OK, now I am forced to move “FORWARD” in a bus with “Revenge” emblazoned on the side that is waiting to take me to re-education camp.
So before I board, here are some thoughts on the election.
Romney’s loss has its roots in the GOP primary race. The primary season went on far too long, hurting an already bruised “Republican Brand” giving Obama several extra months to fortify his superb campaign organization — an organization that was never dismantled from his 2008 victory.
Obama’s organization was noted for being the most “micro-targeted campaign organization in history.” Romney’s organization was no match for this well managed and sophisticated high-tech machine
Having said that, more important is the question: How can the GOP attract general election voters if even more “moderate” candidates are forced during the primary season to move far right on cultural and social issues, thus alienating an electorate that is clearly moving more to the middle and left?
It is now obvious that the ultra- right Republican base wields too much power at the grass-roots level. Not only did that force Romney to move far to the right on all social issues during the primaries, but was a major reason why the GOP did not win the Senate when the odds were in our favor in 2012 and 2010. There must be a balance reached on some social issues, although I will be the first to admit any compromise is going to be very difficult with a Christian evangelical base.
More than any other factor, Romney’s loss can be attributed to the demographic and cultural time bomb that finally exploded last night in the Republican Party. Example “A” was Romney’s need to win Hispanics by at least 40%.
He fell 11 points short garnering only 29%.
By comparison, McCain in 2008 attracted 31% and President George W. Bush in 2004 won 40% of this growing minority that now comprises 10% of the electorate, up from 9% in 2008.
This past May, noticing that the composition of the GOP base was static, while changing national demographic and cultural shifts were happening at warp speed — I penned a piece on PJ Media posing the question: Could George W. Bush Be The Last Republican President? Many faithful readers promptly took my head off. But in view of last night’s blow-out let’s revisit some of the reasons stated in the piece.
Rapidly changing demographic trends that favor the Democrat Party.
An education system controlled by liberals that churns out young liberals.
A population with an ever increasing dependence on government in the form of entitlements and subsidies.
A mainstream media that is overwhelmingly comprised of journalists who subtly and not so subtly spin the news in support of Democrats and liberal causes.
The influence of Hollywood, which makes it cool to be a liberal Democrat.
A culture where non-traditional social and sexual behavior has become mainstream.
A hatred for Republicans in general and a tendency to blame the party for “the mess we’ve inherited.”
A Republican Party that is growing increasingly white, old, southern, and male, while alienating majorities of younger voters, Hispanics, African Americans, gays, teachers, young professionals, atheists, unmarried women, and even suburban married women.
Besides all those factors describing Romney’s up hill climb, his lack of response, while being pounded by Team Obama on Bain Capital and the auto bailout, resulted in Obama defining Romney before Romney defined himself — a key reason why Obama won four more years and one where Romney could have launched a major assault but did not.
Let me close on a personal note before the bus takes me away. (A friend has even offered to visit and bring “a potato for your stone soup.” )
Since around mid- August sometimes while I exercised, I listened to a leading country music station in South Florida. (Only if I was burned out listening to Talk Radio.)
On the country station, I was surprised to hear Obama ads effectively targeting young blue-color voters. To me this was a red flag that Team Obama really had their summer act together.
Then starting in mid- October, I finally began to hear Romney ads on this same station. His message was not even a targeted message, just a general one saying what Obama had not done and what Romney would do.
So last night after the election outcome was known, I was surprised by how poorly Romney did, but not totally shocked because I remembered this country radio “ah ha” moment.
But the entire GOP top to bottom needs to be shocked into a major course correction or George W. Bush will be the last Republican President.
Now just how much pressure does Senator Marco Rubio feel this morning as the potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate who might have the best chance of making sure that does not happen?
This is not a tough loss for the GOP. This is the end of our constitutional republic. (Such as it was.)
The question is now whether our society will look like the EU or China in four years.
This is the end of our constitutional republic.
