We Got Beat
When you lose something -- a wallet, an election, money, a lover -- you ask yourself this question: did I lose it, or was it stolen?
Last night, we lost. No one stole it from us. We lost it.
Some thoughts:
1. It goes without saying -- I hope -- that Barack Obama, as painful as it is to admit, is the President of the United States for the next four years. I wish him well. He's my president, too.
2. Let's face facts: Nate Silver, the polls, the "establishment media" -- they were all right. It wasn't about weighting or poll skewing. They were right. We engaged in wishful thinking. We were in a bubble. Last night, that bubble was popped. The major polls called it close, and it was close. Barack Obama won about one half of one percent more of the popular vote than Mitt Romney. But that was enough. Mitt Romney may have won the popular vote, but the Electoral College map tells a different story: it was about population-center votes, not about enthusiasm or which side was more energized. They outsmarted us. We outsmarted ourselves
3. Last night was a complete and systemic failure of the Republican party -- both at the national and the state level. The DC-based Republican establishment couldn't deliver a victory -- couldn't deliver Florida. The state-level Republican operation failed, too. For example: in Missouri, a state that should be solidly Republican, the state operation nominated an ill-prepared, out-of-touch clumsy gaffe-machine for the Senate -- Todd Akin. Romney carried the state. But Claire McCaskill won a major victory. We forced our side to split the ticket. We muddied our message. The Republican party failed.
4. More facts to face: the media is liberal. The news organizations are liberal. They protected their candidate. And it worked. But that's part of the hand that we conservatives have been dealt. That ain't gonna change. We need to figure out a way to win despite the fact that we're swimming upstream in the culture. Whining about it isn't going to get us to a solution.
5. Latinos and women voted big for the other side. Either we figure out a way to connect with those groups, or persuade them to our side, or we're going to be a very small part of the national political scene and getting smaller all the time.
6. Our side drinks too much Kool Aid. We watch Fox News and think we're winning the rest of the country. But Fox News is at most a 3 million viewer proposition. Last night, each side garnered about 48 million votes. Each side.
7. We can't rely on the establishment Republicans. We can't rely on Fox News. We can't rely on talk radio. We can only rely on ourselves. We need -- all of us, especially here on Ricochet -- to connect with each other, keep each other informed and energized, and persuade our neighbors and friends. We need to evangelize the rest of the country that doesn't agree with us. We need to win the country back.
8. We need to win the country back. Not take it back. Win it back through argument and engagement and debate. Win it back by articulating our key principles, persuading more Latinos and women to our side, and evangelizing the rest of the country.
9. Forgive me for this plug, but I really mean it: the conversations and engagement on Ricochet, and the passionate and articulate members here, are the future -- maybe the only future -- for our side.
10. If you're not a member of Ricochet, today is a very good day to join. The slow march back begins now. And it begins here.
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Comments:
Feb '11
Re: We Got Beat
Over the coming years, no one will be able to say "We didn't realize this was what would happen." You have had four years to learn who this man is and what his programs are. If it produces results you don't like, there is no one to blame.
Henceforth, my own considerations will be how you deal with Israel and the threats to us. If you choose to be a hostile power, so be it. We have had friends turn on us before.
I hope that my two sons in the US come home soon, with their wives and children, and if they do not, I can only pray for their welfare.
I am still here with Ricochet, but probably less active. I suppose I will keep my US passport, but I am not sure if I will use it or renew it. As opposed to the rest of you, I have a choice.
May G-d have mercy.
May '12
Re: We Got Beat
Not rhetorical questions: How? How do we slow march back over Obamacare when "our own" Chief Justice cements it into law? Does that not by definition change everything as Kennedy said it would? We are less powerful in Washington than we were yesterday, the House notwithstanding. That's just one issue from the cluster. If the conservative's best, brightest, and most-funded can't do it in November 2012, when is it going to happen? I'm not trying to be negative, but how? It seems like all the exits to the madhouse slammed shut, just before we could get out.
Jan '11
Re: We Got Beat
I don't know if I have any fight left in me. I really believed that today was going to be the day we started the slow, hard slog back to fiscal sanity and I'm crushed to find the opposite. We're told that truly hard-core conservatives can't win. We nominate truly, truly middle of the road squishes (McCain & Romney) and we *still* lose.
But, unlike liberals who threatened to leave the US and go somewhere more liberal (like Canada or Europe), there is no place for conservatives and libertarians to go anymore. This country was the last, best hope, but how much more time and how many more elections do we even have to save the republic.
Aug '10
Re: We Got Beat
Obama will never be my president.
Apr '11
Re: We Got Beat
Isn't that problem? Withdrawing?
I get it, we tend to be more predisposed to a familial lifestyle, leading us away from any organized or long-term plan on affecting state and nation wide cultural change, but the reality is that we are faced with arguing with a cultural trend.
We must stay engaged. Our conservative ideal of civic duty does not stop at just showing up--we must not shy away from conversation with our friends who disagree.
Aug '10
Re: We Got Beat
At the end of eight years of Obama as President one of three things will happen. 1) The amount of damage he can do will be limited, but evident and we will see a mild resurgence of conservatives in 2016. 2) The amount of damage his poorly applied Keynesian economics (yes...he's even applying these wrong as his policies lead banks to "save" rather than "spend") are a disaster and eight years of failure is too long to blame on Bush. 3) He has a very successful second term and our economy booms etc.
In all honesty, I'm hoping for 1 or 3. I fear that 2 will happen. Obama couldn't even understand how ATMs don't cost jobs.
