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Trading Their Birthright For An Obama Phone
Calm isn’t quite the right word. Peace? Yes, I’m at peace. The people were presented with two diametrically opposed philosophies. To employ a sports phrase, our side, “left it all on the field.” We highlighted the plans, failures, illegalities, and abuses of the statist. Where the major media failed, we stepped in. We countered utopian platitudes with facts, and answered entitlements with opportunity. After hundreds of columns, endless hours writing and researching when I should have been resting to meet the demands of life on the road, countless conversations with friends and family, and a multitude of prayers for my country, there was nothing left, save for the people to decide. And they did.
Mitt Romney is a sterling man who loves our country. I have no ill words or thoughts for him, and no Monday morning quarterbacking. He made the best calls he could while in the arena, under the white hot lights of scrutiny from friend and foe alike. He didn’t need the stress, the hassle, or the expense of running for office and could have easily retired and waved at the world as it passed by. But he put a personal stake in the future of America, and for that I am grateful. But he was outnumbered. We all were outnumbered.
My mistake, and the mistake of a great many of us on the right, was to think that a majority of Americans still believed in the country as it was founded. They don’t. The sacrifices of men at Valley Forge, on the beach at Normandy, or landing at Inchon, were all washed away on election day, leaving only the stark warning of Benjamin Franklin that, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
They will get their masters. On the night of the election, a young man wearing a mask walked into a convenience store in Warren, Ohio, pointed a gun at a customer and robbed him before pointing the gun at the clerk and admonishing him to,”Vote for Obama.” These are the people who carried the election. Meanwhile, in Detroit, eight-time convicted felon and lifelong Democrat Brian Banks was elected as State Representative for the 1st District. Good. He’s a credit to the constituency that elected him. May they all enjoy the hell they have created.
As the days and weeks pass, we on the right will examine what happened and be told what should be done next. Some have suggested we change our messaging, on immigration for example, hinting (though not coming out and saying) that an insistence on securing the nation’s borders, or a resistance to rewarding the breaking of our laws, alienates the Hispanic vote. Let them put action to words then, and move to the border towns I travel to, and sleep with the doors as unsecured as the border. For we already have a pretty good idea what happens when we suggest watered down liberal ideas and policies, don’t we?
We suggest amnesty and they offer in-state tuition. We offer in-state tuition and they offer free education. On social issues, it’s the same. It was demanded that we give public approbation to private behaviors, and when we try to accommodate those demands, the demands only increase. Hence, the progression from civil unions to same-sex marriage, which progression will not stop, I suppose, until people start marrying aardvarks. We now have a majority of people who vote their biological plumbing, and on the basis of which party can produce the niftiest incarnation of Santa Claus. We can’t out-liberal the liberals.
So what to do? For me, there are two answers, one intimate and the other public. On an intimate level, to people I know personally who supported this man, my message is simple: good luck. In the words, of Samuel Adams, I will not seek, “… your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” May you enjoy your rendezvous with the government functionary who will weigh your age and health against the expense of whatever medical procedure you will need. You earned it. But my children and grandchildren didn’t earn it, yet you’ve foisted that awful and ghastly fate on them as well. For that, you have my undying contempt.
On a public level, recognizing with shame that it is my generation that has consigned a great country to darkness and servitude, I can only continue the fight. At some point, events will run their course. The currency will be devalued into meaninglessness by repeated mass printings, the debt will be called, the loot which the takers now demand will dry up, and the country will implode. Perhaps out of the ashes, a few voices will be heard reminding all that it didn’t have to be like this. It is my hope that Ricochet will be among those voices, and that mine will be among yours.
Though this generation is lost, the fight continues for the next, or the one after that. As long as I have a voice, I will be using it to remind everyone that it didn’t have to be this way. Recalling Winston Churchill’s remark that, “I like a man who grins when he fights,” I look forward to engaging along side the rest of you. And as my friend Alphonse says, “May God bless da hell outta you.”
Published in General
Unfortunately your post once again reflects the primary reason Republicans have difficulty. If you want to know why Obama was victorious and Romney got one million fewer votes than McCain try looking in a mirror. ·43 minutes ago
Somewhere, a punch bowl is missing a foreign object.
Dave:
Thanks for being willing to keep up the good fight. The same goes for the rest of you “yeah-sayers.” But as for me and my house, it’s now up to my sons-in-law. I’m outta here.
So, any of you fighters who know someone who–like you and like Dave–is willing to continue the fight, send me a private Ricochet email and I’ll figure out how to give you my two-year paid up Ricochet membership. There’s too much volunteering and too much reading to do to waste another minute on electoral politics in America.
I don’t agree that every man should be for himself. But I do think – and strongly – that those of us who prefer community to government should stick together.
