 percent, 55.5 million votes, 252 electoral votes and stalled.

The Senate:

55 Republican
44 Democratic
1 "Independent"

The House:

231 Republican
200 Democratic
1 "Independent"
3 undecided

Click the link for the county by county results.

http://alt.cimedia.com/ajc/pdf/elect_results_uscounty.pdf

Besides the mandate, the map demonstrates something else. This is a center-right country not a center-left country. Red counties dominate in every state but Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Hawaii. Even in California the blue counties hug the Pacific Coast and red counties fill out the rest of the state. New York, surprisingly, is almost entirely red.

Let's also hear no more talk about the revenge of the Confederacy. The country is red in the South, that's certain, but many parts of the Union are red, and the Midwestern, the Plains, and the Mountain states are red also. Although our country's political capital (D.C.) and its spiritual capital (New York) are in the original 13 colonies, the Empire -- those colonies -- is no longer in charge. The electoral power in our country now resides in the former territories.

Exit polling shows the center-right tilt of this country.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html

The partisan split among voters this year was 37 percent each for Republicans and Democrats and 26 percent for independents, which shows an apparently evenly divided country. However, the ideological split among voters was 21 percent liberals, 34 percent conservatives and 45 percent moderates.

Moderates are often thought of as left-leaning rather than right-leaning. The term itself suggests a kind of moderation of the extremism by which the right is defined. The vote split among moderates supports this view as they voted 45 percent for Bush and 55 percent for Kerry. This suggests that moderates tend to lean left.

The center-right nature of our country is revealed when the ideological balance is calculated based on the moderates' votes for each candidate. If a vote for Bush is viewed as right leaning moderatism and a vote for Kerry is viewed as left leaning moderatism then right leaning moderates are about 20 percent of the electorate and left leaning moderates are about 24 percent of the electorate. Adding these totals to the totals for self-described conservatives (34) and liberals (21) results in the following breakdown:

Right wing and right leaning voters: 54 percent
Left wing and left leaning voters: 45 percent

Further evidence of this center-right lean is found by looking at the votes to protect the traditional American definition of marriage. The marriage propositions passed in every state they were on the ballot. Even in the two blue states, Oregon and Michigan, the propositions passed. Here's a comparison of the vote percentages of Bush's victory and the Yes vote to pass the marriage proposition in each state:

State Bush Vote Yes Vote
Arkansas 54 75
Georgia 59 76
Kentucky 60 75
Michigan 48 59
Mississippi 60 86
Montana 59 67
North Dakota 63 73
Ohio 51 62
Oklahoma 66 76
Oregon 48 57
Utah 71 66

While watching cable news shows this evening Mister Americano was struck by the advice of the left wing commentators (Katrina, Ron Boy, for instance) that the Democrats should tack left. Mister Americano hopes the Democrats take their advice. The political realingment in favor of Republicans will steamroll on.