After reading the various pieces of trash in the media and the DI, I feel the need to correct something. The reason that Bush won and mobilized his base wasn’t gay marriage. It wasn’t evangelical Christians on a mission from God. It was liberals that helped mobilize the GOP base.

First, let’s deal with the myth of Christianity deciding the election. Of those that voted for Bush, only 25 percent considered themselves Christian. However, 62 percent cited that moral issues were the most important issue. Let’s also look at the Keyes campaign. Keyes cited God in and out, calling homosexuality selfish hedonism. He (in)famously said Jesus would not vote for Barack Obama. He lost by more than 40 points, a much larger margin by which President Bush lost Illinois and a result you can safely call a complete and utter failure. You can blame the “radical Christian right” all you want, but they didn’t lose the election.

As a conservative and a Catholic I am sick and tired of turning on television and seeing Hollywood elites, pundits and the like telling me that if I vote Republican it is because I’m a racist bigot who wants to kill off the poor and burn black churches. I’m sick and tired of the fact that I might have a different opinion on policy issues being translated into people thinking I’m an un-teachable ignoramus (see the Slate article online entitled “The Unteachable Ignorance of the Red States”). Democrats and liberals have essentially said, “Vote for us or you’re, by definition, an ignorant rube.” As long as Democrats and liberals continue with this elitist attitude that the electorate is too stupid, they will lose elections by larger and larger margins. There are sound opinions on affirmative action and educational choice that don’t follow the DNC line. Until those on the left stop blaming everyone else for their losses, they will continue to lose. In short, the reason they lost is their failure to appeal to the voters, in a large part because their ran around saying how stupid everyone else is. They demean Christians as a bunch of gay-burning Neanderthals. Gee, I can’t see why they wouldn’t want to vote for Democrats.

John Bambenek

University employee