First you lose all sense of perspective
THEN you lose elections
This kind of crap may be motivating, but it’s just a lie. All of the hysteria you used to drag the party right was based on madness…
Remember when “generic republican” was polling well ahead of Obama? “Generic Republican” was people’s memory of a sane, level-headed Republican party before the hysterics crawled up to the top like a hoard of zombies.
If I hear this pseudo-argument one more time I will vomit all over myself. I notice you creeping onto every thread and making it. Show me one time in post-1960s America when Democrats did not paint Republicans as insane. No matter how moderate the Republican, he or she is painted as “far right” and “hysterical.” You pretend that there was some golden age of Republicanism when left and right got along and you liked Republicans. It’s a lie. Admit it’s a lie. There was never, ever, ever any moment in modern political history when the left thought the right was “level-headed.” Show me the liberal encomia to Ronald Reagan while he was president. Nixon? Bush Senior?
The only Republicans that the Liberals won’t paint as insane-racist-warmongering-poor people haters are ones that are either dead or twenty years out of office.
Democrats pay lip service to Reagan now but I remember when he was actually IN office, it was almost as bad as what they said about W. Everyone recalls Rudy Giuliani fondly now but while he actually was the mayor they said he was the head of the gestapo.
For god’s sake, Romney was the governor of Massa-freaking-chusettes and they STILL painted him as an arch-conservative. If John Kerry switched parties tomorrow and ran as a Republican he’d become a racist warmonger overnight, I guarantee you.
You have a better chance of being struck by lightning while riding a unicorn than you do of fielding a Republican candidate that the Democrats will engage in a constructive argument with. It is beyond stupid to even try.
“You have a better chance of being struck by lightning while riding a unicorn than you do of fielding a Republican candidate that the Democrats will engage in a constructive argument with. It is beyond stupid to even try.”
I love you, best thing I’ve read all day.
What’s bugging you so that you have to come here and engage in this rant when you’ve gotten everything you want? In your own mind, you’ve been proven right, so why the hysteria? Having second thoughts about the effects of an unleashed Obama on your future? Radical redistributionists like Tammy Baldwin and Liz Warren in the senate?
Is it the Republican Party that’s moved to the right or the Democratic Party that’s moved to the left?
I think TMG is right. I learned a long time ago to not only look at how things are right now, but also look at the trend. The trend is not our friend. A majority of voters voted for a guy who represents the antithesis of our founding principles and a blatant marxist. These people are never going to accept republicanism.
Plus, don’t forget that this summer John Roberts handed them a political nuclear bomb – the ability to tax behavior they don’t like.
We have become a decadent, depraved, narcissistic, frivolous people. Stupid people and powerful government can only end in disaster.
It’s time to figure out a plan “B” – and quick.
This is nonsense, yes the primaries were a fiasco. But this campaign was lost because the majority of people thought that Obama was good enough on economic issues and better at foreign affairs, and more “likable”
We need to recognize that were are dealing with Jr. Highers mentally and socially. People are swayed seeing Obama with JayZ. Yes, it’s insane to think, but it’s true.
It’s always been the case that conservatives HAVE to explain and teach their cause. Democrats feed on platitudes and slogans, Republicanism requires thought not feelings.
Sometimes doing what’s right means standing (and maybe falling) alone. Compromising ourselves to win makes us no different than them.
Feeling trumps reason every day and all decisions, at their core, are based in some measure on emotion.
Ask any good salesman.
As long as republicans try to make a logical argument they are going to lose.
Combine that with the overwhelming preponderance of influence in the popular culture and academia that is biased against conservatives and republicans and there is no way a republican candidate can climb over those obstacles on a national level.
Only option left is to let society implode. It’s not the society we had Monday in America, it is a totally alien society that has now supplanted what we did have.
The youth and minority voters are deeply invested in that society. They have been cultivated in the nuances of this society since childhood. Trying to reason with them or explain (for the millionth time) why their views and theories won’t work is a useless exercise in frustration as they are deeply brainwashed into accepting certain thoughts as ‘facts’.
This cultivation is so thorough they actually think Che was a figure to be admired!
Only an economic and social armageddon will generate enough emotion for them to finally sit up and listen.
