The Democrats' Big Problem

The American Thinker ^ | November 24, 2012 | Bruce Walker

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The left's post-election celebrations are wholly unwarranted.

Consider..................................

In fact, every other Republican seat is in a state which Romney carried handily, while four other Democrat seats -- in New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, and Colorado -- came from states in which Romney ran close to Obama. That translates in 2014 into gains, and very likely gains which will translate into a Republican Senate majority. That very fact -- because Senate Democrats can do the math -- means that Harry Reid's plan to make filibusters harder will almost certainly fail: in two years, and perhaps for years thereafter, Republicans may control the Senate.

The House of Representatives was held, and with a clear working majority. This also, likely, is the best shape Democrats will be in in the House for quite a while. The second midterm has uniformly been bad or outright disastrous for the political party which controls the White House. In the elections in 1918, 1942, 1958, 1974, 1986, and 2006, the party holding the White House lost seats (often a lot of seats) in the House. The 1998 Clinton midterm, in a time of prosperity and an impeachment which the gutless Republican Senate punted on, was the single exception to the rule: Democrats gained three seats.

Worse for Democrats, Republicans now control more governorships than before the 2012 election, and these Republican governors are showing a lot of fight on issues like medical exchanges on ObamaCare, Right to Work, voter-identification laws, and tax reform. In a strong Republican 1914-style election, there will be more Republican governors, not fewer, after the midterm.

Even more troubling for Democrats,................ That means that Democrats control only 40 of the 99 state legislative chambers..................

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"..........Liberals were offended by [Ronald Reagan's] brand of moral absolutism, It was a direct confrontation of communism; and his conviction that communism was a form of modern-day slavery was at the core of his vision. It is the best example of how Reagan's faith and political philosophy drove the words he spoke according to Richard Wirthlin, his long time friend and advisor.

Tax cuts, limited government, personal retirement accounts, freedom from communism...each of these policy positions taken by Ronald Reagan speaks to his philosophy but also to his optimism. And that brings me to favorite stories.

One of them I will share with you, I heard President Reagan tell and re-tell many times...and so perhaps have you. But we will always enjoy hearing it as much as he enjoyed the telling of it, I am certain.

"The parents of two brothers ndash; one an incurable pessimist and the other an incurable optimist..; took their sons to see a doctor in the hopes of curing the boys of their respective conditions. The physician started with the young pessimist. He took the boy into a room brimming with a mountain of new toys. "These are all yours," the doctor said. Immediately, the young pessimist burst into tears. "What's wrong?" His parents asked. "If I play with the toys, "the boy sobbed, "surely they will all break and be ruined."

Next, the doctor tried his hand with the young optimist. Instead of toys, the doctor took his patient into a room filled with a mountain of horse dung. "This is for you." The doctor told him. With that, the boy smiled, so wide he could have eaten a banana sideways. Excited, he raced to the top of the mountain of manure, where, with his bare hands, he began digging into the pungent heap. Baffled, the doctor and the parents looked at one another quizzically, "Son," the father asked." What in heaven's name do you think you're doing?"

"Well, the boy replied, with all this horse dung, I figure there's got to be a pony in there somewhere!" [end]

Maybe this story helps to explain Ronald Reagan. He believed that Americans could achieve whatever they put their minds too and he intended to have optimism rule during his presidency.......... Source

[Gene Eric]

>> The Democrats’ Big Problem

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Not to forgot God, the Constitution, and me.

[ansel12]

The establishment may control the presidential race, but the tea party and Palin are players in the down ticket races.

Here we go with 2014.

[Lancey Howard]

I love these encouraging analyses, but I can’t help feeling in the pit of my stomach that somehow the GOP will screw up.

Again.

[Tzimisce]

Two men are standing on the deck of the Titanic watching it sink beneath the waves. The first man turns to the second and says “This has been a really lousy trip. I hope we get a new captain in New York.”

Two Republicans are watching the 2012 elections. The first turns to the second and says “I hope we can in 2014.”

[Secret Agent Man]

the elite of the gop screw it up. on purpose.

[hosepipe]

Hes a dreamer.... voting is over...... OVER.....

[nathanbedford]

Before we lose the election of 2014 we ought to consider how to conduct ourselves in the meantime. We have the House of Representatives and we have a filibuster sufficiency in the Senate. Those are potent forces. To understand how potent the forces can be consider the situation reversed with the Democrats out of the White House and in charge of the House of Representatives and filibustering in the Senate.

Of course, the media would not be writing stories about how the Republicans must compromise their views or face extinction, they would be writing stories about the absence of a presidential mandate and the need for the president to accommodate the real voice of the people as expressed by the House of Representatives. More to the point, Republican officeholders would not be sniping at other Republicans, they would they be breaking their written oaths concerning taxes, they would not, in short, be negotiating against themselves. But that is precisely what Republicans are doing today. Why?

The Stockholm syndrome? The understandable human need not to be beaten up by the media? Or, most likely, a lack of commitment to a set of conservative values. We conservatives, especially those who rise to the rank of elected office as Republicans, betray a lack of confidence in the virtue of conservative principles. We are apologizing before we even begin negotiating.

