"Okay, You Won. Now Do What I Want Anyway."

You've got to hand it to the Democrats and their too willing accomplices at the major media. They are "cunning and sly and bear considerable watching" (as an old Navy Officer's guide used to say about enlisted men).

No sooner had they been forced to accept that President Bush had been re-elected (though they came kicking and grasping at every straw along the way), then they were off on the trail of "Bush must compromise and move to the middle for the good of the country." In this odd way of thinking, far from it being necessary for the left and middle to recognize that they lost this election in a BIG WAY and change their own approaches, the winner must immediately abandon his supporters and rush to adopt the loser's world view, which was just defeated. "Okay," they concede, "you won. Now do what I want anyway."

To make their case, they (at least CNN) trot out bunch of liberal talking heads and marginal (dubbed "moderate") Republicans (e.g. Sen. Specter from Pennsylvania). This morning I saw Senator Specter being more than happy to offer free advice about not sending any "really" conservative judges up for confirmation -moderation in all things being the ideal, I guess, from his perspective. I'm not sure Mr. Specter understands yet who won the election.

Look, let's be kind about this. The Republicans won. They won the Presidency, the Senate and the House. They are the majority party and they need to act like it. They were elected with an agenda approved by the majority of the American voters who want that agenda followed. The Republicans can and should exercise the rights of the majority and push their agenda forward. If the Democrats, who lost the election, want to play, they need to accept some reality. As the minority party, they do not get to set the agenda and they had better learn to compromise.

If, in a couple of years, the American public does not like what the majority party is doing, they get the chance to vote some changes. That's what our system is about and how it is supposed to work.

The Diplomad has a nice post on the "Myth of 'Divided America.'"