Let’s get the emotional response to the Disaster of 2012 out of the way. I don’t know about you, but this is how I felt last night and continue to feel today.
I couldn’t have said it better, Chuck. Sixty million Americans did vote to blow it up.
Emotion out of the way, what happened to about a million John McCain voters? In 2008, the uninspiring nominee who became the GOP standard-bearer because of a timely endorsement from orange Charlie Crist racked up 58,343,671 votes. In 2012, four years after America has seen Barack Obama’s special blend of malevolent incompetence, narcissism, mendacity and laziness in action, Mitt Romney was a far better GOP candidate and ran a far better campaign than McCain’s, and so far Romney racked up 57,401,992 votes.
That’s a difference down of 941,679 votes as of this writing, when Mitt Romney should have been able to overperform the lackluster John McCain. Why didn’t he?
Barack Obama, on the other hand, lost 6,796,706 votes from 2008 to 2012, as of this writing. Obama lost about 10% of his vote and still won a second term. That isn’t all that difficult to explain. People who voted for him four years ago really were less enthused about voting for him again. So they didn’t, but they didn’t switch sides either.
Where did those million McCainiacs go? Did they all die in last four years? Actually, given the age of the GOP coalition, that’s not impossible.
We do know now that Romney did poorly among Hispanic voters compared to McCain, who grabbed 31% of the Hispanic vote. Romney got just 25% or so overall, and he did worse in some of the swing states. He could have done better among Hispanics than he did, and it’s possible that another candidate could have done better. Rick Perry nets about 40% or more of the Hispanic vote in Texas, but Texas Hispanics tend to be more conservative than Hispanics outside the state. He would never have lived down his debate gaffe anyway, so that’s a moot point. Respectable Republicans despise and and set out to destroy people like Perry, giving the Democrats an additional boost. Democrat Obama can lie through his teeth about the deaths of four Americans and the looming fiscal cliff and it doesn’t hurt him at all, and boob Biden can be himself for all the world to see and the Respectable Republican does not try destroying him, but any Republican’s odd brain freeze spells doom for them along with a lifetime of mockery from pretty much the entire world. I’m not whining, just acknowledging reality. Life is not fair and it never will be. Conservatives have always known this.
It’s possible that if Romney had merely held serve with Hispanics compared to McCain in the swing states plus improved the ground game a bit, he could have won. Had he done as well as Bush 43, he certainly would have won. It’s possible that Romney went too far on immigration during the primary, but it’s more likely that Obama’s immigration change by fiat brought enough liberal Hispanic voters home to him. It’s hard to beat the quick-targeted pander, just as it’s hard to beat the lure of free stuff. It’s possible that just enough of my fellow evangelicals stayed home because Romney is a Mormon. I don’t know, but I do know the question does come up. If so, they made a grave mistake. We weren’t voting for a deacon but for a president, and Romney had the skills to be a very good one.
It is the leftist ideal world plus the lure of free stuff that brought Obama’s vote back out in sufficient numbers to give him the win. Free stuff and the promise of more free stuff is one of the few proposals that he actually ran on. ObamaCare is sold as free stuff and enough people believe that that’s what it is, despite the fact that it’s a job-killing drag on small businesses and still threatens to bankrupt reeling state governments. If you don’t have a job, ObamaCare may have something to do with that. So wipe that smug smile off your face, hippie.
“It’s hard to see Joe Biden replicating Obama’s wins in four years’ time”
It would be, at best, Martin van Buren. And the analogy is appropriate. The energy that caused the turnout is the minority Jacksonian Revolution. Which, honestly, is good. Black and brown coming fully into their birthrights, affirming and expanding the American Experiment, is a consummation to be enjoyed. Thus don’t go overboard with the “free stuff” analysis.
I think it will be interesting to see what happens on the left as white college single goes against black Christian believer. Very interesting indeed. The Democrats will have a problem with what constitutes *their* ideal candidate. At any rate, though I don’t disagree with the above analysis, I predict the current era collapses rather quickly.
And if America doesn’t want a white Southern male, then by all means, it can reject him. I have a dream, indeed.
I would note Andrew Jackson is not on Mount Rushmore. And was far more interested in fighting governmental cronyism than Barack Obama ever will be.
Rushmore was FDR’s idea, which is why he’s on it.
fact check: FDR isn’t ON Mt Rushmore, it’s Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln, in that order.
Also an interesting sidenote: the artist who was hired to construct the faces went on strike until he was able to get FDRs face in the lineup; replacing an indian chief (sitting bull?). Think of what a unifying figure an indian chief would have been? But no, some progressive artist needed to see his icon in the granite, and the rest is history.
AGAIN: It ISN’T FDR. It’s Teddy Roosevelt.
It won’t be Biden in 4, it will be Moosehell, the media and mindless followers do love them some dynasties.
As for where the “McCain” votes went, a fair number of them, including mine were actually “Palin” votes that went Libertarian this time because of the shabby treatment that great American from the frozen north was given by the GOP.
In fact, in the past I’ve voted for the Libertarians a time or two, but for the most part it’s been the GOP since 1976. . . but never again unless they defacto “steal” the Libertarian platform.
When you say that all those people went Libertarian, I just don’t see it: I haven’t seen any places where the Gary Johnson vote, if taken and given to Romney, would have made any difference.
On the other hand, it’s clear that a lot of people just stayed home. I can see how they would, over Palin…except that does Mitt Romney deserve being pinned on how Democrats and Republicans treated Palin? Does the country deserve another four years of Obama, because of how some stupid establishment Republicans treated Palin?
I voted for Romney despite my disgust at how he and the Party treated Ron Paul. Don’t count on me in 4 years if they do the same to Rand.
Well, then you voted for it and you’re going to get it. And every time a Libertarian points at Obama’s policies hurting them, I am going to p-oint, and laugh, and I’m going to repeat that: you voted for it. You asked for it. And you’re going to get it. Good and hard.
Right on, Charlie Martin.
There was only one choice on Tuesday: Obama or Romney. Any other consideration was neither viable nor relevant.
Those who didn’t want Obama to remain in the Oval Office but didn’t vote for Romney/Ryan are fools. Now the U.S. is stuck with the Obamanation for another four years and all of the mayhem he’ll continue to inflict on Americans — and the rest of the world.
As a Canadian, I’m astonished that what was once a great nation and beacon of the free world has plunged itself into darkness by the re-election of a pathological liar and sociopathic narcissist. A second Obama term does not bode well for the world.
Kyrie eleison.
Biden in 2016?
Say, isn’t 126 years a bit too old to run for President?
“It’s hard to see Joe Biden replicating Obama’s wins in four years’ time.”
With economic collapse coming within the next few months, further incursions by the State onto our liberties and the inevitable states of emergency declared to justify further impositions; what makes you think that we will be having anything resembling an election in 4 years? Just Curious.
Subotai Bahadur
And when that collapse happens, the national socialist Keysians will own it. There will be no “Bush did it” to fall back on and they will have to answer for it. But then, the obedient mediots will still run cover and they will most likely try to buy their way out of that as well with more borrowed money spent on more union thugs and crony bankers.
Hyperinflation, and oh, did anyone notice the stock market crash this morning? Second lowest dip after an election in history. Means businesses aren’t all that confident in captain nobody’s “economic plan” which includes a wrecking ball and crippling taxes.
OK, you left wingers…I’ll sit back and watch while your president and the other socialists put their plans to work and don’t look surprised please when it all falls to sh*t around you. You wanted to be Europe, you got it. Let me knwo how it works out for you when all the money runs out.
It doesn’t work like that. The (D)’s will blame the economic collapse on the (R)’s. That is why we have (D)’s and (R)’s. No practical difference between them. Both sides are just fighting over who gets first shot at the taxpayer’s wallet.
Until the media is brought to heel by the citizens, nothing will change. The only legal way to do that is boycott.
PJM would be a good place to Organise that.
With Bronco Bama, you’re not connecting the dots so much as connecting the lies.
Unless I am mistaked the lowest dip post election day ever was 2008.
Welcome to Zimbabwe.
If you live in the US it’s time to move.
One should never underestimate the lazy’s thirst for “free stuff.” It becomes an addiction. One of the main tenants of addiction theory is, people will not seek to be “clean” until death is the only other option, and often they choose death. Since Obama was irrationally chosen, there seems no barrier to a Biden presidency. Case in point, we see the PIIGS spinning down and the electorate of France chooses to spin with them. It would seem we must also inter the fire, before the spell can be broken.
“Tenets,” not “tenants.”
Why would voters listen to anyone who can’t even spell?
Great comment!!! Do you have anything to add to the conversation? Or do you just detract?
Incidemtally, every year a prize is given to the kid that cracks the spelling code. You might like to apply.
It won’t be Biden. He’ll be in a nursing home when his dementia worsens.
President Valerie Jarrett just got re-elected, and in 2016, she’ll be running under her own name.
I want to vote for President of the Republic of Texas soon. We have our own electrical grid, we can be easily energy independent, we have the farmland, we have the ports, we can be easily self-sufficient as a country. Perhaps most of the rest of the middle of the current US will join us. Let the blue states rot from their own policies!
