Posted on 11/11/2012 11:27:31 AM PST by pabianice
The key to understanding the 2012 election is simple: A huge slice of the electorate stayed home.
The punditocracy — which is more of the ruling class than an eye on the ruling class — has naturally decided that this is because Republicans are not enough like Democrats: They need to play more identity politics (in particular, adopt the Left’s embrace of illegal immigration) in order to be viable. But the story is not about who voted; it is about who didn’t vote. In truth, millions of Americans have decided that Republicans are not a viable alternative because they are already too much like Democrats. They are Washington. With no hope that a Romney administration or more Republicans in Congress would change this sad state of affairs, these voters shrugged their shoulders and became non-voters.
“This is the most important election of our lifetime.” That was the ubiquitous rally cry of Republican leaders. The country yawned. About 11 million fewer Americans voted for the two major-party candidates in 2012 — 119 million, down from 130 million in 2008. In fact, even though our population has steadily increased in the last eight years (adding 16 million to the 2004 estimate of 293 million Americans), about 2 million fewer Americans pulled the lever for Obama and Romney than for George W. Bush and John Kerry.
That is staggering.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
The first part of that Stalin quote, the part you conveniently left out, is what's important.
The Republican Primary process is FUBAR.
Here’s the way to do it.
1. Primaries are in the order of states where Republicans did best in the last General Election. The whole process is to take less than two months.
2. No more than three candidates, to be chosen by a committee.
3. No debating between the candidates, win on your own merits, not by tearing down the other candidates, and providing fodder for our political enemies.
Besides stuffing the ballots, the major fraud is in the “lost” ballots of all those owerwhelmingly republican districts. My ass low turnout!!!
Yes I’m sure the guys in the landing craft on D-Day wanted a better boat. I’m sure glad they didn’t vote their “Conscience”.
I don’t buy it.
I don’t buy the numbers.
I don’t buy that they know “who” stayed home either.
We cannot turn this country around until we stop voting for liberals, period.
Right so it is the fault of Conservatives like me that Mittens lost, granted that the Rove Wing of the Parry rigged the nomination process in their favor and used the failed 2008 playbook of John McCain in the hopes of different results, now it is our fault, right!
This article is idiotic garbage.
The simple answer is that millions of votes haven’t been counted yet. Only a moron would compare the 2012 vote total a couple days after the election to the certified final vote total from 2008.
It’s very clear Romney received more votes than McCain.
There are 3 million unprocessed ballots in California ALONE. New York state only has about 86% of its votes counted.
See also.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/there-are-no-missing-voters
Enjoy your “ conscience” for the next 4 years.
In you stayed home STFU you lost any right to bitch about Obama or what he’s going to do.
Thanks to a jug eared egotistical moron we got stuck with clintoon in ‘94. Two years later conservatives rose up in mass (without a catchy name like ‘tea party’) and handed the ‘bent one’ his a$$ on a plate. All that was left was to wait two years and kick the dirt bag to the curb (any of this sound familiar yet?).
And what happened two years later?
After another long, screwed up, confusing primary, we got Dole. A man all conservatives respected, but also a politician no one trusted. And the result?
Four more years of ‘the bent one’, and conservatives wondering how it could happen. And sixteen years later almost the EXACT scenario plays out again.
And again conservatives wondering how it could happen.
(Hint - it happens because we have some pathological resistance to FINISHING the enemy off!!! We knock them down and then let them survive.)
Bingo. No excuses for these morons and idiots all now coming out of the woodwork now.
The GOPe is not capable of lofting people like Dole, McCain, or Romney any longer, if it wants to win elections.
It’s that simple.
When it pulls it’s collective head out of it’s ass, and helps us nominate solid citizens for office, we’ll see some different outcomes.
Until then, I’ll just sit here and watch others blame the sound Conservatives who’ve had enough.
I voted for Romney. You folks don’t know how close I came to not doing so. We simply MUST quit playing the RNC’s game here.
Voting in RINO Republicans has as nearly destroyed our nation as voting in Clintons and Obamas.
We need to go Right, not status quo middle when our folks are in the White House.
If were not going to do that, then guess what, a lot of folks are going to stay home. And why shouldn’t they.
Give us right, or go pound sand. When you get tired of seeing guys like Clinton and Obama get elected, come back and talk to us.
Give us a Conservative to vote for, and we’ll be there all the way.
What about all the lost military votes?
We won the election. We lost the counting
Agree .... Takers took twice.
The primary selection process is really bad. There needs to be ONE day for ALL states to vote for the candidate of their choice. The candidate with the most votes wins the primary. There could be a run-off if necessary between the top two, where again, one voting day for the whole country. I, living in Texas, had no voice in who won the primary and many others didn’t either. Why is that process so screwed up?
We need to defund the beast.
I voted for the best of two bad candidates. But I agree with your sentiment for those that consider themselves more important then the country.
I was a Newt voter in February but I realized it was more important for the country and went to vote with a clear head for Romney. Don’t call me a RINO. I know full well I would have had some major problems with some of Governor Romney’s policies if he became president but four more years of this administration is a far greater risk to the country’s existence than Mitt Romney would have been. I understand conservatives angry at the establishment for pushing one moderate after another to get the nomination but was it worth it to stay home in this particular year?
Unfortunately, Ted Cruz was born in Calgary Canada, he does not meet the Constitutional requirements to be POTUS.
Great post. You can bet the “Greatest Generation” would not have set this one out. All you conservatives/republicans who sat this one out...hope you don’t have kids...because you just punched ‘em in the face. What will you say when your grandkids ask...”What did you do to protect our Republic in the Great Election of 2012?”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.