Great comment from Greg:

Republican's delivered a message in 1972--Democrats rejected it. Again in 1980. Again rejected. Another really BIG message in 1984. It must have been delivered to the wrong address. 1992 and 1996 the Democrat GOT the message, but then blew it (sorry for the pun). Then in 2000 and now in 2004, we shouted the message at them through a loud speaker. The Democratic party is over. It has been over for 32 years. They are the Whigs. The Know-Nothings. Its over and until they realize it, Republicans will keep winning and winning and winning.

Boy howdy is that the truth. The post-election self-analysis by the progressives is like the cherry on this victory sundae: These guys are gearing up for a long journey into irrelevance. This is competely borne out by the spin now emitted across the lefthand side of the board.

I almost never post links to Instapundit or Powerlineblog anymore, because I realized everyone already read those sites everyday, but both have links to revealing items on this topic.

Powerline has this E.J. Dionne oracle making the point that nothing you thought about this election is even remotely true:

And we are disgusted that an effort consciously designed to divide the country did exactly that � and won. With all his failures, Bush could not count on a whole lot more than 51 percent. Karl Rove and company calculated perfectly, organized painstakingly, greatly increased conservative turnout and produced a country divided just their way....

What's required is a sustained and intellectually serious effort by religious moderates and progressives to insist that social justice and inclusion are "moral values" and that war and peace are "life issues."

All we can hope is the Democrats take this advice and launch a sustained, long-term effort to re-educate the American people about "moral values" (which, as David Brooks notes in the New York Times, represents a perfect misreading of the voter analysis).

Yeah, we're a bunch of moral idiots out here, so please send some professors to tell us how to think about life. First, you'll need to pull us away from the fundamentalist television preacher, and you'll have to realize we won't listen to you until the whole neighborhood is on board because, basically, we just want to conform. That's why everyone who voted for George W. Bush acts the same and thinks the same throughout all our cities and towns. We're like a big mass of putty waiting for the next Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh to come along; so once you Democrats hire a guy like this, have at it and knock our socks off. Just don't send any metro-attired pretty boys because we hate homosexuals.

Instapundit has pulled this strategic gem from The Daily Howler Kos:

And thus, the biggest silver lining of this election is how the GOP's victory is thus far being claimed, framed and explained. To that I say, "Let us join that chorus." And we should do so now, because there is immediacy in the post-election window of opportunity.

Marching order #1, therefore, is this: No matter whom you talk to outside our circles, begin to perpetuate the (false, exaggerated) notion that George Bush's victory was built not merely on values issues, but gay marriage specifically. If you feel a need to broaden it slightly, try depicting the GOP as a majority party synonymous with gay-haters, warmongers and country-clubbers.

Evoking comments such as:

-The Christians conservatives put Bush over the top using gays/abortion. The dmes should force the repubs to bring a bill to the floor to execute women who have abortions.

-When I tell Americans how many of these right wingers families supported Hitler and tried to have FDR assassinated, they look at me like I'm crazy, then I tell them to read War Is Racket, etc. It's scarey how many Americans don't know anything about fascism. If corporate values are more important than individual values, if they try to get God in government, If democracy is being replaced by an economic system (Capitalism) then it's freakin' fascist!....The right wing SCLM has succeeded in tainting the word fascism to mean conspiracy nut, so we need a new word(s) to describe them. How about the "Corporate Values" community? I mean, they are the ones pushing the, "you're either with us or against us meme." They divided the country on social left wing, right wing values issues, so lets take it a step further and divide into pro-individual vs pro-corporate government. You're either with the people or against them.

-i like "debased christians," because it points to the lack of love and tolerance among this segment of those who claim to believe in jesus.

-My father-in-law was gloating about the Bush victory and so I politely told him that if redneck bigots were banned from voting Kerry would have won easily. That shut him up. They're not so proud of their victory when they look closely at their constituency.

If you wants to win, you gots to lie and stir up de' hate, because that what George W. Bush just did.

(Funny, though: Did you happen to catch any of those anti-gay, fundamentalist Bush television commercials or speeches? I didn't and I followed the campaign pretty closely. He must have done the gay-baiting and hatred-stirring while everyone else was asleep.)

Admittedly, some of those on the Left seem to sort-kinda be on the verge of getting it, but that may not even be true.

The fact of the matter seems to be that the Democrats and their various intellectual founts are going to explain the election in every possible way except this one: More Americans agree with the Republicans on more of the issues most important to them. Because if THAT is the reason for the GOP's successes in 2002 and 2004, then the Democrats as currently constituted are toast. No one I've read is yet even hinting that the Democrats will consider changing any of their policy positions: It's not the message, it's the delivery that needs to be fine-tuned. They simply got outmaneuvered by Karl Rove this time.

My belief is this: The mega attack machine that emerged to defeat George W. Bush is the only thing that kept this election from being a landslide of epic proportions. I agree completely with Evan Thomas' observation that the pro-Kerry mainstream media was good for 15 percentage points for the Democratic ticket.

Without the machine that's been in motion for the past two years - George Soros, $100 million in '527' support, the tables full of anti-Bush books at Borders, the yeoman duty pulled by Rather-Jennings-Brokaw-Koppel, all those celebrity artists and comedians and stars on tour, The New York Times, Fahrenheit 9-11 and its perky creator, and so much more - Bush's margin of victory would have been 65%-32%.

Liberals will disagree vehemently, presenting all sorts of contrary ideas and statistics. Fine, I expect no less. What reassures me is that next time around, the machine will be hobbled. How much time and money will the anti-Bush big shots be willing to expend? Not so much, is my guess. Instapundit also has a link to this nugget: Daily Kos raised $500,000 to aid 15 candidates, every one of whom lost. How much more money is going to be available for 2006 and 2008 when, presumably, most of these former contributors do in fact have lives?

This whole liberal line that "you dirty rats pulled a slick one on us" has to bring a smile. Yep, we pulled a slick one all right. We outworked you and did a better job in our polling to identify the buzz words that would get our target voters to pull the right lever. We bamboozled the public by playing them with emotional hot buttons, clever lies and half truths. That's our game, and we are fully - nay, exuberantly - prepared to accept the fact that in 2008 you are going to beat us at it.