11/14/2012

Random Election Ramblings

Well that certainly didn't turn out well.  Not only did Romney fail to significantly improve on the pitiful performance of John McCain from four years ago, but the GOP (and believe me they don't call us the stupid party for nothing) failed to win a number of other state and federal elections that certainly seemed to be ripe for the picking.

As a result, we get four more years.  It calls to mind H. L. Mencken's diatribe: "Democracy is the notion that the people know what they want--and deserve to get it...good and hard."

As the elephants crawl out of the wreckage, there seems to be a concerted effort underway to abandon any semblance of conservative principle in a craven attempt to outbid the Democrats for the affection of various voting blocs.  Before we completely pitch everything we believe (or in the case of Romney, everything we say we believe) two things should be noted.

1) The GOP is 5-4 in presidential elections in my voting life.  Every candidate who won was either conservative or at least campaigned as one.  Every condidate who lost was either moderate or liberal.  If you look at that and think "we need to move to the center" I can't help you.

2) The last incumbent who lost his bid for re-election without facing a serious primary challenge in his own party was Herbert Hoover.  You might remember he had a fairly major other issue to deal with.  I'm not willing to be dogmatic as to whether it is the splintering caused by the primary challenge or the conditions that give rise to one that leads to defeat, but as Ford, Carter and Bush 41 all found, being whacked in your own party doesn't lead to victory.  Since Obama didn't have that to face, history should have told us along that beating him was going to be an uphill struggle.

Becoming more like the Democrats is not going to help the Republicans win.  Yet that seems to be the preferred solution in vogue.   Did I mention that the GOP is the stupid party?  Argh.

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