The Belmont Club Manifesto
Despite the hoo-hah, fewer people voted in 2012 than in 2008. Neither Obama nor Romney got many votes for all the money they spent. According to the subscription only King Report:
Obama received 69,456,897 votes in 2008. He got 59,651,236 or 9.8 million fewer (-14.1%), in 2012. McCain got 59,934,814 votes in 2008. Romney received 57,028,531, about 2.9 million fewer votes. Jimmy Carter’s vote total dropped 5.4 million in 1980 vs. 1976 or 13%. Obama was down 14.1%!
How can you do worse than Jimmy Carter and yet still win? Answer: because nobody thinks we can vote out the Machine any more. We now live in a world where Jesse Jackson Jr can win re-election from the Mayo Clinic.
Before the election the Washington Post broke down the reasons why more than 50 million Americans would not vote: “too busy … not interested … out of town.”
Washington is growing exponentially at a time when nobody seems to believe in its promises at all. People are hanging up, shutting down.
Maybe they’re waiting for “someone” to fix things; “someone” to pay the gas bills; “someone” to pay the rent. But the truth is that “someone” has got to be them.
It’s not going to be the government.
The future will belong to those who build new networks and find ways to do stuff while the men in the capital spin their wheels. Mike Flynn writes that the Beltway Consultant Class is no longer worth the money, even to politicians. It charges more and more to flog the public harder and yet harder. But the Old Gray Mare isn’t even getting up any more.
This year, the GOP and its allies spent around $1 billion to win fewer votes than John McCain received in 2008. To be sure, Obama won fewer votes than in 2008. Overall turnout was down about 14 million from four years ago. With so much at stake, and with so many resources at its disposal, how did the GOP manage to turn out fewer voters than McCain’s anemic campaign? …
Hopefully, the Romney campaign is the last run by the DC consultant class. They finally had the full range of resources to run their playbook, and it fell woefully short.
In the next election they’ll just make up the votes.
The future lies in building up new networks and methods for the purpose — if nothing else — of surviving the consequences of this gigantic incompetence. In the next week’s posts I will try to end each one with a descriptive essay or a screen capture video that illustrates some practical idea that can be used to save or make money.
In the coming years revolutionary acts will be indistinguishable from self-improvement. To be productive and keep as much as possible of what you earn is to be free.
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
The secret to surviving a Zimbabwe scenario is to have an ability to produce something and have that product be very difficult to transport, take over production or tax. Effectively, guild knowledge is back. Barter is looking like sound economics. Durable goods almost always track inflation (with a sluggish innovative sector this is a guarantee), and the best investment out there is probably “forever” first class stamps.
How messed up is it that we had a highly complex and innovative economy, brought to its knees by a printing press that only exists in metaphor…
INTERNAL SECESSION
Well, not really “secession” so much as building networks as independent of the government(s) as possible. Economic networks, independent schools, organizations like the various denominational “brotherhoods” (no, not like the Muslim one, but the Lutheran Brotherhood is what I had in mind).
And the most daring will create new branches of the underground economy if it comes to that.
You’ve capsulized what many of us are feeling today: “To be productive and keep as much as possible of what you earn is to be free.”
Or, as free as we’re likely to be for quite some time. Looking forward to your upcoming posts and practical tips.
I wasn’t ready for it last night, but I love where you are going with this. Bill Whittle kind of had a similar idea, but I think his is waaaaay too naive. He wants us to be fine, upstanding citizens of the realm, not even fudge one regulation or tax payment, yet build an entirely parallel culture. In essence, suck it up and take the double-hit. Sorry Bill, I love ya, but that’s a sucker’s game. Let go of your “mom & apple pie” notions of America. It’s just as dead as that old mare.
I’m a pretty big introvert and not very skilled at the art of networking, so I will be eager to absorb as much knowledge about this topic as I can.
That last paragraph, the essence of the manifesto, is brilliant. Maybe you should enshrine it more permanently somewhere.
When I woke up this morning I knew Romney won. But I didn’t. I woke up and said I do not want to know the results until later. Then I said “where do I want to go first”.
“…A message from a long-time commenter, L….” I said to my wife I think Obama won….
At the end of today I’m not angry. Stunned? A little.
Isaiah’s Job was I’m certain was posted here before:
http://mises.org/daily/2892
90 some years ago men were told to run into machine gun fire…. I’m imagining those who landed at Normandy with bullets hitting their landing craft.
We lost the 2012 election.
Even though we lost really bad, we have not even been shot at YET. YET.
Be steady as a rock…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ol_v5X4QE
You know, I recall many years ago reading of people who got together and had coupon parties. They got all their coupons for discounts on items together and then sat down with a bunch of other people and traded coupons they did not need for ones they did find useful.
That same basic idea might be useful in a lot of ways, and the Internet could make it much easier to coordinate.
Another good idea would be to make a list of useful skills and the associated specialized equipment that would be associated with many customers who would not want to acquire those skills and equipment themselves since they have too limited use.
Funny thing. I got a flyer in the mail today from a company that sells surplus electronic equipment. They had one radio listed that I had purchased two of back in the 80′s, one for $5.00 and one for $20. They want $120 for that radio now. Another radio I bought from that company for less than $20 in 1988 they want $89 for. And my airplane is worth between two and three times what I paid for it in 1989. A car or TV set bought brand new in the 80′s would be nearly worthless now, but that old used stuff bought back then has increased in value far more than any mutual fund I own.
“To be productive and keep as much as possible of what you earn is to be free.”
Sure, but “might makes right” trumps that so freedom is just another word for having the might.
While I, in theory, support a movement to route around our failed institutions, problem is, those institutions are not going away. They are completely infested with “Progressives”, and at least for now, have the monopoly on fire power, with the command and control to use it, while inhibiting command and control of opposing movements. A successful opposition cannot run in the shadows, it has to be transparent, operating on its sheer obviousness as the right way to go. This will be a tough sell to crowd who believes “there ought to be a law” as part of their genetic make up.
You might have to pay your taxes. But tax minimization to the legal extent is not a crime. Nor does anyone have to pay attention to the celebrities and newsmen on TV. You can sell the TV. You can give to charity and claim whatever breaks you can in that matter.
In every possible way take control of your life. Spend your money on things you choose before letting someone else make the selection for you.
In a hundred different ways you can turn away from them and toward yourself. They want diversity. Give it to them. And as the line from the Michael Collins movie went: “there is one weapon that the British cannot take away from us: we can ignore them.” That may not be enough. But it’s a start.
“In the next week’s posts I will try to end each one with a descriptive essay or a screen capture video that illustrates some practical idea that can be used to save or make money.”
Good idea. Like Dagger said above, also think in terms of barter and self reliance: vegetable gardens, food storage, stockpiles of essentials and this is the biggie: energy storage. Propane is the best because it does not go bad and delivers itself via pressure to the appliance, heater, generator.
Don Rodrigo has it right as well. Unfortunately, the old systems are gone and new order has been established. Tax avoidence, Greek style is the order of the day. Be alert for legal methods to avoid tax and ways to shift the concept of income to asset growth.
Not to be too pessimistic, because I am not, but right now I do not think the next election is going to matter much. The trick will be to eliminate as much as possible the influence Washington has on out lives.
On election day I talked to my twenty-one year old god daughter and her husband. They are not stupid by any means, and they are not disconnected from the popular culture at all. I find it kind of eerie that they are constantly on their iphones looking at this and that on the internet. And now for the really scary part; neither one of them knew that it was election day.
Even as government seeks to take over more and more of our lives popular culture becomes more and more disconnected from politics except as cliches which are often just dimly understood (if at all) by the people who parrot them. To the shadowy men behind the curtains this is a feature, not a bug at all.
In the coming years revolutionary acts will be indistinguishable from self-improvement.
T’is always thus.
Maybe we should, I dunno, start some kind of a First Foundation or something.
W, typo warning para. 2: “and yet still lose?” I think you mean “win”.
Reclaiming States Rights would be a good start. Government in the U.S. has become dominated by a centralized Federal Government. The U.S. is a Federation of States but it no longer behaves like one. Loosen up the stiff old joints of the Federation and you’ll feel better.
To be more precise, I am definitely not advocating tax fraud or cheating. I do mean tax minimization strategies, as you said Wretchard. Reduce your top-line income, readjust your assets as necessary, take every tax exemption you can, etc.
My impression of Whittle’s idea may have been wrong, as I listened to the program in a pretty tired and cranky state. It seemed to me that he was advocating that we continue to live our lives as we always have, while building out the parallel culture. That’s what I thought was naive, not the idea that one should pay taxes at all.
He also mentioned a private, member-funded space program. Which I would probably think was immensely cool in more sane times, but is about at the bottom of my list of priorities right now.
As I wrote at the end of the last thread things are only going to get uglier and that we would have to find ways to live with it. I wholeheartedly agree about minimizing tax liability. Those who produce and thrive financially will have to fly under the radar as much as possible. Smart people never stopped doing this but many of us bought those large houses and nice cars that attract the wrong kind of attention. When people see those material things, they think “you can afford to pay your fair share” they then tell you what your fair share is.
Prepare for silent running.
I love to hear anything that Wretchard offers because it is always so sensible and informative: a serious model for us all to consider moving forward.
What I’m worried about is what many of us suspect is going on behind closed doors. In the worst case, which of us will be selected, quietly and surreptitiously, for the re-education camps that the Weather Underground terrorists, Bill Ayers and his loving wife Bernadette Dorn promised some years back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GrCHctYyWA&feature=player_embedded#!