How about the Red states refusing to sell food, oil, etc. to the Blue states? Can the federal government force states to sell their goods? The Blue states will be forced to import those things that they can’t produce. It would be an economic, but not formal and political secession.
Why not?
No, seriously…WHY NOT?
Why does the Federal government,(and those who control it), get the final say on what an American is?
Were not Confederate States soldiers “Americans” too?
We don’t have a frontier anymore, and the government apparently isn’t large enough to have people of both values-sets within it.
You either let secularist homosexuals shove their amorality down your throat and be accepted by the government as “married”, or you are a hateful bigot.
I would rather live in a nation of hateful bigots.
Why can’t I?
Don’t give them any ideas. All Congress has to do is call it a tax, and they can force people to do anything they want.
Indeed — Andy Gump (Oscar the Grump) lays out EXACTLY this argument over in the huge number of comments to the Ron Radosh column.
It’s worth reading. He get’s into specifics.
Oh, I want to see that. Restricting your own trade to show the eastern seaboard who’s boss.
I’d love to secede from the Red States. We’ll take the blue states and you have the red states. We get vritually every major city, industry, the vast majority of agriculture (California produces more than most red states combines, and has the 5th largest economy in teh world). The top universities and the best infrastructure. Let’s do it. We’d set up free trade agreements and wouldn’t have to live with each other’s social laws…maybe share military expenses. No argument from the left on that one.
Pretty sure Oklahoma would want to go with Texas. After all, the term ‘the southwest’ actually refers to the combination of Texas and Oklahoma. Geographically, the TX/OK combo is ‘south-central US’. Arkansas and Louisiana are in ‘the South’. NM and AZ are in the ‘southwestern US’
Going a little further, TexArkLaHoma would make for a pretty nice nation too. Eastern New Mexico from Clayton to Carlsbad (Buddy Holly country) ought to be in Texas. All of NM would be acceptable in TexyMexyArkLaHoma.
Saddle Up.
Except NM has been a reliable blue state for several election cycles.
Technically Texas is NOT part of the United States of America. Texas never finished the process of becoming a state. Look it up, it’s an interesting tale.
Yes turnout was lower all across the board;
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/11/07/turnout_shaping_up_to_be_lower_than_2008_116092.html
My theory is that more and more people are starting top realize the process is rigged and is not quite as honest as the elections in Iran. A little more devious then Edi Amin or Saddam and their 99% elections but still nowhere close to honest.
Only liberals are allowed to run for POTUS. The System is rigged. Heads they win, Tails you lose. The choices are between left and far left, the (D) crooks or the (R) crooks.
The system is set in concrete and will need explosives to reach any fundamental change.
Well, in another day 40 million hunters will head for the woods to shoot Bambi. We hope. The way two nutters with one rifle and a box of bullets tied up D.C, imagine what 40 million riflemen with 100 rounds each could do.
I hope nothing happens. That is what I expect. We just need to wait. I figure within 2 years the Mullahs will nuke New York, which will tear the heart out of the American left.
TWANLOC: Those Who Are No Longer Our Countrymen
Your advice should be followed. I’m working on a “secede” bumper sticker now. The problem is Texas turning blue. What do we do then?
Yep, they claim Texas will be a swing state in a few years if trends continue. If that happens, there will never be another conservative president. But I have another view about secession. People in and outside of Texas always talk about secession as the only way for Texas to go its own way, but I suspect we won’t have to deal with that because I think chances are fairly high that the federal government will be bankrupt & paralyzed within a few years, and the states will have to fend for themselves. I have sent both Governor Rick Perry and my local state representatives letters asking them if Texas has a disaster plan if a federal financial meltdown occurs? If not, they need to get one worked up. Just as we plan for hurricanes, floods, fires & tornadoes,we need to have plans for operating this states own electrical system, banking systems, etc. The time is coming when California, Illinois & some other big blue states are going to want the technically bankrupt feds to bail them out. At that point, the whole scam might just blow up.
First thing you have to do is secure your borders.
Dirty apes.
Let me be the first to welcome you to Zimbabwe.
There is only one answer to the problem. It’s pretty well laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Just need to change a couple of proper names and nouns. I don’t want to live in the same land with these takers and their masters. Let alone finance them.
Brian:
I hope you got it out of you system and feel better. Get some rest; we saddle up and ride at dawn.
http://two-masters.blogspot.com/2012/11/was-it-over-when-germans-bombed-pearl.html
Sorry, Bryan. My bad on the spelling.
Walter E Williams – Economic Rape And Seduction
Published on Nov 7, 2012
Williams draws an analogy between the actions of government and that of the free market.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1oY-IzANis&feature=g-all-u
“what happened to about a million John McCain voters?”
They only came aboard because of Sarah Palin. If it weren’t for her on the ticket, the numbers would likely have been the same. She fired up the base to a degree that “Warm Spit” McCain never could.
That’s a good theory, but my goodness–after four years of this fewer Republicans turned out? I’ve been tearing my hair out about this all day.
About the other side–perhaps they are all at the 7th grade math level.
Emily, Conservatives are not required to be Republicans. So long as the GOP continues to blackball conservative candidates for President, conservatives will feel no obligation to support the GOP. The GOP phoobahs were harder on Sara then the left was. Of the candidates Romney beat in the primaries, Perry, Cain, Newt would have beaten Bronco. They are conservative enough to have gotten an extra few million voters. Mitt had independents and Obama haters. Not enough obviously. The GOP needs a major shake up. If it doesn’t, it’s doomed as a party. Get rid of Rince and dry. Steele was a bit flaky but he WON.
I would like to see Jindal run in 2016.
America changes very rapidly. Old people don’t like that so much. The America of 2012 is Not the America of 1962. the America of 2062 will be different too.
I feel sorry for my grandchildren but they might feel sorry for me by then.
No one else would have done any better. You a fool to believe so. But you’re a fool anyway. To sit at home and not vote this bum out after all his decisiveness,leaving our patriots to die? And you can actually smugly say a day after “we’ll I didn’t like how they treated Sarah?” You’re an idiot. You’re not a patriot. You have failed your country. Pathetic.
Oh baloney.
Romney was a terrible candidate. As the republican primary voters showed by trying to turn to ever other candidate in turn before Romney was the only one left standing. The pathetic thing is that Romney’s money and the establishment’s fantasy of his electability prevented other serious politicians from even entering the race.
The despise so many WASP Republicans feel for Hispanics finally paid off. Many Hispanics are good family people that work hard, go to church, and try to better their lot. A few million of those voted Democrat because–in my opinion–they are afraid of the perceived “Hispanic=illegal alien” mentality so prevalent in the GOP and Tea Party. Don’t tell me it’s not true for I have seen it with my own eyes. The Democrats are better hypocrites and they pandered to the Hispanic vote shamelessly. That may have decided the election in their favor. The GOP must become a Conservative party and stop trying to pass Liberals like Romney for Conservative leaders IMHO. I am one of those who did not vote in this election. I know four more years of B.O. will finally show what how Progressives can ruin a country. Let them “deepen the model.” The coming economic depression will make 1929 look like a picnic. I truly hope I am wrong, But if that comes the GOP will be half responsible for it because they made this election look like a false option. I refused to pick one of two liberals and many other Americans did so.
“The despise so many WASP Republicans feel for Hispanics finally paid off. ”
No, it’s NOT true. You are projecting what you see in a few individuals over an entire group of people. The technical term for that is BIGOT. Stop and think for a minute.
If ALL white people felt as you claim they did, ‘doing the Hispanic’ would be a colloquialism for ‘ropes and trees’. Itself a colloquialism for lynching.
There are approximately 200 million whites in America. If you think 200 million whites would have a problem rounding up 1/10th their number, you need to do a little research.
Start with WW1 and the roundup of Germans in America.
google “American Protective League” or maybe “military Intelligence Division~Van Deman”
The APL was a semi-official vigilante group of “volunteers” that murdered thousands of people that “Looked German”.
So if you were correct about the way Whites feel about Hispanics, you couldn’t go anywhere in the American Southwest without smelling the corpses. Not even the MSM could keep that covered up.
Sorry about no URL but at another site I frequent it was pointed out that by posting URL’s to support my claims I have been aiding and abetting the enemy (media). The best way to break the grip the MSM has on data flow is to encourage people to LOOK IT UP!
Give the people light and they will find their own way.
I still saw what I saw. I am sure those do not represent the feelings of everyone but as some say “perception is reality”. I am a convinced Conservative and I have been at many Conservative, Republican, and Tea Party meetings. KKK meetings they were not but neither they were Hispanic-friendly.
Results: 7.5 million votes gone to the perceived sunny side of the street. I am lamenting that. I am not dishing out blame. I hope Republicans would simple work a little to tell those family oriented, traditional values loving, naturally conservative Hispanics that are more numerous than the bad ones… WE NEED THEM
America, meet handbasket. Enjoy your trip.
The Lawless Presidency and the Lawless Senate have booked a ticket for us into the abyss.
The Propaganda and Lies Ministry has successfully put us on the Marxist path to implosion. A leftist Democrat could rape, embezzle, murder, …and will not be held accountable.
