In Sen. John Kerry’s concession speech on Wednesday, he mentioned the contribution of children to his campaign: six-year-old William Field, “who collected $680, a quarter and a dollar at a time, selling bracelets during the summer,” and 11-year-old Ilana Wexler, “who started Kids for Kerry all across our country.”
That kind of youthful, almost laughable, idealism was out in full force during this year’s election. And Kerry seemed visibly upset that his defeat might cause young supporters to grow cynical of politics. He devoted much of his speech to reassuring them that they had, in fact, made an impact, and that the seeds they planted this season would one day flower.
“A time will come when your ballots will change the world,” he said. “America always moves forward.”
That is bullshit, of course. Progressives might be naïve, but they aren’t stupid. America hasn’t moved forward for a long time now, and won’t for a long time still. There is no mysterious inner force pushing America forward. And ballots alone never guarantee progress. What brings about progress is when citizens fight for it, every hour of every day.
But it appears as if the fight is gone. Usually progressive activists are able to muster an instantaneous rage after a loss like this one, but this time they are numb. Today, those who abandoned the progressive movement in order to support the Democrats are wandering around with a tragic glint in their eyes. They’ve discovered there’s no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, only men in suits. They are now post-pubescent. They are growing up.
In January of this year, I wrote that progressives needed a second Bush presidency because they hadn’t yet learned their lesson. Unfortunately, I was right. They sacrificed their principles, obliterated the movement and got nothing in return. This loss was particularly devastating because it lacks the element of injustice. And that is the most difficult part of the defeat to swallow: The American people really want George W. Bush. It is no longer an illegitimate administration hurting the American people. Now it is the American people hurting themselves.
One of the enduring myths in the progressive movement is that we represent the values of the majority of the country. I hope now this bubble has burst for good. We do not represent a majority. We are the minority. It is well past time that we admit to ourselves a few difficult truths about this country that we love:
1. America is a highly religious country. American religiosity is not solely personal, but rather social. We have an evangelical spirit. The majority feels their beliefs should be the law for all. Thus, it isn’t enough for them to be heterosexual; everyone must be heterosexual. Most Americans have no qualms about making their moral system the law for everyone. They don’t understand or appreciate the separation of church and state, illustrated by the overwhelming opposition to gay marriage.
2. Americans are less educated than progressives often assume. Add religion to the mix and you get a populous that is easily manipulated and misinformed. Democrats seem to think that Americans base their values on facts and proof and reason. What the Bush Administration understands is that Americans base their values on faith. We already know that the majority of Bush supporters don’t understand the most basic truths about the war in Iraq. They have faith in what they are told by President Bush because they have faith in the man. They innocently take in the lies and rhetoric, while they ignore the reality all around them.
3. America is a country racked with fear. Most Americans would prefer a feeling of security over the maintenance of our freedoms and liberties. Americans tend to express our fears in ways that are deeply racist and jingoistic. When reports came out that as many as 100,000 innocent Iraqis may have been killed due to the war, the majority of Americans were unfazed. Even the Abu Gharib torture photos failed to evoke enough horror to cause the public to demand political accountability.
Add these together and you get the re-election of President Bush. The Democrats’ strategy of pandering to the “heartland” by offering them all kinds of economic plans and promises would have worked if our imagined progressive majority really existed “out there” in America. The problem was, most people didn’t understand Kerry’s plans and they didn’t have faith in his promises. Every time Kerry was nuanced about gun issues, gay marriage and the war, he failed to capture their faith or soothe their fears.
Kerry appealed to Americans’ needs; Bush appealed to their fears. For the majority, fear will trump need every time. Wish will trump truth. Morality will trump humanity. It is why time and time again Americans will vote against their own self-interests.
At the end of the day, we must remember that politics is cyclical. Our parents had the inexplicable re-election of Reagan. Now we have the inexplicable re-election of Bush. The mistake that the progressive movement made was sacrificing our message for a brief shot at power. Now our message is completely mute. How do we bring the progressive movement back and begin to move forward once again? Next week I will explain how.

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