Sorry to add such a dour note on this new enterprise. However, my meager instincts, based more on age and experience than intellectual acumen, forever leads me to suspect that an opponent that will participate in massive voter fraud (whether it is fair or not) and hails from Chicago, will take opponents out in other nuanced and perhaps brutal ways as well.
During this transition period from today to God–only-knows-where: Check Six.
I’m also thinking our churches should quit sending their sons and daughters into the military but on the other hand, I can see why we should continue to do so.
Know what I mean?
Find your local Masonic Lodge and petition for membership. Seriously, you won’t find better men or a better organization for the purposes we’re talking about.
Glad to see you mention the actual vote tallies, Richard. The legacy media continue to focus on percentages, which disguise the true magnitude of the slap in the face Soetero received. Even the 10 Million fewer votes he received this time really understates things. Looking at the long term trend since Watergate, the Democrat candidate’s vote total would “normally” have grown by about 3 Million since the previous election. That is a total of 13 million human beings who broke with their tribe based on Obumble’s performance — quite something!
The astonishing thing remains that the reported enthusiasm for Romney — packed auditoriums, etc — did not translate into additional votes, or even into matching the lackluster McCain campaign. At least the crowds showed that people are more willing today to go public with their politically-incorrect views.
“The future will belong to those who build new networks …”: that is the hard truth. A man alone does not stand a chance. Our current technology depends on a vast array of highly specialized skills. A man may survive as a hunter-gatherer, but not a technologically-advanced civilization. We need to maintain those networks of inter-dependent highly-specialized skills.
Consequently, Plan A cannot be to retreat into one of the Titanic’s lifeboats with a small group of like-minded people (while hoping that lifeboat turns out to be on the right side of the ship). Plan A has to be to find a way to seize back control of the Titanic’s bridge. The forthcoming financial & foreign policy debacles (which have already been unavoidably baked into the cake) may provide several opportunities for well-prepared elements among the crew & passengers.
Is there a measurable chance (however remote) that he will shift to the center somewhat? After all now he doesn’t have to respond to either right and left.
Re # 20. Kinuachdrach
“The astonishing thing remains that the reported enthusiasm for Romney — packed auditoriums, etc — did not translate into additional votes, or even into matching the lackluster McCain campaign.” Do not underestimate fraud. It is extremely easy with contemporary voting machines.
17 @Sgian Dubh
Obama already has the embryonic form of this list. It’s called his “disposition matrix”. Let us hope that none of us end up on the business end of a Hellfire.
18 @hammaknocka
Klavan has an article up about how conservatives need to try to retake the culture. It’s hard to argue with the logic, but I worry we are far too late to effect the needed change via that route in time. Withdrawing our cultural support (and the “consent of the victim”) is probably the better choice, but I’m not 100% sure. Breitbart was awfully good at the first strategy, and if he was around, might have been able to make it work. But I don’t see anyone close to filling his shoes.
On a tangent, as satisfying as Atlas Shrugged was for me, let’s face it, “Going Galt” isn’t going to work for most of us. At least in the sense meant in the book. Anyone with family obligations could never do such a thing, unless perhaps there was a real Galt’s Gulch. What we are fleshing out here is probably the best real-world alternative.
I have started being more selective in where I have business dealings in order to support like minded businesses. Not just Chik-Fil-A, but in things like plumbers, electricians and such.
About the time that Rush Limbaugh was getting heat because of the ‘slut’ comments, I was looking for a real estate agent. When I found one based on good reviews, I googled her name. Turns out she was a big lefty. I dropped her and didn’t return her calls. I researched and found another one with more traditional values. It is amazing what you can find out with Google.
Furthermore, when I hire, I research and hire only those that have similar beliefs.
I do volunteer work and for the past 2 years I have been working as a mentor for these 2 boys through a Big-Brother program. Their mother is an unemployed kook with Obama bumper stickers on her minivan. She is always trying to find out about my politics, and since it makes me uncomfortable, I just be polite and nod my head. I know she was pretty excited about the election.
Recently I came across a lady (friend of a friend of my wife’s) with a teenboy that appears to need a good male role model. She is conservative and talked about how she could use someone like me to mentor her kid.
After seeing the election results, and seeing the hate filled comments against the declining demographic of ‘old white guys’ from all corners of the internet, I sent a message to Big Brother this morning and said that I was no longer volunteering to mentor this kook’s two brats. I’m going to start helping this other lady.
I’m going to start keeping an eye and helping only those who are not voting to screw me.
Romney can still win the election. Here is how. He files a suit in Federal Court that Obama ia unqualified to be president because he is not a natutal born citizen. Romney will demand to see Obama’s birth certificate, passportapplication and college admission application. Obama refuses. The Supreme Court votes Obama is unqualified and that he HAS NEVER BEEN PRESIDENT. BID HAS BEEN PRESIDENT FOR 4 YEARS.
As a result Romney is President. All the laws Obama signed were never signed by President Biden and therefore have been veoted by the pocket veto.
Worse case. Obama proves he is a natural boprn citizen.
grrr @ 21
He’s been extreme left for his whole life, so no, probably no chance at all.
This morning I was talking with a friend. She said she has an appointment with her accountant. She is looking for ways to either hide/shelter income or divest entirely.
He attitude is why work so hard when it all goes to taxes?
She also told me that her accountant, along with others, has a full schedule.
She lives in California.
I suspect she is not atypical.
I initially posted this at the end of the previous thread but requested deletion because I thought it fit better on this thread. I hope that is OK with our host.
Reading many of these posts and reviewing the numbers I am left with a question for which I have no good answer. Why, if the population has grown and the passionate enthusiasm to crawl over ground glass to defeat Obama was true, and if Romney was getting crowds of 30,000 while Obama was getting crowds of 2000, why was Romney’s vote total lower than McCain’s in 2008? It is hard to believe that there was even less enthusiasm to vote for Romney (on an absolute basis) than there had been for McCain. It makes no sense at all. Not even the explanation that Romney was less than a perfect candidate (he was still better than McCain) or that Romney didn’t inspire great enthusiasm among conservatives (surely he was at least as much an option as McCain had been).
Anyone have a good explanation?
Anyone have a good explanation?
There are two possible explanations. The first is that yesterday was a demonstration of the Left’s invincible electoral power relative to the conservatives. The second is that they cheated and have the power to conceal the cheating.
Note that cheating does not have to be across the board but only in selected places — cities — where they can tip the balance.
But in any case the common conclusion is that the Republican Party does not have the political ability to push a cause which is after all, not even its own. If if it is espoused as their own, only half-heartedly.
They lead to an identical result: as matters stand there is nothing to defend the conservatives against the left. At least not the Republican Party as presently constituted.
Note that it will be necessary, even vital, to build alliances with the GOP. That is necessary as a practical matter. But to take things back, the initiative has to pass from their hands.
24. grey eagle
Lovely idea and probably true. But you missed two facts:
1. Romney is a country club Republican and that would simply be too tawdry (I wish I could fake an accent),
2. Romney is a Republican – zero cojones.
No guts; no air medals.
Initiative will need a voice, a leader. Bill Whittle does a pretty good job. He mentions Burt Rutan, another credible voice, how about Anthony Watts, who actually has experience in broadcasting. BTW, if you’ve never seen Burt Rutan’s critique of AGW, it is a slam dunk.
How many psychologists does it take to change GOP?
Only one, but it has to want to change.
This campaign started in the early 1900′s with Gramisci and continued with the Frankfurt School in the 10′s and 20′s. The collectivists have deliberately undermined and, more lately, directly attacked Western (eg. Judeo-Christian) Civilization for the better part of a century, and most successfully I might add.
We’ll not fix it in a four year cycle nor a generation.
I dont know the answer, if there is one. Personal control of your children’s education is a major part of it. State control of education has hidden the glories of Western Civ from most. They are the tools to resist the oncoming holocaust.
Wretchard, I look forward to your forthcoming articles (would have anyway). Like the posters above, I woke this morning and remembered – oh, election came, I saw, they conquered. The phone rang later, it was a friend of mine, who began with, “So, where are we moving? And, she is in another state.
b @ 27: if Romney was getting crowds of 30,000 while Obama was getting crowds of 2000, why was Romney’s vote total lower than McCain’s in 2008?
I dunno. I speculate:
The total is 120,000,000 votes, out of which a crowd of 30,000 is a pimple.
Some humongous number of that 120m were voted absentee, maybe 50m, and of that 50m I’ll bet 10% or more were not filled out by the voter, who might well have been dead, but in 90% of cases was probably voted Democrat. That’s twice the popular vote margin, and could easily have been concentrated where it most mattered. Could even explain why it was not accurately picked up in the polls.
None of this cheating being new process, but having been massively increased in the last couple of elections, especially this one.
A lot of this might even have been legitimate votes, yet votes that without a massive organization would not have been cast. Most especially in the black community. If true, one has to have some mixed judgements about what it means.
I’m skeptical of all absentee voting for these reasons, and would seek to eliminate it entirely, unless you are certified bed-ridden and yet also competent, with of course arrangements made for military voting. But vacation, no, and “convenience”, absolutely not.
–
What *is* the smallest number of popular votes that would need to have been shifted to give Romney a victory, about 500k total over Florida, Ohio, and Virginia?
–
The real question is why Romney couldn’t have been 5% or 10% ahead, and there are just NO good reasons for that, just a cumulative bunch of bad reasons.
–
Of course, finally, widespread fraud is also a possibility, but I lack he knowledge to judge if it has a significant magnitude.
Memo for Obama:
Never underestimate the ability of p*ssed-off taxpayers to get inside your OODA loop.
