Quote of the Day: ‘A Hell of a Beating’

 

“I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as all hell. I think we ought to find out what caused it, go back and retake it.” – Joseph Stilwell

Certainly, that is how many conservatives viewed the November 8 elections. Like the American army that got run out of Burma by Japan in 1942. Except it wasn’t. At this remove, it appears November 8 was a Republican victory, just not the big victory it was hoped for.

In Civil War terms, we hoped for a Battle of Chattanooga with a smashing Union victory or a Battle of Nashville with the enemy army destroyed. The way many are reacting to it, you would think November 8 was equivalent to First Bull Run, where the Union Army was routed from the battlefield.

It wasn’t. Rather it was the Battle of Antietam, a bloody draw turned into a tactical Union victory by possession of the battlefield at day’s end. In this case, possession of the House of Representatives by the Republicans, and a draw in the Senate, which ensures the Democrats will not eliminate the filibuster. Advantage Republicans.

Like Antietam leadership threw away opportunities for a larger victory, McConnell, McCarthy, and Trump played the roles of McClellan and Burnside. All three were more intent on furthering their own agendas than winning the election. Including Trump. And yes, we have Copperheads among us who would not put aside their animus for these generals to the point where they actively worked toward the election of Democrats. So, we end up with a minor victory rather than a decisive one.

That is not necessarily all bad. The last two wave elections (1994 and 2006) resulted in then-Presidents Clinton and Obama triangulating, adopting Republican positions, and using the improvements resulting in the two years after the midterms to cruise to victory for their second terms. That will not happen this time. Biden intends to double-down on his failed policies of the last two years. That means the next two years will be worse, especially economically, than the last two. Crime will continue to soar in blue states. Big Tech will be going through major tribulations, which will reduce its impact on the next election. (Anyone remember the dot-com bubble? This looks to be worse than that.) The chickens are coming home to roost.

Additionally, while all eyes were focused on the Washington DC theater, out in the hinterlands, the Republicans had their own U.S. Grant racking up major victories. What happened in Florida is the equivalent of Forts Donelson and Henry. It has become a bright red state, and DeSantis has shown how to do that type of transformation. He is now being imitated, at least in part, by Greg Abbott, and soon by others.

The real relevant part of my quote is the last part: “I think we ought to find out what caused it, go back and retake it.” In this case, what caused us to win an Antietam rather than a Nashville. If we do, we retake the White House. If we do not, we deserve to get what the American people vote for, good and hard.

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  1. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    We need to have a credible message that positively engages the under 35 voter.  

    We need to focus on “reverse coat tails” in which attractive local candidates build a foundation for national party success.  

    • #1
  2. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Who is Grant in this analogy? DeSantis? Pishaw. He does not exist.

    We are stuck with McClellan: Incompetent traitors who will end up supporting the other side.

    It is over. America is in decline as much as Rome was in the third century.

    • #2
  3. AMD Texas Coolidge
    AMD Texas
    @DarinJohnson

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Who is Grant in this analogy? DeSantis? Pishaw. He does not exist.

    We are stuck with McClellan: Incompetent traitors who will end up supporting the other side.

    It is over. America is in decline as much as Rome was in the third century.

    Man, I used to think I was a pessimist. Right now I’ll just continue to vote for those that seem like they might push back. History shows that you aren’t necessarily stuck with  McClellan unless you just decides it’s over. I’ll pass on that, thank you. 

    • #3
  4. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    • #4
  5. AMD Texas Coolidge
    AMD Texas
    @DarinJohnson

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    I prefer this strategy to just rolling over and saying everything sucks and America’s over

    • #5
  6. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Who is Grant in this analogy? DeSantis? Pishaw. He does not exist.

    We are stuck with McClellan: Incompetent traitors who will end up supporting the other side.

    It is over. America is in decline as much as Rome was in the third century.

    Man, I used to think I was a pessimist. Right now I’ll just continue to vote for those that seem like they might push back. History shows that you aren’t necessarily stuck with McClellan unless you just decides it’s over. I’ll pass on that, thank you.

    Um 

    When has voting GOP helped?

    Repeal and Replace?

    Lies.

     

    • #6
  7. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    I prefer this strategy to just rolling over and saying everything sucks and America’s over

    Oh OK.

    What do you got for me, personally to do, hoss?

    Give me marching orders. Tell me how to fight it.

    Vote? OK I do that. Every single election. 

    Now, buddy, what you got? 

    • #7
  8. AMD Texas Coolidge
    AMD Texas
    @DarinJohnson

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    I prefer this strategy to just rolling over and saying everything sucks and America’s over

    Oh OK.

    What do you got for me, personally to do, hoss?

    Give me marching orders. Tell me how to fight it.

    Vote? OK I do that. Every single election.

    Now, buddy, what you got?

    Sorry, Bryan. That’s for you to figure out, “Hoss”. I’m active and involved in my community. America isn’t over in south Texas and it doesn’t look to be over in Florida from what I can see. There are actually good things happening in many places but you have to open your eyes and be willing to see it….or you can just put your blinders on and bleat about it all being over.