If you can write this stuff an not be rebuked then I’m leaving.
As long as republicans try to make a logical argument they are going to lose.
It’s not the society we had Monday in America, it is a totally alien society that has now supplanted what we did have.
Reality, Scott. Scott, Reality.
…
I give up. See ya in the funny papers.
Get back to me after Obama has packed the Supreme Court with a few more lefty judges in the next two years that will agree to rubber stamp anything the government does as constitutional.
The damage from yesterday is going to be felt 20 to 30 years from now.
What are you still doing here? Shoo until you may be productive.
Reality may be a word you can spell “Scholar”, but it’s not something you can recognize.
YOU have hit the nail on the HEAD. Romney ran as a CEO not a salesman. I was shocked that he did not seem to have an elevator speech in the beginning of his campaign. Watch Shark Tank and you see a “TV version” of any IPO roadshow, but Romney must not have attended any of them because he had no “product” or software to sell, no features and benefits etc etc.
The malign influence of the cultural machinery of the media, educational and entertainment industries are deeply troubling. We may yet recover from this defeat, but we’re going to have to stop ceding so much ground to our opponents and fight back against them as hard as they fight against us. Clearly, Romney’s positive, optimistic message was no match for the left-wing smear machine. Until we take Obama’s advice and “bring a gun to a knife fight” we’re going to keep losing.
We need to talk to our audience and craft a simple message. And by that I mean we need to distill down a couple of basic messages – not in policy wonk terms but in plain old English. becuase that’s what most of the people we’re targeting understand:
1) “I never got a job from a poor man”. This is so common sense that even a college aducated youngster will understand it. And it will go a long way towrards inoculating against the Lefts “Kill the Rich” message.
2) “The government creates zero wealth. All it can do is confiscate and redistribute. Period”. Many if not most people are economically illiterate and literally think that government money comes at no cost. This basic statement, repeated often enough will counter the Left’s message that all good things come from government.
We need to start re-educating the American public and it needs to be done using simple, easy to articulate – and hard to refute – thoughts.
First – 10 MILLION fewer people voted for Obama than in 2008. That Romney got 3 MILLION fewer than McCain was the reason he lost.
Obama put together just enough of a coalition – by giving them FREE STUFF – and got enough of them to the polls to push him over the finish line. Whether Romney wasn’t able to capitalize on the HUGE anti-Obama sentiment is for the pundits and pundettes to decide.
I agree with the basic premise of this article. As we’ve seen in National elections of late, the outcome is determined by solely a few counties in the entire country. These counties are urban, heavily unionized, minority and egts LOTS of FREE STUFF. They routinely vote for Dems because they’re the Party of FREE STUFF – you’re not gonna break-off enough of the 60-70% Dem vote to make a difference.
From now on, on a National political level, any candidate that advocates “cutting” this FREE STUFF is a loser. Any pol that tries this approach will be deemed “extremist”, and then they’re toast! The GOP will either remake itself as a more moderate party, or people in the middle will vote for the Joe Manchin’s of the world.
And yes, I’m fiscally conservative and socially moderate. The GOP lost me long ago. I don’t like the GOP establishment because they sold-out the brand. And the Tea Party nominates some truly dreadful candidates who are a cluster when it comes to social issues. But I can read the tea leaves. For me at least, time to become Libertarian.
I’m old enough to remeber the 1964 election results.
LBJ creamed Goldwater.
The Dems controlled the senate 68-32.
The Dems controlled the House 295-140.
It wasn’t the end of the world. Look it up.
Have a scotch or two, go to bed early, cuddle with someone. Things will look better tomorrow.
Yeah, thank God we didn’t get marched into a war in Southeast Asia or something, pass a technocratic gun control law the likes of which had never been seen before, or end up implementing social programs that would eventually bankrupt the state.
Yeah, not the end of the world at all…
Old Dr. Bob, you might want to look at a few numbers which have grown astronomically since good ole LBJ – total debt per capita, debt to GDP ratio, government spending as a percentage of GDP, economic growth, unemployment rate. You know, these are on a not so great trajectory.