Politicians are easy to blame but they are really only mirrors of our own souls. The answer is not to turn our face from the process righteously and indignantly claiming the politicians screw us and therefore the system sucks, the answer is to do what the left does, build political forces that force the politicians to behave the way we want them to. Nor should we stop there, we should build forces which intimidate the media into reporting the news the way we want it seen and heard. It is time to start outing reporters and television personalities for their adulteries, their hypocritical closet homosexuality, their gambling, their excessive drinking, their illicit drug use, their tax cheating. Put the fear of God in them.

It is time to expand the concept of the Tea Party beyond applications only to economic issues, but to bring to play an emotional drive of the entire conservative electorate across the whole spectrum of issues. If the Tea Party wants to remain configured as an economic lobby group only, let us hear from an aggressive gun group, pro-life group, pro-traditional marriage group. If politicians are afraid to steal our guns it is not because they have come into a state of enlightenment, rather it is because, as Ronald Reagan said, "if they do not see the light make them feel the heat." Even the left, at least up until this election, has been intimidated by the NRA.

We have social media and the entire spectrum of new media with which to organize and broadcast these values. Mix a little sex in and you will get coverage by traditional media. If there can be gorilla marketing there can also be guerrilla politicking.

Never again should we let the other side define us in an election, never again let them steal the march. The campaign for the next election begins today and that begins with governing. Guerrilla politicking begins with unelected conservatives forcing elected Republicans to toe the line. I am advocating a full-court press now until the next election, full-court means multifaceted as well as end-to-end. At the cost of being called obstructionist, we will finally force our issues to be litigated. We have never really won the mushy middle anyway, we would not be sacrificing much for great gain.

[hosepipe]

Republicans will back up the Titanic and hit the iceberg again.. its not sinking fast enough..
Republican PollyAnnas need to be laughed off the stage..

The exodus from the republican party must be going quite strongly by now..
This cartoon of an election has gotten thru to many..
2014 will have a smaller and much more “moderate”(RINO) republican party..
The 2 x 4 has landed on the heads of many.. gotten their attention..
2014 will be no way like 2010... or even 2012..

[The Wizard]

you MUST control who Counts The Votes...,.

[Malesherbes]

Synopsis of the article = the 2012 election? There must be a pony in there somewhere.

[driftless2]

In a somewhat similar analogy, Dem voters keep electing nitwits like Obama hoping they'll get a pony i.e. manna from heaven or a mountain of money from American taxpayers. I detected many notes of frustration from the various hands-outstretched ethnic groups in the last four years who were puzzled by the failure of the Obama admin to cure their material goodies problem in relation to the evil 1% who got to the mountain of goodies before they did. "Where is our mountain of goodies?" cry the aggrieved Obamatons. When is Obama going to take all the goodies from the undeserving rich and give it to them?

So Obama, not delivering in his first four years, now has to try to satisfy the angry mob who expected him to fleece the wealthy and shower gold down upon the mob. It didn't happen in the last four years, and chances are strong that it won't happen the next four years. But not from lack of trying by the Obama admin. Nevertheless, chances are high that four years from the unhappy and perpetually demanding takers will be just as unhappy and demanding. Will they still vote for the party that is represented by a mountain of fecal matter hoping there's finally a pony underneath? Millions of them will still keep on voting for the Dems. But I'll bet millions more will come to their senses and realize there's no such thing as a free lunch.

[MachIV]

Agreed. At this point, I think it’s imperative that everyone start investing in lead and brass........because that’s where it’s probably all headed.

[sako shooter2]

The GOP-E is to blame. Look at Virginia. George Allen couldn’t win an election in Virginia if he was unopposed, yet he is a favorite of the elites.

[lentulusgracchus]

[Articles] .....That translates in 2014 into gains, and very likely gains which will translate into a Republican Senate majority.

People told us that this time. So where's our Senate majority? We had 20 vulnerable Dems up for relection, and instead they posted gains at our expense.

And they gained five House seats (or more d/o appeals and challenges and recounts yet to come).

So .... what happened?

[lentulusgracchus]

[Article] ...these Republican governors are showing a lot of fight on issues like medical exchanges on ObamaCare....

Like Florida, where RiNO officials have already run up the white flag and requested a meeting with the execrable Sebelius so they can kiss her backside and grovel before an anointed herm of The Won?

Look, the GOP is under orders from the Chamber types to surrender on Obamacare so they can dump their employee healthcare plans and blame the 'Rats. The fix has been in for four and a half years already.

Done deal, now they meet in a back room and lick the holy loins.

[lentulusgracchus]

But I'll bet millions more will come to their senses and realize there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Oh, please. Paleocons have been hoping and praying that would happen for the last 60 years. So far, no joy. Do you want to keep at it for another 30 or 40 years, knowing how things turned out last time?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Beautifully outlined path forward.

This running around like chickens with our heads cut off is not a winning strategy.

You’re spot on the money about building forces from within our conservative ranks. The visual of Americans (determined to stop the fiscal suicide being pursued by this administration), deliberately and quickly coalescing to stand together and face off against elected GOP weakness (and endless punditry of shock and woe over the election) will effectively throw power to the new conservatives in Congress (it’s the only thing that will — always does — get leadership’s attention).

The growth in conservative state houses lends credibility to the high probability for success in this move.

[ronnie raygun]

Not a wimper from these feckless spineless fools on voter fraud in these states. They have layed down and accepted it so why would 2014 be any different?

[ronnie raygun]

Not a wimper from these feckless spineless fools on voter fraud in these states. They have layed down and accepted it so why would 2014 be any different?