Historically, the country has been controlled by the left for decades. It has only been the advent of Reagan on a stage set by Goldwater that set in motion a serious conservative movement to interrupt an otherwise hundred years "progressive socialist" movement. Struggles along the way to dominance should be expected because the conservative movement in a historic sense, is relatively new.
How quickly Americans have forgotten the Carter years of "malaise" and double-digit inflation and unemployment. We let them forget.
First, I think we need to take a serious look at how we select our nominees. I like John McCain, and I wish he had won, but he was not a popular choice. We didn't want a "maverick" we wanted a "conservative like Reagan." We have allowed the states to change their primary dates so that the liberal states mainly vote first. Ironically, some of the states that put McCain in the lead for the GOP nomination, are also the states that now have voted against him. Am I the only one who considers that stupid? How can liberal states select the GOP nominee? We need a new process or system, whether it is reducing by half the number of delegates a state can send to the convention (if they don't vote GOP in the last election) or hold our own primary via registered Republicans voting online, etc., so the process can be controlled and let all states participate. This year the South was almost completely ignored, but just look where all the red is on the election map tonight. Something needs to be done to make a more logical nominating process. It might result in a better choice next time around.
The Democrats have been left holding the bag. Its all them now. Whatever happens, they will have to take 100% of the blame. Considering the policies they intend to install, I don't think we have to worry about them taking much credit. The damage will be enormous. Jimmy Carter's economy will look good compared to the way things are going to be in 2012.
A wise man once told me...
“Its good that America elects a Democrat President every once in a while, so they can remember how bad it is.”
“The Democrats have been left holding the bag. Its all them now. Whatever happens, they will have to take 100% of the blame.”
BINGO!!!!
If there is a silver lining to all of this, and “for the first time in my adult life, I am really disappointed in my country...”
But on the flip side have full faith and confidence in the fact that the dems don’t like to make “tough decisions,” and now, they can’t pawn it off on anyone else — they now own this completely - lock, stock, and barrel, they have an economic crisis to deal with, they have an energy crisis to deal with, a way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Russia is re-emerging, North Korea, and Iran...”I trust that they are going to totally “F” this up.”
The clearest impression I got from the exit polls was that this election was not a referendum on McCain or on conservatism. It was emotional, and more a referendum on Bush than on anything else. Even in that, I think it was only in very narrow ways:
- fatigue with the Iraq war. Not, repeat not, a referendum on whether it’s worthwhile to fight terrorists, but just general fatigue. Once again, it was an emotional decision rather than a logical one.
- an emotional reaction to the general economic situation — the banking crash, gas prices (yes, I know they’re low now, but you have to shut your logical thinking off a bit to understand this), and just general *fatigue* with doom and gloom.
- In the RINO areas like where I live, a general feeling sorry for people who don’t have health insurance and a wrongheaded thinking that national health care will solve problems like high healthcare costs. I see it as inch-deep logic, that is, not thinking it completely through, but thats the way I see it.
Notice that I did NOT talk about the Left, but only about the RINO’s and the mushy middle. We probably understand the Left the best — they want (1) their Obama Checks, their (2) Black President, (3) the ability to poke their finger in the eye of those “greedy Republicans” (even though in a lot of cases we’re the hand that feeds them, which they will likely learn to their sorrow very shortly), (4) Change(tm), etc. There is no reasoning with the Left. They could begin murdering each other’s mothers in a blood-soaked pagan orgy and somehow they would rationalize it as OUR fault. There is no saving them. That said, tonight was not a victory for the Left — it was what they vowed to do 18 months ago in that Dem meeting — appeal to people’s emotions.
We should starve the beast, but we should do so without allowing the Left to blame us for it. The Left chose to punish the hand that feeds them, and OUR line is not, “punish us, we punish you back”, but rather “punish us, you’re punishing yourselves”. The Left will never understand that, but the mushy middle can.