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Never Despair
Townhall.com ^ | November 2012 | Tim Phillips

Posted on 11/10/2012 5:19:50 AM PST by Kaslin

Tuesday night was truly a bitter, disappointing result. There is no way around it.

My thoughts for the conservative movement: now is not the time to be discouraged. Now is not the time to point fingers at candidates who gave their all or at allies within the movement. Now is not the time to lash out at our opponents on the Left. And lastly, now is not the time to wonder whether or not we can turn things around. Of course we can. Of course we will.

In the months ahead, we are going to carefully study what we did right and what we did wrong over the last year - from messaging to activist mobilization to technology, to new media. We will examine in detail what the Left did as well. Then our movement is going to become bigger, stronger, better organized, smarter, more nimble and tougher so we can advocate for our issues and promote economic freedom.

We've won major victories -- defeating cap-and-trade, stopping card check, and countless state policy wins.

And yes, we've suffered grievous defeats including the heart wrenching health care issue in 2010.

Conservatives have been knocked down before and gotten back up. This time will be no different.

Next week begins the lame duck session of Congress where they’ll be deciding your tax rate, energy policy and making final decisions on the spending cuts we fought for all year. Americans for Prosperity will be engaging our activists in this crucial policy battle. Let’s not allow one night of disappointment to erase the years-long effort to trim the bloated fed government and force them to cut spending.

In 2004, the Left failed to defeat a sitting President they thought was disastrous to their agenda and vulnerable politically. However, during the early years of the decade their movement built powerful capabilities and strengthened their effectiveness in the face of withering electoral defeats in 2000, 2002 and then 2004. They ignored talk of a "transformation" in the electorate that would doom them to long-term decline. Two years later they captured Congress and then won the presidency in 2008.

So it's ironic to hear them telling us that we are on the path to long-term decline! We control our destiny.

Recently I finished reading a book by A.J. Langguth called Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution. In the early 1770s, the fledgling Patriot cause -- really nothing more than a grassroots movement at the time -- suffered political and issue defeats time and again at the hands of a seemingly invincible British Empire and their Tory allies in the colonies.

After one such defeat a key lieutenant of Samuel Adams canvassed a number of Massachusetts towns seeking to rally support for the cause but he reported back that "They are dead, and the dead can't be raised without a miracle." Adams replied, "Nil desperandum. Never despair. That is a motto for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it."

So take it from the original community organizer Samuel Adams. There is no need to despair. The American people are still a great and wise people. They want individual freedom and a more limited government.

And, we will be triumphant in the end. Much lies ahead.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 11/10/2012 5:19:57 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The American people are still a great and wise people.

Only half are.

2 posted on 11/10/2012 5:21:31 AM PST by bigheadfred
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To: Kaslin

“carefully study what we did right and what we did wrong”

Shut down the vote fraud or it doesn’t matter how right we do things. If you poke around here, I’ve been saying that since 2000.


3 posted on 11/10/2012 5:23:37 AM PST by FrogMom (Chicken Little is coming, and he's right!)
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To: Kaslin

This guy is delusional.


4 posted on 11/10/2012 5:25:26 AM PST by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: Kaslin
Where's the guy who always 'FIXES' Headers when you need him: Nothing But Despair!!

I have three words for Mr. Phillips: Dole, McLame, and Mitt. Thanks GOP. No wonder I put all my trust in you, McPutzFace and Boner! What a crew!

5 posted on 11/10/2012 5:30:52 AM PST by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: Kaslin
What if this defeat has been designed to make us become even better warriors for truth?

You know that by voting Mitt Romney in all of of could then sit back a little for four years and let the big boys handle things.

What if that is not the plan?

6 posted on 11/10/2012 5:39:18 AM PST by Slyfox
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To: Kaslin
The American people are still a great and wise people.

Nonsense! Slightly less than half voted with any semblance of wisdom and determination for greatness. The rest voted in a potent combination of ignorance, rapaciousness and malice.

7 posted on 11/10/2012 5:43:56 AM PST by Jagdgewehr (It will take blood.)
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To: Kaslin

You better despair. We’ve entered the abyss and ready to fall head over heels to the bottom.


8 posted on 11/10/2012 5:51:15 AM PST by driftless2
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To: Timber Rattler

I agree.


9 posted on 11/10/2012 5:53:31 AM PST by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
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To: FrogMom

Shut down the vote fraud...

We have 2 years til mid-term. Our side should be fighting everyday for voter ID and to purge the state’s voter roles. That’s the place to start. With a fair election we may or may not have won this battle. I believe we would have picked up more house/senate seats.


