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Can Democrats Marry Progressive Politics with Religion? (They Have in the Past)

by Ron Briley

Political pundits are labeling presidential adviser Karl Rove a genius for focusing the attention of his boss upon such “moral” issues as same-sex marriage and abortion and working to attract the four million evangelicals to the polls who sat out the 2000 election. Meanwhile, Democrats targeted Ohio and its loss of manufacturing jobs as the most likely electoral prize to upset President Bush, who is the first President since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression to preside over

Flip Flops Among Religious Groups in 2004

by Martin E. Marty

Having done little Monday-morning sighting of the 2004 campaign, at its end, we should, at least, look at the "flip-flops" or "changed places" among religious groups. First, Catholics: In 1960 the Vatican and American bishops assured U.S. citizens that bishops' (fatefully futile) intrusion in Puerto Rican politics (declaring it sinful for any Catholic to vote for the pro-birth control PPD) would never find a counterpart here. That first intervention under an American fla

Highlights of Election Night (Featuring Historians' Commentary)

by Bonnie Goodman

The Electoral College • George W. Bush: 286, Number of States: 31 • John F. Kerry: 252, Number of States: 20 The Popular Vote• George W. Bush: 59,459,765 (51% total) with 3.5 million more votes than his opponent. • John F. Kerry: 55,949,407 (48% total)The Congressional Results The Senate:• Republican: 55, a gain of 4 • Democrat: 44, a loss of 4

You Want Radical Policies ... Vote for Bush

by Juan Cole

The decision between Bush and Kerry will shape the world Americans live in during the next four years. Even though Bush has been called the "CEO President," that isn't how he has behaved. Bush has overthrown two governments and announced the imminent demise of several others. Bush is a revolutionary in Asia, a Robespierre. At least one of Bush's revolutions is now mired in its Terror phase. What a real CEO thinks abou

Republicans Aren’t Even Good for the Rich

by Robert S. McElvaine

"The Republicans only help the rich." We hear it all the time, and there is rarely disagreement over any word in the sentence other than "only." Almost everyone accepts it as axiomatic that Republican administrations and their policies are beneficial to the rich; the argument is over whether they are also helpful to other income groups. It seems certain that the socio-economic segment of the electorate most solidly in favor of the reelection of George W. Bush is the very r

Could the Election Turn on the Votes of the Soldiers in the Field?

by D. M. Giangreco and Kathryn Moore

When Al Gore failed to carry his home state of Tennessee in the 2000 presidential election and returns from Florida became "too close to call," the race ultimately came down to a determination of "voter intent" divined by examination of Florida's punch card ballots and a count of its military absentee votes. Some 1,420 absentee ballots were thrown out after a Democratic consultant circulated a memo which suggested using technicalities to disallow the votes of military pers

The Disgrace that Was the 2000 Election: A Refresher Course in What Went Wrong

by HNN Staff

It was a Murphy's Law Election. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Sadly, no one came off well. Not ... ... Not the broadcast networks, which on election night first announced at 7:49 pm EST that Al Gore had won Florida, then announced at 10:13 pm that the race was too close to call, then announced (following the lead of Fox News) at 2:26 am that Bush had won Florida. Within hours the networks pulled back yet again, concluding that it was impossible to decide who had won the stat

If W Had Written the Declaration of Independence

by Marc Stein

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. --Declaration of Independence, 1776 When Thomas Jefferson asked George Bush to

Is Bush Really Good for Israel?

by Edward Olshaker

"Why do four out of five American Jews continue to vote Democrat?" Conservative columnist Mona Charen posed this thought-provoking question following a huge pro-Israel rally in Washington, DC in early 2002, noting that Republicans "were well represented" at the event and had demonstrated a higher level of support for Israel than Democrats had in recent polling. In a similar column, William Safire argued that "perhaps that 80 percent should think again" abo

Once Again Republicans Are Running Against the Sixties

by Robert S. McElvaine

Somewhere in the backrooms at the Republican party, Karl Rove is surely chortling as he manipulates the levers controlling the smoke and mirrors that have his candidate in a position where he might win the election. His ego must be bursting. He has taken the strategy of the Republican party of the late nineteenth century, which he has studied carefully and greatly admires, and outdone his role models. Rove is hardly the first Republican strategist of recent decades to see how we

