Tuesday’s record voter turnout proved many things about the American people, the first being that everyone apparently took P. Diddy’s slogan “Vote or Die” pretty literally. And second, the election proved that most media outlets have little or no connection to, or even an understanding of, the Midwest and the South.

The mass media truly have the wrong idea about us. They think we are uneducated, uninformed zombies who will suck up whatever information they squeeze into our brains during commercial breaks of The Swan. They look at the South and they see pickup-driving hayseeds that will blindly follow any man in a suit. They look at the Midwest and see bigoted conservatives who are easily swayed by popular trends.

Unfortunately, the media’s lack of understanding contributed to Kerry losing the election. The American people might want to know about J. Lo’s 50th marriage, but that does not mean we will vote the way she wants. We might watch Will and Grace, but 11 out of 11 states still voted for a gay marriage ban. Fox News has been the most popular cable news network for years, largely because of conservatives like Bill O’Reilly, and yet the CNNs and MSNBCs of America still are under the assumption that we all practice Kabbalah and wear “Lick my Bush” T-shirts.

The sad thing is that the Democratic Party bought into the smoke-and-mirrors trick. TV shows and celebrities never have reflected reality, yet Kerry still traipsed around with Ashton Kutcher and Ben Affleck and thought he was reaching the people. While Bush had respected men like Rudy Giuliani who campaigned for him, Kerry had to rely on social icons like Bill Clinton and Madonna.

The Democratic Party went from being the “Big Tent” to being the “Hollywood Tent” in this election. While they were off prancing down the red carpet, the Republicans hit the rest of the United States hard with their campaign cornerstones of values and faith. Surprisingly enough, U.S. citizens ignored the lure of media elitists and instead responded to this “down-home” appeal.

Twenty-two percent of those who voted for Bush were evangelical Christians. However, 80 percent of those who voted for him cited moral values as one of the key issues of this election. Based on my fuzzy-math calculations, 62 percent of voters, while not being ultra-conservative Christians, must have felt that the Democratic Party did not support their moral values.

How could the Democratic Party, which used to be the party of conservative Christians, lose so many followers over moral issues? While same-sex marriage, abortion and partial-birth abortions are significant drawbacks for those seeking traditional values, these 62 percent of voters were not necessarily seeking that. Instead, they were just looking for values – something, anything for them to support within the Democratic Party.

In Illinois, they found that in Barack Obama. Obama was one of the few Democrats who combined values with his political agenda – without comprising either – and the result was a dramatic win.

This proves that not all U.S. citizens have become Pat Robertson. To get the largest popular vote in U.S. history, Bush had to appeal to more than just the Religious Right and even more than to rigid conservatives. Even those who were not conservative Christians still sought some sort of moral establishment and value of character in the candidate they voted for. Instead of wasting time and money on “W. stands for Wrong” slogans (apparently the good letter people of Sesame Street also are part of the media elite), Kerry and his counterparts should have at least tried to express their morals. Rather than banking on the popularity of Star magazine, they should have banked on the popularity of morality and family values.

Having the media and Hollywood on the Democrats’ side only hurt them in the long run. Instead of welcoming in the Michael Moores, they should have distanced themselves from camera-starved celebrities. They should have taken their politics out of Hollywood and placed it where it ended up counting: in the hands of the rural American.

Because, despite what the media think, us everyday Americans really do make up our minds about “political mumbo-jumbo an’ such.”

Bridget Sharkey is a senior in LAS. Her column runs Mondays. She can be reached at [email protected].