Barack Obama will be our next President. A man so unabashedly socialistic, that he didn't even bother to deny it, and even asked "What's wrong with that?" in so many words.
And yes, he will be my President, too. I will support him as I supported George Bush... and I will oppose him on policy issues I disagree with, just as I opposed George Bush on exploding government spending, new entitlements, campaign finance "reform", and other such things. But none of this "He's not MY President" crap - that's for babies, disgruntled losers who can't handle real life, and is frankly unAmerican - the first time I've ever used that word about any political attitude.
I have too much respect for the Constitution, and the ageless wisdom and shrewd practical truths the Framers put into it, to deny one of its most fiundamental priciples: That both the people who vote for AND AGAINST an issue, agree to be bound by the election's outcome regardless, and work to support the decision of the whole once the votes are counted.
But how did this outcome happen? America is a fundamentally conservative country. Most of its citizens would never dream of walking into their neighbor's house, holding him up at gunpoint, and taking his hard-earned money to hand to others "for free". Nor would they ever demand that the neighbor be thrown in jail and lose his land for draining a marsh on that privately held property. Nor would they ever give condoms to their 13-year-old daughters, or encourage their kids to be lazy and wait for government to take care of them. That those same Americans then turn around and vote for government officials who will do exactly those things, remains an enduring mystery.
I suspect it has to do with the idea that, if their only choices in an election is to vote between two liberals (as yesterday's election was), they may as well vote for a real one, rather than one who has to compromise himself and betray his friends to be liberal. Nobody likes, or trusts, a turncoat. And at least the real liberal promises them more goodies, which they may as well grab since they aren't going to get what they really want from either candidate.
The only landslides in most of our living memories, have come when a genuine conservative who did NOT compromise his principles, ran against liberals. They happened in 1980 and 1984,and congressionally in 1994. In those elections, the American people were offered a clear choice: Smaller government that would stay out of their way and confine itself to the things government was originally designed for (protecting our rights), versus politicians who made it clear that they would expand government and extend it into the most private areas of their lives (and charge them for the privilege). And the American people's response was equally clear, every time: A thunderous rejection of the big-government advocates, in favor of the smaller-government advocates.
Only in the 1990s and 2000s, did the picture become murkier as both sides started expanding government and offering the voters goodies taxed away from other people. When Republicans won, they did so by narrower and narrower (and sometimes negative) margins; and even when Democrats won, they never got a majority of the popular vote, until yesterday, and then only 52%.
Fast forward to today. The Republicans need to read the writing on the wall. They've tried being liberal. They've tried compromising with liberals. They've tried being nice guys. And they've sunk further and further into the mud, every time, without exception.
They need to realize that the American people don't want nice guys. They don't want compromisers - note that they keep voting for liberals who have NO history of compromising their ideas. And historically they don't want liberals, either: when they have a choice, they vote for a genuine conservative every time. They only vote for liberals when that's all that both candidates offer.
What Americans want, is a government that protects their rights. And they don't mind when that government is uncompromising about it. In fact, they do mind when government does compromise on that ideal.
In other words, the American people have not changed much. THEY WANT CONSERVATISM. The Republican party has offered them everything BUT that for the last twenty years... and look at where it's goitten them.
Again, Republicans need to read the writing on the wall. They can't (or shouldn't) out-liberal the liberals - people will choose a real one over a fake one, when those are the only choices. But when they have a clear choice between big government and small, low taxes versus high, freedom and personal responsibilities versus nanny-state cradle-to-grave government "care", rigorous national defense versus compromise and appeasement of our foreign enemies, they choose conservatism every time, and by WIDE margins.
We need to start with CONSERVATIVE leaders in government, who will swing the party toward the ideal mentioned above. And if some liberal Republicans (some call them "neocons") get upset and threaten to leave the party... good riddance. Far more real conservatives will join, than will leave, since America has far more of the former than the latter within its borders.
America is a fundamentally conservative country, and always has been. America needs a party that reflects that fact... to make up for the fact that they don't have one now, and haven't for twenty years.
Republicans stopped being conservative long ago, and paid the price. They'd better take the hint.