Will the Red States increasingly separate themselves from the federal government and achieve ade factosecession? If so then I, and many others here, may well be renting a moving truck.
Let’s build our City on a Hill. ·19 minutes ago
I went for a long run this morning to burn off the swirling in my head and pondered this very thought.
Will the Red States increasingly separate themselves from the federal government and achieve ade factosecession? If so then I, and many others here, may well be renting a moving truck.
Let’s build our City on a Hill. ·19 minutes ago
I went for a long run this morning to burn off the swirling in my head and pondered this very thought. ·0 minutes ag
As my brother likes to say: “Great minds think alike. … And so do ours.”
I am not jesting about the plan. I am an historian by training, and I play the long game. I left the UK when it became clear that the continent is doomed. Now I live in a Blue State, and I know that I cannot acquire enough ammunition for when the inner city boils over to get the “stuff” they have been promised their whole lives – but which the government can no longer provide.
So after last night, moving is not a question of “if”. The question is, first, “where.” Then we’ll decide on the “when.”
Really? Do me a favor and stop talking about core values- this country proved last night that there’s no such thing.
Where were the 3 million ‘religious folk’ that supported John McCain in 2008 and couldn’t quite get over themselves yesterday to support one of the most decent, moral candidates we’ve ever run for president.
For shame!
Please explain. Saying “look in the mirror” is cute and succinct, but it really says nothing.
I believe limited government conservative ideas superior to the alternatives. I also believe that most people if presented with a civil, thoughtful argument can be persuaded of the same.
I have a neighbor who has a silver star and one leg who recently retired after working in the private sector some forty odd years. He voted for Obama. I voted for Romney. I do not consider him morally or intellectually inferior to me and he is every bit as patriotic. Unfortunately he seems not measure up to St Carter’s standards.
I guess St Carter earns money by throwing red meat to the Ricochet lions. I pay money to comment on his silliness. St Carter is a good wordsmith , but I find his approach neither civil, thoughtful nor productive.
Sounds harsh, but I’ve been thinking along those very lines myself. Like Paul Ryan, I believed the American people were ready for a “grown-up conversation”. What fools we were!
Of course we’ve been having the grown-up conversation here at Ricochet, but what’s the point? Banging our gums at each other about how right we are… to what end? The people told us loud and clear yesterday that they don’t give one good damn about who’s right and who’s wrong. They refuse to take any side except their own. Load up on freebies while the gettin’s good and hand the bill to somebody else.
I’m sick to death of it all, and I’m ready to chuck in and stop wasting my time reading, thinking, and writing about it any more. But since we’re all “soul-searching”, I’ll wait a few days to see if the feeling passes.
I have a neighbor who has a silver star and one leg who recently retired after working in the private sector some forty odd years. He voted for Obama. I voted for Romney. I do not consider him morally or intellectually inferior to me and he is every bit as patriotic. Unfortunately he seems not measure up to St Carter’s standards.
Intelligence and wisdom are very different things. Do you think your neighbor was right to vote for Obama?
And if not, isn’t it reasonable to suggest, as Dave does, that a vote for Obama is not consistent with America’s past as a beacon of freedom?
P.S. Please avoid ad hominems like “Saint Carter”. Ricochet is above this level of fallacious thinking.
My 16 year old just emailed me in response to this:
I think he is right. Positive and constructive thinking is the only way forward for Happy Warriors.
I’m afraid Brother Rob is wrong: the problem is not in the messaging. Arguing harder and talking longer will not halt this sickening descent into servitude. The people are not interested in the facts. They want what they want, they voted for it, and now they await delivery of their goodies.
I’m with you right up until “the fight continues”. It doesn’t. It’s over. We lost. ·2 hours ago
Victor Davis Hanson cuts to the heart of the issue in his NRO piece, “Three Ways of Explaining Defeat” in relating an encounter with a retired auto-worker: ” . . who did not care that the bailout cost $25 billion, was not sustainable, shorted the legal first-in-line creditors, shorted politically incorrect managerial pensioners, or ensured the Volt debacle. He simply said to me, “Obama saved my son’s job and I don’t care about much else.” ‘
You’re right, Peter. Foreseeable future. Lost.
Unfortunately your post once again reflects the primary reason Republicans have difficulty. If you want to know why Obama was victorious and Romney got one million fewer votes than McCain try looking in a mirror. ·57 minutes ago
Ah, our friend Mr. Liberal Jim has demonstrated yet again (as if those of us from Wisconsin needed any more proof), why this election result has been so hard to stomach. Liberalism (not every single liberal, Jim, since that would be your next “debating point”…but LiberalISM) is coarse, vain, arrogant, self-centered, smug (or more accurately SMUG), graceless, lacking gratitude, and short-sighted (the REAL fiscal cliff when the money runs out will make the one coming up in a few weeks seem like a picnic).