A less verbose way to express this: each succeeding post-LBJ administration enlarged government – none of them arrested the upward trend.
LBJ then went on to pass his ‘Great Society’ program. Did it end the Republic? Not immediately, but those programs resulted in the bankruptcy we are facing now. Those entitlements are utterly unsustainable. His “war on poverty” resulted in enormous damage to nuclear families. 75% of African Americans are born to single mothers today. 40% of all babies are.
Obama has Obamacare and the Dodd/Frank bill (which includes the new CFPB). They will result in unparalelled govt control over society. Will they end the Republic? Not immediately. Look at the changes the UK has undergone since the implementation of their NHS. They are nothing like what they were.
The same can be said for the changes made under FDR and before him under Wilson.
Progressives act progressively: they implement their agenda bit by bit, over time. We are now so far removed from the founder’s vision that we are unrecognizable. We are on the path to a totalitarian state, and this election is a major leap ‘forward’ toward that goal.
This election was an unmitigated disaster. We may never recover from it.
It did substantially move the goalposts away from the Constitution. I’ll hope the Conservatives on the court stay healthy.
I hope Obama rejects Boehner’s offer of a compromise, the Obama of 2008 already did, and I don’t think he’s grown in the office. To go by his campaign, he shrank.
Oh, nonsense. a couple hundred thousand votes difference and this would have gone R. And the structural aspects that make a two-party, R/D politics in the US would — failing the military takeover Tikkun advocated — take a hundred year.
This. If more people voted for Obama in 2012 than 2008, then I would agree that the demographics is against us. But Obama lost about 15% of his 2008 vote. I would argue that his base shrank. The problem is that we had McCain voters who didn’t even bother to vote. I’ve read somewhere that about 3 million Republicans chose to stay home in ’08. I thought that they would surely vote now. If we want to figure out why we lost, we’re better off figuring out why our own voters don’t want to vote for our candidates rather than how can we poach the other party’s voters.
Changing the message to appeal to Takers is not the way to save the Republic.
It seems that the predicted boomlet in the evangelical vote for Romney didn’t materialize and many Catholics (liberal and otherwise) stayed with Obama. Anti-Mormonism perhaps? Or were many convinced that Romney at heart is a social liberal? I saw some film footage last week of a debate during his winning campaign for governor — that occurred just a few years ago — where Romney emphatically and unequivocally said that he supported a “woman’s right to choose.” It would be interesting to get inside the numbers to see how much of a factor distrust of Romney by values voters was for those who stayed home.
But take heart, we may end up with 33 Republican governors when all is said and done. The largest # since the 1920s. So no need to get squishy on family values to attract voters to the GOP, friends….
Charlie:
A big fan of yours actually, but I think you are not recognizing the demographic changes that make your “a couple hundred thousand votes difference and this would have gone R.” IMPOSSIBLE in a presidential year. (mid-terms are another story)
Oh, I don’t know. I’m thinking the “nuke it from orbit” approach may work. Only way to be sure. Trouble is getting there.
Sorry, that 2nd sentence is incoherent. (Leaving out the ellipsis for clarity):
“And the structural aspects that make a two-party, R/D politics in the US would take a hundred year.”
What would the structural aspects take a hundred years to do? Develop? Decline? Change?
It would be nice if those who claim to have something to say would actually say something.
“More than any other factor, Romney’s loss can be attributed to the demographic and cultural time bomb that finally exploded last night in the Republican Party. Example “A” was Romney’s need to win Hispanics by at least 40%.”
I would like you to contemplate on the deeper meaning of what you wrote here.
If demographics is destiny, then America is not and never has been a nation of immigrants bound together by common values and ideals, as our cherished national propaganda has it.
It has been a creation of White Western Europeans.
And it is well along in the process of being hijacked by Marxists, Africans, and Latin Americans. There is ample evidence to support this view in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
You cannot tell us that demographics is destiny without also tacitly admitting what the folks at Stormfront and the various Christian Identity types have been saying all along.
So…do you STILL want to hold to that position? Or are you too cowed by PC to admit that which your own words imply?
