Game Called on Account of Darkness

Sultan Knish ^ | Nov 7, 2012 | Daniel Greenfield

[expat1000]

A week ago we sat waiting out the storm when the lights flickered and went out. One moment we were sitting in a lit room, the television flashing picture and sound, the internet feeding news, and then we were in the dark.

At first we expected the lights to come on at any minute. Any hour. Any day. And then living without water or power, day after day, it seemed as if the light would never come back.

And then, unexpectedly, after almost a week, they did.

The lights have gone out in America now. They may come back. They may not. It's up to us. No one is going to come help us do it. Other countries have America. We have ourselves.

Readers will notice that this site did not predict any Romney landslides. It did not engage in empty cheers or promise that he would win half the country and restore moral leadership. That's not what this site is about. This site is about the hard truths and now as we sit in the dark, let's pass out some of those around the room.

We can blame Chris Christie, Sandy or Romney's last debate performance. But let's look at the actual election.

Romney outlasted the primaries because he was the most electable. Two blue state politicians, as bland and inoffensive as possible, ran on the economy, not on war or social issues, and managed to convince many Democrats that they could fix the economy. He got a white turnout to match that of Ronald Reagan and crowded rallies. And none of it was enough.

Romney had an excellent machine. But Obama had the bigger machine that was more than a collection of SuperPACs. It was the urban political machine, with its suburban tentacles, fed by taxpayer money and integrated into every budget. The time when it could be beaten the old way may be passing.

The people who came out to worship Obama stayed home. Romney's rallies drew big crowds. But when all was said and done, the lines of people who feed off the political machine were there, and the handlers of the machine cast their multiple votes and carried off their manifold frauds because their own private economy depended on it.

Every time people ask me why the left has such a grip on this country, my answer is because they worked for it. It's the answer that most people don't want to hear, but it's true. The left has been planning this for a while. They have been playing the long game, building the infrastructure and indoctrinating generations. And to beat them, we will have to do the same thing.

The right is 40 years behind the left and it remains a disorganized collection of potentials seeking a compass point. The "right" that got behind Mitt Romney consists of millionaires who want fewer regulations and easier imports from China, of social conservatives who are mainly ignored, except when voter turnout becomes an issue, libertarians who want more freedoms, and the non-ideological small business middle class and the struggling working class sensing their country and way of life slipping away from them.

Those groups could be welded together into a movement every bit as tribal and protective of its interests, capable of engaging in collective action on behalf of its own interests, as the urban machine vote. And that may already be happening with the Tea Party. But the counter-revolution of the bourgeoisie isn't here yet. And there's plenty of work to do to make it a reality.

The Republican establishment had its shot, twice. It put up moderate non-objectionable candidates. And it lost. It has no policies, beyond keeping the system going, and it has no ideas and no agenda, besides winning. It is a decadent political class fused with an even more decadent pundit class that views elections like these as a game, not as a life-and-death matter. It makes up lies and tells them to its base and hopes that the base will then forgive and forget being lied to and used one more time.

It's not done, by any stretch of the imagination. Right now, Christie is patting himself on the back and drawing up a list of advisers for a 2016 run. And a dozen equally loathsome personalities are doing the same thing. And they may even get their way. But that doesn't really matter. This is a long game and to win it, we have to think long term.

Moderation does not win elections. If you think it does, go look at the smirking face of Barack Obama. And then imagine him running for office back when Bill Ayers was building bombs. America's new rulers were once considered far more extreme and unpopular than the Tea Party. Embracing radical and unpopular ideas is not a losing strategy. It is a short term losing strategy and a long term winning strategy so long as your ideas can be used to build a movement capable of turning those ideas into an organizing force.

The question is whether a right-wing movement can emerge that will make the vast majority of small businessmen in this country feel as negatively about a Democratic president as welfare voters feel about a Republican president?

This election has come close to testing that proposition. The time has come to test it further. The left went after gun owners, the way that it went after business owners, and the NRA used its hostility to build a powerful coalition of gun owners who broke the will of the elected left and made them turn on easier prey.

The key is organization. The left built its machines by convincing entire groups that they had a binding interest in a reflexive opposition to Republicans under a Democratic umbrella. Consolidating an opposition based on the same principles, that same sense that its financial oxygen will be cut if the Democrats win, is doable. But it cannot begin and end with the financials.

This is a cultural war and living in denial of that is senseless. Those social issues? They belong on the table. Because the alternative is that the table will belong to the left and we will be stuck arguing the level of regulation that is appropriate in a society whose entire moral imperative is based on the values of regulation.

Most people, left and right, want a society based on values. Opting out of the values debate means that we lose by default. Yes some of that is unpopular. It will make some elections unwinnable. Much like supporting gay marriage twenty years ago. The left kept going and it won because that is how the game is played.

