[kingu]

Eh, whatever. The long and short of it was that they didn't run. They expected to win, didn't campaign for a victory, and the other side put forward something to the voters. If they were out to 'fire Republicans' then so many races wouldn't have been close at all.

[Echo Talon]

IBTZ?

[operation clinton cleanup]

I think it had more to do with the districts/states they were running in. And the Diebold machines!

[unspun]

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

republicanism

Main Entry: re·pub·li·can·ism
Pronunciation: ri-'p&-bli-k&-"ni-z&m
Function: noun
1 : adherence to or sympathy for a republican form of government
2 : the principles or theory of republican government
3 capitalized a : the principles, policy, or practices of the Republican party of the United States b : the Republican party or its members

 

[The Hollywood Conservative]

I agree 100%...

One cant look at Santorum and Hayworth and Allan and say "They just weren't conservative enough to energize the base".

They were the same, but the constituencies they represent changed, and they didn't change with them, so they lost. We are not going to be able to replace those seats with MORE conservative candidates. That will merely intrench the Democrats who won.

[Tim Long]

a statement echoed by Sean Hannity,

Hard to take you very seriously now when you spent all year talking about how great the GOP is, Hannity.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Setting aside the phony scandals against Republican incumbants, the GOP lost simply because they didn't have a central theme from which to rally around to attract discerning votes. It created confusion for those voters. The Democrats rallied around the word "Change", voters wanted change, they got it.

[Echo Talon]

How many LIBERALS won on Tuesday?(other than Ted Kennedy and KKK Byrd?)

[Sir Gawain]

But there were two distinct choices to dealing with the liberal infection spreading throughout the GOP: one was to fight the good fight from within while always remaining aware of the real enemy. The other was to blow the whole thing up. The former strategy may have prevented Nancy Pelosi from being third in line for the Presidency. The latter may have just put liberals in power for the next six years and made President Hillary Clinton a distinct possibility.

Yeah and the latter might have just saved the GOP in the long run if the party leaders have a clue why they lost (Bush and Snow are hinting that they're still clueless..."Yes! Now we can get amnesty through!"). Republicans staying in power probably would have meant Republicans keep going left and get defeated huge in '08. Instead we get a chance to get new party leadership and 2 years of Democrats reminding America why they should be the minority party again.

[Liberty Valance]

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

I also think it had a tiny bit to do with the minimum wage issues on the ballots, as well.

[Paloma_55]

Hmmmm.... this is really frickin hard...

OH, I get it... Conservatives didn't go to the polls?!??

The moderates did.

How does that mean conservatives were thrown out?

I know that I had to see past my desperation with the Party and showed up to vote for our conservative congressman...but it was an effort. Instead, I voted for him and every other conservative and left the RINOs to fend for themselves...but I was truly fighting the urge to stay home.

[Lokibob]

You do not have to excerpt your own blogs. (unless you are trolling for hits, in which case it is bad form).

[Steven W.]

Author is going to have to come up with some better examples.

Rick Santorum
Exception to the rule & family patronage (Casey)

George Allen
clearly not-yet-ready-to-be-president ... errh Senator Makaka?

J.D. Hayworth
$$$

Curt Weldon
Late campaign scandal

Ken Blackwell
Taint from state party scandal

Michael Steele
liberal elitist racism & DNC party unity mandate

[TeenagedConservative]

I have lost what respect I never had for Hannity because of his post-election comments.

He has a position of unique power, and he blew it the last two years by shielding his eyes from Republicans flaws and endorsing even the most liberal. Hannity is not a conservative. He's a Republican. Rush Limbaugh is half right, though. Republicans lost because of two things: Not being conservatives, and supporting the war in Iraq. The base wanted conservatism, and the middle wanted exit from Iraq. The problem was unsolvable, but it might have been mitigated had the Republicans cut spending and taxes more.

Anyway, Iraq will take back burner in 2008, and we'll win then.

[conservativebabe]

Krauthammer has a different view. Check out his Washington Post piece.

[DCPatriot]

I think what's happened is the only real difference between the two parties are their respective positions on taxes, and how to deal with international terrorist with links to rogue nuclear states.

Those two subjects are the only ones which interest me.

Regardless of which party holds a majority, I will live very peacefully the next two years with President Bush at the wheel.

[catholicfreeper]

This is a very good analysis of what went on in my view. I hope this view gets a hearing but however as written here history is being rewritten. My email and other sites I visted for the past year were basically attacks on Republicans. It was like the Democrats did not exist. Fighting for ideas in the party is needed but the way we went about it this year was wrong.

That being said I am not sure Mr Logic Times this will get a fair hearing. The MSM has already got the story line written. Its the conservatives versus the moderates. The Moderates versus the religious right. THe liberatarians versus the Zealots. I hate to say we might be just going along with that.

THere is some good things there. The "base" needs not only to examine others(which is needed) but themselves. I for one think there needs to be some time to examine what happened on election day. That means not taking as Gopsel every press release from the Club for Growth or on the other side listening to Moderates and Libertarians that say we must reject the social conservatives.

In the end social conservatives, libertarians, and business/fiscal hawks all need each other to win.

[Brad from Tennessee]

If I had may way we would fire and jail every one of them--90 percent of whom are lawyers--on both sides of the aisle, and replace them with carpenters, farmers, auto mechanics and nurses.

[Fledermaus]

Simple...435 different House elections and 34 different Senate elections all with different issues and different demographics.

The NE Rino's did okay. By all standards Chris Shays should have lost.

The bottom line is this: the conservative base (one-third of evangical Christians voted Dem) was tired of being ignored and this was obvious for a year or more.

Instead there were jerks here in Freeper-land and in the media telling us we'd be stupid not to support these "moderates" blah, blah, blah.

Is it worse? We don't know yet. The Dems have the same small majority the GOP had for years. They can't raise taxes - it won't fly with the blue dogs (you really think they will repeal the GOP created 10% bracket on taxable income up to about $16K and raise taxes on the "working poor" by $800 a year??? No.).

IF (a big IF) the GOP has any balls left they'll use the same Senate rules the Dems used for the last six years to stop things and filibuster the crap out of changes.

But with wussy GOP with the likes of McShame and his butt-boy Graham will back the Dems under the umbrella of "partisanship" and get screwed again.

Face it...the GOP lost because they WON'T FIGHT!