A Republican can’t jaywalk.
We are merely the resistance. And…we are losing.
As the Grateful Dead once sang, “Going to hell in a bucket, baby, hope you enjoy the ride.”
As Limbaugh said BEFORE the election; It was TURNOUT.
That means Romney didn’t dazzle enough.
Obama was able to bullshit enough.
Until the Republicans can learn how to sell stale sewage to the fertilizer companies in D.C., nothing will change.
“That means Romney didn’t dazzle enough….. Until the Republicans can learn how to sell stale sewage ….”
This gets back to my earlier comment. Palin fired up the base back in ’08, but subsequent to then, the RNC “Conventional Wisdom” claimed she was a lightweight and thus somehow lacking. So this time, we presented a math geek to show how “serious” we were. Yes, Ryan had a command on the numbers, but that doesn’t ignite the passion. After all, Slow Joe Biden certainly didn’t add an aura of serious to his ticket.
So, if Palin was the reason for McCain doing as well as he did, and geekiness didn’t equate to turnout, then perhaps we need to go for the emotional.
Makes you wonder how a Romney/Palin ticket would have done.
Makes you wonder how a Romney/Palin ticket would have done.
All electoral votes to Obama, that’s how. Palin makes the social cons wet and everyone else just pukes. Those of you thinking she got a zillion votes for McCain have it exactly backwards. She is what got us Obama. Another round of that vapid twat would be New! Improved! Obama, Now With Mandate!
Kool-aid, anyone?
Yes, you are in a hole, Mr. Engineer. The textbook solution is to stop digging. Works well also as a practical, in the field solution.
Charlie don’t surf
Random, you are incorrect. It is FAR easier for conservative-leaning libertarians like me, my husband, and almost all our “social circle” (mainly hubby’s military buddies and their families) to hold our noses about social conservatism than to support social liberalism that carries with it the means to destroy our entire free enterprise system and emasculate our leading role in global geopolitics.
I do NOT agree with Palin’s position on social issues, but I’d crawl over broken glass to vote for her for national office…if ever given another chance to do so.
I wore my “Palin 2012″ sweatshirt to go vote this year, and boy did I ever get some funny looks
After reading all of your comments, I believe I can help somewhat.
I know how you feel this morning. The reelection of President Obama and continued Democratic control of the Senate means we have serious challenges ahead of us.
But I’m writing to offer you real hope. Since this grassroots movement for freedom began just a few years ago, we’ve accomplished so much.
In 2010, we elected a massive freshmen class of principled conservatives in the House of Representatives. In 2012, we’ve expanded that caucus by defeating numerous Democratic incumbents and replacing them with conservative leaders like Jackie Walorski of Indiana, Andy Barr of Kentucky, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, and more.
We also elected Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and a new fiscally conservative core in the Senate two years ago. This election, we’ve expanded their ranks with newly-minted Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
We drove the national political conversation on our issues of constitutionally limited government, free markets, and individual liberty. Candidates who ran on and articulated our message not only created a clear choice for voters but were overwhelmingly victorious in this election.
That is the power of our ideas and our movement.We must never give up. We must never stop fighting. America’s future depends on it.
Thank you for trying to help us, but unfortunately the situation is slightly different from what you hope.
The project that we tried to stop is not a political plan, it is a war against America’s might as the bastion of the West and of Freedom.
The current administration has now the tools it needs to destroy America’s might.
I know that all the comments speak about the “socialist” agenda that will rape our Country, but that is not the point. The “fundamental transformation” of Obama is a plan to destroy America’s power. That is a global plan, it is not aimed at imposing “socialism” on America (or at least, that’s a secondary goal).
The point is that we are no longer a global power.
al qaeda controls now large parts of North Africa, China and Russia are expanding their power.
The dollar will be transformed into …paper.
Our energy industry will be destroyed.
The middle class will be actively prosecuted in every possible way.
Poverty and despair are in the plans of the subversives.
There is no further space for political plans and there is no other possible plan.
We have been defeated by hate and war.
I doubt that even Internet forums like this will survive.
We cannot come back with a real resistance if we don’t diagnose what is happening.
Yes, and what happened is the voters choose a far left POTUS over a slightly left POTUS.
Since the end of WW2, both parties have moved. From slightly left for the (D)’s to far left. The (R)’s moved from slightly right to slightly left. Conventional wisdom was that whoever won the center won the White House.
The (D)’s moving far left was a stroke of genius. They locked in the left and gave themselves a better shot at the center. By going left the (R)’s dropped the right, to fight over the center. Even if they win that battle, they lose because the right will stay home before voting liberal. So the GOP can either get back to it’s conservative roots or the right will start another party. The GOP has been taking conservatives for granted. That is why they lost and will continue to lose.
Google the history of American political parties.
Rule .308; No mercy asked, none given.
We will indeed soon no longer be a global power. We may not even be able to defend our own shores. But the biggest effect will be that there will be no pre-eminent power in the world, and the native tribes will become restless and ambitious. Since this administration has no real desire to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons, Israel will either be attacked by Iran, or will preemptively strike first, with a very great likelihood that Israel will be destroyed, because no one will come to their aid no matter who strikes the first blow. Because of this administration’s stance, that seems now to be inevitable. And everyone who voted for Obama will have Jewish blood on their hands.
The lack of a pre-eminent power will result in a whole lot of bad actors thinking that now is the time to act on their aggressive impulses, and we will see global conflict, the Korea’s, China, Russia trying to re-establish their empire, who knows what in the Middle East and Europe. Think of the first half of the twentieth century, until after WWII when the US clearly became the world’s policeman. There is no policeman now. This will be coupled with a world wide depression, because as we lose military power, so will we lose economic power, and since we are still actually the economic engine that influences the worlds economy the most, every nation will suffer. And that will only make the international situation worse, becasue all the tyrants will want to displace their subjects’ unhappiness on an external threat. It won’t go well for anyone.
How much did these principled new conservatives controlling the House cut spending? Who did these p…c…’s elect as speaker?
The federal government acts similarly to the British government before 1775.
Absolutely! I recently finished John Ferling’s Independence, The Struggle to Set America Free and makes very clear that British debt and the sloth of the political class which was prepared to tax Americans to transfer payments to subsidize their own lifestyles led to protest and then when Britain stood firm and its own citizens backed the boondoggle the Americans gradually turned, fought and eventually split.
Unfortunately for me since I live in a blue state I see this as a very likely occurrence for the red states. I can not see how if they were to print their own currency and renounce USA debt they would not be fiscally stronger and since the blue states have pushed off military service to those same people just as militarily secure. I think that split is coming albeit maybe as a series of states holding back taxes to the feds. If the blue states don’t back off the split will happen and fast.
Free enterprising men defeated the paid soldiers. Serfs have never won a battle for their owners. This will happen again. Eventually they will realize that “the rich” are gone to Singapore and that there is no one to shake for more money. Let them have the four years (if they get that far) and find out what happens when they max out the federal credit card.
In the previous 6 presidential elections, the president with the best economic numbers won handily. In the three presidential elections in which the incumbent lost, the average GDP grew by only 1.9% in the two years before the election and the incumbent lost by 6% on an average. In the three where the incumbent president won, the GD grew by 4.5% and the incumbent won by 14%. The fact that President Obama didn’t lose significantly in this poor economy indicates that the core Democratic support is even greater than the vote would suggest.
The new Obama coalition is bigger than the GOP coalition.
The GOP is still oblivious to the fact that 27% of voters are nonwhite, and something like 70% of them voted for Obama.
Look at it this way:
Only 72% of voters were white (according to the exit polls).
Of those white voters, about 22% are liberals and won’t vote for the Republican.
78% of 72% = 56%.
That means that to win a 51% majority with nonliberal white votes alone, the Republican candidate would need 51% / 56% or 91% of those nonliberal whites. IOW, he practically has to run the table with all white voters who aren’t liberals.
So it’s NOT about turnout. The GOP can’t keep hoping to turn out a base that shrinks every passing year.
The current rate of shrinkage is about 2% every 4 years. So in 2016, white voters will be down to only 71% of the electorate.
The day will come when nonliberal white voters are a minority group in America.
The GOP is still oblivious to the fact that 27% of voters are nonwhite, and something like 70% of them voted for Obama.
The electorate was 7% smaller in ’12 than it was in ’08 and population grew by 4% in the same time frame. Meanwhile, the percentage of minority voters increased by 2%.
Maybe, Obama’s attempt to suppress white working class voter participation worked.
“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that.” — Homer Simpson.
Too bad about the brian freeze. Perry probably did not have a chance just because he is from Texas. Memories of Bush. But he does have a damn good idea on getting the cost of a college education down to a rational level. I don’t think he is done as a national figure.
Let it burn.
Because I think the machines are internally rigged. That’s the only way to get good numbers independently of turnout.
There, I said it.
They are able to do it.
Remember that little chuckle of Hillary’s when talking about the four fallen Americans in Benghazi? In that instant, I had the idea that she knew something about vote fixing that had been put into the system.
We saw many voting machines that changed Romney votes into Obama votes. If a person can lie with no remorse, he is subsequently capable of any evil act.
