Posted on 02/14/2017 5:46:10 AM PST by Kaslin
Here's a news flash for Democrats and other Americans on the left: Four years ago, when Barack Obama was re-elected president, conservatives were just as depressed as you are now that Hillary Clinton lost and Donald Trump won.
I describe this as news because this undoubtedly surprises many of you. You probably never gave a moment's thought to how depressed conservatives were in 2012. (Why would you? Unlike you, we shun hysteria.) But believe me -- we were.
Many of us believed that President Obama was doing great damage to America. Now we are convinced that he did more damage to America domestically, to America's position the world and to the world at large than any other two-term president. He left office with racial tensions -- many of which he exacerbated -- greater than at any time since the civil rights era half a century ago. He left the world's worst regimes -- Iran, China, Russia, North Korea and radical Islamist terror groups -- stronger and more aggressive than before he became president. Economic growth never rose above 3 percent, a first for a two-term president. He nearly doubled the national debt and had little to nothing to show for it. Obamacare hurt more people financially than it helped medically, including physicians. More people than ever are on government aid. The list is far longer than this.
Moreover, just like most Democrats in 2016, most Republicans in 2012 expected to win.
The depression among conservatives was palpable. To cite only my own experience, I turned the television off on election night. It was too painful to watch. Instead, I played hearts on the computer and listened to Strauss's "Death and Transfiguration" to lighten the mood.
But why does the level of conservative despair four years ago come as a surprise to Americans on the left?
First, unlike much of the left, most conservatives handle despair like mature adults. Most obviously, we didn't riot. In fact, in America, rioting -- not to mention shutting down highways and airports, taking over college offices and protesting at peoples' homes -- is a monopoly of the left.
Nor did we allow our conservative children to take a day off from school to demonstrate.
Nor did conservative teachers preach opposition to Obama in their classrooms.
Nor did we print posters with the words "Not My President."
Nor did conservative clergy declare fast days.
The second reason is that we know you, but you don't know us.
You read, listen to, watch, socialize with and study under leftists. Only if you are stuck with some immediate relatives who aren't on the left do you encounter a nonleftist (let alone a nonleftist idea). Therefore, there is no way you would know how painful it was for conservatives during that time. While liberals feel free to express their emotions and opinions to anyone, anywhere, any time, conservatives, especially those who voted for Trump, live like Marranos.
The Marranos were Jews living in Spain or Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition in the 1400s who lived like Christians but secretly practiced Judaism. That is how most Trump voters have been forced to live. They live like most people and hide their identity as Trump voters, lest they lose their job, their business, their relatives, their friends and/or their good name.
A gay professor writing in The Wall Street Journal recently echoed this analogy when he likened being in the closet as a Trump voter to being in the closet as a gay man when he was younger. He said:
"I began having gay relationships at 25 but remained closeted. I hated lying to people, but in the 1980s and '90s I feared that coming out would estrange me from family and damage my career. Similarly, I now find creative ways to avoid answering whether I voted for Donald Trump. This may be hard for some to believe, but watching protesters today call Trump supporters racists and bigots has been nearly as distressing as being told to 'die in hell, (vulgarity)' 30 years ago. ... I am as afraid about acknowledging that I voted for Mr. Trump today as I was about being gay yesterday. There seems to be as little understanding of my political views as there was about my sexual orientation."
Finally, leftists lack self-awareness. They think they are the apotheosis of tolerance when in fact they are far less tolerant than most conservatives. They think they embody kindheartedness when in fact the further left you go, the greater the meanness. And they think they suffer uniquely when they lose a national election.
Leftists' pain is not one whit greater than that of conservatives four years ago. But many of them can't handle pain nearly as well. If they could, they'd be grown-ups and no longer on the left.
I was NOT Depressed. I was making plans to hunker down and prepare for the battle. The war is not yet won.
God did bless the US again during the election.
Now, the real work begins.
Screw the Left. Let’s get it done.
Prager is too smart to be casting his pearls before Leftist swine.
The sun will Super Nova before they concede his point.
“More people than ever are on government aid.”
I think this is the plan.
Geez...I wasn’t depressed one bit. I was peeved at the Republican powers that be for not putting up a decent run at the Presidency. Again.
Depressed? No. Determined to do well in spite of a government which harmed my industry. Yup.
Stop talking like pansy and just get on with it.
the left just thought he hated Obama because he was black.
lol
The writer is a moron. Conservatives were disgusted and angry. The writer apparently is in denial that LIBs are lunatics.
We were not applying for jobs to protest in the street.
The people who protest without pay lack basic common sense.
Yea, me neither. I was upset and disappointed, but I don’t get depressed about anything.
I woke up, realized Obama won, said “Crap.” and went to work.
I gave him the respect due the office and the derision due the man.
THE DIFFERENCE IS, we got up the morning after the election, put on our big-boy pants, and went to WORK.
I listened to Mahler's 9th symphony straight through twice before I could get to sleep that night.
I still made it to work on time.
I would not be giving Democrats any measure of comfort. I’d be spreading doom and gloom for them wherever I could. I’d push them to apoplexy and self-destructive behavior.
I have to disagree with Prager here. I was not crying and in hysterics because Obama won in 2012. The measure of being “just as depressed” is in one’s actions. The actions of the Right were not what is happening now. The Right did not like the fact that Obama won but did not go crazy and challenge the legitimacy of his presidency. We didn’t riot. We didn’t attack liberals. I hate these equivalency arguments.
Like I said in my comment in #1 we behaved like adults which we are.
Yes we were disgusted, but we behaved like adults, not like children.
Exactly
Totally agree.
Yes. Totally disgusted for sure, but we did behave like adults...and like real Americans.
The Left is neither of those and trying really, really hard to provoke those of us that are into retaliating against their stupidity and Communism. They need to be careful what they wish for because once the eagle is out of the nest, it will be grimly BAD for them.
I have the weight of the world off my mind since the election.
I push back a bit the idea of preparing for lock n load and focus on fixing things and going on with life.
It’s a very good feeling.
Right! We did NOT go batpoop crazy.
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