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:
May '10
Re: We Got Beat
For all the nausea, the hand-wringing and the navel-gazing that will take place over the next days, months and years to come the take away from this election will be this: What was the winning message, the big idea that the Obama team came up with to secure this victory?
"The Republican Party wants to take away your contraception. They want to ban abortion and won't pay for your pills. Oh, and if you can't get pregnant 'cause you're gay, he's gonna shove you back in the closet. And reintroduce slavery."
Not the future of the country. Not the crushing debt that will devolve us from Super Power to has-been. Not the 23 million who can't find a good-paying job. No. It all boiled down to who you want to play rumpy-bumpy with and who's gonna pay for your short term pleasures.
We can print money for awhile. But when China and the Islamic states finally figure out how to end the dollar as the world's reserve currency? We are toast.
Good night America!
Edited on November 7, 2012 at 7:50amFeb '12
Re: We Got Beat
The temptation is to get nasty. I have many "liberal" friends- some very dear- who have spoken at great length about being open-minded and fair, then proceeded to ascribe the worst possible motives for every policy. It's one thing for the President to go on Leno and talk about Republicans not knowing "rape is rape". It's another to have the mom of your kid's friend at Vacation Bible Study say it on Facebook. Or at the birthday party by the bouncy house.
I have remained mostly silent about such matters if it seems like it will only hurt the relationship. I am reconsidering that policy. The question is how to confront. The fact is, these accusations are extremely powerful and frankly emotionally hurtful. They should be refuted vigorously.
There's also the matter of Culture. I work about 100 yards from the "Sullivan and Son" set. I wonder if I am in the right place to help create the kind of culture we need to keep Obama voters from forming.
And culture is what keeps us from speaking on a micro and macro level. It's a vicious circle.
Oct '11
Re: We Got Beat
I hesitate to bring up the subject because I really have no room to talk as a single guy with no prospects on the horizon- but really if we want to reclaim the lost ground of a hundred years, the conservative household will have to be larger than liberal household. Healthy conservative families are the surest way to a healthy culture run by conservatives. To be frank, we have to out breed and out adopt them.I find this prospect very unnerving because of the culture and debt they'll inherit- but there's safety in numbers I suppose.I seem to remember a report coming out earlier this year about how this was almost happening in Europe with all other demographics' birth rate decreasing and only active Christian demographics remaining constant.
Jan '11
Re: We Got Beat
Quite honestly, I will spend a lot less time reading political web sites. I'm way too old to think this will get any better before it doesn't matter to me. America has chosen poorly and there's not a damn thing I can do about it anymore.
On the bright side - I'm going down to the gun store this weekend and picking up a couple more ARs, handguns, and ammo while I can! And I suppose I can look forward to spending less time working because the additional taxes will now make that pointless. Hello disability!
Aug '12
Re: We Got Beat
Yup. I don't know how we convince or educate Americans who aren't smart enough or care enough to get this.
I'm also astonished at times that even liberals aren't panicked at our situation. They actually believe that taxing the rich will make us solvent and that we can afford not only the entitlements we have but the grand new ones they have in store.
America needed adults to vote tonight and not enough did. The republic cannot survive the mentality that Americans demonstrated tonight.
Apr '11
Re: We Got Beat
It is over. We lost. Unfortunately the consequence's of that loss are real. America will decline and our competitor's will rise. In four years we will dance this dance again lets hope it is more meaningful than kabuki then if not Mark Steyn will be proven right.
Oct '11
Re: We Got Beat
EJHill:
"The Republican Party wants to take away your contraception. They want to ban abortion and won't pay for your pills. Oh, and if you can't get pregnant 'cause you're gay, he's gonna shove you back in the closet. And reintroduce slavery."
Not the future of the country. Not the crushing debt that will devolve us from Super Power to has-been. Not the 23 million who can't find a good-paying job. No. It all boiled down to who you want to play rumpy-bumpy with and who's gonna pay for your short term pleasures.
Yes! the soundbite won over substance for sure this time. As did negativity and ignorance. Sadly it proves the old truism- A people get the leaders they deserve.
Oct '10
Re: We Got Beat
I agree with the first two sentences.
As for taking back education, I suspect that can only be done when schools -- K-12 and beyond -- stop being dominated by governments.
The churches -- or perhaps more precisely their permanent administrations -- do need to be converted.
Pop culture will follow real culture -- I really don't think Jos Whedon has any deeply thought-through political ideals, do you?
So -- to the works of Lenin and Mao, comrades!
Aug '12
Re: We Got Beat
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.
We have a lousy economy, gas prices have doubled and a massive national debt that is primed to skyrocket even further, all government entitlements are on course to collapse, etc and all of this isn't enough to counter the liberal domination of the media. What else do we have left?
I think the only thing left is collapse. At some point people will only learn through the hardships brought on by their choices.
May '10
Re: We Got Beat
It was nice while it lasted. Down with the ship I go, drink in hand.
Aug '12
Re: We Got Beat
It's a small comfort, I know, but realize:
1.) Basically nothing has changed. Come January we will have the same President, Senate, House, and Supreme Court we had yesterday. Have the last 2 years really been that bad?
2.) The downstate races went a little better for us. Not great better, but little better. The states still matter.
3.) By my rough count, about 20 million fewer people voted this year than in 2008, and 12 million fewer than in 2004, and yet Romney still did better than McCain in the EC and 2-party vote split. If everyone who pulled the lever for McCain had pulled for Romney, he would have won.
4.) If we are serving a remnant, it's a pretty big one. Clean out the Republican Party if we must, learn how to turn out voters. Whatever. But these things are winnable.
5.) Maybe the coalition needs to be revisited, maybe the emphasis needs to be shifted. Maybe we should actually become Federalists. I don't know. But no need to throw the whole thing out.
6.) We control 1/2 of 1 branch of government. And it's the one with the money.
Aug '10
Re: We Got Beat
Rob, I wholeheartedly agree. I think points 6, 7, 8 are right on the money.
Sep '12
Re: We Got Beat
Welcome to Soviet Obamastan, just another pleasant country on the UN roll call between Albania and Zimbabwe.
The media learned an important lesson tonight: The Obamastani people do not elect their leaders; the Obamastani media anoint their leaders, and the Obamastani people blindly, unquestioningly obey. (While countries like Venezuela and North Korea have rubber-stamp parliaments, Soviet Obamastan has a rubber-stamp electorate!)
The tactics will only get worse. The hagiographies of the Left will become more glowing while anyone on the Right will be portrayed with all the nuance of Shylock-meets-Cobra Commander. The Republicans will return someday, but when they do, they will be the Obamastani equivalent of the UK's Conservatives, who traded stiff-spined Thatcherism for Labour Lite. In the future, Obamastanis will be consigned to the fate of Britons, who now choose not from Left and Right but from Left and Lefter.
Edited on November 7, 2012 at 5:59pmSep '11
Re: We Got Beat
Liberals would never even consider giving up the way you all are giving up: that is why they won tonight. People who give up don't deserve to win; those who put all of the blame on other people don't deserve to win.
There are serious problems in the conservative movement, but instead of taking a step back and re evaluating, many prefer to give up on America. No genuine patriot would ever, ever give up on America. I am just amazed by the stuff I am reading tonight: I can't believe that people who claim to love America would give up on America so easily.
If you don't have anything positive to contribute, then stop threatening to leave, and just leave: I don't want to be associated with a bunch of whiners. I realize this probably violates the code of conduct, but I don't care: some things need to be said.
Oct '11
Re: We Got Beat
genferei
As for taking back education, I suspect that can only be done when schools -- K-12 and beyond -- stop being dominated by governments.
Pop culture will follow real culture -- I really don't think Jos Whedon has any deeply thought-through political ideals, do you?
1. I think our natural repulsion to the bureaucracy of the system is what causes us to lose generation after generation to the progressive programing disseminated in these schools. We'll never develop the political power to disassemble the machine if we allow it to pump out more and more democrat voters. It's like Saul Alinsky advising his young socialists to get into businesses to tear it down from the inside and transform it into their ideal (The crony capitalism we have today.)
2. Does Joss have deeply thought-through political ideals? No, but he helps form the public narrative and that helps form peoples perspective of the reality around them.
Continuing to diminish the influence pop culture has on the formation of the public worldview will only hinder us.
Sep '10
Re: We Got Beat
What's the point? Half the country has said yes to welfare, high taxes "free" healthcare and bailouts. Peter voted tonight to keep taking from Paul. I imagine after another for years and more Americans getting bennies any attempt to take it away will have to be from their "cold dead hands".
To add insult to injury I have to swallow voting for second and third rate candidates election after election and told to enjoy it by pundits and pols on my side of the aisle.
Mr. Franklin is said to have quipped, "A Republic, if you can keep it." US had a nice run boys and girls but welcome to the end of the Republic. Tyranny of the majority is the new normal.
Jan '11
Re: We Got Beat
I can't believe I'm agreeing with someone at Mother Jones:
Jun '12
Re: We Got Beat
Look at history. Remember when an ivy-league president ran on "He kept us out of war," and after he won reelection the country entered the war.
Hmmm. When was that?
And after his 8 years were up the opposition party won in a gigantic landslide. In a short time just as then we'll be repeating that old saw about 'fool me twice....'.
Edited on November 7, 2012 at 8:44amJul '11
Re: We Got Beat
Pig Man: Mr Long,
I am the soon-to-be-gone obnoxious liberal shill on richochet so my endorsement means nothing here. But your post shows what a wise and prudent man you are. I hope your brethren take you thoughts to heart and move forward to make this great country of ours even greater. The conservative cause is not dead, by the time 2016 rolls around many in the country will be looking for a change. The question is whether the Republican Party will listen to reasonable voices like yours or regress further into isolated extremism. If they choose the latter, they will continue to suffer defeats like tonight. ยท 55 minutes ago
Your man still stinks. I'll be astounded if he governs well. Forgive me for being the obnoxious, not to be gone person on Ricochet, but this election became a mandate on traditional GOP issues and it failed for them. Your progressive president is failing the nation. You break it, you buy it. The next implosion will be progressivism but for now, moderate conservatives with religious overtones have swung and missed. You were right on the results.
Return here in 3.8 years and discuss further.
Apr '11
Re: We Got Beat
Judithann Campbell:
There are serious problems in the conservative movement, but instead of taking a step back and re evaluating, many prefer to give up on America. No genuine patriot would ever, ever give up on America. I am just amazed by the stuff I am reading tonight: I can't believe that people who claim to love America would give up on America so easily.
We didn't give up on America, Americans have given up on America.
Look, this was a profound loss and many of us are in mourning. Just because we're venting now it doesn't mean we've completely given up.
When a guy gets dumped by his girlfriend and takes a few days off to mutter "Ugh, I'll never meet anyone again??" it doesn't mean he's really through.