Wow, I really got that wrong!
Prior to last night I was laboring under the assumption that there were still enough people in the United States who understood Free Market economics and they would elect Mitt Romney as the next President.
Less than 24 hours ago I believed the polls were wrong and there was a large silent majority of people who were fed up with rising government handouts and they would elect someone who would implement fiscally conservative policies that would put America back on the path to success.
On Tuesday I hoped there were enough people in the US who were sick of the divisive leadership of Obama and they wanted to bring Americans together again and stop this class warfare rhetoric of the Left by giving people like Elizabeth Warren a resounding defeat.
I was really, really, really wrong.
In politics, Assuming, Believing and Hoping can lead to disappointment and I learned that valuable lesson last night.
Starting in 1976, it took the American people 4 years to realize that Leftist policies were bad for our country but with similar Leftist policies being implemented over the past 4 years, the American electorate sent a message last night that they liked the past 4 years so much, they want more of it. That means our country is on firmly on the path that leads to Greece-like meltdowns. And the end of that path is not pretty.
So here is my take-away from last night’s election – The American people have changed their views on fiscal and social issues and I have made the decision to dedicate my time, over the coming years, to push the GOP to strengthen its message in the former and change its message in the later.
Fiscal Issues
The nation has reached a tipping point where there are enough people who are addicted to government freebies that they will vote for a Democrat (who promises to keep those freebies coming) every year no matter what the issues are. I’ll admit that the Left’s plan was masterful and genius – Slowly, over decades, convince a large segment of society that they are dependent on the government (Food Stamps, Welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Unemployment Insurance) and then use them as guaranteed votes every two years. When Conservative candidates try to show people how to break the chains of government oppression, the Left trots out their class warfare tactics and then proceeds to demonize the people who are successful. Of course those arguments aren’t true but they tug at the heart strings and win elections for the Left.
History has proven that free market capitalism is the best economic system to provide people from all socio-economic levels with the best possibility to succeed and improve the quality of their lives. I will never stop fighting for this and will continue engage anyone who brings their class warfare drivel and tell me the wealthy need to pay their fair share. As an aside – You’ll notice that the Left never tells us what the definition of a ‘fair share’ is nor do they provide mathematical proof that taxing the wealthy will improve the nation and bring down the debt.
Right now, people have forgotten what a real economic recovery looks like and how much better they’d be under a limited government/Free Market but once we can get fiscal conservatives elected then people will be won over to this philosophy as their livelihoods improve.
But before fiscal conservatives can govern, they must be elected and this brings me to….
Social Issues
It is obvious that social issues such as legalizing gay marriage and amnesty for illegal immigrants are not fringe issues. They are embraced by a significant portion of our population and you can no longer choose to sit on the sidelines on these issues. Like it or not, many people voted against Republican candidates yesterday because of the GOP’s official stance on these 2 key issues.
Don’t believe me? Go find one of your Left leaning/Independent friends and ask them this hypothetical question. “Would you have voted for Mitt Romney if he had run a campaign where he repeatedly stated that he was for same sex unions and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants?
Even though Romney was very moderate on social issues, he was painted with a broad brush by idiots like Akin and Mourdock who just couldn’t resist talking about rape and abortion. This hurt him and people who only casually pay attention to the issues only remembered these stupid comments and tagged them with Romney because he also had an “R” at the end of his name.
I have said before that I have absolutely no issue with gay marriage/civil unions (live and let live, just don’t force a church to go against its beliefs and perform them) and I am in favor of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants so it’s not a far stretch for me to advocate Republican candidates who yield to social issues and stand firm on fiscal ones. In my opinion, this is what the GOP must do in order to field candidates that can govern and eventually rescue our country.
But there’s more to it….
That’s not to say that we stop hammering the MSM. We must hold them accountable because in some respects they are the real enemy to prosperity and not the Leftist candidates.
That’s not to say we change our religious beliefs with regard to social issues. We can evangelize the rest of America in hopes they are moved to our position but the political podium is not the place to talk about what the Bible says/doesn’t say about gay marriage.
That’s not to say we stop picking candidates that are political fighters who are willing to play in the dirty world of national politics. When Romney tried to talk substance/economics/issues, the Left talked Big Bird, Binders and Class Warfare. We must recognize that we lost the messaging war in this election so in future elections we have to get our hands dirty, participate in less intellectual aspects of politics and use political judo against the Left via Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
That’s not to say we don’t continue to hammer Leftist pundits over the coming 4 years. We should use every opportunity (Unemployment Rate, Stock Market, Gas Prices, Debt, GDP, etc.) to show how their Keynesian policies are failing America.
The nation has changed and if the GOP doesn’t recognize this then they are dead as a relevant party and there will be nobody to help stop the slide off the fiscal cliff (the real one, not that fake one being talked about right now). I have kids that are 8 and 11 years old so “Going Galt” is not an option for me. I can’t just sit back and watch Liberals destroy America and laugh when they finally realize that their policies are wrong for a society. I have to keep fighting to reform America and put it back on a path to fiscal prosperity so I’ll have a country worth handing off to my children when they get my age.
cosmoscon 
This is a pretty sensible post. Some people said the GOP faces a civil war within the party over the coming months. Do you believe this is the case?
Sorry I misread one of your RTs on twitter last night, btw.
Conflict is good because solutions usually emerge from it. If we excuse this and try and explain it away then we’ll see the same thing in 2016 or lose the House in 2014.