My wife works in a rural Arkansas school as a private contractor for speech therapy. I asked her if there was any reaction to the election at work today. She said all of the black kids were excited. And all the poor white kids were excited, too.
I’ve been to basketball games at this school. All the whites are in the middle of the stands and all the blacks are on the two side sections. That’s the power of the welfare state. I wish it didn’t take greed, laziness, and entitlement to end some of the last vestiges of racism in this country.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
During the lowest points of the Great Depression, the American people re-elected FDR twice – without jury-rigged machines. And it was blindingly obvious that his and Hoover’s Progressive policies made the economy far worse than simply doing nothing. But the morons and rubes all lined up to vote for guy who made nice speeches while screwing up the country.
By WWII we had a mountain of debt, tax rates that were near 100% for the top tier, and still double-digit inflation. Yet somehow that carnie act saved us?
I’m sure VDH could give us many examples of the Athenian Democracy making colossally stupid collective decisions. Alcibiades and his Sicilian adventure comes to mind.
Sometimes people just vote stupid.
And all of those supposed morons were also the greatest generation who went on to defeat the forces of evil in WWII.
So much for your pointless and idiotic rant.
The forces of evil in WW2 included the Soviets. The latter killed more innocents than Hitler. The greatest generation was mostly too young to vote for the scumbag FDR.
So? They also raised the Baby Boomers.
i watched what the kenyan tried to do in honduras by attempting to fix that election (machines) and install the marxist zelaya back into power.
i watched as he sold guns to mexican murderers. a little something ‘under ther radar’ that got mexicans and Americans killed.
i watched as he left brave Americans to die in benghazi. he could have easily stopped the attacks.
there is no end to this evil and they will do anything to achieve their ends. have no doubt about that.
missing voters? maybe just missing votes. perhaps it was just easier to blame low repub. voter turnout and have the machines delete a romney/ryan vote every so often in select states, like say ohio? union voting machine workers no doubt? i live right in the middle of the Bible belt and i assure you, there was no hesitation for R & R due to their religion. they didn’t particularly like him, but they abhored the alternative.
more and more i’m beginning to believe the mayans (and some others) knew a lot more about our times than our logical minds want to allow us to believe.
The Mayans were right about the world ending in 2012. They were just off by a month.
I say time for the Republicans in Congress to say yes to every single thing Obama and the Dems want. Every. Single. Thing. I hope the Dems and the people who voted them into office get exactly what they want. And I hope they choke on it.
I put the blame squarely on social conservatives. We would have had our landslide had we not been saddled with anti-choice and anti-gay-marriage politics. I am pissed that we lost, and I’m gonna vent.
Social conservatism and liberalism both demand government jurisdiction over private lives. This is completely contrary to Conservatism.
Ask any liberal what *really* hate about us:
- It’s not our prudent fiscal policy.
- It’s not our prosperity.
- It’s not our personal responsibility.
It’s our hypocritical inability to divide Church and State. I’m thinking they’re right, too.
Oh, go ahead and get it over with: become a Democrat. You know you want to.
So your way or the highway, eh?
The Republicans need to stop the “anti-gay-marriage” position and switch to an anti-gay-adoption position. Respectable family moderates feel guilty over not giving gays a certificate, because they only think it’s about honor or respect or low consequence equality. They do not understand the tangible implications of this decision.
Republicans need to explicitly attack Democrats for letting children be taken from their biological parents, and using “gay marriage” as a buzz word to manipulate people. People hear marriage and think wedding. They don’t ever hear about the dangers.
They need to redefine “pro-choice” to mean pro state choice. Democrats are denying choice to conservative states via Roe v. Wade, which is of dubious Constitutional merit to begin with. Republicans could come out swinging and instead they just don’t do anything.
That’s the story of the party. 1965 immigration, free trade with Communist China, economic bubbles everyone saw coming, Wall Street fraud, divorce exploitation, racial nepotism, etc. The Republicans are the party of NOT DOING ANYTHING.
That’s not what I hated most about Romney.
What I hated most was that after all that talk, he and Ryan were planning on making the government go broke.
I suppose after breaking the bank by lowering taxes, spending unimaginable amounts more on the military and starting another war in the middle east… THEN they were gonna deep six Medicare and Social Security. After we were totally broke then they’d lower debt by getting rid of the New Deal programs.
Well guess what? I like my New Deal programs and I don’t want any more wars.
And you know what else, no one likes abortion. But personhood bills outlaw contraception too and everyone likes contraception.
Well that’s you’re problem, Johnny-come-lately. We’re the anti-slavery party, meaning we’ve been social conservatives from the beginning. So take your pro-choice mantras, and shove them up your ass, because they aren’t welcome here, and if you can’t deal with that, you’re not welcome either.
So take your pro-choice mantras, and shove them up your ass, because they aren’t welcome here, and if you can’t deal with that, you’re not welcome either.
So who died and appointed you as arbiter of what is republican? NOBODY. Meanwhile you and your fellow bible thumping dumbasses have managed to hose the last two presidential elections for the republicans, so I’m thinking that you’re on thin ice here. Your kind is vanishing. You are a proven loser.
And your kind will crash the economy, bankrupt the country, and destroy our military capabilities.
You say you’ve got a mandate? OWN IT!
And your kind will…[snip]
I’m a republican, fool. You culture war types like to think that republican is you and you alone. Get a clue.
myth buster, should I just address you as “God”?
Bingo!! I’m Canadian and up here our Conservative leader (who is Prime Minister now) is a evangel. But he knows social conservativism will not sell in this country to the point that you can win a election. Young voters accept gay marriage and abortion rights so whatever your personal beliefs are, you are not going to win a majority ofthe votes if this is the Republicans policy. So, glass half full, keep fiscally conservative, socially moderate. That will win.
You can be as mad as you want to about losing an election, but I’m not changing my political positions one little jot, just so you can have the satisfaction of winning.
Abortion wasn’t even an issue in this last election, but if it ever is an election issue, my position is this: Abortion is always wrong, it should be 100% illegal, and I’m not budging from that position for you, or Mitt Romney, or the Republican Party or anyone else.
I agree. For a while now I’ve been thinking that when it comes to the abortion issue both sides are on the “wrong” side. Same with drugs.
Conservatives are SUPPOSED to be champions of personal freedom, keeping the govt. out of personal decisions. But on abortion they want the govt. to dictate a woman’s lack of freedom. They also oppose personal freedom when it comes to drug use. Alcohol is acceptable but marijuana isn’t.
Progressive libs, OTOH, think govt. is better than individuals at making personal decisions for everybody. They are ALL ABOUT having govt micro-manage every aspect of our lives, from what we’re allowed to eat, drink, spend our money on, how much energy we use, what type car we should be allowed to drive, gun ownership…and on and on. But when it comes to abortion or drugs they want to keep the govt. out of those decisions.
Go figure.
Social conservatives and progressives are identical, and any argument between them is about who gets to impose control. Social conservatives are statists. The GOP needs to rid itself of them. Obviously nobody takes the GOP seriously these days, so it’s not like I’m the only one noticing this.
Voice: Welcome to the libertarian point of view. And I do mean, WELCOME. We need all the votes we can get for 2016.
(No, I am not a Paulbot. Anyone who believes that America would be well-served by retreating to the foreign policy isolationism of the 19th Century is actively and destructively delusional.)
Thanks. Actually, I’ve voted Libertarian in the majority of presidential elections since 1990. I sincerely believe the Libertarian approach to government is the only logical and workable system. I also agree about Ron Paul. I think he has done more to discredit Libertarians than anybody in modern times.
I really wanted to vote for Gary Johnson this time, and I know he’d have been one of the best presidents in history. Unfortunately I viewed a vote for him as throwing away a valid opportunity to vote Obama out, so I voted for Romney instead. Guess I should have stuck to principles and voted for Johnson after all.
On the plus side, I think the destruction to come will present a real opportunity for the Libertarian party to gain massive support as more and more former Repubs look for an alternative to the GOP.
Hmmm. Makes me wonder if the turnout in 2008 for the lackluster, to say the least, McCain, was largely due to Palin.
I’m sure of it. I remember screaming at my monitor over the anointment of the milquetoast McCain as the obvious choice simply because, by the twisted logic of the RNC, “it was his turn.” And I recall the uptick in enthusiasm when they selected Sarah Palin. Energetic, fresh,and certainly bringing more practical governing experience than Obama. I held my nose and voted for McCain, but I thought that Palin was being positioned for better things later on.
Yes a war hero and foreign policy expertise isn’t enough qualification in the twisted mind of the RNC leadership, so they dragged up an unqualified bumper sticker IQ bimbo who yammered about god to fire up the bible beaters. And McCain lost. Gee, who here besides me saw that one coming?
random, choose another name. You’re giving real engineers a bad name.
Palin indeed fired up the party. My memory is clear, even if your is not. And after announcing her as VP, he proceeded to metaphorically wank in circles and mumble to himself, and the R machine gave her no support.
But it’s all her fault. Right.
As for McCain’s record and FP “expertise”? He was a war hero…once. That was 40 years ago. Now he’s just an extremely squishy RINO with the unpardonable trait of wanting to be liked.