These are all building blocks, but they are still scattered pieces. The right I am describing is based on the left. It is the mirror image, a counter-revolutionary pushback against the left's intrusions into the lives, values and work of its people. And that isn't enough. A counter-revolution that is reactive will fail. It is why the Romney campaign was doomed from the start. It is why the Tea Party isn't enough. It's not enough to be against things. It's not enough to be for things because they are the opposite of the things that the people you are at war with are for.

A movement needs a deeper sense of passion. It must be fueled by a certainty that it holds the answer to the problems of its society and its civilization. It must believe that its existence would be necessary even if the left did not exist. And it must be willing to do anything to win.

This is not a mere battle of elections. The left occupied and won other fields long before it had a shot at doing anything like taking power. It is first of all a battle of ideas. And it is a battle of structures. And that means a conservative cultural war will be necessary and conservative structures must be built within the system. Rather than making arguments, we must create facts on the ground.

That's a tall order and we are way behind. And tactics like these are not very palatable to many of us, because they resemble what the left does. They would rather expect people to naturally do the right thing. And that's nice. I would very much like people to do the right thing. I would like to stop by one of those long lines that I saw today at the polls, almost as long as the one for free government stuff, and show them a graph of the national debt and the debt that their children will owe. I would like to think that it would change their minds. But I know better... and so do you.

The left got this far by having a plan. We will either find a plan or we will be gone. America will go the way of Latin America, with gated communities, conservative oligarchs, violent ghettos and red politicians screaming about power to the people. There will be no law, just men with guns and newspapers, and generals in convenient positions, and suitcases full of cocaine in the right hands. If you like this system, it's probably only a generation away. Given enough immigration from south of the border-- maybe less. And then California turns into Brazil and America turns into California.

We can stop this, but we won't do it without building a movement that can stand up to the left, without assembling machines that will bring together many of the same people who voted for Obama, and we won't do it if we are too afraid of the consequences of fighting a culture war with the left to get started.

It is dark now. On my side of the coast, the time approaches 1 AM. The dark end of one day and the beginning of a new day. It all depends on how you look at things.

Revolutions are not born out of success, they are born out of despair. They rise out of the dark hours of the night. They come from the understanding that all the other options are running out. Sometimes you have to fall down to rise and sometimes you have to hit bottom, to gather one last breath and fight to reach the top.

This is still a wonderful country. It is the finest place that this civilization has produced. Despite the events of the last day, it is worth fighting for.

[lowbridge]

” Exactly. I couldn’t believe the last few errors”

Cell phone auto typo. That’s supposed to be “last few years”, but same thing I guess.

[wita]

BTW...Feds are a creature of the States. We want a different Fed Gov...We the People need to own the statehouses...

I agree completely but you also need control and where cats are concerned that ain’t easy.

Control is a subject unto itself. For example, the republican party has a great number of state legislatures under its control, as well as the US House, but we lost the executive branch again, and don’t have the Senate, which means we are on the outside looking in as well as under the gun of the left and the media.

I have said long and often that the only thing left to save this country are the states, but how that is to be accomplished hasn’t come to me yet.

[arasina]

A movement needs a deeper sense of passion. It must be fueled by a certainty that it holds the answer to the problems of its society and its civilization. It must believe that its existence would be necessary even if the left did not exist. And it must be willing to do anything to win.

I thought we did have that passion this time around. Apparently the sticking point is that The Won's people "were willing to do anything to win" and our side got steamrolled by the political media complex.

[left that other site]

I hear you, my FRiend.

My mom called me this morning to commiserate. She was shocked and horrified that Scott Brown was defeated by the fake Indian. Here in Florida, we have lost our Beloved Congressman West. And on and on.

I am heartsick.

[oust the louse]

I agree with you on the voting system...how could so much enthusiasm and attitude get snuffed out by a party with no enthusiasm? It’s as if the machines were calculated to switch enough votes in all those enthusiastic states. How did he NOT win one of them? Seriously?

[lowbridge]

Exactly. I couldn’t believe the last few years, watching people I know to be staid, solid conservatives act as if Romney was the new Reagan. Had romney been elected, sure he would have done a better job than obama. BUT no doubt would have stabbed us in the back on quite a few issues the way mccain did and does. Appointed liberal left supreme court justices, favored amnesty for illegal aliens, allowed taxpayer funded abortions to continue, caved to the environmental/global warming crowd now and then, made deals with democrats in raising taxes or many other issues, etc.