No need to apologize, I have thick skin.
Solid post, Cosmo, and I agree with most of it. We’ll have to disagree on the ‘marriage’ thing, but at this point that’s splitting hairs.
The electorate chose a man who was awarding stuff to anyone they like. Rather than bristle at such an infantilization, a majority thinks this is a grand idea. Not all are recipients, but they are of like mind on this issue.
A sad day, to be sure, but as Americans we need to continue pushing (dare I say) Forward.
Keep the faith, partner.
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond JTR. Something needs to change in the GOP and I don’t think there is just one silver bullet but we need to boldly confront the brutal facts.
Very true, Cosmo. And I always try to comment over here, time permitting.
You put some real effort in your posts; commenting is my way of saying ‘thanks’.
The answer is certainly not just roll over and try to out-left the Left, but some fresh ideas about how to go about recruiting, appealing to and attracting other folks to our side are obviously needed.
Ours is still basically a 50/50 country. We need it to be 60/40 in our favor, at the very least. 70/30 would be better.
I have my own ideas on the real culprit in all this, which I just finished commenting on over at Doug’s Stix Blog Backup site. Too long to copy here, but I’ll include the link, if you want to take a gander.
http://stix1972.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/do-not-blame-caesar/
Regardless, you’re right: we’ve got work to do….
…. and I’m ready to go.
The most interesting fact from the election results is that it appears the turn out was lower for both Obama and Romney than Obama/McCain in 2008!
How is it possible Romney received fewer votes than McCain?
This signals a significant number of people were unsatisfied with both candidates and just gave up rather than vote. Just like the unemployment rate is down because millions of people have given up looking for work, the same may be true for participation in the election.
Clearly, Obama had fewer people vote for him in 2012 than 2008. But it was inconceivable to me that Romney would garner fewer votes than McCain.
One reason is the Obama campaign did almost as good a job portraying Romney as a Plutocrat and vulture capitalist as Romney’s opponents did in the Republican primaries.
Like it or not, it appears super rich conservatives preaching self reliance and lower taxes have a better chance of getting into heaven than the White House or State wide offices.
If you are a Democrat, rich and liberal, preferably with inherited wealth, you might have a chance.
The Kennedys and Jay Rockefeller are good examples. Kerry almost made it with his married wealth. Bloomberg will never get past mayor.
Meg Whitman couldn’t make it to California Governor and Carly Fiorina couldn’t make the California Senate, although both are extremely accomplished business women in the same mold as Romney with a lot more money than Romney has.
Michael Huffington was a closeted gay conservative billionaire with inherited wealth who ran for the California Senate in 1994 and lost. His equally conservative wife, Ariana, survived by divorcing him and transforming into a super liberal Democrat. (Kind of what Dick Morris did with Bill Clinton,only in reverse.)
Decent, with a proven track record of success, rich and Mormon…. In retrospect, Romney never had a chance. My error was in thinking a majority of Americans would recognize and seize their last best chance to save us from the path towards Greece.
H.L. Menkin described Obama best.
“The state, or, to make matters more concrete, the government, consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting “A” to satisfy “B”. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction on stolen goods.”
Great comments Blaine! I too thought there would be a big enough group of the electorate who’d recognize this was our last chance. I won’t make that mistake again.
I had not heard that Menkin quote before so thanks for posting it.
The really amazing thing about H.L. Mencken’s comment, ( I spelled his name wrong in my post) is that he died in 1956!
Mencken was commenting on the policies of FDR and the New Deal. It’s clear Mencken knew a slippery slope when he saw one. He died 8 years before LBJ declared his “War on Poverty.” A war we are clearly loosing with Obama as Commander in Chief.
In 1964, LBJ set us on an irreversible, unsustainable path with “The Great Society”:
The Wilderness Protection Act prevented 9.1 million acres of forestland from any possibility of future development.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided Federal funding for American public schools.
Medicare was created.
The National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities was created to use Federal money to fund artists and galleries. (See Big Bird)
An Omnibus Housing Act provided funds to construct low-income housing.
……….
Nixon went on to expand many of these programs just as Bush 43 did.
Only Reagan, Bush Sr. and Newt Gingrich managed a delaying action before the onslaught of Obama.
Romney won 61% of the White vote. A landslide by any measure but we may have reached a tipping point where, like Venezuela, there are more people getting government checks than people paying taxes. When Blacks and Hispanics vote as a block for liberals, there is a structural majority for Democrats.
George Bernard Shaw who died in 1950 said, “A government that robs from Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.”
In California, there are a lot of Peters who are moving to Texas.
“Even though Romney was very moderate on social issues”
Put bluntly, expressing support for a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality and allowing states to refuse hospital visitation rights to gay partners doesn’t register as moderate. Of course, all the rape comments didn’t help either. But as you’ve rightfully pointed out, the GOP is actively disgusting to an overwhelming majority of young Americans based on things like this. I expect the marriage plank will be removed from the 2016 RNC platform, and I’m glad Boehner, Graham, and other GOP elites are moving aggressively for immigration reform now.
All of this is to say I agree with the meat of your analysis, and I think the elites are taking it to heart. I’m excited for the future of the conservative movement.
My take on everything is here: http://tokendissonance.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/the-grand-new-republic/
Thanks for your comments Rek and I enjoyed your blog post! Right on and keep up the good fight.
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