In addition to lack of bump that Palin produced, I also suspect that their are alot of evangelicals who would never have voted for a Mormon, period. Those groups and Libertarians sitting it out is where the million comes from, methinks.
Speak for yourself, shrugging. Any libertarian with a conscience turned out and voted Romney on Tuesday — not because we were enamored of him, but because the alternative was immeasurably, CATACLYSMICALLY, worse.
Enjoy…
http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/11/military-absentee-ballots-delivered-one-day-late-would-have-swung-election-for-romney/
If you are going through hell, keep going! I would like to think last night is some sort of conservative “rope-a-dope”, in which statists will expend themselves into uselessness by 2014. At least that’s my theory, and I am clinging bitterly to it
I am not a pessimist by nature. I love my country and I do not say this lightly. When our government takes away an enumerated right, freedom of religion, from some people in order to give a invented right to another group of people in exchange for votes and then is rewarded for it, then we have become a one party state and we will not recover from it. I want to see a solid core of red states take every defensive action, including secession. But I really doubt that we will see anything like that. More than likely we will end up like Europe where the different parties are all philosophically agreed and all that differentiates them are the outer trappings. The GOP will find it much easier to give in than to fight. The only wild card is my home state of Texas as has already been mentioned but can it move fast enough to cut itself off before the poison sets in?
BTW, here is my own personal tale of woe post election. I was so looking forward to making some long overdue improvements to my home. Now I am going to save that money and every red cent I can. I am going to need to purchase barter goods ahead of the collapse.
When our government takes away an enumerated right, freedom of religion, from some people in order to give a invented right to another group of people in exchange for votes and then is rewarded for it, then we have become a one party state and we will not recover from it.
Oh really? Jackbooted thugs prevent you from from going to your church and thought crimes units are called out to get you for your beliefs?
Actually, Yes. The Church has come under severe, hateful attack from the Left for well over a decade now. The attacks have been social, legal and political in nature, but they have not been enough to sate the vitriole and hatred of the Left. It will indeed become overtly violent – Progressivm is an absolute state religion, much like Fascism and Communism, that cannot tolerate dissension or competition of any sort or degree.
Oh please troll, get a clue. I am talking about the government forcing everyone, via the HHS mandate to pay for free birth control/abortions against the conscience of a giant slice of the citizenry. Forcing religious business owners to pay for what they consider murder or else face huge daily fines is bad enough. We don’t have to fantastically embellish the problem.
I am sure that you have your talking points ready about how Dear Leader and his thugish administration have been perfectly sensitive to religious objections by allowing the option for the insurance company to pay out of their own pockets for the coverage. BUT NOTHING IS FREE! The insurance company will pass that cost on to the rest of us. They have to. No business can spend money without taking enough in to replace it.
Before the mandate women themselves by their own choice bore the full cost of extremely cheap and universally available birth control and abortion if that was their choice. Poor women could always find it for free from the orgs that make this their mission like PP. The WH Gang just up and invented a problem that the mandate was meant to “solve” and thus made millions of people less free. In order to provide for the new sacred and invented right to free contraception 100% covered by all health plans, the enumerated right to freedom of religion was completely undermined. The WH gang chose the winners and losers here and the losers were people of religious faith everywhere whether they have a problem with the current mandate or not. The precedent is set and freedom of religion is be narrowly defined by government fiat to be limited to home and parish. If you set foot out in the secular world you are no longer covered.
Regardless of whether a court decides against the mandate, which I highly doubt since we can no longer depend on them for anything so plainly sensible as that, nevertheless, that it was even attempted is criminal enough. The O Gang has no absolutely no authority to curtail the enumerated rights of law abiding citizens in order to create a new benefit for some out of thin air. And yet, he was rewarded with reelection. The people themselves killed the Constitution out of complete indifference to it. No judge can save it now.
Oh please troll, get a clue. I am talking about the government forcing everyone, via the HHS mandate to pay for free birth control/abortions against the conscience of a giant slice of the citizenry.
I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re on about. Precision and clarity on your part would be useful. As best I can determine, your gripe is that you may be taxed to provide something you don’t like. Well… big deal. Happens to us all.
If you’re merely on about the money aspect, this is stupidity enthroned. You already pay for stuff you don’t like. I don’t like paying extra auto insurance because you wrecked your car whilst texting. I don’t like paying extra for health care because you can’t put down the soda and you got diabetes. And I don’t like paying your diability cheques after you wrecked your car from going into a diabetic coma and now you can’t work.
Explain how this is different.
Random, you wrote “cheques.” Dead giveaway to someone like me, who has lived in the UK.
get this through your thick pointy skull: Americans don’t CARE what emasculated EU’ers think! This is an AMERICAN issue, and we don’t appreciates strangers spitting on the grave our our highest aspirations.
Suggested reading: Mark Steyn’s masterful _America Alone_. If your local library doesn’t have a copy, you can get a used copy very cheaply at Amazon.com.
Random, you wrote “cheques.” Dead giveaway to someone like me, who once lived in the UK.
get this through your thick pointy skull: Americans don’t CARE what emasculated EU’ers think! This is an AMERICAN issue, and we don’t appreciates strangers spitting on the grave our our highest aspirations.
Suggested reading: Mark Steyn’s masterful _America Alone_. If your local library doesn’t have a copy, you can get a used copy very cheaply at Amazon.com.
Good Lord, you are dense. If you don’t understand the difference between a matter of conscience and likes/dislikes, then I won’t be able to explain it to you even if I spoke really slow and drew lots of pictures. I would bet that you also don’t understand the difference between an enumerated right and one invented out of thin air just a few months ago. This leads me to believe that you don’t understand the importance of a written Constitution or the difference in law between a constitution and the laws that governments make under that document.
If you don’t know what the HHS birth control mandate is or some of the issues surrounding it, you can Google it. I won’t try to explain it for reasons I have already mentioned. Just why are you commenting on an issue that you don’t know anything about??
Finally, that was a nice attempt to use condescension to deflect attention away from your ignorance of recent American political issues and also your general lack of reading comprehension skills. I suggest that you put your thinking cap on, turn the power way up and try reading my comments one more time. But let me give you a hint so you will know what to look for. When an enumerated right is compromised for the sake of a newly invented right to some free stuff and law-abiding people are victimized by the same, there is a big problem to say the least.
But even if you understood what I just said, I doubt you would care. You probably don’t care as long as it doesn’t affect you personally. There are too many people like that who either don’t understand or don’t care. You therefore prove my point that we have reached a point where the Constitution is a) beyond the comprehension of possibly a majority of voters or b) that those voters just don’t care about it. I am sure this will be no problem for a majority of American citizens for now. But I am damn sure they won’t like it when one of their rights is curtailed or taken away. By then it will be too late for them. When I think of our judicial system and how it is already packed with judges who take the Constitution with a grain of salt. Then you add a liberal Obama Supreme Court to that and, voila, the chances of any kind of judicial roll back of the HHS mandate is pretty much nil. This situation is just the first step on a long bleak road towards the end of the Republic. Most people won’t even notice it slipping away until its gone.
I have lived in your home state for the past 123 years. They project it is 15 years from turning blue again. I project less because the only DECLINING demographic in Texas is white non-Hispanic. The under 18 population for that demographic SHRUNK ABOUT 12% whereas Latinos of that age group grew 95% and African Americans of that group grew 50%. The percentage of “economically disadvantaged” K-12 students has gone from 25% when we moved here to 62% (and growing) today. Texas may have grown dramatically but only because the previous administration (and the current one) turned a blind eye to illegal immigration as a favor to the US Chamber of Commerce. Fewer taxpayers and dramatically more tax users does not bode well for any state.
All of your analysis comments are really so unhelpful. In Hillsborough county, FL we walked neighborhoods knocking on GOP & Independents doors for months. We called lists of Republicans that did not vote in 2008. None of this did a damn bit of good. Most of our candidates lost, and we had some fine ones, along with Gov. Romney. We registered people to vote, and on and on and on. What we didn’t do was campaign for the last 4 years rather than getting anything else done. Bad word Obama.
I agree with the sentiment of how demographics have caught up with the GOP, but most definitely not the underlying premise that something new must be tried for the sake of polls and electoral triangulation.
We’re past “convincing the opposition with our patriotic, noble rhetoric and firm logic” time. All the soaring speech of the founding fathers didn’t convince King George and the British aristocrat parasite class to go back across the Atlantic. Arguments on the economic and moral failings of slavery didn’t do jack squat to emancipate blacks from southern slaveholders.
And this is the type of opponent we’re up against. THEY DON’T CARE that confiscatory taxation is unjust or that mass statism is inefficient and corrupt. Because they are just that: unjust and corrupt. And we, the productive educated private-sector working class are their victims, victims of a faction of crony capitalist, bureaucrats, people brainwashed by their propaganda, or general looters and takers who now dominate the electorate at the expense of the people who’s hard work and intelligence keep the country going.
