Dunkirk
I’ll have more in the morning, but my quick thoughts.
Of course it was a bad defeat tonight. Let’s not kid ourselves.
We had a chance to stop the decline, and we didn’t.
We held the House pretty strongly, so that’s good, and a reflection that candidates and ideology matter. We nominated candidates at the District level who could make the case; we didn’t make the case at the national level. It also looks like we did well in state races.
Wrong lessons will be drawn from the Senate races. We nominated a moderate who lost in a Wisconsin which rejected the recall of Scott Walker. Todd Akin was not a Tea Party candidate, Sarah Steelman was and a divided field allowed a weak candidate to win the nomination. Richard Mourdock’s comments, while not Akin, were damaging, but that is not why Mourdock lost; Lugar and his supporters undermined Mourdock all summer and fall before his comment, and had Republicans in Indiana been unified, Mourdock would have won. Other Senate seats were successes — Ted Cruz and Deb Fischer are good additions.
Understand that liberal candidates will be forgiven and protected by their base, as Massachusetts proves. It’s always been that way, and always will be.
So what is the path now?
Stand with House members, they will need all the support they can get. Don’t compromise on principles, and push the eventual legislative compromises to the right as much as possible.
View Tuesday as a substantial setback but not the end.
Comments
The watershed year was 1992. The year CA went from reliably R to reliably D. The reason? Abortion and gay rights. Reagan had cred as not being a homophobe, and abortion had yet been a huge electoral fight. 1992 changed that. Reagan was off the map, the reps misread the electorate and committed itself to a future of more of the same. There is no recovering now except via the same path that Reagan trod: a dem turned rep after a long spell of dem rule. If we’re really lucky the next dems won’t be as far left as bammy, but if FDR is any guide we have another leftist admin coming up after the one that’s coming up, at least!
Oh well.
You “social liberals” are basically concern trolls.
Just because someone opposes gay marriage and special “gay rights” doesn’t make them a homophobe, which you are implying.
As for abortion…well, if you think killing unborn babies is a minor issue that should be shelved in order to win elections, I’m not with you.
Some moral things are important. If gay rights and abortion are so important to you that you feel the ned to insult and demean social conservatives, then vote Democrat. Don’t let the door hit you as you leave.
Actually, I’m very much against abortion. It’s not that i’m a social liberal, but that i believe in liberty (capitalism) above all other things in politics, so i’m willing to be a realist on abortion: majorities think it’s wrong, but majorities want it to remain legal. You must be as angry and despondent as I today to read words i didn’t write into my comments.
“Reagan had cred as not being a homophobe,” you said.
Your post is about social conservative values. In that context, the quote implies social conservatives are homophobes.
Busted.
Social Security would be in much sounder shape today if those millions who were aborted in the 70s, 80s and early 90s had been allowed to be born and were now adults paying into the system.
Social liberalism is nihilism with a pretty face. It cares only for its own pleasures and seldom, if ever, seriously plans for the future.
Again, i’m only pointing out the mutual exclusion between different otherwise-would-be-Republican groups. I have watched ultrasounds of my then-unborn children; for me abortion is morally wrong and Roe should be overturned, but that’s not a position that will win elections.
Roe vs. Wade may well be the greatest protect-the-Democrats horror perpetrated on us. Horror first because it’s incorrectly decided given the Constitution, second because Roe is morally repugnant, thirdly because it has nationalized the issue in such a way that politicians can do nothing about it yet must state unequivocal positions on the matter, fourthly because it’s politicized the Court, thus greatly furthering the destruction of one of our most important institutions. Notice which i put first: the Constitution, because that’s what the Court must put first, not morality.
Paying into the system……from what jobs?
Secession.
No! No violence. Trust me, you do not want to go down that route. And how would it work? If you can’t get your governor/lege to secede, are you going to take over your state’s govt by force? when our brethren, whose support you’d need to count on, did not come out and vote yesterday?? No, it can’t be done now or anytime soon (barring crazy dem schemes in the immediate future, but i hope they’ll have some sense). And if you could do it (in Texas, Oklahoma, say) would you really be able to resist the U.S. Army?
No, you’ll have to wait for a galvanizing, outrageous dem act, which -god help us- won’t be coming our way anyways.
