Someday people are going to recognize Heisenberg’s Principle of
Politics.
Werner Heisenberg, you may recall, coined the “Uncertainty
Principle” by arguing that the precise position of a particle can
never be determined because in order to measure it we must
change it.
Pollsters do the same thing. We saw it again with the exit
polls. Somehow the pollsters never realize that when they “sample”
public opinion, they are also changing it. More specifically, they
are usually imposing their own values.
When a pollster asks voters what they think, they usually come
on as a smart, savvy enlightened intellectual — i.e., a liberal.
Now no one wants to embarrass himself by expressing some stupid
conservative opinion. So people shade their views or lie — or just
hang up the phone. For several election cycles pollsters have been
underestimating the Republican vote because of this.
Now comes the exit polls, which supposedly had the beginnings of
a Kerry landslide. It never occurs to pollsters that they tend to
buttonhole people who look cooperative — women, educated people,
people who don’t have that gruff conservative manner or a
Republican scowl on their face. As a result, the pollsters added a
little drama by calling the election the wrong way.
Now we see commentators doing the same thing, without apology.
They’re “interpreting” the vote by announcing that voters really
didn’t mean it — they were only voting for “values,” whatever that
is — and that therefore President Bush doesn’t have a mandate.
Instead, he must “reach across the aisle” and “move toward the
center” in order to “bring us together.”
Does anybody remember commentators saying this when Bill Clinton
beat Bob Dole with 49 percent of the vote? Or when he beat the
first President Bush with 43 percent? I’ll pay $100 to anybody who
can find a news clip expressing that opinion.
When Clinton won in 1992, he moved right ahead with his agenda
— raising taxes, stimulating the economy through public works, and
assigning his wife and Ira Magaziner to redesign the healthcare
economy. Perot voters — who really handed Clinton the Presidency
— were completely ignored. They wanted a balanced budget. Instead,
they got more federal spending.
Clinton had something better than a mandate. He had a Congress
that had been Democratic for about as long as anyone could
remember.
But the bond market vetoed Clinton’s “infrastructure” spending,
the budget deficit got worse, and Hillary Care went down in flames.
If a presidency can be summed up in one sentence — as many
historians say it can — Clinton’s should be this: “He gave us a
Republican Congress.” Only after 1994 did Clinton become the
“triangulator” between the new Republican majority and the old
Democrats in Congress. That’s because he had already brought the
Old Democrats down with him.
The people have spoken. They said one word: “Bush.” Actually,
they said “Republican Senate” and “Republican Congress” as well.
That’s all we need. It’s up to President Bush to make something out
of that — and lord knows he will. I love the way he talks about
“spending his political capital” but I would alter one word. He’s
going to “invest” it, not spend it. We’re talking building a new
future for the country.
When they’ve exhausted themselves arguing Bush doesn’t have a
mandate, liberals turn around and say he’s a “lame duck.” That’s
because Presidents often exhaust their mandate during the first
administration and start to feel a backlash against their
accomplishments in the second.
Well, I’ve got news for you. To all intents and purposes, this
is President Bush’s first administration. The last four
years were wasted in arguments about who really won the 2000
election and diddling with Jim Jeffords and the Republican
“moderates” who suddenly found themselves wielding enormous,
unearned power. Those days are over, too. When I hear Lincoln
Chafee is talking about switching parties and becoming a Democrat,
I say “Go get ‘em, Lincoln!” You’ll be much happier over there.
President Bush has a chance to lay down the foundations of an
Ownership Society, solidify the Republican stronghold on the
future, and change the course of history. He can be another Reagan
(and isn’t it wonderful how liberals are suddenly becoming
nostalgic for Reagan, realizing what an important president he
was?).
Who needs a mandate? We’ve got a majority. Let’s get ‘em,
George! They ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