Question: Given current trends, what will be the new American national sport in 2013?
Answer: Tax evasion.
Anyone have a good explanation?
Here’s another. What kind of accounting do we have on all the money ($1.4T+)that was “spent” on the things it should have been spent on during the first year of stimulus? The economy being gummed up for the past three years certainly indicates lots of money was spent on things that brought no “tangible” results. Just look at the companies that we are now just discovering that were busts in the “Green” economy. That money was paid to Obama Bundlers and supposedly guaranteed as investments by the government. Just how much of that money went into a slush fund where folk were later paid $500 to vote the right way? Those dollars “used to be” followed by hungry new reporters (the Congress never discovers graft) in the old days, but the press no longer honors their responsibilities to the republic. Today, it is literally a free for all.
You could pay off a lot of “voters” fairly sizeable amounts when you are dealing with billions of dollars. I can just hear the deal:
“Hey, Guido, go into that polling place and vote the way I told you to. Here’s a cell phone. I pay you after you show me a picture of the screen that shows the vote total. Vincent is our poll watcher. Ask him over just before you vote to answer a ‘question’ and show it to him too. Capisch?”
Bus loads of herded Somalians into some Ohio polling places good “vengeance” against the Seals who shot the three pirates. They could probably use the money too – the economy’s not all that good for illegals either.
11. Tcobb – “they are constantly on their iphones looking at this and that on the internet. And now for the really scary part; neither one of them knew that it was election day.”
Boycotting the system is part of the plan. Consider them liberated.
19. Chris – “Find your local Masonic Lodge and petition for membership. Seriously, you won’t find better men or a better organization for the purposes we’re talking about.”
Sounds like a trap- a front for the government we’re trying to resist. Since you mention them though, the Masons apparently know the science of acoustic levitation. They won’t share it because people will go building pyramids and creating their own energy source. (One of the many theories about Giza is that it was some sort of power plant.)
No… if the Bilderuminati wanted to save us, they could whip out a birth certificate at any time. It needn’t be real or convincing. Obama could even do this himself, if you think he’s capable.
“There are two possible explanations. The first is that yesterday was a demonstration of the Left’s invincible electoral power relative to the conservatives. The second is that they cheated and have the power to conceal the cheating.”
Let’s stipulate that Dems cheat — especially in big cities where they control the entire apparatus, including the judges. But cheating normally translates to getting the dead to vote for the Dem candidate. So what happened to explain Romney getting several million fewer votes than McCain? That was probably not cheating. It was probably genuine — just as the nearly 10 million vote decline for Soetero was genuine.
The simplest explanation has to be that Romney (nice man though he may be) did not deliver a credible message about making government smaller & less intrusive. In the absence of that message, a lot of contingent voters stayed home.
Of course, if one wanted to be really pessimistic, maybe there is a fixed non-replenishing cohort of Republican voters. Those 3 million missing voters simply represent the number of McCain voters who passed away during the last 4 years. (Approximately 1 out of 20 McCain voters passing away over a 4 year time span? Given the age distribution of Republican voters, it might not be too unreasonable)
Urban ‘machine’ voting devices which flip Romney into Obama provide a two-fer.
And, because the Wan is in trouble within the very same demographics; it was easy to bury his abstentors with fraudulent voting in their stead.
Since voting ‘games’ need only happen in a handful of critical states — meaning critical urban counties — it was and is entirely within the technical means of the Democrat machine to pull it off.
Infamously, the Mob stuffed the 1st Ward of Chicago, November, 1960. Though it was at the heart of the city, ringing city hall, it was the last to tabulate its vote.(!)
So, it’s been done before. Of that there is no doubt at all.
The OTHER famous way that voting is gamed is by loss of ballots on the way to the tabulating machine. This is EXTREMELY easy with absentee ballots — now the obvious way to rig a vote.
When coupled to early voting and essentially non-existent vetting — the popular will is now open to treasonous betrayal.
———-
Statistics indicate that the mega crowds for Romney vs the debilitated 0bama are a TELL.
Romney’s votes were simply discarded when they came in from the wrong zip code.
What was there to stop such disposals?
The Civil Service? The very same crowd that owes their souls to the machine?
My sister is very conservative in everything — until she’s in the voting booth. Then she votes with the Democrat machine — because it’s her purse.
What has happened with school teachers is going to be replicated with nurses and staff.
Re. #25. Warhorse
Yes, he does, but my thinking is that if he will continue the country will be destroyed and there will be wars. As a consequence the Dems. might loose big later on. So the party might force him to slow down.
No no guys. You have it all wrong. I am going all in. I am a patriot and if you can’t beat em join em. I will need a few tips from my progressive friends and family to help me get there. I have a few initial questions to get me started on getting my mind right. First of all, do you just pay your top marginal rate at tax time? No deductions, no exemptions? I am asking because I want to be a part of the team and I don’t want to stand out in any negative ways. Second, if I have to move, (obviously can’t sell up in this market), do I just open up my home to homeless people like all the progressives apparently do? I can’t see renting it, that just takes advantage of people. And I certainly don’t want to end up like old Dr Zhivago coming back from “serving his country” to find that the local Bolsheviks had taken over his house and moved in several families because he was too self involved to realize that he was exploiting them. My house isn’t near as big as his, but we could easily put 3 or 4 families in it. I am sure the way they talk and vote, its what any progressive would do. Thirdly are my unfortunate ancestors. Small town Pennsylvania bitter clingers, when they thought they encountered a great moral cause a hundred and fifty years ago, they consulted their bibles and picked up their guns and went and fought for Mr Lincoln when they could barely speak English. Little did they know they weren’t “preserving the Union and ending slavery”, but rather just over reacting to the first big dust up between the Republicans and the Democrats. I am now properly ashamed of them, so should I publically repudiate them or maybe go up to Gettysburg and deface their names on the Pennsylvania Memorial? Anyhow, for my many sins, and in an honest attempt to get in touch with my progressive inner self, I am going to need some help on these and a whole bunch of other lifelong practices that I need to change. For one thing, I am way too attached to what I make and you should be too. I now know it extrmely selfish to want to keep what I make and it is the hallmark of compassion to obligate what you guys make to helping the less fortunate. I am also going to do my best to change my voting. Maybe in 2014 I will slip back into my old ways, but with a little help and re-education about what the correct opinions and ideas are, by 2016, if Chris Matthews says a candidate gives him a tingle anywhere, that’s my guy. Anyhow, for all you progressives, old Vanguard is now onboard and looking for the union label. You won’t have anymore trouble out of me, no siree.
Thank you to W @28 and Josh @33, but I still haven’t a real clue about why the Romney got fewer votes than McCain. Is there generally declining interest in voting in America? Probably yes, but wasn’t this the “Republican enthusiasm” election that followed on the Tea Party enthusiasm of 2010?
W said “There are two possible explanations. The first is that yesterday was a demonstration of the Left’s invincible electoral power relative to the conservatives. The second is that they cheated and have the power to conceal the cheating.” It is probable that the latter is true. The former may not yet be the case, as 2010 showed.
But the question is less why Obama got more votes. The question I have is why Romney couldn’t match or exceed McCain’s vote total when the voting population has increased and a record amount was spent by the campaigns. That a President without sterling success would see a vote decline from the first to the second campaign makes sense. That Romney couldn’t even match McCain’s vote total simply makes no sense.
Romney ran a better campaign than McCain; Romney tried to win, while McCain seemed phlegmatic; 2012 was a year in which there was passion to defeat Obama while 2008 was a Bush fatigue year. This year should have inspired more voting rather than less. And of course, based on the totals given at the top of this thread, had Romney gotten the same total as McCain he would have been ahead in the popular vote.
Between starting this and posting it Kinuachdrach @37 and blert@38 gave some good explanations. I think the disappearance of absentee ballots makes the most sense, though it is somewhat contradicted by the early voting totals that showed a smaller delta between Obama and the Republican in 2012 than 2008. But at least that theory makes some sense.
Is the ballot box no longer the path to correcting our course?
BTW, I think the main point of W’s article is brilliant. And while I have decidedly mixed feelings about Voltaire, now seems to be the time to tend to our own gardens, while also networking with kindred souls.
Judge Learned Hand said:
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as
possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the
treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.
Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister
in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone
does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any
public duty to pay more than the law demands.”
Gotta love a guy with the name Learned Hand.
29. Sgian Dubh
Your comment explains why Romney gets big crowds and a lower turnout than MccCain. They came, they saw, they decided not to vote.
The GOP should not let the MSM pick their candidates. Progressive lite can’t win nationally, can’t win in Mass senate race.
But the GOP is run by rinos.
Why did Romney get less votes than McCain? Can it be Sarah Palin? Recall Palin was going around drawing bigger crowds than McCain himself in places. She became a phenomenon among conservatives, and they came out to vote for her. She forcefully articulated pro-conservative arguments in ways that Romney and even Ryan never have. Conservatives were never excited about Mitt. Recall the “Anyone But Romney” primaries? Conservatives welcomed a chance to vote against Obama, but that’s simply not as compelling as voting for a leader who’s carrying your philosophy.
The GOP convention also turned a lot of them off, especially that nasty business on the floor votes which seemed pointedly aimed by the establishment against the conservative base.
The state GOP organizations have caused a lot a problems, and in key places like Virginia, Ohio, and Florida. In Ohio there’s been a schism, Florida’s stil reeling over the treatment of Rubio by the Crist folks. There’s lots of problems in Virginia, including everybody here who is still feeling railroaded in that we got to vote in a primary that mattered for the first time in memory and they restricted our choice to Romney or Paul.
