Moral issues mobilize Bush support: with moral issues looming large, both presidential candidates appealed to pious voters, but Bush more successfully aligned himself with the religious populace.(Elections)

The guardians of official opinion were both stunned and aghast at the election results. Not only did the American people choose the "conservative" candidate lot president and increase the Republican majority in the U.S. House and Senate, the commoners in the hinterlands had the audacity to reject the immoral agenda of the radical left through ballot initiatives.

All 11 states that had ballot measures against homosexual marriage passed them easily. Even Oregon, with its libertine-libertarian streak and a $3 million war chest collected by homosexual activists, passed a measure banning so-called "same sex marriage" by an impressive 57-43 percent margin. Other states passed the ballot measures banning the practice by three-to-one, four-to-one, and in the case of Mississippi, six-to-one margins. And Florida passed a ballot measure requiring parental notification of minors seeking abortion by a 65-35 percent margin.

The liberal Democrat talking point of the week after the electoral loss was that America was a "divided nation" in need of healing. But the ballot initiatives revealed that America was not divided on moral issues such as same-sex "marriage" and unrestricted abortion for minors. "Moral values" was cited as the most important issue in the election by 22 percent of voters, according to exit polls--more than any other issue.

It is no wonder that columnists in the New York Times sputtered for a week in disbelief about the vote, and liberal "Air America" radio hosts held what could only be called mass grief counseling sessions after the elections. On that point, Americans can be happy about the results of the elections.

But out of liberal disbelief came a series of raging attacks against "morality voters." American Christians were instantly branded as ignorant fools for reelecting Bush, fools who would lead the nation into a new dark age. Gary Wills wrote in the New York Times, "[Bush reelection architect Karl] Rove understands what surveys have shown, that many more Americans believe in the Virgin Birth than in Darwin's theory of evolution." He then asked, "Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?" Other leading liberals touted so-called intelligence surveys that purported to demonstrate that people in red states (Bush states) had lower IQs than blue states (Kerry states). They mock what they do not understand.

The election was not, however, a total victory for the right. For example, a bah lot initiative in California to create a funding entitlement for embryonic stem-cell research passed 59-41%, with most voters simply buying the unproven hype that the research that would kill live embryos would usher in a new era of cures for a multitude of diseases.

Kerry as Poseur