Jim, there are certainly many of you in the country; and sadly, your numbers are growing. Still…Please can the “attitude”. It’s unbecoming.
I believe limited government conservative ideas superior to the alternatives. I also believe that most people if presented with a civil, thoughtful argument can be persuaded of the same.
I have a neighbor who has a silver star and one leg who recently retired after working in the private sector some forty odd years. He voted for Obama. I voted for Romney. I do not consider him morally or intellectually inferior to me and he is every bit as patriotic. Unfortunately he seems not measure up to St Carter’s standards.
I guess St Carter earns money by throwing red meat to the Ricochet lions. I pay money to comment on his silliness. St Carter is a good wordsmith , but I find his approach neither civil, thoughtful nor productive. ·10 minutes ago
I honor your neighbor’s service, but there’s no doubt that his vote took us further down the path to tyranny.
And as to my earning money for my posts here? Not one thin dime, Jim. Not a dime. It is a labor of love. And I’ll not take lessons in civility from practitioners of the ad hominem.
I am so thankful for this group. For my tribe, in Whittle’s parlance. I am intensely proud to stand with you all. Proud of the fact that our tribe doesn’t riot and destroy when things don’t go our way, doesn’t wait for someone else to fix things. We lick our wounds for a time, then get back up and figure out where we went wrong and how to do better next time.
Things look bleak right now, but I will not give up on this country. Too many have died defending the ideas on which she was built. We must take the long view and engage at all levels–in our families, with our friends & co-workers, in our schools, in the media, in local politics–create new strategies, build new paths. In the words of John Adams:
Trink, you put me in mind of a friend of mine (a confirmed liberal) who was struggling with his weight. He said to me, in so many words, “Why doesn’t the government just make it illegal for me to buy all this fattening stuff?!”
I was stunned into speechlessness. How to even begin to explain liberty and self-government to someone who thinks that way?
“The government should just tell me what to do and how to think. It’s too much work trying to figure stuff out for myself.”
Brilliant, Dave…… Thanks for the summary of my jumbled feelings this evening. Weel written and incisive. I’m inclined to think of the phrase “we all get the gov’t we deserve”, and this has never been more true than now!
…So after last night, moving is not a question of “if”. The question is, first, “where.” Then we’ll decide on the “when.” ·1 hour ago
Yeah, I had a lunch discussion with my wife regarding the thought, and she said “When do we move?” If there were a mass migration of reds from blue states to solid red states they would take with them a ton of economic and voting power. Imagine California if a mass exodus of business owners and red professionals left for red states. They’d be bankrupt in a year. Not to mention the shift in electoral votes and seats in congress. I say give em what they want and let em burn.
And as to my earning money for my posts here? Not one thin dime, Jim. Not a dime. It is a labor of love.s ago
OK. I’ll be Newt.
I reject the premise! There is no crime in making money. And the truth is not reserved for those who work for free. Dave may not be earning from his posts, but he ought to be.
Ricochet management: put Dave Carter on the payroll! I think he is clearly the most valued contributor on the site.
I believe limited government conservative ideas superior to the alternatives.
I honor your neighbor’s service, but there’s no doubt that his vote took us further down the path to tyranny.
I subscriber to A. Codevilla’s views and therefore think of this past election as more an intramural event. Both of us viewed the election as one of choosing the lesser of two evils. I think the BG policies of the last 12 years will result in near catastrophic consequences probably in the next 4 years and therefore having a clearly defined liberal in charge might result in the exact opposite of what you anticipate.
I think Romney’s 47% comment and your post project a certain attitude about people who don’t agree with our point of view. I don’t think Romney or you actually have that attitude, but that does not change what the words project. Hope you enjoyed a dose of your own medicine. If I had your talent for writing I’d ask for $$$.
… I think the BG policies of the last 12 years will result in near catastrophic consequences probably in the next 4 years and therefore having a clearly defined liberal in charge might result in the exact opposite of what you anticipate.
I think Romney’s 47% comment and your post project a certain attitude about people who don’t agree with our point of view. I don’t think Romney or you actually have that attitude, but that does not change what the words project. Hope you enjoyed a dose of your own medicine. If I had your talent for writing I’d ask for $$$.
·2 minutes ago
Excellent! An honest dialogue as opposed to name calling. The root of my concern, Jim, is Obamacare. Once that takes root, the government has you by the proverbial whatchamacallits. The relationship between citizen and government is radically changed, and liberty is gone, and that’s what Obama’s supporters have done to the rest of us. I deeply resent that. It’s not two equal points of view here, it’s freedom vs. servitude. Your idea of comeuppance is foreign to me.
And as to my earning money for my posts here? Not one thin dime, Jim. Not a dime. It is a labor of love.s ago
OK. I’ll be Newt.