10 posted on 11/10/2012 5:56:02 AM PST by mouse1
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To: bigheadfred
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Never Despair, bigheadfred wrote: The American people are still a great and wise people. ...Only half are.


More than half who care enough to vote. We are now outnumbered by takers...it is called Socialism. They won and I do think there is a damned thing we can do about it. I'm tired of all the false hope and stiff upper lip talk. This country will never be the same, we lost it because we didn't pay attention to our school system that now has indoctrinated 3 voting generations. Shame on MOST of the left leaning teachers in our school systems. Shame on us for not paying attention to what they were doing.

But don't try to encourage me it will get better. We lost it when Obamacare was passed and we buried freedom when John Roberts raised Obamacare from the dead. Show me one good thing these days...layoffs, national debt, fiscal cliff, socialized medicine (a death sentence for those over 70 like me), corrupt news media, AAA rating, Benghazi, Muslim takeover of the world, watching my years long and hard earned money being taken away from me because it isn't "fair" that others don't have what I've earned ...make your own list. And don't you dare put HOPE on it ...as Romney said, "Hope is not a strategy." So don't try to keep telling me about "silver linings" ...there aren't any. Get over it and get on with living in this DIFFERENT USA.

11 posted on 11/10/2012 6:07:46 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag
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To: bigheadfred
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Never Despair, bigheadfred wrote: The American people are still a great and wise people. ...Only half are.


More than half who care enough to vote. We are now outnumbered by takers...it is called Socialism. They won and I do think there is a damned thing we can do about it. I'm tired of all the false hope and stiff upper lip talk. This country will never be the same, we lost it because we didn't pay attention to our school system that now has indoctrinated 3 voting generations. Shame on MOST of the left leaning teachers in our school systems. Shame on us for not paying attention to what they were doing.

But don't try to encourage me it will get better. We lost it when Obamacare was passed and we buried freedom when John Roberts raised Obamacare from the dead. Show me one good thing these days...layoffs, national debt, fiscal cliff, socialized medicine (a death sentence for those over 70 like me), corrupt news media, AAA rating, Benghazi, Muslim takeover of the world, watching my years long and hard earned money being taken away from me because it isn't "fair" that others don't have what I've earned ...make your own list. And don't you dare put HOPE on it ...as Romney said, "Hope is not a strategy." So don't try to keep telling me about "silver linings" ...there aren't any. Get over it and get on with living in this DIFFERENT USA.

12 posted on 11/10/2012 6:07:46 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag
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To: bigheadfred
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Never Despair, bigheadfred wrote: The American people are still a great and wise people. ...Only half are.


More than half who care enough to vote. We are now outnumbered by takers...it is called Socialism. They won and I do think there is a damned thing we can do about it. I'm tired of all the false hope and stiff upper lip talk. This country will never be the same, we lost it because we didn't pay attention to our school system that now has indoctrinated 3 voting generations. Shame on MOST of the left leaning teachers in our school systems. Shame on us for not paying attention to what they were doing.

But don't try to encourage me it will get better. We lost it when Obamacare was passed and we buried freedom when John Roberts raised Obamacare from the dead. Show me one good thing these days...layoffs, national debt, fiscal cliff, socialized medicine (a death sentence for those over 70 like me), corrupt news media, AAA rating, Benghazi, Muslim takeover of the world, watching my years long and hard earned money being taken away from me because it isn't "fair" that others don't have what I've earned ...make your own list. And don't you dare put HOPE on it ...as Romney said, "Hope is not a strategy." So don't try to keep telling me about "silver linings" ...there aren't any. Get over it and get on with living in this DIFFERENT USA.

13 posted on 11/10/2012 6:07:46 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag
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To: bigheadfred
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Never Despair, bigheadfred wrote: The American people are still a great and wise people. ...Only half are.


More than half who care enough to vote. We are now outnumbered by takers...it is called Socialism. They won and I do think there is a damned thing we can do about it. I'm tired of all the false hope and stiff upper lip talk. This country will never be the same, we lost it because we didn't pay attention to our school system that now has indoctrinated 3 voting generations. Shame on MOST of the left leaning teachers in our school systems. Shame on us for not paying attention to what they were doing.

But don't try to encourage me it will get better. We lost it when Obamacare was passed and we buried freedom when John Roberts raised Obamacare from the dead. Show me one good thing these days...layoffs, national debt, fiscal cliff, socialized medicine (a death sentence for those over 70 like me), corrupt news media, AAA rating, Benghazi, Muslim takeover of the world, watching my years long and hard earned money being taken away from me because it isn't "fair" that others don't have what I've earned ...make your own list. And don't you dare put HOPE on it ...as Romney said, "Hope is not a strategy." So don't try to keep telling me about "silver linings" ...there aren't any. Get over it and get on with living in this DIFFERENT USA.

14 posted on 11/10/2012 6:07:46 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag
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To: bigheadfred
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Never Despair, bigheadfred wrote: The American people are still a great and wise people. ...Only half are.


More than half who care enough to vote. We are now outnumbered by takers...it is called Socialism. They won and I do think there is a damned thing we can do about it. I'm tired of all the false hope and stiff upper lip talk. This country will never be the same, we lost it because we didn't pay attention to our school system that now has indoctrinated 3 voting generations. Shame on MOST of the left leaning teachers in our school systems. Shame on us for not paying attention to what they were doing.

But don't try to encourage me it will get better. We lost it when Obamacare was passed and we buried freedom when John Roberts raised Obamacare from the dead. Show me one good thing these days...layoffs, national debt, fiscal cliff, socialized medicine (a death sentence for those over 70 like me), corrupt news media, AAA rating, Benghazi, Muslim takeover of the world, watching my years long and hard earned money being taken away from me because it isn't "fair" that others don't have what I've earned ...make your own list. And don't you dare put HOPE on it ...as Romney said, "Hope is not a strategy." So don't try to keep telling me about "silver linings" ...there aren't any. Get over it and get on with living in this DIFFERENT USA.

15 posted on 11/10/2012 6:07:48 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag
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To: Kaslin
We ran OUR John Kerry against THEIR GWB, and lost by about the same margin.

Do you remember their wails of despair in November-December 2004? Weren't they DELICIOUS?

They sounded like we do now. And they were just as wrong about their prospects for 2008 and beyond.

What came out of their "I can't BELIEVE we lost to HIM" process? They got definition, they embraced the radicalism at the core of their vision, and they have now kicked the ass of our mushy, stupid, low-definition, all-things-to-all-people jiveass party twice in a row.

WE, TOO HAVE A CORE OF RADICAL CONVICTION. And ours are better than theirs, and if that's not true numerically, then there's going to be a war.

So, what to do? GO RIGHT. Go as Right as Obama is Left. Obama voters turned up at the polls, and a lot of them are conventionally "unreachable".

The GOP in New Hampshire lost a Congressional seat by 6000 votes (the liberdopian got 12 000 votes in that race). How many guys living in shacks with a woman, a dog, and six kids flying Gadsden flags voted in that race? Damn few, that's how many.

How many of them are on the NH GOP GOTV map? None, that's how many.

The core Obama voter wants to burn that mother***** down. Axelrod found them all.

We need to find ours.

16 posted on 11/10/2012 6:18:24 AM PST by Jim Noble (Diseases desperate grown are by desperate appliance relieved or not at all.)
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To: Kaslin

[ We’ve won major victories — defeating cap-and-trade, stopping card check, and countless state policy wins. ]

Both of which are about to be executed through regulatory fiat.


17 posted on 11/10/2012 6:38:23 AM PST by KansasGirl ("If you have a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."--B. Hussein Obama)
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To: ThePatriotsFlag

There are a lot of us who have been paying attention. There are a lot of us hoping for that flash point that will bring about some real change. Not to mention the windrows of dead bodies piled in the streets.


18 posted on 11/10/2012 6:39:54 AM PST by bigheadfred
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To: ThePatriotsFlag

Man. I grew up in a strong union household and I had real communists for university instructors. My first Presidential vote was for Jerry Brown. Then, I went out into the real world and found out that socialism doesn’t work. People can change. This election wasn’t a knockout. It was a split decision. I have been around real communists. They would be scary as hell if there were more of them. The leaders of the Democrat party aren’t communists. They’re just grifters. They don’t want to enslave us all. They just think they can squeak out a little more money for themselves with their policies. We see what those policies could cause and it worries us. They may destroy us, but it will be because the Democrats are stupid, not because they want the country to fail. Do you honestly think that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry and Obama want to put on brown jumpsuits and go pull weeds in the collective’s cabbage patch? They want to live in America, not Mozambique. They just think they can squeeze another golden egg out of our country. They are running a balancing act and they think they can enrich themselves and their buddies even more and the country won’t tip over and fall into a pit.


19 posted on 11/10/2012 7:12:54 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Kaslin

We need to despair - anything else will only keep the sheeple moving along as they herd us to our final lot in life as livestock who exist at the whim of and for the pleasure of the government.


20 posted on 11/10/2012 7:17:14 AM PST by trebb (Allies no longer trust us. Enemies no longer fear us.)
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