Disputed Elections Are an American Tradition

by Holly Brewer and Laurie Burnham

Note: This article was first published in 2000, a week after the presidential contest went to the courts. HNN is republishing the piece in the event that the election of 2004 similarly ends in dispute, as some pundits think likely. Some political analysts claim that without quick resolution of the current presidential election, Americans will lose all faith in the electoral process. But why rush to judgment? The historical record shows that earlier generations, includin

Junk the Electoral College

by Joyce Appleby

Note: This article was first published in 2000 following the disputed Bush/Gore election. The 2000 presidential election is unique in the annals of American history. Because of its indeterminacy? No. Its singular distinction comes from the fact that never before have both the popular and electoral votes been close in the same election. When John F. Kennedy squeaked out a victory over Richard Nixon in 1960, his 48.7 percent of the popular vote triumph

Spinning the Number of Casualties Today

by Theodore Brown, Jr.

By now, most Americans are no doubt aware that more than 1,000 Americans have been killed in Iraq since the United States invaded that country in the spring of 2003. There are significant discrepancies, however, in the Bush administration's account of the number of American soldiers who have sustained such serious injuries in Iraq as to warrant being evacuated back to the United States for treatment. The American people are entitled to have these discrepancies explained by the Bush administratio

Neither Candidate Measures Up to Pericles

by Tom Palaima

In Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's "Henry V," King Henry, contemplating committing soldiers to a war in France, cautions his advisers, the archbishop of Canterbury and bishop of Ely, to know and know deeply the consequences of the advice they are asked to offer. They will wake the "sleeping sword of war" and each drop of soldier's blood will be an indictment against those who incite "such waste in brief mortality." Somberness of purpose ov

60 Years Ago: Spinning the Casualties After D-Day

by D.M Giangreco

As the tally of American dead in Iraq moved in fits and starts toward the 1,000 mark, both opponents and proponents of the war geared up for the potential effects that the millennium number would have on public opinion. Intriguingly, it was exactly sixty years ago that the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced its own "threshold number" -- of 1.5 million casualties -- during World War II. The increased tempo of combat operations following D-Day in

The Eerie Similarities Between the Elections of 1900 and 2004

by William Marina

Separated by one hundred and four years, the presidential elections of 1900 and 2004 offer some starling and almost eerie similarities. In 1900 the Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan, opposed incumbent Republican William McKinley, ostensibly over the issue of U.S. imperialism in the Philippines, and years later (1937), the Stanford historian, Thomas A. Bailey asked, "Was the Election of 1900 a Mandate for Imperialism?"After the breakup of the Soviet Union more tha

If Bush Is Such a Strong Leader, How Come He Hasn't Cast a Single Veto?

by Peter B. Levy

Not since James Garfield resided in the White House in 1881 has a President failed to exercise his veto power. Since Garfield's residency was shortened to mere months by an assassin's bullet, we have to go back to 1825, when John Quincy Adams served out his full term without vetoing a single bill. Ironically, Bush casts himself as a man of principles who, unlike his opponent, is ready, willing and able to stand up to political pressure. His record of having signed every single measure t

The Phony Document that Almost Cost a President His Election (No, Not the CBS Bush Guard Memo)

by Andrew Gyory

With just weeks to go before election day, a disputed document surfaces on a hot-button campaign issue. Critics charge forgery, experts examine signatures and punctuation, politicians trade charges—and the press eagerly reports every sordid detail. The recent fracas over the CBS “60 Minutes” account of George W. Bush’s national guard service? Or an incident from more than 120 years ago in the presidential race between Republican James A. Garfield and Democrat Winfield

Are the Presidential Candidates Exploiting Their Children?

by Gil Troy

With Dick and Lynn Cheney criticizing John Kerry and John Edwards for invoking Mary Cheney’s sexual preference when discussing the issue of gay rights in America, the 2004 Children’s Crusade has taken a nasty turn. For months now, the campaign trail has been overrun by young Kerrys, Bushes, Cheneys, Liebermans, and Clarks. Fresh-faced, alluring, hip, and fluent in the ways of popular culture, these junior campaigners have sought to give their respective, often te

Does Bush Think He's Channeling God?

by Robert S. McElvaine

As I read Ron Suskind's dismaying cover story on President Bush's religiously inspired certainty in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, "Without a Doubt," I kept experiencing déjà vu. I've seen this storyline somewhere before: A president who had been a feckless, party-loving, hard-drinking man, is visited by a messenger of God and suddenly changes his ways. Thereafter, he knows what is right and will listen to no one who suggests otherwise. This president