    • #8
  9. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    I prefer this strategy to just rolling over and saying everything sucks and America’s over

    Oh OK.

    What do you got for me, personally to do, hoss?

    Give me marching orders. Tell me how to fight it.

    Vote? OK I do that. Every single election.

    Now, buddy, what you got?

    Sorry, Bryan. That’s for you to figure out, “Hoss”. I’m active and involved in my community. America isn’t over in south Texas and it doesn’t look to be over in Florida from what I can see. There are actually good things happening in many places but you have to open your eyes and be willing to see it….or you can just put your blinders on and bleat about it all being over.

    Ah.

    So no advice at all about saving America. Just ignore how bad it is and focus on my feet.

    Useless.

    • #9
  10. AMD Texas Coolidge
    AMD Texas
    @DarinJohnson

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    I prefer this strategy to just rolling over and saying everything sucks and America’s over

    Oh OK.

    What do you got for me, personally to do, hoss?

    Give me marching orders. Tell me how to fight it.

    Vote? OK I do that. Every single election.

    Now, buddy, what you got?

    Sorry, Bryan. That’s for you to figure out, “Hoss”. I’m active and involved in my community. America isn’t over in south Texas and it doesn’t look to be over in Florida from what I can see. There are actually good things happening in many places but you have to open your eyes and be willing to see it….or you can just put your blinders on and bleat about it all being over.

    Ah.

    So no advice at all about saving America. Just ignore how bad it is and focus on my feet.

    Useless.

    LOL. Nope, I’m sorry that I don’t have all the answers for you. I find the idea of bleating that it’s all over pretty useless but you do you. I’ll just keep on slogging here in my small part of the world trying to do something every day. I can’t claim that I’ll save America but I’ll do what I can to keep it going.

    • #10
  11. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    The Quitter

    Robert Service
     
    When you’re lost in the Wild, and you’re scared as a child,
        And Death looks you bang in the eye,
    And you’re sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle
        To cock your revolver and . . . die.
    But the Code of a Man says: “Fight all you can,”
        And self-dissolution is barred.
    In hunger and woe, oh, it’s easy to blow . . .
        It’s the hell-served-for-breakfast that’s hard.

    “You’re sick of the game!” Well, now, that’s a shame.
        You’re young and you’re brave and you’re bright.
    “You’ve had a raw deal!” I know — but don’t squeal,
        Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.
    It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,
        So don’t be a piker, old pard!
    Just draw on your grit; it’s so easy to quit:
        It’s the keeping-your-chin-up that’s hard.

    It’s easy to cry that you’re beaten — and die;
        It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
    But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight —
        Why, that’s the best game of them all!
    And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
        All broken and beaten and scarred,
    Just have one more try — it’s dead easy to die,
        It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

    • #11
  12. Jimmy Carter Member
    Jimmy Carter
    @JimmyCarter

    Seawriter: At this remove it appears November 8 was a Republican victory, just not the big victory it was hoped for.

    Seawriter: The way many are reacting to it, you would think November 8 was equivalent to First Bull Run, where the Union Army was routed from the battlefield.

    That was by design. The legacy media was also in on the “big red wave” knowing the Republicans’ wins would be minimal..

    Stop paying attention to the legacy media. Quit believing “the polls.”

    We won. 

    • #12
  13. AMD Texas Coolidge
    AMD Texas
    @DarinJohnson

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    The Quitter

    Robert Service

    When you’re lost in the Wild, and you’re scared as a child,
    And Death looks you bang in the eye,
    And you’re sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle
    To cock your revolver and . . . die.
    But the Code of a Man says: “Fight all you can,”
    And self-dissolution is barred.
    In hunger and woe, oh, it’s easy to blow . . .
    It’s the hell-served-for-breakfast that’s hard.

    “You’re sick of the game!” Well, now, that’s a shame.
    You’re young and you’re brave and you’re bright.
    “You’ve had a raw deal!” I know — but don’t squeal,
    Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.
    It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,
    So don’t be a piker, old pard!
    Just draw on your grit; it’s so easy to quit:
    It’s the keeping-your-chin-up that’s hard.

    It’s easy to cry that you’re beaten — and die;
    It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
    But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight —
    Why, that’s the best game of them all!
    And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
    All broken and beaten and scarred,
    Just have one more try — it’s dead easy to die,
    It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

    I love Service and he had a way with those that might give up…

    “Have you ever stood in an Arctic hut in the shadow of the Pole,

    With a little coffin six by three and a grief you can’t control?

    Have you ever sat by a frozen corpse that looks at you with a grin,

    And that seems to say: “You may try all day, but you’ll never jam me in”?

    I’m not a man of the quitting kind, but I never felt so blue

    As I sat there gazing at that stiff and studying what I’d do.

    Then I rose and I kicked off the husky dogs that were nosing round about,

    And I lit a roaring fire in the stove, and I started to thaw Bill out.

    Well, I thawed and thawed for thirteen days, but it didn’t seem no good;

    His arms and legs stuck out like pegs, as if they was made of wood.

    Till at last I said: “It ain’t no use — he’s froze too hard to thaw;

    He’s obstinate, and he won’t lie straight, so I guess I got to — saw.

    So I sawed off poor Bill’s arms and legs, and I laid him snug and straight

    In the little coffin he picked hisself, with the dinky silver plate,

    And I came nigh near to shedding a tear as I nailed him safely down;

    Then I stowed him away in my Yukon sleigh, and I started back to town.”

    From “The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill” by Robert W. Service

    • #13
  14. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Jimmy Carter (View Comment):

    Seawriter: At this remove it appears November 8 was a Republican victory, just not the big victory it was hoped for.

    Seawriter: The way many are reacting to it, you would think November 8 was equivalent to First Bull Run, where the Union Army was routed from the battlefield.

    That was by design. The legacy media was also in on the “big red wave” knowing the Republicans’ wins would be minimal..

    Stop paying attention to the legacy media. Quit believing “the polls.”

    We won.

    We lost.

    The left has won andcwon s8nce Wikard.

    • #14
  15. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    I prefer this strategy to just rolling over and saying everything sucks and America’s over

    Oh OK.

    What do you got for me, personally to do, hoss?

    Give me marching orders. Tell me how to fight it.

    Vote? OK I do that. Every single election.

    Now, buddy, what you got?

    Sorry, Bryan. That’s for you to figure out, “Hoss”. I’m active and involved in my community. America isn’t over in south Texas and it doesn’t look to be over in Florida from what I can see. There are actually good things happening in many places but you have to open your eyes and be willing to see it….or you can just put your blinders on and bleat about it all being over.

    Ah.

    So no advice at all about saving America. Just ignore how bad it is and focus on my feet.

    Useless.

    LOL. Nope, I’m sorry that I don’t have all the answers for you. I find the idea of bleating that it’s all over pretty useless but you do you. I’ll just keep on slogging here in my small part of the world trying to do something every day. I can’t claim that I’ll save America but I’ll do what I can to keep it going.

    Useless.

    Like expecting that tending to family will end up with the British agreement to respect our rights.

    No.

     

    • #15
  16. AMD Texas Coolidge
    AMD Texas
    @DarinJohnson

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    We need to govern like we mean it and rebuke the Left at every opportunity.

    I prefer this strategy to just rolling over and saying everything sucks and America’s over

    Oh OK.

    What do you got for me, personally to do, hoss?

    Give me marching orders. Tell me how to fight it.

    Vote? OK I do that. Every single election.

    Now, buddy, what you got?

    Sorry, Bryan. That’s for you to figure out, “Hoss”. I’m active and involved in my community. America isn’t over in south Texas and it doesn’t look to be over in Florida from what I can see. There are actually good things happening in many places but you have to open your eyes and be willing to see it….or you can just put your blinders on and bleat about it all being over.

    Ah.

    So no advice at all about saving America. Just ignore how bad it is and focus on my feet.

    Useless.

    LOL. Nope, I’m sorry that I don’t have all the answers for you. I find the idea of bleating that it’s all over pretty useless but you do you. I’ll just keep on slogging here in my small part of the world trying to do something every day. I can’t claim that I’ll save America but I’ll do what I can to keep it going.

    Useless.

    Like expecting that tending to family will end up with the British agreement to respect our rights.

    No.

     

    Ok, give up. I’m not interested in that perspective. Good luck with it.

    • #16
  17. HeavyWater Inactive
    HeavyWater
    @HeavyWater

    The bad part of the 2022 election is that the Democrats retained control over the US Senate, which means Biden’s Lefty judicial nominees will continue to be confirmed.  The US Senate was winnable for the Republicans.  So, the US Senate was a bad loss for us.

    The elections involving governors didn’t go well for the GOP either and by January 2023 there will be 25 Democrat governors and 25 Republican governors.  But gaining the majority of the US House was a positive.

    • #17
  18. Charles Mark Member
    Charles Mark
    @CharlesMark

    With the World Cup (soccer) currently taking place in Qatar, this headline reminds me of a famous match in 1981 when Norway beat England (not in the World Cup itself). The Norwegian TV commentator went on a hilarious rant, starting-

    “Maggie Thatcher, your boys took a beating”. 

    He then went in to list just about every famous English person of the time,  and told them too that their boys had taken a hell of a beating. 

    The result of that game was a huge shock at the time, but would barely register these days – even tiny Iceland have beaten England since. 

    Much though I and every other Irish person delighted in the Norwegian victory,  I was cheering England on  as they gave Iran one hell of a (6-2) beating today. I can’t wait for USA v Iran!! 

     

    • #18
  19. Black Prince Inactive
    Black Prince
    @BlackPrince

    Charles Mark (View Comment):
    I can’t wait for USA v Iran!! 

    OMG

    • #19
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