That is a ridiculous comment about Stormfront. People do recognize that ethnic groups have different cultures and levels of development without supporting an extreme group like that.
“That is a ridiculous comment about Stormfront. People do recognize that ethnic groups have different cultures and levels of development without supporting an extreme group like that.”
Who is “supporting” them?
I am asking a perfectly valid question, and you have chosen to digress and attack a strawman of your own making.
IS demographics the destiny of the GOP?
If it IS, then why is the unsaid assertion that our values will not be enough to win elections?
Are non-Whites unable or unwilling to adopt the values that have made America the envy of the world?
I’m okay with the demise of the GOP. As long as it is replaced with an actual Conservative party.
Er, Obama won the NE states, which are mostly white. The problem was that the uninformed majority thought the bad economy in Obama’s first term was indeed “Bush’s fault”.
The key is that conservatives must be ready to pounce when the effects of the “back-loaded” policies of Obama (ACA, EPA, etc) – which hardly made an impression on the first term – really kick in.
What’s disheartening – today, anyway – is the reliable number of states where there just plain isn’t a viable opposition party. I live in one, and the self-satisfied plantation mindset is sickening. But it’s hard to get people interested in investing shoe leather in a campaign when the best you can hope for is pariah status. I also remember 1964 quite well, and, yes it was not the end of the opposition. But I am not necessarily saying that a statist like Nixon was the desirable solution.
I agree 100%,Vaktatunnen, but I was thinking longer term. Nixon gave us the EPA, wage/price controls, and other disastrous policies. To top it off, he was a paranoid SOB. That being said, there might never have been a Reagan presidency without the 1964 election and Nixon’s enthusiastic feeding of the Great Society beast.
Reagan had the foresight and optimism to build a new Republican coalition that reflected and appealed to the demographic realities of 1980 America. We’re going to see this happen again, God willing. Progress is never a straight-line. Let’s lick our wounds, get out of the circular firing squad mode, and rejoin the battle.
This election shows that the various minority communities are in fact fully engaged players on the American scene, manfully claiming their birthrights as Americans. This is good. But they are not yet equals, vecause they do not choose to be.
Leaving aside some cultural differences (for just as I am not an Italian nor a Midwesterner, neither am I really concerned about being black or Hispanic, nor of avoiding pointing out obvious problems in any of the above groups, just as I’m sure problems in my group can be pointed out–for example, the heritage of the white yeomanry of the South yielding to the planter aristocracy still echoes in the overall level of excellence we white Southerners have as far as community leaders), here is when black and brown will truly be equals–when they decide they are going to participate in politics without demandng immunity from criticism.
The new equality of black and brown is proof that the American Republic founded in 1787, and affirmed as an egalitarian Republic in 1828, works. For the true story of America has always been about the quest for the egalitarian society. And any attempt to create new priviliged classes, not to be challenged, immune from criticism, will cause the same problems as they have before.
Therefore, Welcome to the game as full equals, black and brown. And my question to you– Are you man enough to stand on your own two feet, or do you still want your crutches and help from the umps?
Am I the only one that is reminded of the disasters of the trade-unions lock on employment and business in the UK after WWII? I can see the unions here in the US reversing the trends from the last 45 years and becoming stronger and stronger. We have a model to look back at. In the UK, it was closed shop after closed shop (union restricted). Afterwards, throughout the sixties and the seventies, it was bankruptcy after bankruptcy. Although things began to improve after Margaret Thatcher, one of the results has been millions on the dole. Mal-educated, unemployed, unemployable, relegated to secondary status within their own country.
Unlimited emigration to England from third world countries around the globe gave rise to “cultural” centers such as Londonistan. We have our own here, namely “Dearbornistan” Michigan. I cannot see this country recovering after four more years. Finito. End of story.
1) The media is nearly completely controlled by Democrats. We spent a billion dollars on this campaign. Why aren’t we making an effort to get control of NBC or one of the other networks? Comcast owns HBO. Have you seen the vile socialist filth they broadcast? How much would it be worth to us, to the future of America, our freedom and prosperity, just to get control of that company and throw Bill Maher off the air?
