AlterNet: HIGHTOWER: Bush's Push for the Corporate Agenda

Yes, say the Bushites, but we just had a sweep of the mid-term congressional elections, putting our party in charge of both houses and giving us a fresh mandate, so get out of the way while we do the people's will! Hold your stampeding horses, BushCo, for your congressional margin is razor slim – you gained only two seats in the senate and five in the house, which is hardly mandate territory.

And before you try to act in the name of "the people," you might want to check the election numbers. The great majority of the people thought the campaigns were such a pile of issue-avoiding, negative horsehockey that they didn't vote at all. And of the 39 percent of American voters who did cast ballots, the majority of them voted either for Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, Working Family, Independent, or other parties' candidates – not for the GOP. The so-called "mandate" that you are claiming actually is made up of less than 18 percent of the electorate!

And there's even less to that number than meets the eye. A big percentage of the 18 percent does not support your elitist and extremist agenda of more tax breaks for the rich, creeping privatization of social security, the gutting of consumer bankruptcy protection, and all the other favors you plan to give to the corporate powers that finance your elections.

You can't make chicken salad out of chicken manure, and Bush's claim of a "mandate" is 100% chicken manure.

There is a practical mandate and a realization of the failure of the Democrats to speak for the people.