Two of my friends who are conservatives and have been reliable GOP votes did not vote for Romney this time. One voted Libertarian, the other abstained on the presidential slot. I guess that must have been happening more than I suspected. I did believe the stories about an energized GOP base and dismissed this as anecdotal.
Hey GOP, there’s conservatism. Give it a try!
I’m still in a gloom today. It was very difficult going to work and being among all my elated coworkers jazzed off of Obama’s victory. I did run into a baggy-eyed tank commander downstairs, an enormous hunk of man, who is up here on TDY from Ft. Hood, and he said his wife called him last night and they couldn’t stop crying together. So I did find some comisseration and brotherhood amidst this weird sea of what I’d call perverse joy.
Haven’t gotten my head around how to handle it yet. One thing for sure, for the first time, my next car or truck will not be American, nor will I ever insist on an American rental car or taxi again. And I won’t pay extra to buy American anything anymore, either. In fact, if I find a product that has an American version or an import version, I’m going import. Gimme China stuff. Take your unions and your bailouts and shove them.
The big problem for the Republicans is that they let the Democrats choose their candidates for them. Is there an intrinsic problem here? Consider the possibility that Herman Cain or Newt Gingrich would have been running on the ticket. Oh no–they could never win. And the result would have been, at worst, the same as it is now?
Although they seem like big powerful creatures, RINO’s have small brains and are very near-sighted. Maintain some distance between them and have a big rifle and they are just buzzard food. The Democrats know this well. But the Wise Ones just continue to worship them as sacred critters and think that bullets will magically halt before they can strike them. Stupid. Very stupid.
Submitted for your approval … from the Twilight Zone.
The most common piece of evidence cited in numerous books about the Revolution is a letter of John Adams indicating that one third of the Americans were for the Revolution, another third were against it, and a final third were neutral or indifferent to the whole affair.
Obama 59,651,236
Romney 57,028,531
Non-participating 50 million
Not much has changed.
Slightly off-topic although I think it does relates to the prob. we discuss:
via “Instapundit.com”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i0aKPIse1bbtAHD3LIdkpTfHfw7g?docId=c116e763ff084c0289aa2bd1b519032d
“The one thing he wanted me to tell all of you is President Obama may have gotten Osama bin Laden, but he didn’t kill the ideology,” Seiden said.
Asked what that meant, Seiden said, “I didn’t ask him, and I don’t know.”
What? They don’t understand “what that meant?” Is this a place of innocent idiots or they just pretend to be such?
‘In the next election they’ll just make up the votes. ‘ (W)
and in a way that’s what they did :
‘In the final weeks of the campaign, people who had downloaded an app were sent messages with pictures of their friends in swing states. They were told to click a button to automatically urge those targeted voters to take certain actions, such as registering to vote, voting early or getting to the polls. The campaign found that roughly 1 in 5 people contacted by a Facebook pal acted on the request, in large part because the message came from someone they knew.’
http://tinyurl.com/avw2b8f
got this from a DB forum
SF
I know a lot of people are concerned about Obama and what he and his friends have planned. The real danger right now is that the man on the white horse is saddling up.
paging general pinochet, paging general pinochet, please pick up the white courtesey phone.
Vanguard @ 40 … you are a scriptwriter! You should mail that to Ayers and Dohrn ASAP … they will be needing it for their camp curriculum. /sarc
****
If I were Bernie Mac, I’d look at the camera and say, “America … you broke my heart.” (I know, I know, Bernie voted for Obama in ’08, but you get the point.)
It takes an especial degree of flinty hard-heartedness to absorb (a) 23 million unemployed, (b) underemployment of 15%, (c) food stamps doubling under Obama, (d) gas prices doubling under Obama, (e) the lowest labor participation rate in 30 years, and (f) 43 months of 8+% unemployment, which is greater than the number (39)of all previous presidents combined, going back to Truman …. and then to turn around and say, “GREAT JOB, Mr. President! You’re re-hired!”
I mean, even if they did not know about F&F or Benghazi, even if they did not know the particulars about Obamacare … anyone with eyes and ears can see that things have not gotten better one damn bit the last four years, and in lots of ways have gotten worse … to be able to know that, and to just stick it to your fellow (unemployed, underemployed, businesses going bust, struggling & scrimping & worrying all over) Americans all on account of your own personal leg tingles, and/or religious adherence to everything donk, and/or visceral hatred of Rethuglicans.
THAT is wicked cold.
And that is what I will have the most difficult time forgiving. If ever. I know I have to on account of Christian principle. But to see the rank suffering among one’s fellow citizens, week in & week out for 4 years, and to effectively not give a sh!t by actively voting for 4 more years of the guy who has had his you-know-what up his posterior this whole time?
Wicked cold.
And that is what breaks my heart.
Don’t even get me started on the rank insult yesterday’s outcome was to millions of members of our military, past & present ….
Your idea of networking at the grassroots level, taking advantage of the internet, is also suggested by Bill Whittle on you tube (sorry, I’ve lost the url; it went up today.) His argument is that the huge leviathan we live with is too difficult to turn, or control, or even to talk about. So, he thinks we should just ignore it, pay taxes, make sure that one follows the law, and build up structures that can succeed.
I find the reaction of Staten Islanders most interesting: they voted Democratic, and wail that FEMA or Big Government Big Daddy isn’t around to help them, and another nor’wester is on the way. I am sure they believe most strongly in a strong federal government. And a strong government over all, despite the clear proof that that very same government has made no attempt to prevent flooding in the subways, and will not be able to do so in the future, because the modern leviathan is completely incompetent in the real world. However, its minions drive nice white SUVs, and look great with their clipboards to hand.
Don51 @ 46:
“Obama 59,651,236
Romney 57,028,531
Non-participating 50 million”
According to one of the faces of the Legacy Media, 57% of US citzens voted in the recent election. If that figure is right, then the number of citizens who chose not to vote was about 88 Million, not 50.
Or, to put it differently, ‘None of the Above’ ran away with the election — again! And Soetero became president with the solid support of 29% of the citizens. Good thing the idea of a mandate is so passe.
heathermc @ 52:
Actually, Romney DID carry Staten Island. 51% Romney 48% Obama, according to AP. Obama lost to McCain in Staten Island by those same percentages, too. Maybe that explains why they’re not exactly at the top of FEMA’s list over there? You’ve gotta ask yourself that these days, sadly, now that every aspect of our lives becomes politicized.
b @ 57: but I still haven’t a real clue about why the Romney got fewer votes than McCain. Is there generally declining interest in voting in America? Probably yes, but wasn’t this the “Republican enthusiasm” election that followed on the Tea Party enthusiasm of 2010?
No, I guess I didn’t even address the full numbers. Observing the obvious, Romney was never a Tea Party favorite (no matter what lunacy the MSM says), but more to the point, so what, the Tea Party has not been shown more than a marginal number in any jurisdiction, they may all have voted for Romney twice, and it wouldn’t come to anything. Has Romney ever uttered the words “Tea Party”, meaning the political version, in either praise or criticism?
And I still haven’t answered your question.
(Are you trying to suggest something?)
Romney might have dropped a million or three votes in big blue states like California and New York, I suppose, Republicans who just stayed home cuz it wouldn’t matter anyway. But the question has to be, did he drop a few hundred thousand in places that it *did* matter and if so why. Have to look at the comparable numbers year after year, state by state.
–
OTOH, it would not shock me if a careful study showed that too many average citizens can’t tell the real election from more exciting reality TV shows that they vote on. Or maybe all the Obama mudslinging worked, Frank Luntz seems to think it did, and even two or three percent of marginal voters decided not to vote for the vulture capitalist. Romney never really defended himself, a conscious strategy by his team.
–
In my stream of consciousness response, I think that last point is the one that works for me: Romney let himself be marginalized in the minds of just a couple of percent of the voters in the critical swing states. The race turned out to be that close, and the numbers mattered. Maybe nothing could have been done, because maybe some of the accusations were true, but then of course some other counterstrategies could still have been attempted.
Well, there’s my two cents.
W: “To be productive and keep as much as possible of what you earn is to be free.”
The Belmont Club Manifesto is a reaffirmation of the American Revolution – another Declaration of Independence from “every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
“With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.” Abraham Lincoln
“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.” Thomas Jefferson
“And if liberty is to be attributable of the real man and not of the scarecrow invented by the individualistic Liberalism, then Fascism is for liberty. It is the only kind of liberty that is serious – the [wrongful] liberty of the State [to do as it pleases with other men, and the product of other men's labor, within limits drawn around us by the inferior rights of others].” Benito Mussolini
“To be more precise, I am definitely not advocating tax fraud or cheating.”
why not? In this Brave New World, only chumps play by the rules.
we know they are incompetent – so that is now not just an observation, but a weapon. Consequences? As the new Bond song says, Let the Sky Fall.
All right, so Obama won. Now what? Will he see his re-election as a mandate to install a Marxist dictatorship? Probably not, though I’m sure many of his inner circle, and likely Obama himself, fervently desire such an outcome. Nonetheless, whatever the next four years holds for the country, one thing is clear: no one knows what will happen, or when, or why. The future, as always, is cloudy. Except, of course, to Waltradamus.
