We're Not Really That Nice

I think the folks over at PJM a few days ago were making a fairly obvious mistake when it comes to a comparison of the left’s reaction in 2004 to the right’s reaction in 2008, and I’m a little surprised at them to be honest, but post-election blog flurries can do that sometimes.

The 2008 election is nothing like the 2004 election for at least two critical reasons. First, and most obvious, is that the right ought to be expected to behave much more maturely than the left did in 2004 because it hasn’t already lived through four years of an Obama administration. The left in 2004 had already had to deal with four years of George Bush, a man viewed as deeply committed to ideals totally contrary to their own. They had already suffered through four years of conservative rule, which they blamed literally everything on, by the time 2004 rolled around. I have to believe that the right would be reacting very differently if they had already dealt with four years of liberal rule under which the worst terrorist attack in history had taken place. I certainly know that I would be less than charitable. If you have to compare this election to a Bush election, it has to be the election of 2000, where the Presidency changed party hands last. Which brings me to the second reason that we ought to expect to react differently.

The 2000 election was even less like this most recent election than 2004 was, for the simple reason that it was, by all accounts, incredibly bizarre. Further, the results were questionable on a historically significant basis; what happened there had happened only once before, and since that was the obscure Rutherford Hayes versus Samuel Tilden election, it might just as well have never happened before to essentially everyone who wasn’t a biographer of men with incredible beards. 2000 was an extremely close election, neither party was a clear underdog, and as a result both parties had a reasonable expectation of winning. That’s why so many leftists complain about a “stolen” election in 2004; it was too close to call, and somebody called it.

In 2008, some of us may have managed to temporarily fool ourselves about a McCain win, but I think the reality is that we all knew he would be unlikely once the financial crisis hit. On the right, folks were at the very least subconsciously prepared for a loss that they likely saw coming. Losing wasn’t anywhere near the shock that it was to the left in 2000 or 2004. I do have a point in all this aside from discouraging the somewhat overzealous back-patting that’s going on in the center-right blogosphere.

The point is, this is exactly what an election should look like if we’re concerned about elections being viewed as legitimate. It wasn’t too close to call, nobody flipped out except those already prone to the habit, the Supreme Court didn’t get involved, both sides more or less saw the result in advance and had a chance to make peace with it, and once it finally happened, folks were generally ready to bury the hatchet and move forward. At least, that’s the vibe I’m getting now, and I really hope we keep that up. It reflects well not just on the right, but on the democratic system as a whole. It’s an example to the rest of the democracies in the world – some of whom can use the inspiration - as to how these things are supposed to go. It’s a great American statement that says “I don’t know how you folks transfer power in whatever sorta system you got there, but ‘round here nobody dies and everybody celebrates the one headed in and the other headed out, and that’s the peaceful beauty of democracy.” And, while I realize that’s a statement by America as a whole, it sounds really good if you imagine Fred Thompson’s voice saying it.

What I’m much more interested in when it comes to the new attitudes that will be forming on the left and right on each side, is how the left will carry their win. The last eight years have not made it clear that they can lose gracefully, though I admit they were, at least in 2000, sorely tested by the circumstances of the election. It will be interesting to see if they are capable of recognizing the formation of hubris in themselves as readily as they noticed it forming in the Bush administration. The left taught me that word in 2005; I wonder if they’ll know enough to know how to avoid it now.

The most fun part about all this, in the final analysis, is that now, I’m the minority, and the left is the authority. I get to listen to all my favorite punk music again without feeling even slightly like a hypocrite. They seem awfully proud of America when things are going their way. I was proud of us before it was cool.