And this is how we need to carry ourselves from now on: as an oppressed minority that needs to fight for it’s rights against an authoritarian oppressor. Hopefully our protest can be non-violent and still be effective, but A MASSIVE PROTEST AGAINST OUR STATIST OPPRESSORS MUST OCCUR! The only thing we need to convince people of is to keep their hands off our money, our property and our rights to work and conduct business as we choose, or risk overwhelming damage to their interests. Do that, and you’ll never have to cringe in fear from an election outcome again.
Spread the word: D-Day is August 1, 2013. That’s the day the Obamacare mandate goes into effect against the Catholic Church. That is the line in the sand- religious persecution enforced as the official policy of the US government.
On a positive note:
http://www.infowars.com/gun-stocks-surge-after-obama-re-election/
Is “Demographics” the new way to not admit Romney’s failings? Romney lost the election the moment he picked Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan was more than dead weight, he was harmful. Due to the so-called “Ryan Plan,” Romney couldn’t argue that he would stop Obama’s raids on Medicare. Due to Ryan, Romney couldn’t break away from now traditional Republican love of deficits because the Ryan Plan institutionalized deficits for at least two decades. Ryan brought nothing to the game except those Randistas who believe people contributing their SS taxes to the government to use for boondoggles for blessed corporations and industries is “taking, not making.”
“And this is the type of opponent we’re up against. THEY DON’T CARE that confiscatory taxation is unjust”
What kind is? And what about the deficits? What about confiscatory raids on the nation’s credit to pay for current crony capitalist schemes with the government?
“or that mass statism is inefficient and corrupt.”
And the Republican party is against this how?
The day a Repubican runs as a conservative and not as a crony capitalist or their Ayn Randist intellectual hacksters, he might win. You don’t win running against “crony capitalism” yet basically espouse a fetish for businesses. Oh yeah, and you got to convince the Bush tax cuts paid for themselves. Lunatic fringe Keynesianism.
“The day a Repubican runs as a conservative and not as a crony capitalist or their Ayn Randist intellectual hacksters, he might win.”
Ayn Randist intellectual hacksters? I know those words don’t mean what you think they mean.
Bravo, Tom! But you knew that
People keep making this mistake.
It takes a few weeks to count up all the precincts in every county. It took about two weeks to get the vote fully counted, at which time the vote count increased by a couple million.
Chances are, Romney will have slightly outperformed McCain when all the counting is done. Problem is, that there was limited room to improve. The problem with targeting the elderly vote, is that its going to be shrinking for the next decade or so, at least until the baby boom hits in full force.
Obama base however, well, they aren’t shrinking, so they’ve got a lower bar to meet.
Interesting the MSM says the Republicans made a modest gain in state governors, they don’t mention that the modest gain put the total number of Republican governors up to 30, a record high. The Red vs. Blue states are getting into more and more of a “cold” civil war. The states vs the sucker of the federal tit. Lawsuits against the feds, state laws against federal laws and etc.
1. To elaborate upon how a friend on C2 put it on Tuesday nite, this is a battle between the Constrained “philosophy” versus the Unconstrained Faith.
2. To put it another way, Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke explicitly about content of character, and it certainly does appear that a majority of Americans would rather that fact not be mentioned.
Mr. Preston/Bryan,
I think you’re missing something.
You get tantalizingly close in many of your concluding statements, but always miss the real target: WHY people would vote with such an obvious condescending marxist con artist and demagogic narcissist.
After the astonishingly dreadful results of his first term, there is simply NO WAY Obama should have been able to win re-election. 50 years ago, 30 years ago, even TEN years ago it would have been IMPOSSIBLE. But now it is, because America has changed dramatically.
It is indeed a generational thing. The 44 and under demographic – regardless of race or ethnicity – leaned Obama. The Over 44 leaned Romney. Therein lies the key.
Sure – Obama easily won the entire African American vote, but they are essentially all longtime Democrat voters. That is not what made a difference. And without a doubt, the new, larger hispanic vote tends to go heavily democratic as well, for a lengthy variety of reasons (the notion that the Democrats are more supportive of blue collar workers, overt and shamefully demagogic Democratic appeals to the immigration issue, the very high predominance of Catholics among hispanics, the politics of the latin states where more recent immigrants come from having a stronger resemblance to the operational ‘style’ of the democratic party, etc…)But the clincher: the 44 and under group RELATES to Obama, and the younger, the more so.
A thorough and objective analysis of this group will reveal that a majority of this group(and, again, increasing with decreasing age)view life as a movie in which they are the star. Yes, it’s a very immature attitude, but this is a generation that has grown up with the absence of WANT of any sort – a generation so unstressed and untested that they have never been thru trials that help shape and mold character, and so they invent a very sanctimonious and self-centered persona for themselves, a persona that gives them identity, a sense of entitlement, and a very prickly character that simply cannot stand the light of Scrutiny, actively avoiding any genuine stress or test that might force them to question their sense of individual specialness.
This is not a generation that can be appealed to thru logic, reason, a sense of duty and responsibility, facts, data, an understanding of history, common sense, mutual empathy from shared hardship, or constructive dialogue. Substance is not their thing. All that works with such immature creatures is EMOTION – how something makes them FEEL, especially about THEMSELVES.
Hence the LOVE for Obama and the complete lack of interest in anything concrete about him – his past, his record, and his plans. He speaks so eloquently, in such vaguely grandiose terms, very much like a Utopian idealist (despite the easily recognized and stunningly deep cynicism and selfishness that lurks just under the surface) that he touches that need to belong and identify that a majority of the 44 and under generation crave, sweeping them up in it. It’s a generation that, the younger they are, the less likely they are to have ever gone to church, joined the boy scouts, or been involved in organized sports. But with Obama, they get a sense of belonging to something GRAND and being swept away by a Tidal Wave of they know not what, but it’s so COOL and WOW, can ya just FEEL IT?
Furthermore, they have been indoctrinated thru our miserable media and education system in the leftist ideals that serve as an effective substitute for belonging to an established religion – ideals that teach them if they simply believe without question, it makes them a better,smarter, gooder person: in effect, achieving Virtue without the necessary pain and sacrifice. This is why you can’t debate them without their immediately and furiously vomiting forth slogans, doctrine and talking points, and attacking you with contrived, arrogant, disdainful and hostile questions that raise up their favorite strawmen to attack – BOOOOOOSH still being the most popular (and which will STILL be used constantly for the next 4 years.)If you counter with Fact, they change the subject or simply reject your argument without consideration, because facts DON’T MATTER TO THEM – their FEELINGS about themselves are what matter.
What I’m getting at, Bryan, is this: it’s pointless for the Republicans to try to appeal to that demographic. They can’t appeal to them, ever. They’d have to become the Democratic Party to do it.
The 44 and unders will have to learn life’s lessons the hard way. And they will -these next 4 years will be a prelude to at least two decades of wrenching agony that this nation will go thru.
The only real questions are these:
1. What lessons will the 44 and under generation learn from their upcoming decades of trials? Perhaps they will learn what true virtue is. That would open the door for a reborn America – different, surely, than the America we grew up in and which our parents and grandparents created, but still potentially quite wonderful. The scars my parents bore from the Great Depression and WW2 haunted them all their lives, but they and their generation created the safe and prosperous world that I grew up in. Or perhaps they will learn the WRONG lessons, and thru fear, throw themselves further into the embrace of silken tongued demagogues, who will reduce us and them to a common level of wretched economic and social poverty under an iron heeled boot of high tech tyranny. That’s a real possibility – after all, the vote on Tuesday was, more than anything else, a majority of the citizenry looking at the horrid economic state of the nation and shrinking from dealing with it, preferring honeyed lies to facing the music squarely and making tough choices, the way their ancestors did in the early 20th century.
2. What will happen to America? This has caused me bouts of deep despair today. I don’t think too many kids today start off the school day reciting the pledge of allegiance, or go to church and sunday school on the weekends the way I did. I hated that stuff when I was little, and now look back on it wistfully and appreciate its formative uses. Will America even survive as one nation? It might not. And if it does – what sort of nation will it be?
Arnold Toynbee intimately described the Time of Troubles that every civilization in history faces. If they face the crisis successfully, another crisis will present itself, but the civilization will almost always have grown and benefited from that test. If they fail the test, they very frequently try twice more before giving up, dying, and being replaced by a civilization that is born from the old one’s ashes.
I don’t know where we are in Toynbee’s timeline. Is this our first time being tested by the choice between a nanny state vs individual freedom and responsibility? Somehow I don’t think so. The 60′s & 70′s were a test of that sort, I think, and though I thought Reagan’s era had resolved that,I may have been wrong. This much I’m certain of: Toynbee pointed out that a civilization enters decline when it’s creative minority (which the crowd imitates and follows) turns into a hated and oppressive Dominant Minority. We’ve DEFINETILY reached that stage and are well into it.
I think only time will tell how well this fragmented and changing nation faces it’s test.
In the meantime, like I said just yesterday – everybody here should look to their loved ones. There is a mighty storm coming, and these last four years were only the gust front. The full fury will begin unleashing itself on us in these next four years, and will likely last well beyond that.
