To put this in perspective

[EarlG]

Many of you know that I am a British ex-pat. I was born in 1974, when a Labour government was in power. I was five years old when Margaret Thatcher was first elected in 1979.

Thatcher was a right-wing extremist. She was re-elected in 1983 and 1987. She was prime minister for 11 years before being ousted. John Major took over the Conservative party leadership and became prime minister in 1990.

Major won re-election in 1992. He was prime minister for a total of 7 years.

Until I was 23 years old, all I had ever known was a conservative government. They were in power for EIGHTEEN YEARS. The British public supported the Tories time and again at the polls while the Labour party failed time and again to interest the people in their policies.

For 18 years, the Tories always managed to convince the public that Labour was dangerous, that they were left-wing extremists, that they couldn't be trusted to run the country - neither its economy nor its defense. Sound familiar?

Then, in 1997, Tony Blair's Labour party won in a massive landslide.

Blair didn't just win because he turned the Labour party from a party that nobody trusted to a party that the public felt they could trust. He didn't just win in a massive landslide because he moved the party to the center. Yes, the public came out in droves in 1997 because Blair provided them with a party and policies that most of them could find acceptable, but they also turned out because they were sick to death of the corruption and sleaze which had infested the incumbent Conservative party.

Blair won because 18 years in power had turned the Conservative party rotten to the core. The public became so sick of the Tories' lies, deceit, dirty tricks and corrupt politicians, that they turned out in record numbers in 1997 and ousted them. The Conservative party has now been effectively marginalized in Britain.

I want to make clear that the purpose of this post is not to suggest that the Democratic party should move towards or away from the center. I'm not trying to make strategic suggestions about what we should do next. I know Tony Blair is not popular on this message board, and I agree that his rush to war in Iraq was as insane as George W. Bush's. The only thing I will offer in his defense is that when I speak to my family back home - liberals all - they tell me that his domestic policies have been good (funding healthcare, education, etc.) The British public approves of his domestic agenda; it's his foreign policy they can't understand.

What I am trying to say is that we are now, undeniably, living in conservative times. While Kerry won 55,000,000 votes this year, conservatives turned out in larger numbers and won the election for Bush. In 2000, when you combined Gore's votes with Nader's, there was a clear mandate for a left-wing agenda in America. In 2004, that is not the case.

This is difficult to accept, but I have been through this before - and I lived through it for 18 years.

Almost four years ago I wrote an article for DU called "Stay Active, End the Nightmare." You can read it here. In it, I speculated that "...the tide will turn. A new president can only deflect attention from his own failings for a finite period of time. The public and the media will wake up one day soon and realize that the current government is responsible for its own actions, that whatever has happened from January 20th, 2001 onward has happened on Bush's watch."

My mistake was to assume that the USA in 2004 would be the same as the UK in 1997. When the huge increase in voter turnout was announced, I had visions of a landslide in our favor. I now realize that it is more like the UK in 1983. The conservatives are in the driving seat, they have a mandate, they are in control of the government, and they can do what they want. And, sad to say, that is what a majority of Americans voted for when they went to the polls.

But we will, eventually, come through this. Bush has his mandate. He will no longer be illegitimate in the eyes of many who doubted him in the last four years. Because of this, the responsibility of running the country lies squarely at his feet. In his first four years, Bush's was the "excuse presidency." The buck stopped nowhere near the Oval Office. For four years, people allowed him to get away with it.

If things don't improve in the next four years, they may not let the conservatives get away with it again. Next time they won't have the luxury of blaming all their problems on the divided nation, and the obstructionist Democrats. They have their mandate, and it is up to them to deliver. If they don't, we will be there waiting.

At the end of my article, I wrote this:

"We are the very base of the party. We are in the trenches. We spread the word on a daily basis. We are the beginning of the end for the Republican party. If we maintain our passion for the fight, and if the right-wing continue to push their agenda against the will of the people, we can make sure that they suffer the same fate as the British Conservative party - mortally wounded by the electorate which they betrayed. As long as we remain active, the nightmare can be over sooner than you think."

I still know this is true. We are down right now, but we are not out. Now we are waiting, ready to take on the responsibility of running this country when the Republicans prove they can't handle it. I had to wait 18 years to see the hard-right-wing removed from power in my former country. Be patient. Eventually, we will come through.

As Bill Clinton once said, "I still believe in a place called Hope."

I'm not giving up.