I know, everyone hates advice, and some of this advice may sound snarky and triumphant. But it's still good advice, and we hope liberals and progressives give it some thought eventually, because a healthy vigorous multiplicity of ideas is much better for this nation, and more in tune with American character and ideals, than a political monoculture. Us pro-Bush liberals especially want you folks to get your cred back, because we share some positions (like protecting the environment, legalizing gay unions, funding the arts, and keeping abortion legal) and don't want you embarrassing us and undermining good policy approaches by acting like juveniles.

If you think we are a tiny sliver of the Bush mandate, check out how Beliefnet used a survey from the Pew Religion Forum and the Ray K Bliss Institute at the University of Akron to identify what they call the Twelve Tribes of American Politics, interest groups arranged by religious/secular cultures and beliefs. The results show a mosaic, not a monolithic movement for religious conservatism. (One interesting finding is that the Religious Right and the Religious Left are the same size, about 12% of the electorate.)

If you decide to put aside your manipulated fears about rampaging jihadi heartland antigay bigots, and really listen to us tell you why we voted for Bush, you might hear this or this or this or this, reasons which were not captured by the exit polls carefully structured to smear the Bush majority one last time.

True, it found the largest single block of voters identified "moral values" as the "most important election issue" -- . . . "largest single block" turns out to mean 22%, meaning 78% of voters -- including two-thirds of Bush voters -- named some other issue. Second, the pollsters only managed to elevated "moral values" to number one by dividing up the other issues into subcategories. Thus "Iraq" and "Terrorism" are treated as separate issues, though grouped together as, say, "national security" they would have claimed the top spot, with 34% of the total. Likewise "taxes" and "economy" were named by a combined 25% of voters. Had "moral values" been split into "abortion" and "gay marriage," the spin would have been rather different.

. . . Bush got roughly 90% of the Republican vote, plus 10% of the Democratic vote -- plus 50% of Independents. Add it up: that means fully one-third of Bush's vote came from non-Republicans -- the same proportion as the "moral values" voters. . . . When a candidate draws increased numbers of votes from groups not traditionally identified with his party, we usually call that "broadening the base." So why the fascination with zombie hordes of theo-cons?

. . . About 45% of Bush's vote -- nearly half -- came from self-identified "moderates" or "liberals."

I draw your attention to that last line I quoted. That's my folks, the New Yorkers who drove to Philadelphia and Hackensack to ring doorbells and make phone calls to elect George Bush. So don't write us off as part of a theocratic takeover of the US. You need us and we need you, but understand this: we would rather fight shoulder-to-shoulder with a right-to-lifer, against jihadis, than fight shoulder-to-shoulder with you for legalized abortion, if you carry Bush=Hitler signs in the streets or make excuses for suicide bombers.

My anonymous Jewish liberal friend who used Hillel's three questions to make the case for the Iraq War, has more on this theme for her congressman Jerry Nadler (who represents the district which includes the World Trade Center). (I want to remind people that my friend is in the closet as a Bush supporter because she works in the entertainment industry. If you can't see what's wrong with that picture, you in particular need to read all of these links.)

We have also had it with your self-righteousness and superiority:

We Democrats are supposedly the party of the therapists, the teachers, and the 'relationship experts.' If anybody would be proud of the title, 'active listener', it would be a Democrat. We're the soft ones who understand where the other side is coming from and negotiate.

Many Democrats think that our patience and understanding are our weakness. "We don't know how to fight like the Republicans," we all told ourselves after Florida 2000. "We have to be more like them: tougher, meaner." "We have to energize our base more."

Actually, no. Our error is that we Democrats are far less understanding than we think we are. Our version of understanding the other side is to look at them from a psychological point of view while being completely unwilling to take their arguments seriously.

And in addition to being way more condescending than any sensitive empathetic person ought to admit to, you are abusive.

I tuned in regularly, for months, to your biggest media project, your serious effort to get your message out: Air America Radio. I listened all day on Good Friday as host after host mocked people like me for believing in Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. I listened as Janeane Garofalo, who was one of my favorite comedians for years, expressed hatred and disgust for Bush voters so vile that I ended my live stream feeling assaulted, as if I'd been vomited on. I listened the night that Mike Malloy told a young Republican to hang up the phone and go open a vein. I listened to pure, unadulterated venom that was so intense I sometimes cut the stream and cried. . . . Your attitudes, language, and behavior toward people like me: reasonable, thinking Christians who are quite moderate politically and who are just as well-informed as you are (yes, I've read all the PNAC essays, too, and yes, they scare me, too) is reminiscent of nothing so much as an abusive ex-lover, a crazy and drunken stalker. "I'll make you love me, or you'll regret it, you worthless bitch! Come here and let me beat you over the head and tell you how stupid and worthless you are! Then you'll see it my way!"

You are physically abusive also. The vast majority of election-related physical violence and intimidation was performed by anti-Bush forces against Bush voters.

Do you want our votes, or do you just want to be a smug self-satisfied splinter group with no influence? Think about it.