Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Day After the Day After
Because they’re like sports writers with three-fourths of their copy written before the end of the seventh inning, the post-election punditry poured out predictably on the air and over the Internet before cleaning crews at the local Marriott could plug in the Hoover to suck up the victory confetti.
Everybody had an answer for everything. Some had answers to questions that weren’t even asked. And, of course, there was the inevitable discussion of “What does it all mean for 2016?!?”
The answer: Not a damned thing.
Whatever you’ve heard, whatever you’re thinking, whatever has been said, written or postulated, it’s all wrong. Every last word is a lie, including “the” and “a.”
Why? Because elections are snapshots in time, events that dominate and issues that resonate for the briefest of moments. And anyone who can tell you what the world is going to look like in September and October two years from now is a charlatan.
After the President’s re-election in 2012, the geniuses of the left pronounced permanent realignment. ObamaCare would kickstart us into Nirvana and 2014 would be a stampede to a $15 minimum wage and emancipated lady parts. By golly, by Christmas of this year you’d gladly pay $8.50 for a Big Mac because it would come with a coupon for a free D&C at Bob’s Abortion Emporium.
Wendy Davis would turn Texas blue, Nancy Pelosi would be the Once and Future Speaker, and peace would reign from Palestine to Pasadena.
But what happened? Life happened. Ebola. And the alphabet — VA, IRS and ISIS. There was the UnAffordable Health Care disaster that still exists no matter how much happy talk a sycophantic media can produce.
So enjoy the moment. 2016 will come soon enough. The issues and the personalities will coalesce in time. Strategize lightly, be as prepared as can be, but remain nimble enough to take advantage of what your opponents — and the times — hand you.
Published in General
EJ, thanks for nailing it exactly. Your seventh inning analogy was particularly apt. Things will happen between now and the fall of 2016 that we can’t predict or anticipate. We just need to react to those with sound conservative principles.
I picture the Obama presidency so far as the first two acts of a Feydeau farce, where all the backstories are set up and the action starts to pick up speed. The next two years are Act III, with doors opening and slamming shut non-stop, actors galloping between rooms, diving under beds, dashing out in their underwear, stammering panicked and ridiculous alibis, mistaking identities, eyeglasses flying, falling out windows and flailing behind drapes. Yes, we would do well to stay nimble.
Exactly right EJ. Every word.
Yes, and no. It is a single data point and trying to extract broad meaning out of a single data point is foolish. However, data points are connected to many other data points. Connecting them all as clues can help us understand.
What I’ve tried to do in this post is put this single data point in context. The last 60 years have been dominated by particular divisions. We are at an inflection point. The divisions of the next 60 years will be different.
Certainly, I can’t tell you what exactly that will be though I have an inkling.
Couldn’t agree more. Extremely well said. Even if the media analysis is right for today (which I don’t grant), it simply has no idea what tomorrow will look like.
Except possibly for “the” and “a”
<APPLAUSE>, EJ!
My favorite part:
Why? Because elections are snapshots in time, events that dominate and issues that resonate for the briefest of moments. And anyone who can tell you what the world is going to look like in September and October two years from now is a charlatan.
Exactly.
EJ, That is absolutely true. Unless it’s not.
That reminds me, Karl Rove needs to go. If he helped get some people elected, fine. Thank you for your service. But he needs to get out of the way before he gives us Barack Obama II. One was enough.
The next budget that Congress produces will be telling. That’s more or less what all of this boils down to. The dollars reflect priorities. I’m highly confident that the budget will go up, not down, after a couple of base years of hugely inflated spending courtesy of Barry and the House have set the new ground floor for deficit spending and the national debt.
They write all the copy before the 7th inning because most of the time they probably don’t have to change a thing.
I think the only clear statements about 2016 that came out of Tuesday are: