Vent. It's good, it's necessary, and there is assuredly a LOT to be pissed about.
The Democrats control the House. Considering the fact that far more Democrat seats were up for grabs in the Senate than Republican seats, we're lucky that the Senate sits fairly even as it is.
And it's your right to be pissed. But in a situation like this, you have two choices: you can be pissed or you can take a step back and evaluate the situation. It's right to do the former, but I hope we are able to come around to doing the latter sooner or later.
First off, I have been rather disturbed by the hyper-orthodox "I'm-more-conservative-than-you" outlook that has reigned around here for the past two years. If you tell people in our party often enough that they are not "conservatives", they start to believe you after a while and they leave. Elections are not won by insulting members of our party and telling them they are RINOs because they don't take a hardline approach to conservatism.
There has been a disconnect with reality in this forum for several years now, and I believe last night was its culmination. Individuals with hardline, hyper-orthodox positions have been very active in labeling bearers of bad news "trolls" or "RINOs". There are many individuals here suffering under the mistaken notion that if we are just orthodox enough in our Conservatism, we'll begin to win... and that bad news for Republicans CAN'T be bad... because we KNOW that all bad news is MSM spin.
As much as some might hate to hear it, the broad majority of this country is not "Conservative" in the orthodox sense promoted here! A large number of those that vote "Republican" ARE those that are otherwise dismissed as RINOs! It used to be that we considered them Republicans, but as of late we've been hesitant to even grant them the name. Yet there are some around here whom seem to believe that if we alienate JUST enough of these people in the next two or so years, we'll start to win elections... would someone mind explaining this logic to me?
There has been a disconnect with reality here. You can see it in the posts building up to last nights elections, snidely dismissing exit polls as MSM spin, and dismissing Republicans that feared major losses as "wanting" the Democrats to win. Everyone was waiting to see the rats eat crow, and instead we wound up with egg on our faces.
The fact of the matter is that we can't win elections or promote our values if we're disconnected from reality and alienating loyal supporters. We also can't win if we run around yelling about how the American people are stupid. The American people ARE America, and as much as I do not like saying it, if you hate them and think they are stupid and don't trust them to make their own decisions at the ballot box, you're every bit as much of an America hater as the Hard Left of the Democratic Party. You can't love a country and hate its people and institutions.
We'll survive. The Democrats gain nothing by backing out on the War on Terror or outright withdrawing from Iraq and they know it. They gain nothing by cutting funds to our troops. If they back off on the War on Terror or withdraw from Iraq, and a terror attack occurs, they know the blame will lie on THEIR shoulders. If they cut funding to the troops and our men and women in uniform start dying in droves, THEY will get blamed. This will happen because we won't let them hear the end of it. They know it.
We are Americans first and Republicans/Conservatives second. I think some people forget this. Part of being an American means trusting the American people when they make decisions for themselves, and trusting in our Institutions to see us through the bad times as well as the good. We can either choose to chalk up our loss to "American stupidity" and look no further into the matter, or we can take a step back and look at the numerous reasons we actually lost. We can spout off that the Democrats were successful because they ran on "Hate Bush" platform, or we can take the time to examine what they are actually saying and doing.
I suppose we can also go about summarily dismissing those that are not "conservative" enough for our tastes from the Republican Party. But how are we going to win elections when all that's left in the Republican Party is you and me?
I am at the latter now, but I needed the former. Just sucks. I can't believe Peloosie will be the Speaker. She won't be able to help heself when it comes to being her super liberal self. Maybe after two years of the Democrats not getting a stinking thing done because they have no ideas, no solutions, no real willingness to compromise, like the Republicans always had to to get anything done, the American people will remember why they made the Democrats the minority in 94 and return them there. We'll just have to see. I'm sure though that in 2008 nothing will be the Democrats fault because Bush is still President and it will all be his fault, so of course they need a Democrat President. Then when they get that and the Congress, and we're attacked or the economy tanks, or illegals number 30+ million it will be too late.