2) The Left has a near monopoly on education. There have been several articles just this week about how Republican groups at high schools and colleges can’t find a teacher to sponsor them or be there advisor because there isn’t a single Republican on staff. They are likewise absolutely hostile to Christians. Look at Bill Ayers: he discovered that he couldn’t change the country by killing federal judges and policemen but he could absolutely change the country by helping to write the text books and teach the next generation of teachers that must get certified by the education dept’s at a university. ALL of which are thoroughly marxist.
There’s the problem right there. How can you get your message out when the enemies of the Republic control the media? How do you expect the next generation to share the ideals of the founders of our society when the Marxists control education and teach nothing prior to the start of the Progressive era?
From a strategic standpoint, I think this is it. Advertising works. Doesn’t have to be the best product but have a memorable commercial and you will sell.
Time to cut the cable and satellite my friends. Read a book or learn to play an instrument. You will be missing nothing.
Marco Rubio should’ve (would’ve could’ve) been THE VP This Time…and we’d both be writing a far different story! How come we look at the Red Map…”the morning after” and see so few Blue dots???
IF you are a Socialist or a Communist…go live in whichever of those countries
your ideology agrees with…but NOT AMERICA!
The Job Creators have HOW MUCH Incentive NOW? With This President?? Who are the taxpayers?…those over-educated, over-qualified individuals who are lucky enough to find ANY underpaying job? WHO wants to remain IN the workforce?? WHY PAY for “Free Stuff”?…ENTITLEMENTS for people who haven’t earned it?
All you have to do is look at all the Doctors who are NOW retiring early…
because of Obamacare!
The taxpayers who’ve worked for their benefits deserve the medicare benefits they have paid into for a lifetime. Self-employers have a probelm when working for themselves.
Those who have babies…just to get paid to be on welfare…do NOT!
It would be good of Myra to note that selecting the squish Romney who prototyped and still approves of Obamacare in principle–that man who doesn’t know what government shouldn’t do–that this has done us no good, and perhaps selecting someone in the middle of the rightmost 55% of the electorate would be best next time.
I could see the next President being Tea Party President. The Lugar’s can cry in their beer.
After all, Hispanics can do math.
Myra, get back to me when you care to push a candidate who will really move the goalposts away from the Democrat’s side, instead of only compromising by letting the Dems have less of what they want.
What I am certain of Myra, is that you will never dare, so you will never win. Neither will the establishment GOP.
Myra, you are absolutely on target with the fact that republicans NEVER counter the narrative advanced by the demonrats. For years, the left advanced the narrative that Bush was an evil warmonger/bumbling doofus that lied about WMD in Iraq. Not once did he explain the intelligence he acted upon, nor how the democrats saw the very same intelligence and agreed to go to war. McCain and Romney are two moderate reach across the aisle republicans, but were painted as evil incarnate uber-capitalists who would step on poor people and as extremists who would put blacks into slavery, women into bondage and gays into the closet. Both never took the fight to the airwaves and define Obama as the dangerous totalitarian he really is! I did not here a single demonization of Obama in 2008 or 2012 other than “nice guy with different views”. Romney was great at tearing up his opponents in the primary but lost his mojo in the campaign.
This is the end of the Republicans one thing Russell Pearce and 1070 tought Us
was Who real republicans and RINOS are.
Real republicans are people with MONEY and INFLUANCE rions are the the unimportant grunts who believe Their opinon count.
I was born a Republican and thought they stood for the American Citizen.
I also considered Myself a Russell Pearce Republican His standing in the
Mormon Church ment nothing to Me I just appreciate His efforts for US Citizens.
But after the treatment RP and 1070 recieved from the Mormon Church And the
real republicans including the chamber of commerce the hotel and restaurant association the builders assaociation the automobile dealera assocation and others Who care more about the welfare of mexican citizens than US Citizens and rinos and are only intrested in cheap labor I could see no benefit from the republicans over the democrats who hate Stright White Old Men I voted for no
Mormon or republican.