To put it mildly, many in the GOP were not pleased with the outcome of last night’s elections. This represents a national repudiation of reality: we have tossed out the doctor because we don’t like his prognosis. The spending addict does not want an intervention; he wants more spending, no matter what.
The Democrats banked on their 2008 coalition, and won big, bigger than big. This wasn’t just a narrow survival by a weak incumbent president, it was a nationwide wave, a sweep at every level, from the president down to ballot initiatives like redefining marriage and legalizing marijuana. You can’t blame Hurricane Sandy for that. The unfortunate fact is that the Millennial generation is the most secular generation in American history, the most socially liberal. They will be shifting every election to the Left from now on.
The Obama campaign—Axelrod, Plouffe, Cutter—look even smarter than they did four years ago, when they got a freshman Senator elected President by seven points over an experienced war hero. This time, they got President Benghazi, President Obamacare, President Contraception Mandate re-elected after a historic midterm loss. And they did it all without actually revealing a second term agenda, or any evidence that their policies had done any good.
The Democrats have a mandate to govern, and Republicans are now in an uncomfortable position everywhere. The policies of the last four years have been not only affirmed but, with these ballot initiatives, shown to be now mainstream. Our nation’s culture has shifted to the Left, validating that self-fulfilling epithet of “Republican extremism.” It is apparently extreme now to balance a budget, to stay out of people’s lives, and respect tradition. Obama almost ran the table with swing states: it was a landslide.
As if Obama were not already hailed as The One by the Left, he will be now. He has made history all over again. In the Twentieth Century, Republicans had a lock on the presidency, the Democrats on the Congress. Now, that seems to have changed forever. There is simply no way to sell conservatism to people anymore: people have other values now. Obama has fulfilled left-wing dreams that go back decades, not only bringing universal health insurance to a once-limited government, outlawing Catholics from owning businesses, and getting rewarded with four more years for doing so. I can only tremble to wonder what Valerie Jarrett meant when she said that Obama’s second term will be about punishing their enemies, if this is what they have already done.
The Republican Party lost multiple unloseable elections (see Mourdock, Akin, Romney). They did not merely let winnable elections slip away, but actively gave them to Democrats, a situation much more heartbreaking than the narrow defeats of 2010. At best, the Republican Party has even more cautionary tales for its younger members, more examples of what not to do, but that is small consolation for two more years of Obama and Reid. In the same way, the only good that will come out of this for the country is suffering, which is the greatest teacher. The Democrats will continue to show us what does not work.
I am not confident that the Republican Party can win national elections anymore. It appears as though the demographics have permanently changed, and there is no reason to believe that they will change favorably to conservatives.
I do think that we will see an even more conciliatory Speaker of the House, John Boehner, than we did before. Boehner is no Tea Partier: everyone knows that. I don’t expect him to change his dollar-for-dollar standard in raising the debt ceiling, but I don’t expect the House to continue making show-votes, like repealing Obamacare. There is simply no point, no one to win over anymore. All their bluster in standing up to Obama got them nowhere, and only created a liberal media narrative of “obstructionism,” a charge that never made sense, but never had to.
The other side had a simple message...Mitt never really found a clear, simple message of what he would do that was so much better for Hispanics, Non-whites, the poor...and he did not help himself by remaining pegged as rich and elitist...
The GOP must devise a long term strategy to communicate its message in a positive and trusting way to minorities and single women.
He got pegged as a 1%er and not caring about the other 99%..a deadly perception going into an election of us versus them.
Sad that other Republicans had a bad night too...a bunch of Liberal initiatives sailed through....Elizabeth Warren..Gay Marriage..MD Dream Act...
Mitt's steadfast vision of increased military spending lacked the fiscal discipline that responsible fiscal conservatives would like..Bush did that and was a spending madman.
Get ready for 4 years of deadlock....and new taxes.
We have always known that Democrats are better at politicking that Republicans, but we have now affirmed that people really are buying what the Democrats are selling: there can be no doubt about it now. Politics is downstream from culture, and we simply don’t have a conservative culture anymore. The task for Republicans is to create one, rather than worrying about winning politics.
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