I reject the premise! There is no crime in making money. And the truth is not reserved for those who work for free. Dave may not be earning from his posts, but he ought to be.
Ricochet management: put Dave Carter on the payroll! I think he is clearly the most valued contributor on the site. ·20 minutes ago
You do that Newt bit really well, ya know that? Point taken. As for my reimbursement, my reward is the honor of participating on this site. I’m not going to play union boss here and demand resources that could be better used keeping the lights on and paying the rent.
…So after last night, moving is not a question of “if”. The question is, first, “where.” Then we’ll decide on the “when.” ·1 hour ago
Imagine California if a mass exodus of business owners and red professionals left for red states. They’d be bankrupt in a year.
Umm… California is bankrupt.
…So after last night, moving is not a question of “if”. The question is, first, “where.” Then we’ll decide on the “when.” ·1 hour ago
Imagine California if a mass exodus of business owners and red professionals left for red states. They’d be bankrupt in a year.
Umm… California isbankrupt. ·0 minutes ago
People keep claiming that, but they never offer any proof. Prove it.
Dave, I’m torn between standing and cheering because your post so accurately reflects what I am feeling, and sitting and weeping for the future of our country. Eventually I’ll stand up and fight again. But I need to recover from feeling betrayed first. Betrayed by family members who voted to destroy our future in the belief that money come free from the government and betrayed by my church that should have joined this fight many years ago instead of pursuing “social justice”. And betrayed by myself, for not making greater efforts to get through to those who can’t or won’t see the coming disaster. May God bless you and yours with safety and serenity.
Great post.
We tried, Patrick, we really tried. I’d be dishonest if I didn’t confess satisfaction that the people who voted for this will be in the same line with the rest of us, waiting for needed operations and medicines that are rationed and may not be available. I guess that makes me somewhat less of a “saint,” eh?
…
Obamacare is certainly similar to Romneycare and vary close to a proposal made by Dole in the mid nineties. It seems to me the “thems” are on both sides of the aisle and it is about time the “uses” realize it. Romney if elected would have found a bipartisan answer with Reid to Obamacare making I think only a marginal difference. When the country enters a down turn with a 4% growth rate it is sustainable (2007); when it does the same with a 2% growth it is not. Given the amount of regulation that has been piled on the country in the last 12 yrs. it is doubtful if Romney could/would have been able to avoid it. It is best to have a clearly defined liberal in charge, rather than a token conservative when it happens. Both will pursue BG policies in response ala 2007.
The mess we are in is a result of career politicians, of both parties putting their political careers ahead of their country. If you cannot see this you are viewing the GOP through rose colored glasses.
Dave–Thank you for saying pretty much how I feel. Past lost elections always left me feeling full of energy for the next go-round…more persuading, more arguing, more hoping. We tipped over this time and it wasn’t our fault for not trying. Romney tried hard and would have been a fine and respectable leader. This country just isn’t interested in that any more. Jay-Z, crappy designer clothes, talk shows, Honey BooBoo, free stuff, free love, free abortions……
I turned off TV last evening at around 8, came to Ricochet, and was distressed to find the angst here. Haven’t watched news all day, and won’t for some time. Your fine words expressed perfectly how I feel. It may take some time for me to engage in any other future plans other than on how my family and I can best make our way through the grim future ahead. Sad prospects. Sad to know my country has gone away while I watched. I thought there would be more time.
Thank you so much. My favorite part (I love it all) is ‘we can’t out-liberal the liberals’. We don’t have to. It’s not about gender or race or demographics. It’s about right and wrong. The liberals are killing our children in their mothers’ wombs. That’s wrong. That’s criminal. Our purpose is not to win elections but to stop mass murder. They have no defense there. Aim for the big chink in the armor that just happens to be located right over their black heart.
Jim, I agree with you that both parties have led us to this point. Recall the point I made a few days ago that I left the Republican party while GWB was in office. I think with a President Romney, we would have at least at a chance of reversing course. You’re correct that his tendency to placate liberals would have been a problem,..but at least we could have exerted some influence over this. He promised to kill Obamacare, and we might have been able to keep him honest on that. I’ll take a chance of survival over a certainty of doom any day. In any event, the die is now cast. Do we fight each other or do we fight the statists?
Even if Angelo is right and things go all to hell in the next four years (a premise which is not entirely clear–many of the unpayable bills for completely unsustainable programs don’t come due until after 2020) it is small solace to take that the other party will be in charge during a very ugly period.
Why is it small solace? Because it is not clear that it will redound to our political advantage–nevermind the possibility of the country’s ruination. It is not yet in evidence that once an unsustainable welfare state collapses, virtuous small government policies take its place. That is not what we are seeing emerge in several of these nations in Europe today.