While your comment was well-written and obviously had a good deal of thought put into it, I must disagree. You paint the under 45 crowd with a pretty wide brush and, while the way you describe them certainly fits some well, I don’t believe it is a fair description of the majority of them. I have worked with many younger people, many of them straight out of college, and the vast majority of them are nothing like what you described. My own son, who is 26, is nothing like that. The vast majority of soldiers who fought in Iraq and are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan are under 45, and certainly they don’t fit that description. And remember it’s an all-volunteer military. If everybody under 45 had the outlook you describe there’d be nobody in the military.
OTOH, I can think of a great many people (though not a majority) over 45 who fit that description perfectly. Personally I don’t believe it’s an age thing, except for the fact that anybody who attended public school beginning in the ’80′s received an inferior education, I think it is mostly the welfare culture that has engendered that outlook. The personality you described is what I call the ‘entitlement attitude’ and it is the hallmark of everybody who has ever been on welfare, or was raised in a welfare family. Once that attitude sets in, it never leaves, even for those who end up getting a job and living a productive life.
It is also more prevalent among the children of single mothers. Children raised without a father are about ten times more likely to be slackers and criminals than those raised with one.
That is why this country is now doomed. Obama is using the money from those who work and produce to put an ever increasing number of slackers on welfare knowing that with that he is buying their votes for the Democratic party for their lifetimes.
Once over 50% of the population realizes they can refuse to work and vote to have the government steal from the minority and give to them the nation is finished. We’ve reached that point.
Voice,
Thank you for your comment.
True, the ’44 and under’ characterization is a broad brush. Nevertheless, I believe it applies not to all of them but to a majority of them, exempting individuals and circumstances. As an example: the youngsters volunteering for service in the Armed Forces obviously do not fit the characterization I made. Nevertheless, they are a self-selecting minority of that 18-44 segment. A significant number of them come from military families, and/or are from non-urban areas of the country.
Your son and the other young people who you have met and know might also be a selection outside of the general characterization and thus non-representative.Only you can say for sure whether this is so.
Also consider: there are a LOT more unwed mothers in the 18-44 group than in the 45 and over group. This would tend to support my premise.
I heartily agree with you that there are plenty of folks in the 45 and over group who have the ‘sense of entitlement’ left wing mentality which you mentioned. Growing up on the east coast, I knew quite a few who espoused such principles (but acted like purist libertarians when it came to their own economic well-being, the irony of it always escaping them.)
But the demographics of the vote last tuesday are telling. In the 44 and under group, a majority voted for obama; in the older group, a majority voted against him.
The demographics will be on the Progressive side from here on out, barring a drastic change in viewpoint by the younger demographic. Only something apocalyptic would have a chance of showing them the error of their ways, though even that is not guaranteed.
I don’t see any way of ameliorating the situation. Thus, I’m going to exercise the only option left to me:
I’m Going Galt.
Well, I can’t argue against the demographics so maybe you’re correct. Reminds me of a quote from Winston Churchill – “Anybody under 30 who is not liberal has no heart, anybody over 30 who is not conservative has no brain.”
Maybe with the infantilization of Americans that number should be raised to 45?
We can only hope that at some point they grow up. Meanwhile, I’ve already gone Galt.
This comment was made on Bridget Johnson’s J Street post one hour and 2 minutes ago and currently remains in moderation hell:
6. Ceteris Paribus
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For you establishment Republicans who dissed us libertarians, including the absolutely shameful way Ron Paul supporters were treated throughout this campaign, guess what. You lose! Do you have any clue that you threw away an entire generation of libertarian conservatives? I know the answer.
November 7, 2012 – 9:00 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Speak for yourself, Ceteris. Every conservative-leaning libertarian I know — including myself — turned out on Tuesday to pull the lever for Romney. Not because he was an ideal candidate (far from it!) but rather because the alternative was absolutely unconscionable.
Until there is a truly VIABLE “third party” in this nation — by which I do not mean literally three parties, rather that ONE of the existing parties returns to sanity (and which do you see as more likely to take that route: Republicans egged on by the tea Party, or Democrats egged on by…well, nobody) — it behooves ALL libertarians to vote conservative. After all, in daily practice it’s easier to keep the would-be assassins of liberty out of your bedroom than out of your boardroom, neh?
So polling at that ballots show that 93% of blacks went towards Obama. 71% of Hispanics went towards Obama. 75% of Asians went towards Obama. All my minority friends on facebook were cheering Obama loudly and I suspect highly it was mainly cause of his race. Left leaning sites such as Gawker are in delight at the “fall of the white man”. On top of that the left has successfully conned many woman into thinking Republicans are the evil man party who will take away their “reproductive rights”. My question is, with all this hate and hostility and racism towards whites from the left along with this man hating culture they created with woman what chance do Republicans have? Democrats have successfully imprinted this evil false Republican demon on the minds of a lot of gullible people (who seems to make up a big chunk of this country) and on top of that minorities gladly will follow the anti republican pied piper off the financial cliff.
I am terrified of Republicans still not getting it and still putting out these Herman Cain figures who they desperately hope will take in minority votes. I am all for diversity. However, the culture and trends I see now seem to be “ok white man now it’s our turn to make you suffer”. Again, if you think I’m some stupid white man who is fear mongering just go to Gawker. I implore you. Look at what is being written. Happiness that white people are suffering. People cheering this in the comments. It’s horrific that people don’t see this as racist.
I can take an Obama victory. I knew I could. However the reasons people voted for him, which seem to stem from racism and hate depress me. We are really really screwed as a nation guys and I don’t think there is any coming back. Maybe some of the older PJ guys here can give me some comfort and remind me of a time in the past just like this where common sense eventually triumphed?
The article’s intended focus was “numbers” – what happened with these “funny numbers” of total (so far) votes for Romney and BHO on November 6th 2012 versus the total numbers for McCain and BHO on November 4th 2008.
Well, what happened with/to these numbers? There is no credible explanation to account for them (in my view) except one: both sets of numbers are/were really “funny” because BOTH are artificial, meaning the product of fraud – large scale fraud in fact. I won’t go into documenting this proposition here by formulating a formal hypothesis-model, present the detailed historical/geographical data, describe the stats of the statistical method used, and elaborate on the confidence levels in rejecting the null hypothesis (neither time or space allow that here, but I am confident enough that it can be done by anyone really interested in this subject). I will only note that my preliminary “gut feeling” regarding the presented 2008, 2012 US vote aggregates by the two candidates, as well as many States’ vote totals during both election cycles are inconsistent with expected equivalent time series over that period, enough so to lead me to the (preliminary) conclusion that these numbers can only be accounted for by fraud.
The establishment Republicans screwed Ron Paul supporters. Many of them didn’t vote for Romney because of his scumbag tactics. Does that surprise you? If it does, get used to it. Some of us actually believe that Cloward-Piven tactics can work both ways.
I won’t go into documenting this proposition here…
Wow, you’re certainly NOT a crank, now, are you?
No; are you? Learn to quote correctly, moron.
In both years, 2008 and 2012, exit polling internal data and reported vote tallies just don’t add up. For instance, we are told Romney in 2012 won independents with a comfortable margin of more than 10 points (averaging all exit polls) and yet lost the EV by more than 125!
And there’s this today: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20121108_Vote_was_astronomical_for_Obama_in_some_Philadelphia_wards.html
Used to be “it’s the economy stupid” – not in 2008 or 2012 though: now “it’s the
election fraud stupid.”
Here is what I want Barack Obama to understand his legacy to be–that he and his side, but mainly him, in his quest for election, so demonized white males, so demonized wealth creators, so demonized the South, so demonized the idea of going by the rule of law, that he cost the United States untold firsts in many fields because he so scared off someone who was white, Southern, male, a rule of law believer, and who happened to be an innovator, that that man preferred emigrating rather than live in Barack Obama’s dream world, where he knew he would be a second class citizen.
You know, basically, “Jewish physics”.
It is my belief that the 1965 immigration act has finally taken root (when it was always said “oh, no, never intended to make the current Americans eventual minorities”) and that nothing can be done honorably if a white non-Democrat in this country, especially if from the South. I truly believe this country needs to be broken apart, for I have no place in the paradise of the Democrat elites, as Paul Krugman has flat out said.
Bryan, I think you and the rest of the crew at PJ Media are missing something. By all accounts the GOP voters were extremely enthusiastic about this election and by all accounts the polls at most locations throughout the country were more crowded than for previous presidential elections. If those accounts are true, and I believe they are, then the reason Romney lost is because in locations controlled by the Dems, most votes for Romney simply weren’t counted. Remember the Dems love voter fraud, not just having dead people vote for them, but also pretending votes for the opponent never happened.
Exactly my thoughts, Voice of Reason.
In every swing state, just as Romney was slightly ahead, the vote would suddenly swing to Obama: every time. I refuse to concede that this was coincidental or “the will of the electorate.”
It doesn’t make sense — not that the thug Dems give a damn. I liken the Democrats to one of our (Canadian) parties, the Liberals, aka Libranos, which one Canadian judge characterized as working “within a culture of corruption.” Corruption and the Left go together and always have. Rule of law be damned. Judeo-Christian values upon which the West’s rule of law is based be damned.
Kyrie eleison. The free world as we have known it has gone dark or, as Mark Steyn so eloquently puts it, Lights Out: [Islam, Free Speech And] The Twilight Of The West.