[arasina]

There is nowhere left to run. There is nowhere left in this country that is safe. WE are the enemy now. I watched this happen in Israel. The brave Zionists and the pioneers, the Settlers who were evicted from their land and their homes, broken into a million shattered pieces, their beloved land handed over to their genocidal enemy while the world watched and nodded its approval, and knew that it was only a matter of time before it happened here.

The left had reigned too long in Israel. The right and the left were no longer distinguishable from each other save for a few voices crying in the wilderness.

The Jews have always been the miner’s canary. I stopped praying for the peace of Jerusalem because Jerusalem no longer exists as a holy city. They have forsaken their G-d and G-d has forsaken them. Maybe forever.

It took longer here because we are so much bigger, so much harder to defeat, but it began long ago and never let up. It has taken three full generations to reach this point in America, but reach it they have.

I saw the last vestige of our freedom fall by the wayside when the clinton administration stole millions of acres of land from the states and put it under federal control. Then the supreme court ruled that our private property was no longer sacrosanct. After that, there was no turning back. We have become Israel. WE have forsaken G-d and G-d has forsaken us. And that is just the way it is.

The truth very well and sadly said, MM.

[arasina]

We are going to have to go undercover and infiltrate the infrastructure that the liberals built. That is the only way out of this — take it over. The schools. The media. The states (we have a decent start here). The military.

Infiltrate it all and then take it over from within.

You're right. Just like they did to us. That is exactly what Daniel Greenfield is saying in today's piece.

[mo]

its a long project...the liberal corruption of the Feds was begun in earnest in the late 1890’s. Anything we might achieve..will take decades of education on the ground to see bear fruit.

When California and New York become reliably red..due to the efforts of local precinct Tea Party’s over several election cycles..we can expect to start to see Constitutional Fed Gov...but until then to expect anything else is foolish..and to pour cash ad time down another RINO national campaign is a waste of money.

[MestaMachine]

Are we prepared to wait three generations to achieve this? Most of us will be long gone. Our children are, for all practical purposes, under government control even if you homeschool. Who will be left to carry on what they never knew existed?

[Jane Long]

Our children are, for all practical purposes, under government control even if you homeschool. Who will be left to carry on what they never knew existed?

I've wondered that for some time. How do we counter act the liberal machine in our schools? These kids aren't being taught actual history. They're being taught revisionist history. Do we start, or gather, in private schools - to teach what once was? I've taught my kids real vs what's being taught. Is it our calling to teach the younger kids the truth in schools and church classes? Not sure. Not sure about much, right now.

[Excellence]

The question is whether a right-wing movement can emerge that will make the vast majority of small businessmen in this country feel as negatively about a Democratic president as welfare voters feel about a Republican president?

The problem with that is that there will always be more welfare recipients than small business owners.

[Jane Long]

The problem with that is that there will always be more welfare recipients than small business owners.

As a business owner and tax payer, I feel like standing outside the welfare office and, when the recipients walk out, ask for my half of whatever they're "getting" because I worked hard for that. And, I'm tired of them taking what I'm (busting my butt) making.

[BlueLancer]

"Who will be left to carry on what they never knew existed?"

Swear allegiance to the flag,
Whatever flag they offer;
Never hint at what you really feel.
Teach the children quietly,
For, someday, sons and daughters,
Will rise up and fight while we stood still.

Silent Running (Mike and the Mechanics)

[Excellence]

The sad part is that if you explain to them how they can earn twice what they are getting in welfare, they will turn you down flat because it involves getting up in the morning.

[MestaMachine]

Can you hear me? Can you hear me callin’?
That song always gave me goosebumps. Still does.

[arasina]

Are we prepared to wait three generations to achieve this? Most of us will be long gone. Our children are, for all practical purposes, under government control even if you homeschool. Who will be left to carry on what they never knew existed?

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Viktor E. Frankl

How true Daddy's words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. - Anne Frank

I've given my life to the principle and the ideal of memory, and remembrance. - Elie Wiesel

[TigersEye]

My heart goes out to those who are suffering from the effects of Sandy and have to deal with another storm so soon after it. I am fine, cyn, high and dry 7,600 ft in the CO Rockies. When the storm surge reaches my doorstep we’re all in deep doo.

[GladesGuru]

“I’ve given my life to the principle and the ideal of memory, and remembrance. - Elie Wiesel

The Elie Weisels of the world are cowards who didn’t use a gun to defend their own lives - they depended on better men to defend them and for the vast majority, the good men arrived too late.

I have little patience for those unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives and those of their children.

[arasina]

The Elie Weisels of the world are cowards who didn’t use a gun to defend their own lives - they depended on better men to defend them and for the vast majority, the good men arrived too late.

I have little patience for those unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives and those of their children.

So I guess you'd shoot me, because I am fearful and you would consider me a coward. Not everyone is a rough and tough type of person. So be it.