It's Michael Moore Stupid.
I agree with Tom Bevan's take on the motivation behind the GOP victory Tuesday.

Republicans across the country went to the polls on Tuesday with an anger of their own. The increased turnout wasn't driven by some right-wing bigotry toward gays (as Brooks points out) but I believe a bitterness toward people like Michael Moore. Middle America was simply pissed off at listening to a fat schlub like Michael Moore and his ilk on the far left tell them how oppressive, greedy, militaristic, and imperialistic we are as a country and what a liar and a moron our President is.

Exactly. The insular Left is seeking to take comfort in their trouncing by characterizing it as some kind of appeal by the "Bushies" to the natural homophobic tendencies of the Center and Right in America. Hogwash.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Democratic Party has not drifted; they've powered full-speed away from the Center with their embrace of the Michael Moores and Sean Penn's of the world. Even 20 years ago, these radicals would have been relegated to the fringes of thought they ought to occupy. Today, they are placed in the hightest esteem; seated next to former presidents in a position of honor, their film openings attended by the who's who of Democratic politics.

I would have voted GOP regardless of Michael Moore. The party simply comes closer to my philosophical bent than others. But the coveted, America-loving swing voter, who isn't as philosophically attached to either party's base ideology saw Michael Moore and had the bejeebers scared out of them. Here was a man that routinely trashed not just the war in Iraq, but Americans. A man whose vitriol for the core values of this country spewed out like regurgitated liver.

I've reminded people of the following quote from Moore on numerous occassions:

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?

He said this about Muqtada al Sadr's militia, a punk-ass gang of thugs, murdering innocent Iraqis in an opportunistic and cynical quest for power.

Americans listened and concluded that this man is not on our side. They then looked, and saw him seated in the presidential box at the Democratic National Convention next to former President Jimmy Carter, and concluded that they were no longer convinced that the Democratic Party was capable of discerning which side was which.

Also read David Brooks, who inspired Bevan's thoughts.
- served up by Nomad @ 10:29 AM