Some Good News for Conservatives

It's been a hard last couple of days. Many bloggers I have had the privilege to come to know, like, and respect were about throw in the towel after the election loss.

Believe me, I  understand the feeling. In fact, I was going to stop or at least severely curtail my own political blogging following a Mitt Romney inauguration. It takes up so much time and is mentally exhausting. I've written so little professionally, that I might as well hang up the towel at this point.

Unbelievably, I never intended this blog to be so political, but it became that very quickly. I had intended to correct this, or just close up shop and start another blog about writing, philosophy, foreign cultures, movies, etc., after the dire threat from the Left had run its course. Well that didn't happen, so here I am again.

Looking through the news and blogs, the most encouraging piece I found was by Dana Loesch and so I'll link to it and post some of it here.

It's from her piece "Five Things We Did Wrong And Four Things That Went Right"

I'll skip the part about what went wrong. Her analysis is fine and I encourage you to read it. My analysis is here.

From Dana:

1. We Control The House
We control it and we even picked up seats. Democrats fell short in the senate of the 60 votes they need to implement Obama’s agenda without care. We retain the ability to slow the roll of legislative progressivism. Compromise isn’t compromise when the issue is modifying the enumerated powers of government. Compromise in that instance is surrender. I don’t want a country where everyone gets along and where everyone has to agree. We benefit the most when people fight to give us the best.

2. More Republican Governors
As the ballots are counted we will have picked up 32 governorships, a record unmatched since the 90s. The fight of the reform governor not only succeeded, it spread. This is the biggest and I believe most important story of this election. Governors have already stood their ground against the implementation of Obamacare and now the chance of more doing so has increase as a result of this election. Rick Perry is suing the EPA. Consider it a plan B in the offense against Obamacare.

3. No Clear Mandate
Barack Obama barely won the popular vote. The country is roughly divided 50-50. Congress is divided. There is no mandate, only gridlock.

4. We Live To Fight Another Day
I said this last night and it’s somewhat harsh, but accurate: those of you who want to take your balls and go home are demonstrating less resilience than our Founding Fathers. That’s not who you are, it’s not what America is, so buck up buttercups!

We have scored some small victories last night and that’s something on which we can build. Midterms will give us another shot at the senate in two years. Two years after that, the White House. This battle wasn’t going to begin and end in one election cycle. This will be a multi-generational fight. The Framers established our system of governance in such a way so that one election, not even two, can dismantle our republic.

There is still hope and still a battle to fight. Don’t squander your chances. Nurse your wounds and get back in the game.
 

It's not the best day when one of the positives that can be said is that gridlock will continue. But that's what we need now. Don't give up. Hold the GOP to their promise of conservative principles. Phone them or write them and demand that they hold true to conservative ideals. Remember, they represent you.

This fight isn't over. As frustrating as it is to cross over the finish line one-tenth of a second after a competitor, you cannot simply give up and say "well, now I'm going into seclusion." We're made of stronger stuff than that-- and so is the GOP if we hold them to their stated principles.

Another positive came out from the Breitbart election night survey. Check it out here.

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From the article:

The Breitbart News Network and Judicial Watch partnered with Public Opinion Strategies to conduct an election night survey that included 800 respondents contacted by land line (70%) and cell phone (30%). The partisan breakdown was D+3, within the margin of national exit polls, which suggested a D+6 electorate. The margin of error was 3.46%

Voters’ responses suggest that the American public agrees with conservative policies--but does not trust the Republican Party to implement them.

For example, voters dislike big government, with 71% agreeing (and 49% strongly agreeing) that: “The larger the size of government the more opportunities it creates for possible corruption.” In addition, 85% of voters said they were concerned about corruption in Washington, and 53% described themselves as “very concerned.”

Yet voters do not trust Republicans more than Democrats to deal with corruption. Only 34% said Republicans would do a better job of cleaning up corruption; 37% said Democrats would. That is an indictment of the permanent political class, regardless of party. And despite the President’s talk of cleaning up Washington, his party is not viewed as better able to do so.

Respondents cast a resounding vote of “no confidence” in the media. No less than 77% of voters agreed with the statement: “The press is more likely to favor one candidate for office over another at the expense of their journalistic objectivity.” More than half (57%) strongly agreed, while only 7% strongly disagreed. Republicans were much more likely (92%) to share that view than Democrats, yet even a sizable majority (58%) of Democrats agreed the media showed bias towards one candidate.

In the aftermath of the election, journalists have pushed the idea that the Republican Party needs to change the substance of its position on immigration. However, when asked about Arizona-style immigration laws (“Would you favor or oppose a law requiring local law enforcement to verify the immigration status of people they reasonably suspect of being in the country illegally?”), voters favor them overall 61% to 34%, with only Hispanics disapproving (40% in favor to 58% opposed). Voters were evenly divided on President Obama’s recent immigration policy (as they understood it), with 40% in favor and 37% opposed.

Perhaps most revealing of all were questions on issue of voter fraud. Fully 70% of voters believe voter fraud is a problem, and 76% said that voters “should be required to show a government issued photo identification before being allowed to vote on Election Day,” with 65% expressing that view strongly. Two-thirds of blacks (66%) and three-quarters of Hispanic voters (74%) agreed, as did 59% of Democrats.

In sum, voters agree with conservatives on the issues.

Conservatism and conservative principles are alive and strong, even in a D+3 poll. People do not believe that the GOP can deliver on them, however. The GOP needs to ignore the media, rebrand itself as the conservative party and campaign on these principles. America is still a center-right country.

This was a base election. Romney and the GOP played it as an independent swing election and they lost. Obama and the Democrats played it as a base election and gave away phones in Ohio and pizza in Florida, and they won-- barely. They read it right, pulled out all the stops, played it negative and small and still managed to only convince 50% of the electorate. This is the absolute best that they can do now. They will never do better with Obama's policies. The layoffs begin now. The bad stuff in ObamaCare kicks in soon. The Dems will not be able to pull in even these unimpressive numbers in 2016.

What happened last night was not a titanic shift to the Left, nor was it unprecedented. Both the numbers and Breitbart's survey show that apathy and a distrust among conservatives killed Romney. America is not a suddenly socialist loving country wanting free stuff, nor a suddenly brown country (whatever the hell that means-- I just love it when white people start assigning colors to everyone.). Brown like Texas, I guess. We still live in a sharply divided Blue / Red country. I believe that without a doubt, and this divisions will continue for some time.

So there can be no apathy now. No giving up.

If Obama had won by a landslide, and the GOP had been swept from the House, I'd say forget it and just throw in the towel, it's over. But that's not what happened. America is still a resolute, center-right country and we will survive the consequences that will come from Obama's incompetence and provably wrong ideology.

And then we will rebuild from out of his mess.

So hang in there. We're resolute, we're strong, and we're right. And most people know it.