Aug '10
Re: We Got Beat
Frankly I might resign my membership rather than pay more here with all this talk of him being every mans president and not his fault etc....
May '12
Re: We Got Beat
Yes, we lost narrowly.
But we placed our faith in people's ability to know right from wrong, and foolish from wise.
I should have known, really. I get calls all the time from people who live in apartments and have dogs, and think they can get another apartment that takes dogs.
I love dogs. But I have a cat. Because I know it is a hell of a lot easier to find an apartment if you have a cat than a dog.
When I buy a house, I get a dog.
Simple thinking like that eludes too many people. The Culture of Rights, with its focus on Material things has weakened too many minds.
Rob Long
I agree 100%. Time to hone the arguments. · 9 minutes ago
Aug '10
Re: We Got Beat
Well said Rob, I think you are dead on across the board with your ten points.
Being a Latino centrist I often feel a little of of place here at Ricochet, but what I find so valuable about Ricochet is that I am free to make of it what I will.
If I am willing to put in the work and carefully express my thoughts, I have the opportunity to present my case to a vast number of intelligent, thoughtful readers and irritate the hell out of a few cantankerous old coots at the same time.
Talk about a win win.
And I do have many thoughts, the first being that tonight was a painful and necessary reminder of what the term General Election really means.
And I will do just that, Of Ricochet, Race, RINOs, and Rubio is coming soon to a Member Feed near you.
Aug '12
Re: We Got Beat
My concern is that this election should not have even been close. It should have been Reagan v Carter redux. Our debt, stale economy etc should have produced a clear victory for not-Obama. I fear the character of too many Americans have changed and the campaign of "vote with your lady parts" and "Bush did it" achieved victory. It shouldn't have been close in a sane nation.
Jul '11
Re: We Got Beat
The funny thing is that now, we wake up and get to see the same lousy president again, They broke it, they can buy it.
Jun '10
Re: We Got Beat
Rob,
Before we do more persuading, Republicans need to first realize that Americans vote on emotion rather than policy preferences. They are not influenced by 5 point economic plans. They vote for the candidates who they feel culturally connected with.
The youth vote and minority vote went overwhelmingly for Obama, but yet they are the ones who have the highest unemployment rate. And they still voted for him.
Republicans need to put down the pie-charts and the wonky policy talk, and find candidates who have the ability to connect with people on an emotional level.
Reagan connected with people on an emotional level, and THEN he persuaded them. It is a lesson we have forgotten.
We need more Marco Rubios and Chris Christies, and fewer Romneys and Gingriches.
May '12
Re: We Got Beat
Here come 16,000 IRS agents and a total transparency to the Federal Government of what was left of your dignity. Your body was just nationalized. The Church will no longer be free to serve in civil society. The debt will rise to $20 Trillion plus. And this is just the beginning--no it's the middle. We are an electorate of fools. Optimism is having hard day.
Aug '12
Re: We Got Beat
I have fight left in be but I have no idea what to do with it. Even if Romney won we had a hard fight and long shot ahead of us to turn the country around. Now we don't even have that. We just have the House which will slow Obama down marginally and be the go-to progressive excuse for why the economy still sucks in 2/4 years etc.
Apr '12
Re: We Got Beat
Don't despair. Resist.
Sep '10
Re: We Got Beat
I have to admit that I live in a bubble. I go to church, I have a family, I listen to Rush, and I read this and other sites. I thought it was in the bag. There was absolutely no reason to vote to re-elect Obama, yet he won. I'm just having a hard time processing this.
The biggest fear I have is that most of us lost our will to fight tonight. I know I lost a little of it myself.
Apr '11
Re: We Got Beat
In other news, Allen West has been defeated.
Aug '10
Re: We Got Beat
Israel P.: Over the coming years, no one will be able to say "We didn't realize this was what would happen." You have had four years to learn who this man is and what his programs are. If it produces results you don't like, there is no one to blame.
Henceforth, my own considerations will be how you deal with Israel and the threats to us. If you choose to be a hostile power, so be it. We have had friends turn on us before.
I hope that my two sons in the US come home soon, with their wives and children, and if they do not, I can only pray for their welfare.
I am still here with Ricochet, but probably less active. I suppose I will keep my US passport, but I am not sure if I will use it or renew it. As opposed to the rest of you, I have a choice.
May G-d have mercy. · 19 minutes ago
God speed, my friend. Israel is in for some very hard times. I'm ashamed to say that the US probably won't have your back, given who our president is.
Oct '12
Re: We Got Beat
1.) Demographic suicide: women, minorities and youth.
2.) Bush still carries the blame for the economy. So far, exit polls support this claim.
3.) The right wing media suffers too many Glen Becks and Allen Wests, not enough Haley Barbours and—gasp—Gary Johnsons.
4.) Even if they did it wrong, the Dems at least addressed healthcare, something that was long overdue. Additional Possibility: People might not have voted for goodies so much as they might have voted against skyrocketing insurance costs.
Nov '12
Re: We Got Beat
Bring me the head of Stuart Stevens, I say. Much of what Rob says is right, but Romney still could have won. He ran much too cautious a campaign, focused too narrowly on the economy, and didn't attack Obama's failures and mendacity forcefully enough. He allowed Obama to get away with making excuses and blaming others. Stuart Stevens fear of seeming too ideological caused Romney to pull all of his punches, and Romney never really got a rhythm or started to soar until the very, very end. And that was just too late.
So, yes, let's do some soul searching. But let's also run effective campaigns and not get too clever. Politics is war, and fortune favors the bold. Romney ran a timid and overly calculating campaign.