The Bear will rise
As mischief heightens
Red star at night
Whose passage frightens
The turbaned king
With threats and bluster
The pointed star
Will stand to muster
The sainted one
Now re-anointed
Vows swift revenge
On those appointed
The Eastern state
Of ancient being
With open eyes
Bent not on seeing
The Kingly states
Invite the turban
Night riders flit
To rid the vermin
Electrons flee
As watts and joules
Rush from the storm
Amid wind howls
The workers lie
Abed at night
To look for work
At dawn’s first light
At mid-term dance
That shakes the walls
The upper chamber
Sways and falls
Saving or making money? Surf the listings at freebies.about.com . That might be what we’ll be reduced to, in due time.
Walt -
That was indeed your story I read so many years ago. Can’t remember where I came across it, but I remember the BEM thing very well. Stuck with me, hence these posts. You rock!
The ‘independent voters’, whoever they are, now have an identity problem; they can’t swing the election unless they vote Democrat and that renders them downright dependent. Well, it isn’t too bad, at least the Republicans will continue to flatter them.
We have absentee voting, early voting, voting by mail and this year voting by email and fax. Gee, what could wrong? I can’t wait to vote over the Internet.
Presidential campaigns now target specific audiences in specific localities. It escapes me how that can possibly forge the nationwide alliance needed to win elections. It’s broken and I’m going to fix it is a pretty low bar to reach. What, exactly is broke and how exactly are you going to fix it must be much too complicated to explain in a house of shattered mirrors.
Hi all. Tough night for sure. I’d like to direct you guys to American Digest, the link is on the blogroll, where there is an interesting idea by Bill Whittle. I’d sure enjoy some feedback. You to Wretchard as I think Gerard sometimes posts here. It’s a you tube video about 90 min long but well worth it as Bill Whittle certainly has a way with words.
#65, then my wholehearted apology to Staten Island. And I agree that part of that population’s problem could very well be political.
Obama and Co are really evil people. Poor America.
A long time ago, sometime in the spring of 1998, I realized that American culture was heading off in a direction I could not morally defend. I was troubled, deeply troubled, by the cultural transformations attending the rise of the internet, specifically the hedonism and immoderation that it seemed to offer us, even demand from us. The world was turning into a circus. Newly forged internet millionaires had recently discovered the stock market and had concluded that it could only go up, and their behavior was being emulated by the general population. They poured their money into investments which distorted market signals beyond the bounds of credibility. The NASDAQ’s hyperbolic rise to 5,000 still remains one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen. The dawn of Reality TV had introduced the possibility that anyone might become a star just by acting boorish enough in front of an audience, a possibility which was later realized by the advent of “social media.” The popular books at the time (anybody remember Ray Kurzweil?) were predicting that soon computerization and nanotech and biotech would merge together to create a transhuman society, a world of immortality and endless, immoral entertainment, in utter affront to true, Aristotelian notions of mind and soul.
I touched briefly upon these topics in my long 9-11 memoir, if anybody remembers reading that. I knew I had to get out of that circus. I made some changes at that time which I think helped me, which are now necessary again, and which may be helpful to others as well.
First of all, we should unplug from the infotainment world. Just stop watching television—it’s not worth it. If you have a cable subscription, you might want to consider cancelling it (I know I am). I do not need to give any more of my money to media conglomerates who are part and parcel of the new world order. But simply not watching television is not enough; we also have to detoxify ourselves from its effects. The television medium has become one of the defining forces of our civilization. It is enshrined like an altar in the center of every home. The idea of instant stardom, of easy money and adulation, usually acomplished by acts of public lewdness, has come to define how we interact. We are become a nation of drama queens, porn stars, and court fools. Unplugging requires not only repentance, the turning away from sin, but also penance, the correction of unruly passions and the punishment of past sins through abstemious acts. It should involve deliberate meditations on the reality of things: on logic which is the truth of the world, and morality which is the truth of the soul.
Also, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have knowledge of physics and chemistry. Not merely becasue it is useful—mere utility is the idol of the philistines—but because it capacitates you to think about things as they are in themselves, not as the advertisers and political hucksters say they are. Think about food in terms of calories and nutrition, not brand names and packaging. Think about energy use in terms of work and efficiency, not as a communion with nature. There is a lot that can be said about this subject. If possible, I will try to say some of it in the days and weeks to come.
Finally, nothing at all is possible without the grace of Christ, and grace is administered primarily through the sacraments of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. If you are not a Roman Catholic, you need to convert right away. Pray the rosary. Start going to confession and receiving communion on a regular basis. Take your family to Mass. If it is at all possible, you should find a Traditional Latin Mass to attend. If there is no TLM in your area, you can demand of the local bishop that he offer one. The Motu Proprio of Pope Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum, gives you the right to do that.
If you must convert through your local Novus Ordo parish, you will probably have to go through some hideous RCIA program that looks like it was designed by the Democratic Party for the promulgation of its own doctrine, not Christ’s. Endure it—the sacraments are worth it. Just go through the motions and ignore the Social Justice Catholics for now, and get your real education from Sts. Augustine, Aquinas, Ignatius Loyola, Catherine of Sienna, or some of the other wonderful saints.
It has come down to this, the time of martyrdom is upon us. Join with the Church Militant so that your persecution will be united with the Passion of the Christ, and you will receive strength and blessings in this world and eternal life in the world to come.
The idea of simply leaving the system, or living and working outside of it, is not without its thorns.The hard fact must be remembered;
Power is NEVER just surrendered.
Those with power will use every last scrap of that power to maintain their hold on their fellow man;
Store up cash; A currency change will give you X days to turn in your old currency
Store up food; when the famine hits Anti-Hoarding Laws will be passed or executive orders will be issued and you will be a criminal.
These things need to be thought through and the costs of what ever path you choose must be understood. The day will come when you have to decide how firmly you hold your beliefs and what costs you are willing to suffer for them.
“Millions in the valley of decision.”
64. Matt
No can do brother. My people are Baptists all the way back to England
“Faith of our Fathers living still
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword.
Faith of our Fathers Holy Word
We will be true to thee till death.”
Go all the way back to comment #1.
Brilliant description: I believe it will really, truly help to prepare if we think of this as “a Zimbabwe scenario.”
Acceptance.
BftP @67:
I will see your Kubler-Ross and raise you a Pabst Blue Ribbon. Cheers!
Cool resolve and a hard heart.
Given Obama’s proclivity to lead from behind, John Boehner ought to step up and lead from the front.
He should let his inner B B King come out! He controls the nation’s purse strings. So he should impose the spending discipline that is called for. It’s called, Paying the Cost to be the Boss”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HC94GVNftw
Boehner can accomplish great things if he becomes “The Strongest Horse”.
He should force massive spnding cuts now. What are the Democrats going to do, threaten him with the prospect of losing the next election?
What Boehner does now will be forgotten by then. It will all be Obama’s fault. He was President and let it happen!
blert #38 -
“My sister is very conservative in everything — until she’s in the voting booth. Then she votes with the Democrat machine — because it’s her purse.”
Shout it from the rooftops, blert.
This is it. This is it!
Free stuff uber alles – and included in the “free stuff” category must always be what is essentially government which guarantees income. Bread and circus on steroids. And in an age where shame does not exist, there are no barriers to continue this behavior.
The center/right will not make any headway against the current situation until we all – every single one of us, without exception – recognize that it is this very core problem that we have to overcome more than anything else. More than the social stuff (as important as that is, Matt), more than philosophy, more than traditions, etc. Statistically, right now no person who receives a government check or subsidy or regulatory rent-seeking license can be made to understand an argument against their income. They’ll give up their guns, their religion, their rights to free speech, and pretty much everything else to have a full belly, a home and entertainment center that confers status, and a lack of anxiety about the continued existence of these things. Refusing to believe this inescapable truth and allowing one’s own pet causes or one’s own filters of agenda to distract has hamstrung Republicans and indeed conservatives of all stripes.
There are people posting here and elswhere who are a lot smarter than I am who must have some practical, workable ideas on how to stop this short of the Mad Max scenario and total breakdown. There is a possibility that that is unavoidable, as the right leaning Cloward-Piven advocates think (Paulistas etc.), but if you are a conservative and do not care for widespread human suffering that will affect not only the bad guys but your own loved ones and fellow travellers too you are obliged to make one final effort.
Matt #64 –
“First of all, we should unplug from the infotainment world. Just stop watching television—it’s not worth it. If you have a cable subscription, you might want to consider cancelling it (I know I am). I do not need to give any more of my money to media conglomerates who are part and parcel of the new world order. But simply not watching television is not enough; we also have to detoxify ourselves from its effects. The television medium has become one of the defining forces of our civilization. It is enshrined like an altar in the center of every home. The idea of instant stardom, of easy money and adulation, usually acomplished by acts of public lewdness, has come to define how we interact. We are become a nation of drama queens, porn stars, and court fools. Unplugging requires not only repentance, the turning away from sin, but also penance, the correction of unruly passions and the punishment of past sins through abstemious acts. It should involve deliberate meditations on the reality of things: on logic which is the truth of the world, and morality which is the truth of the soul.
Also, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have knowledge of physics and chemistry. Not merely becasue it is useful—mere utility is the idol of the philistines—but because it capacitates you to think about things as they are in themselves, not as the advertisers and political hucksters say they are. Think about food in terms of calories and nutrition, not brand names and packaging. Think about energy use in terms of work and efficiency, not as a communion with nature. There is a lot that can be said about this subject. If possible, I will try to say some of it in the days and weeks to come.”
Agree on the unplug move, Matt (and the reasons for it), and look forward to your observations regarding physics and chemistry etc., with which I am in total agreeance, and to which I would add calculus.