This loss was intentional. There is no way it could not be. The RNC picked the most liberal and unsupportable candidate out of the field for the second time in a row AND they ran him a pitiful campaign, just as they did with McCain. I’ve read that voter turn out was lower this year than 2008. It probably was and probably lots of them were Republicans sick and tired of supporting RINOs just barely to the right of the Democrat.
Then you have Boner. Boner has always been a toady to the Democrats but since the election he’s shed his mask and revealed a Quisling beneath. These last few days instead of rallying the Republicans, he’s been shouldering his way through the Democrats for the prize spot under Obama’s backside. He has to go. I’ve written my Congressmen and told them he has to go or it will be proof that the GOP supports Obama’s agenda wholeheartedly and truly are no longer worth supporting, and if Boner keeps his post and licks Obama’s posterior, then I won’t vote anymore because there will be no point to it.
Don’t make Boener cry. Poor baby…
I realize many regard M. Savage as a sensationalist, but it seems to me the stakes warrant following up on his claims regarding Soros and the Spanish company SCYTL contracted to which a significant part of the vote counting process has been outsourced. Granted, it sounds like conspiracy bunk, but I would not put anything past this Chicago mob. And if by even the tiniest shred of a possibility Savage is right, the democratic process will be unrecoverable.
http://stevescomments.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/michael-savage-voter-fraud-is-a-serious-threat-to-this-election/
Personally, I think Obama stole the election. No, I have no evidence for that. I just have a hard time reconciling the “fact” that after all those tea parties, the marches, the freedomworks shows, chick fil a, Romney drawing crowds of 20,000, the dismal economic numbers… that we would manage to at least TIE John McCain’s turnout. John McCain didn’t inspire us much. Romney didn’t really, either. But everyone I know would’ve crawled across broken glass to vote against Obama.
Something about this just doesn’t jibe, and when I think about what would happen if you got a virus into all the machines to manipulate the results… and you know, it would look a lot like this. Certain numbers don’t make sense, and we’re left scratching our heads trying to figure out where 2 million votes went. This is exactly what fraud would look like.
I also smell a rat. If there was electronic trickery someone knows and that knowledge is worth a lot of money. Time to offer a reward to anyone who can provide leads.
It is stunning really, that all the outward signs pointed to a Romney surge despite the best efforts of the MSM to supress it, it was just there out in the open to see. It was absolutely stunning to me that so many “experts” were so very wrong, after all they do get paid for their analysis so they should be somewhat close but they were no where near close to the actual results. I can’t believe how many people, my wife included, who had voted Obama the first time and were coming round to Romney and the GOP this time because Obama was so clearly an awful person and president. I couldn’t believe how many liberal voters I know and work with who were walking around like silent zombies convinced Romney had it in the bag. I find it hard to believe that voter fraud could be committed on such a massive scale, yet I find it even harder to believe that productive, patriotic and value voters sat this one out. All the early voter and election day turnout reports seem to indicate massive voter participation, how could it be down by several million?
Bryan, it was the Palin effect in 2008. No other explanation makes sense. That is why the media & libs (but I repeat myself) worked so hard to delegitimize her.She was a big time threat. I know she raised my enthusiasm for the ticket much more in 2008 than Ryan did in 2012. McCain got outspent 4 or 5 to 1. Romney had as much or more money than zer0. McCain had the Bush record he had to own, Romney did not, and he DID have zer0s record to run against. Mrs Palin was the difference maker.
I honestly think Romney/Ryan was an outstanding ticket, especially considering the fiscal shape we’re in and their experience and smarts regarding financial issues and problems. I believe Romney made a huge mistake by playing it safe and not attacking O more on foreign policy (Benghazi).
Another major factor that cost Romney votes is the fact that so many conservatives now like to call themselves Libertarians. To them Romney would never be conservative enough so they stayed home and didn’t vote – HORRIBLE mistake that we all will pay for! I have no stats to back that assumption up, but I’ve seen so many posts on conservative news and opinion forums that there had to be a significant number of these “Sit at home and stew” conservatives.
Deport or arrest all the communists and Islamists and those who are members of a group dedicated to the overthrow of America, capitalism, or the constitution.
Election problems solved.
After reading all of your comments, I believe I can help somewhat.
I know how you feel this morning. The reelection of President Obama and continued Democratic control of the Senate means we have serious challenges ahead of us.
But I’m writing to offer you real hope. Since this grassroots movement for freedom began just a few years ago, we’ve accomplished so much.
In 2010, we elected a massive freshmen class of principled conservatives in the House of Representatives. In 2012, we’ve expanded that caucus by defeating numerous Democratic incumbents and replacing them with conservative leaders like Jackie Walorski of Indiana, Andy Barr of Kentucky, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, and more.
We also elected Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and a new fiscally conservative core in the Senate two years ago. This election, we’ve expanded their ranks with newly-minted Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
We drove the national political conversation on our issues of constitutionally limited government, free markets, and individual liberty. Candidates who ran on and articulated our message not only created a clear choice for voters but were overwhelmingly victorious in this election.
That is the power of our ideas and our movement.We must never give up. We must never stop fighting. America’s future depends on it.
When Romney’12 had less votes than McCain’08 did, isn’t it clear enough evidence that Romney ran a terrible campaign? Why are people so frightened to arrive at this conclusion?
One of the reasons that there weren’t many stronger candidates in the primary, wasn’t that partly because of that Romney was there?
There are bigger problems, sure. But ain’t Romney just another version of the all-good-but-bad-in-the-joint kind of guy? There’s no gaffe, good. But he’s too bad at running the details of the campaign. And he’s famed as a turn-around guy?! He didn’t even know that he’s losing big on election day!
If one ignores the deep flaw of Romney, there’s the danger of blowing out of scale the other issues facing the GOP and the country.
In the last few days, people got really excited about Romney, that contributes to the bitterness, but things are not hopeless. Obama lost many and many votes which says that the U.S. voting public isn’t that stupid. After all, from 2010 to 2012, how can there be any big change at all?
The campaign was run badly. That is the number one issue here. Before you can fix Edu, Media etc big monsters, one should really work out the problem with the campaigning first. If you can’t even fix the campaign, how can you hope to fix anything else? When Romney’12 had less votes than McCain’08, how can you say that there’s no problem?!
Where’d those votes go……stolen,burned up , hacked….it wouldn’t suprise me at all. The Progressives have no morals.
Obama has always had phenomenal luck — even in his first election to the Illinois senate, when all his opponents were scratched off the ballot because of technicalities, and now in the latest, a slight uptick in the economy and a storm-tossed Christie hug at precisely the right moment.
Even a fan at the Daily Kos marveled during the campaign in 2008, “Does it not feel as if some special hand is guiding Obama on his journey, I mean, as he has said, the utter improbability of it all?”
Unless the Democrats somehow find a way to run him for a third term, in 2016 they will have to run someone without that
unworldly gift. And perhaps Republicans will stop having a run of such bad luck by then — candidates who brain freeze on national TV or foolishly say precisely the wrong things about rape at precisely the wrong time.
Eventually luck turns. We’ll just have to hang on till then.
Luck? Yeah, billions of dollars of it, taxpayer and non. The man is just a mouthpiece for the machine. We do not have a president. I do not say this lightly. Look at two known occasions where he has had to make quick executive decisions – Bin Laden; the man took sixteen hours (sleeping on it) in order to pour over all of the political ramifications before meekly giving an ok – Benghazi; the issue was ignored outright because it did not fit into the campaign, and when SHTF nothing was done at all because there simply was not time to make a sufficient political calculation, and they knew the MSM would have their backs, greatest single evidence of that being the Crowley incident during the second debate, which undoubtedly helped cost us the election and the nation along with it.
We have no C in C.
“How do we get them to realize that if they keep voting Democrat that the entire country will soon look like Detroit?”
Well, hate to say it, but if the present Detroit electorate is any example the lesson is unlikely to ever be learned.
The Left always accuse others of doing exactly that which they themselves do. Problem is they largely get away with it due to their great skill in, and proclivity towards, the utterance of pathological lies. Combine this with our other known obstacles and I fail to seize upon a great deal of optimism any longer.
This hippie is smug because evangelicals like you got the smackdown you deserve. My gay sister and sister-in-law are not second class citizens. As long as the Republicans continue to pander to you, white middle class educated gun nuts like me will vote against you.
Joseph, so let me get this straight, you voted for economic destruction and restrictions to, or elimination of, your 2nd amendment rights (as a self-described gun nut) over gay marriage? Educated does not equal intelligent.
I AM a second-class citizen, along with about 20% of other Americans. Why? Because I smoke cigarettes. I’ll bet you’re fine with that. Educated does not equal intelligent.
The vast majority of conservatives support civil unions which give gay couples the same rights and privileges as married couples. The vast majority of those in the GLB community are fine with that. It is only a tiny minority of gay-rights activist zealots who are demanding the redefinition of marriage. Have you ever asked yourself why that is? I doubt it. Educated does not equal intelligent.
I sincerely hope that your gay sister and her partner are able to escape the stonings after Sharia Law is imposed. Educated does not equal intelligent.