Posted on 01/22/2010 5:22:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
President Barack Obama and the congressional Democrats have fallen flat on their face, a victim of their own arrogance. Believing their own press clippings, the Democrats misinterpreted the 2008 election as a realigning mandate in support of fundamental, major changes in the way America is governed as well as an endorsement of the need to grow substantially the size and scope of government. In point of fact it was neither of those things. The 2008 platform on which they ran was long on slogans and concepts and short on actual ideas for governing.
It is true that America voted for change--but not the change that Obama and the Democrats began to offer once elected.
Their failure to understand this has led to stunning political defeats. What made these reversals even more amazing, however, is that they occurred during a period in which the Republicans were at a severe political disadvantage. Control of the White House coupled with a substantial majority in the House and an absolute majority of 60 votes in the Senate should have resulted in a flood of new laws and regulations fulfilling every promise and Democratic dream that had been held in check since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. Indeed, with the introduction of a pork-laden stimulus bill that passed through Congress easily, it looked like that was the way things were headed. Instead the Democrats, time and again on key issues, came up short.
Voting for Obama allowed far too many people--especially self-described independents--to "exorcise their demons," to vent their frustration at the Bush administration. It was cathartic, but not the kind of action on which a transformational political movement can be built.
In an effort to recover the ground they have lost over the last 12 months, the Democrats have announced they will pivot, talking from this point forward about jobs, jobs, and jobs and, in an embrace of a populist agenda that would make William Jennings Bryan smile, taking on anything big--big banks, big oil, big insurance, big medicine--in order to protect the interests of the working man and woman. It's a workable strategy, one that helped keep the Democrats in power in Congress for close to 40 years that touches on perceptions, popularly endorsed, of the economic inequities that exist in America. But this will succeed only if the Republicans agree to play ball.
In the short run, the Republicans must resist the temptation to be positioned in a way that makes it appear they are defending the very real inequities and public concerns that Obama and the Democrats are attacking. In the long run, they must develop a platform that allows them to communicate to the American electorate that they are listening to what the people are saying and is solution-oriented. They must give the people the opportunity to vote for the change they want, not just change for change's sake.
It would be damaging to the party's fortunes if the GOP reads the election results in Virginia, New Jersey, and, now, Massachusetts in the same hubristic manner with which the Democrats embraced the results in 2008. The Republican victories in these three key races were the result of superior candidates combined with a general level of discomfort among the electorate with the way things are going in Washington. It created a "perfect storm" that is now working to the GOP's advantage but may be fleeting. Despite what the poll numbers indicate, the voters are not sold on the Republicans as Republicans, but only as a viable, even preferred alternative to the Democrats now in power. In order to regain the majority, it is not only sufficient but necessary for the Republicans to eschew the "party of no" label in favor of what former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at one time called "an agenda worth voting for."
I try *not* to let the MSM tell me what do to or how to act. How about you?
No. More of the deomcrats giving advice to republicans on how to win. Yeah, sure.
Be confident. Be strong.
That is what my HS hockey coach told us during that season we made it to the state quarterfinals. The team that beat us had 3 guys who played Div 1
Ya....by and large. The recent Republican wins are a result of the Dems going insane once they had the power.
Taking advice from the left has given us too many RINOs
Whered you find that wurd?
They will never pivot from their penchant for growth of government control, whether it has to with jobs or slobs. This guy is all about appearances. We, the people, are about substance. We need to steamroll these b@stards in the voting booth while becoming involved with the establishment of clear, clean, legal, constitutional processes from the ground up.
all the details are way off but there is a kernel of truth in what he is saying that I agree with. Political parties and groups many times read too much into these victories. The dems did that in 2008. Conservatives should not assume that Massachusetts all of a sudden became Palin conservatives.
Gloating is not the same as arrogance. As for me I am gloating. Bush said not to gloat, I DID though, hehe.
Whether “he” says it or not.....God had something to say about that attitude.
.....This is WISDOM.....
Proverbs 24:17-18...Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
or the LORD will see it and be displeased, and turn His anger away from him.
Being humble doesn’t come easily! But it is possible.
You’ve got a fine analogy, though, and I agree about upright character as an essential attribute when it comes to winners.
Republicans just have to present, like Newt said, an agenda worth voting for.
Kinda hard to match the Dems’ arrogance when they still have 59 seats.
Do onto others... When the doing is bad, you do onto them 10 times as bad.
Funny how this "journalist" never felt the need to hold the 0 to this standard when he was cheer leading for Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign.
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