Why Romney did worse than McCain? Because of the oh-so-principled conservatives and libertarians who decided to sit out the previous election. Result: (i) Obama got the benefits (legal or not quite so) of incumbency (ii) The Dems were provided with 4 years to strengthen the culture of dependency. Even if a voter less principled than us fine folks understood that Romney-Ryan would improve the economy, would he want to vote to give up his food-stamps until things shake out? Conclusion: Sitting out elections has consequences. Including on later ones.
(As to the Romney wasn’t conservative and/or libertarian enough argument: Am I to believe that there were millions of people who believed that, and yet decided that Obama was unobjectionable enough that they couldn’t even be bothered to vote Libertarian? Am I supposed to cater to them?)
Fiscal cliff? What you talking ’bout? Obama never told us about no “fiscal cliff”!
That’s right son! There is a reason the symbol of the Democrat
Party is a jackass. Ever seen Pinocchio? You’ve just been suckered onto Pleasure Island! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgmfV5VLHvs
[Note that Jiminy Cricket asks, "Where did all the donkeys come from?"]
20. Kinuachdrach
At least the crowds showed that people are more willing today to go public with their politically-incorrect views.
Before Tuesday, yes. Afterwards, probably not so much.
Close elections all over, I gather, which means there are millions of us living in the blue states. Something could be salvaged if we all picked up our lives and moved to the red states. Make them even redder. Higher population= more electoral votes. But wait. It gets better. Politically cleanse the institutions there. Create a huge swath of the country where Washington’s authority is in name only. Scary & difficult? Yes. But no more so than boarding the Mayflower.
Wretchard @28 “The second is that they cheated and have the power to conceal the cheating. Note that cheating does not have to be across the board but only in selected places — cities — where they can tip the balance.”
Last night, the season-ending episode of South Park–presciently entitled “Obama Wins!”–made precisely this point, particularly in its Soderbergh-esque opening sequence. Although they make this point with their characteristically biting satire, the final scene makes one wonder if Matt & Trey really believe that some serious cheating took place.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s16e14-obama-wins
I wonder if it has anything to do with:
“How do I tell my spouse/partner/friend/workmates that I’m voting for Romney?” syndrome.
(Disclaimer: There was a post I saw on this particular issue several weeks ago but I can’t remember where.)
Now, if a person wants to save his or her marriage or friendship by not voting his or her conscience, then that marriage, or friendship, is probably not in the best of health; but one should never underestimate the power of peer—and similar—pressure.
And so I wonder how many voters just didn’t vote, using some excuse or other (“e.g., It won’t matter anyway”; “They’re both lousy”) rather than have to deal with the ire of their spouses, family, and friends.
Not a very easy theory to quantify, mind you.
Sadly, as some have pointed out, election fraud can happen in the USA. There are supposed to be checks and balances – but these “check and balances” are quite weak.
0bama had almost 10 million fewer votes is quite a mystery – only if you believe fairy tails. The fix was in last election and the fix was in this election – but to a lessor extent. The fix was probably a combination of suppressed military votes and an amount of extra 0bama votes.
The moment I saw a “New” Black Panther member at a polling station in PA I knew that 0bama had the game fixed. He would never have let that happen if he thought he could lose (and could be held responsible for that type of voter intimidation). He can now cover his tracks with the full for of the government. It makes me want to vomit.
Matt, in my gloom yesterday, I finally heard something that helped. The church would not have gotten stronger had we gotten what we wanted. This way it will, because it’s suffering and persecution that bring strength and alignment with the will of God.
Walter, it’s all one church. One of the most important jobs we have to do is to heal the rift precipitated by the Protestant rebellion which allowed for the rise of the demoniacal secularists. Forget the main line Protestants, at least the Congregationalists and their ilk, they were all infected by Darwinism a hundred years ago and are now largely decaying, bastions of secularist theology. But the Catholic church is resurgent, and the evangelicals and Catholics make a good fit.
Everybody else, what Matt said and what Wretchard said are of a piece. We/you cannot get anywhere other than deeper into this hole without being grounded in reality, aligned with the truth. The secularist trap will be to induce you to see reality as they do, even as you try to free yourself from the web they weave. That way lies madness.
No mo uro (#70)
Yes, calculus!
For some reason, in my dotage, I’ve become obsessed with calculus, and analysis, and topology. The mysteries of the real line!
Something the left can’t distort, or undermine, or destroy.
The continuum hypothesis, the least upper bound! Ethereal solidity in a chaotic, faithless world….
Jamie Irons
Matt 64: “Finally, nothing at all is possible without the grace of Christ, and grace is administered primarily through the sacraments of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. If you are not a Roman Catholic, you need to convert right away.”
Americans cannot find rightful unity under the Roman Catholic Church because, obviously, there are many Protestant Christians and non-Christians in America. We can find rightful unity under the American Declaration of Independence which combines both reason and moral truth into one grand American idea – that all individuals are self-evidently endowed by their Creator with equal unalienable rights to life, liberty and fruit of labor in creative pursuit of happiness. As Thomas Jefferson said, the American Declaration of Independence is “an expression of the American mind,” and is thus the rightful source of unity for American Catholics, Protestants and non-Christians.
Matt @ 64: “I made some changes at that time which I think helped me, which are now necessary again, and which may be helpful to others as well.”
Let’s not ignore the one change over which we ourselves have total control — the language we use.
It is sad that so many interested, involved individuals have given up and now use the Media misrepresentation — talking about “Red” states as being the ones where there still is popular support for limited government. This is a deliberate reversal of the historical truth that Red has been the color of Communism since the 19th Century. Media “Blue” is true Red. Let all thinking people decide to use the word correctly!
Now we have the latest Euro import — ‘centre-left’ & ‘centre-right’. Center-Left of course means a political philosophy which Stalin could have lived with. Center-right means snivelling weenies who know their place, and go along with the ‘centre-left’. Use of those terms will corrode your brain cells! Instead of Right & Left, we should use the political terms Right & Wrong.
George Orwell’s big point was that controlling language was a means of controlling thought. We each as individuals have to decide if we are going to hand over control of our internal thought processes to the proponents of Big Intrusive Government.
In a crash, it is necessary to throw off as much mass as possible before hitting the wall. I have been preparing for this crash the last few years by basically selling everything I own (shedding mass).
I sold my two sailboats because when crunch time came, I found that having a place to stay in San Diego and Los Angeles was not enough to keep me near where the work is and paying for a slip was a drain on my finances. I had to pull up anchor so to speak and I am in the process of buying a class b (converted van RV) to live in. Yes, to live in. I am becoming an itinerant worker. I will have broadband mobile communications and satellite TV so the only thing that changes for me is the size of my workspace and the place to hang my clothes. I will be renting a lot of small storage spaces again. Maybe checking into a hotel a couple times a month just to dry out.
I am working on certifications for the CAD software that I use and some ASME certifications that will improve my prospect as a checker and movable project ballast. My intention is to work out the contract that I am on right now in the periphery of the oil and gas industry and if I get direct hired great. If not, after the contract I will look for similar work locally then, inevitably go on the road looking for the best employment opportunities. I will probably relocate to Houston, park at Walmarts and if they have them, 24 Hour Fitness centers where I can sh!t-shower-shave then that. After work I will be parking in the nicest place I can find, having dinner, taking a nap, then over to Starbucks to juice up for an evening of computing, studying, websiting, and design and art projects. All on a very powerful laptop.
They say you are in a recession when your neighbor is out of work and in a depression when you are out of work. I will no longer be a slave to geography or feel like I have to live in California the rest of my life just because I was born here. I did not leave California, it left me.
My new goal is to sock away enough money to buy a sailboat capable of world travel, work long enough to put together a stash, then go sailing for as long as I can to see the world why some freedom is still possible. Return, rinse and repeat. Hope to die before I get old.
Over at freerepublic, the guys reporting in on election day said they were in lines longer than they had ever seen in republican precincts. usually low to normal lines in democrat precincts all over the country.
so why the big descepency between anecdotal evidence and statistical results. why would romney get less votes than mccain. McCain! Heck McCain was just loathed by conservatives. They stayed away. Romney was not disliked in this way.
It makes sense that Obama’s numbers would be way down. It doesn’t make sense that Romney’s numbers would be 2 million off of McCain’s score.
The hatred for Obama was just palpable. How could any conservative stay away.
In any case, I’ve got a query into a cousin of mine in Texas who is active in Ron Paul type events. I’m going to find out if his crowd stayed away.
Bottom line. This question where did the two million voters go — has to be answered–and answered correctly.
Isaiah 57:1-2 for those who have fought the good fight and are ready to join the “great cloud of witnesses” in the bleachers (Hebrews 12:1-2),and the rest of the chapter for those who are called to live through what comes next. Oddly enough, I still plan and hope to be in the latter group, because there is much interesting work remaining to be done, and plenty of opportunities to anticipate (1 Cor 3:10-15).
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2057&version=NKJV
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2012:1-2&version=NKJV
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%203:10-15&version=NKJV
Looking back at the 1st debate, Obama stared at the floor, bemused. It appeared to me that he didn’t care, and didn’t have to. He had it all in the bag, and the debate mattered not. He knew the result before the first vote was tallied. To my mind, it seemed as if he was laughing at Romney for taking the actual words and convictions so seriously. He already knew the outcome, and didn’t even bother to take an active position.
If you look at his demeanor, he didn’t want to be there, and didn’t even take it seriously. It seems also that his handlers took him to task a bit for the second and third debates, and made him perform a little better, if only to assuage the faithful.
“Don’t worry about reports you may get of early voting totals, we have votes banked.” more or less.
Does anyone else see the same thing and have the same reaction? It was cooked from the beginning. I don’t know exactly how.
tom
Perhaps I continue to beat a dead horse on this, but consider the well-known but often ignored psychological defense mechanism of “projection.” Whenever the other side accuses of something you can/should assume they are not only contemplating the same thing but have been doing it for quite a while. And what mantra did we hear in the pre-election run-up? Voter suppression.
How did they do it? Destruction of absentee ballots? Electronic mischief? Throwing out provisional ballots? Having others vote in our name?
Am I being overly suspicious? I had always laughed at conspiracy theories and certainly don’t want to succumb to them now, but I still have heard no convincing reason for Romney to have gotten fewer votes than McCain, given the attention the election had, the billion dollars spent on GOTV as well as advertising, and the huge crowds he was getting, as well as the margin he had in the pre-Sandy Gallup polls. It simply doesn’t make sense. Calls for the kind of unbiased audit we will never get.
OK, knowing we will probably never get the truth, I’ll quiet down now.
c @ 83: It doesn’t make sense that Romney’s numbers would be 2 million off of McCain’s score.
It is a good question, and I do entertain the idea of a big fix.
BUT here’s another quantitative tidbit.
2012 is four years later than 2008.
Every year, about 4m voters die out of the system, and about 4m new voters age into the system. That’s a swap of 12m voters.
If about 1/6 of that delta is more pro-Obama, then you have a 2m shift.
What I would like to see is a GOP national voter project to independently count Republican votes and reverse engineer the national talley because as far as I am concered, this vote was corrupted by a corrupt government that disallows any semblance of the rule of law in our elections. If they were legitimate, that can be proved. If they were illegitimate, then we will have civil war with at least half of LE and the military willing to fight and die for the truth.
The first thing I started to think of is de-funding the opposition as much as possible, making sure that none of my money goes to anything that funds our opponents. To that end, I am looking at disconnecting cable (maybe using netflix, etc. for my wife to watch what she wants). Not only a money savings but a chance to call and ask for them to give me a cable package without MSNBC and CNN and when they say no, tell them to turn it off.
Same goes for charities and other ventures. No money or goods to anyone on the left. If I buy something, I’m checking to see what the company supports in their off time. If it is on the left, too bad, I’ll shop elsewhere.
Finally, I need to restructure the company my wife and I started. It is a consulting services LLC, and I work as a consultant along with 3 contract employees. I want to set up a side, real estate venture so that I can push profits into real estate purchases rather than taking them as profits immediately. I’d also like to maximize my ability to protect myself against coming tax changes.
Any thoughts on how to do that would be much appreciated!!!
In a political sense, I posted my thoughts in the other thread.. We need to treat this like the street fight it is.
I’m in Austin. Spouse had a two hour wait in line to vote. I had a half-hour wait. The line was evenly mixed, O-supporters and Romney supporters. This is a big change from last time, which was a big Democratic scrum. The election volunteers were mixed last time- R and D. This time it was all D. They are pissy if you present a photo ID. One quite rudely told the spouse to put his ID away, when he showed it with his voter registration card.
I really do not think O won. I know there’s an internal video that the Dems have, of how O stole the primary from Hillary. The dems know he cheats.
I’m glad you like math, and it’s all philosophical. I like babies, and they’re pretty real, too. And I like conservative entertainment. I grew up in the “no TV” purity household- it doesn’t work. Phineas and Ferb, The USA network, Forensic Files, bible story cartoons, Disney morning shows.
Seriously, disrespectful, chaotic boomer-ish entertainment- it’s not the most popular. It’s a commentary. Even Shrek gets married and has kids. The chaos has a short shelf-life. It’s not the wave of the future.
Matt: I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have knowledge of physics and chemistry. Not merely becasue it is useful—mere utility is the idol of the philistines—but because it capacitates you to think about things as they are in themselves, not as the advertisers and political hucksters say they are.
A small act of civil disobedience along these lines would be to buy unscented Secret instead of unscented Right Guard, and vice-versa. Because really, what’s the difference, apart from the marketing?
You’re comparing 2008 final numbers (July 2009) to 2012 November numbers. In the count I’m following nearly 2 million votes have been added to your 2012 numbers and several million more votes will be added before we get the 2012 final numbers in July 2013. Romney will certainly end up with more votes than McCain received in 2008 and Obama will end up getting the second-most votes of any candidate in history. He got the most in 2008.
“How can you do worse than Jimmy Carter and yet still win? Answer: because nobody thinks we can vote out the Machine any more.”
I am linking to 27.Batman’s well-founded bewilderment at the lower voting numbers for Romney (vs. those for McCain) and Richard’s response in 28. Particularly his second conclusion that there was fraud, of which I will present my take shortly.
I was just about ready to concede that we are now beyond the perverbial tipping point that many of us here all feared for our country: where the parasites now outnumber the producers. But when I read here and elsewhere that Romney got nearly 3 million fewer votes than McCain, I felt exactly like Batman: something doesn’t make sense with these numbers. Were these lower numbers due to people having given up ala Wretchard’s despondent “nobody thinks we can vote out the machine anymore” remark? Based on the raw numbers just by themselves I can see how one can put forth that depressing conclusion.
But Wretchard, before we resign ourselves to such a conclusion, can you and everybody else reading this join Batman and me in having a more-than-gut feeling that there was so much evidence to the contrary? That there was way MORE enthusiasm for Romney/Ryan than the previous candidate? And, therefore, that the lower numbers just don’t make sense? Think about just these few examples that makes one want to scream that voter apathy ain’t so:
SRO at Romney/Ryan rallies in Colorado, Florida, PA, NH, Ohio, etc.
Reports coming in from all over of Romney/Ryan signs all over the place. I myself observed this in PA, NJ, NY and DE over the two months.
The “walk over broken glass” intensity of Romney voters.
The huge number of early votes.
The reports coming in on Election Day from all over the country of long lines of people at voting places and poll workers stating that they’ve never seen such long lines for such extended periods.
Take things back a little further: The incredible crowd for the taxpayer rally on the Mall in D.C. a few years back (have we all forgotten that?). And the ensuing landslide elections of 2010 that essentially verified the genuine level of enthusiasm- and, might I add, level of PARTICIPATION- that burst forth out of that rally?
Contrast this vivid (and, again, clearly documented) enthusiasm for Romney/conservatism with the lack of enthusiasm for Obama this time around, as readily documented by the smaller crowds at his rallies, and the easily observable significant drop in number of signs in yards and bumper stickers on cars.
So when we read that Obama’s totals were 14% lower than the last time, that would seem to totally makes sense. That jives with the observations!
Romney’s totals do NOT. They do not make sense, but rather they make NON-sense!
So what happened? That question is almost rhetorical in that the answer is so obvious: in the spirit of a Chicago ganster, let’s speak like one: we wuz robbed! The only thing left to decipher is the “how”, because there is no doubt in my mind that voter fraud occurred, and it occurred in a way (and on a scale) that I believe most folks, including myself, hadn’t fathomed.
When discussing voter fraud most of the methods we read about are of the variety that illegally give votes TO a candidate. To name just a few: ballot box stuffing, dead voters, illegal immigrant voters, bussing in of voters from out of state, paying people to vote for a particlular candidate, etc. etc.
All of the above examples occur up to and including the pushing of the button for a candidate. My concern- my paranoia- deals with what happens AFTER the button is pressed. Generically speaking, my concern is with ELECTRONIC voting. We’ve all been reading about a voter pressing a button for Candidate A but the result showing a vote for Candidate B. I contend that this sort of thing is small beans, and when combined with all of the above examples of voter fraud, may have merely served as a smokescreen to what really went on in 2012. Sure, they all happened, but, once again, they all entail giving a vote TO a candidate. What happened in a much larger relative extent in 2012 was the taking of votes AWAY from a candidate. And that happened inside the computer, after the button was pushed.
Let me start with my mistake, which like all of the above fraud types, operated under the incorrect premise that the method illegally gives a vote TO
a candidate. Let me further state that I am not a computer programmer, but way back in the 70s took a programming course and have just enough brain cells left that retained some of the knowledge from that course. Accordingly, I am counting on you real programmers out there to better run with this idea that I’m about to present.
I remember typing on cards something called an “If-Then” command. So, for this discussion, “If voter pushes A, then voter votes for Obama; If B, then Romney”. Now I further recall that you could tweak such commands (is it “do loops”,programmers?)with exceptions. For example, when N equals 20 or a multiple of 20 (where N equals the number of pushes of button B), then B votes for Obama rather than Romney. Think about it. If that happens only one in twenty times, that’s 5% of the vote switched over to Obama. In a close election, that’s HUGE! Further think about it. If a polling place worker tests the machine for accuracy, he/she could press B many times over and it would come up Romney so -Walla!- the machine is working.
I think this is what happened all over the country, only instead of the votes programmed to go TO Obama, these votes for Romney were ejected into nowhere land. To use amateur programming words, if N=20 or a multiple of 20, then B=….. Nobody. Millions of Romney votes went to Nobody.
Crazy insane. My method on how the lower vote totals came about may be totally off base and is just an amateur’s shot at trying to understand things. But in the face of all the evidence we’ve seen for significantly greater voter enthusiasm for the Republican candidate in 2012 vs. 2008, doesn’t the fundamental hypothesis of uncounted/disappearing votes nonetheless make way more sense than lower voter turnout for Romney than for McCain?
Gross speculation until we figure out who the Republicans were that stayed home: Reason Republicans stayed home? Sarah Palin, anyone? She was the only relative outsider on either ticket in decades. Cheers -
How can you work with people who insist perfect conservatism or I’ll vote for a Red Communist? Palin or communism. Jesus Christ or I will sit at the side of Satan. Well, Jesus didn’t run therefore you are a Satanist. Everything else is BS.
Pat @ 92: “You’re comparing 2008 final numbers (July 2009) to 2012 November numbers.”
Excellent point, but think about some of the ramifications.
1. The implication is that the number of currently uncounted votes nationally is around the same magnitude as the difference in vote totals between Romney and the other guy. If there is selection bias (eg uncounted military ballots which lean heavily away from the Prevaricator In Chief), then a number of elections might not actually be settled. That does not sound plausible.
2. With an increasing national population, the number of votes for presidential candidates ought to increase every election. Even if the currently untabulated votes bring Romney up to McCain’s level, there still would be a gap to be explained. Josh @ 87 picked up on the idea of death removing Republicans from a non-replenishing pool. That arithmetic needs work, obviously. But the implication would be that the Republican Party faces the same future as those non-breeding Shakers.
Two words. Negative ads. They make people less likely to vote. We had 0 doing noting but trying to depress Romney votes. It worked.
There are a bunch of votes still out there. The Santa Clara County site shows an additional 230K absentee & provisional uncounted. That in just one county. So the final results may be as high as 10% more votes, with 0 extending his lead. I figure 1 to 5 % of total votes are fake. Not enough to swing a landslide, but enough to turn a narrow victory into certainty. Fla, Ohio, Pa, Wis. Why do you think the crats were working so hard to defeat voter ID? 0 won a lot of states with 50 to 52% of the votes. When all the tight races go against you it isn’t chance.
We live in interesting times. Death will take us all, so it matters what we do before the final judgement. It is comforting to know that in the end all evil done will be balanced.
eric…
You’re making it too complicated.
South Park’s skit is on target: the ballots, themselves, were simply ‘disappeared’, Hugo Chavez style.
There is absolutely no paper trail for absentee ballots, period.
For DECADES the pols have gerrymandered our polity. They know, by zip code, exactly what the party bias is. It’s an idiot simple matter to simply toss, even without opening, absentee ballots from the ‘wrong’/Republican zip codes. This process was certainly underway with ‘early voting’ — early defrauding. No single hole in our electoral process is as wide open as early voting — by absentee ballots.
In my area, the ENTIRE civil service pushed for EVERYONE to vote absentee. Such a gambit entirely negates the integrity of the election.
Last minute advertising becomes a waste — inverting all prior norms.
Last minute scandals, like Benghazi, become irrelevant, as they are now too late — even if they break open even a week before election day.
But, most importantly, such a scheme puts the vote entirely at the tender mercies of the postal service (public union) and the receiving officials. (public unions)
Barry bought them off, the Chicago way.
It’s no simpler than that.
It’s of note that most of these ‘reforms’ are less than four years old. While we had absentee ballots before, the surge to have everyone and his uncle vote absentee is that recent.
It figures, no?
We have Chicago on the Potomac — and there is every possibility that Barry will morph his stay into a lifetime regency. For, in four years, the nation really will be in crisis.
And Barry is no Lincoln.
#83 Charles
#86 batman
Charles – spot on. It took a few days to put my thoughts together, but I’m right where you were. Acknowledges, that conspiracies are notorious difficult to keep secret, so if there was a fraud, one day it will be known.
However, the election result just don’t fit the facts as are known:
* GOP Registration was dramatically higher than 2008, and in particular, in swing states. So, voters took the trouble to register as Republicans only to stay home on election day??
* McCain drove away conservatives, but Obama’s last four years inspired conservatives to vote AGAINST Obama, yet GOP voter turn out was depressed?
* Polling places in GOP districts were jammed. Romney had crowds at every stop; Obama half-filled at his events.
* Romney got higher significantly higher percentages of the independent and women votes.
* Dems cite minority demographics and increasing Latino vote for the difference. Who knew that Ohio and Pennsylvania was such a hotbed of Hispanic politics?
* The economy and unemployment issues alone should have been enough to sink Obama’s candidacy. The Commerce Department might be able to game the numbers, but people who are actually experiencing the numbers can’t be deceived.
* Finally, if you are going to steal an election, remember one thing. False ballots can easily be audited, i.e. the name and address resolve to a false location or a person who does not exist. Missing ballots cannot. If the aren’t there on election day, you can’t prove afterwards that they were there.
I think Obama stole the election electronically. In this day and age, those who profit $millions from fraud don’t bother with anything else. Fraud would be obvious if the electorate were not so evenly divided. But a total of perhaps 30,000 ballots in key districts makes the difference in 100 electoral votes.
Kinuachdrach,
That’s not how it works. There were dramatic increases in the number of voters in 2004 and 2008, but in 2000 there were just less than a million votes more than in 1992 and 9 million more than in 1996. There was a big dropoff in 1996.
12 states have already tallied more votes than were cast in 2008. They are Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin. In the 3 remaining “contested” states, the current dificit is 32,981 in Florida, 5,096 in New Hampshire and 329,202 in Ohio. It’s a good bet that, when the vote is certified, there will have been more votes cast in 2012 than in 2008 in all 3.
States where the deficit is greater than in Ohio are Arizona, California (4 million), Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. In other words, all the usual suspects this early in the certification process have a large number of outstanding votes to count.
I write computer software for a living. Voting machines are nothing more than specialized computers. For an election, someone has to program them to display the candidates’ names and then add 1 vote to the Romney count when the Romney button is pressed and add 1 vote to the Obama count when the Obama button is pressed. It would be trivial to alter the program such that every 10th time the Romney button was pressed Obama got a vote even though the screen showed “You voted for Romney”. No one would ever know and there would be no possibility of a recount because there are no paper ballots.
The difference in the popular vote was about 1 million. Far fewer votes than that would need to be different to swing several states. I think it quite possible that voting machine tampering, along with absentee, early, and provisional voting could account for the difference.
That said, Obama ran a better campaign and we are screwed. That’s a technical term.
k @ 96: Josh @ 87 picked up on the idea of death removing Republicans from a non-replenishing pool.
Just to clarify, the pool does replenish, but the new distribution is less Republican.
p @ 100: 12 states have already tallied more votes than were cast in 2008. They are Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin. In the 3 remaining “contested” states, the current dificit is 32,981 in Florida, 5,096 in New Hampshire and 329,202 in Ohio. It’s a good bet that, when the vote is certified, there will have been more votes cast in 2012 than in 2008 in all 3.
Good numbers, thanks. Maybe we need to pend the analysis until the counts are all in. Hey maybe the results, too? Where’s Karl Rove?
Nice manifesto. But say things do go pear shaped. Ferfal has some good tips and ideas.
Ferfal – The Modern Survivalist
Bonzo @5:
Important distinction….. YET. That may come. Obongo is not a nice person nor are his supporters.
stephen b said:
Ever seen the recent Remington advert? Something like: ‘Over 7,000,000 sold in the US. The world’s largest army is not in Red China.’
Not to mention: Winchester, Ruger, Colt, Sig Arms, Thompson Center, and on and on. 80,000,000 gun owners and I know almost none that have just one. So, stephen, I would not be so sure.
Kinuachdrach @ 20:
Under the bolded – that the rub. Why? Something does not smell right. Why?
Heh. Seems more than one on this thread think the same way.
If there was any voter fraud, it’s all part of this “Punch and Judy” show that’s been going on… Another staged scandal to make the audience jump and yell about god knows what or anybody cares.
“How can you work with people who insist perfect conservatism or I’ll vote for a Red Communist?”
How can you vote for the dink that dreamed up and touted the template for Obamacare? Someone who was soooo conservative that he was the governor of Mass?
I ended up actually voting for the SOB, but I decided to do so literally the day before the election. Now I feel like I sold part of my soul for nothing.
Mismanagement with Project Orca, the get out the vote/volunteer management application might explain the low turnout: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/334783.php
I think FEAR, FRAUD & DEMOGRAPHICS cost us the election along with an incompetent and spineless Republican Party.
I thought this prediction about the election was right on!
DAVID P. GOLDMAN
The Senate is virtually a lost cause due to Republican errors in Kansas and Indiana. The presidency is a toss-up. The crosswinds are too strong to calculate the vector sum. It is astonishing that Barack Obama, who did a terrible job on the economy and made no friends on any major issue, should have a chance at re-election. He is playing to fear. As Joe Biden put it ever so clearly in the VP debate, “Who do you trust” to keep the welfare coming? The number of Americans receiving some kind of means-tested federal support rose from 20% in 2008 to 32% today. Romney’s message of entrepreneurial revival may not resonate. Most of the entrepreneurs who took a shot during the past fifteen years were carried out in body bags. Venture capital has underperformed the traded indices by a huge margin. Corporate America is cartelized to an extent we have not seen since the 1950s. We are in the middle of an unprecedented retirement wave for which Americans are financially unprepared, after the 40% median per capita wealth decline of 2008-2012. And we have a burgeoning underclass that is white as well as black or Hispanic. Forty percent of all births in 2011 were outside of marriage. We don’t know to what extent Americans feel beaten. If they feel beaten, they will vote their fears and re-elect Obama, and the country’s decline will accelerate. I am hoping and praying for a Romney victory. But it’s beyond my capacity to forecast.
– David P. Goldman joined PJM after nearly 10 years of anonymous essaying at Asia Times Online and two years of editing and writing at First Things.
The claim that 2012 turnout was below 2008 is laughable. Why is anyone who didn’t vote for Ali Bama and his Forty Thousand Thieves accepting these fraudulent numbers?