Secession needn’t be violent and won’t be this time. IMO, it is the right solution.
I never did understand what was so all fired important about keeping the Union intact that it was worth killing off a generation on both sides and impoverishing the South for a century.
The Republican party should cease being the party of Lincoln. After all, he was a mass murderer who deported a sitting congressman, urged colonization for blacks, incarcerated thousands of northern newpaper editors, publishers and writers and the grandson of Francis Scott Key because they opposed his blood bath.
Clearly, at this stage in the game, a better strategy would have been to funnel at least $100M plus into promoting the Green party to siphon votes away from the Democrats. A 5% pulldown on Obama would have probably have given us a President-elect Romney.
Exactly. Calling Ralph Nader. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
In searching for a small glimmer of good news this dreary morning, I discovered that the Republican Party pretty much swept my home state of North Carolina. Notable exceptions are the Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Secy. of Public Instruction. Romney won by only 1% over Obama, which is disappointing.
In my local area it was a total Republican sweep down to the dog-catcher level except for the Registrar of Deeds who ran unopposed. The vote was 58%-41% Romney-Obama.
NC now a Republican governor (and probably Lt. Gov.) for the first time in 20 years. Personally, I now have Republicans representing me in the U.S. congress, State Senate and the State Assembly. By my count:
Only 2 of 13 U.S. Congressional districts in NC went for dems.
Only 18 out of 50 seats in the NC State Senate went to dems.
Only about 38 of 120 State Assembly seats went to dems.
My wife swears she’s never voting again.
Just think of all the big name pundits that look foolish and ignorant today…
but the 2 biggest..Ann Coulter and Dick Morris.
During the primaries Ann Coulter was all in for Romney and devoted her considerable talent for sharp-tongued critique to attacking any candidate who opposed him. Gee thanks Ann.
I haven’t paid much attention to Coulter since she decided to treat Palin the way most liberals treat Palin. Morris though I did follow.
He should probably look into retirement or a career change now.
Obama won by a smaller margin than any incumbent has in the past 60+ years.
If the numbers on Drudge this morning are correct 23 million fewer Americans voted than in 08.
McCain rec’d more votes than either Obama or Romney. Where did all the voters go?
We know why Obama couldn’t connect to them but why couldn’t Romney?
The votes for McCain were because of Palin. She drew larger crowds than either candidate.
Also – DO NOT ignore the real fact of wholesale voter and election fraud.
There are a dozen ways/tactics the democrat/progressives use to steal elections.
- Many democrat voters are registered under AKA names in several locations.
- Thousands of servicemen/women did not get to vote.
- Voting machines were set to register votes for Obama that were cast for Romney.
Electoral fraud is a problem, but it didn’t make the difference last night. Obama lost a lot of votes, enough to lose by, but Romney couldn’t get the R’s out. Proof? We kept the House. if they’d commit fraud in the presidential, why not the House elections too? (Perhaps redistricting left rep districts with less population than dem districts, and the fraud in dem districts won the presidential but couldn’t have won the House? maybe. that thought worries me, a lot.)
The cost of a state recount and the threshhold for getting a recount are far greater than those for a congressional district.
That’s why.
Now that my gut reaction is over and after doing some reading… in particular, john.frank’s comment, a light bulb went off in my head.
I suspended my blogging after the news that the GOP was not going to allow Sarah Palin to be a 2012 contender. The intensity of the pain I suffered and still suffer, was as deep as an irreplaceable loss of a mother or father and time is not helping heal that wound.
I opposed Romney as a governor in Massachusetts and lived in Massachusetts while he was in office. I got to know him and opposed him in the 2008 primary. Fox news was pushing Romney in 2008 like MSNBC pushed Obama.
I opposed Romney in the 2012 primary cycle for the same reasons I opposed him in the 2008 primary.
After he won the primary, I accepted the fact he was the nominee.
But my focus from that point going forward was not cheer leading Romney, my focus was bashing Obama. If I couldn’t cheer lead for Sarah Palin I could still oppose the opposition.
I never got over what the GOP did to Sarah Palin… I am not over it today, and I wont be over it tomorrow or a million tomorrows.
But I voted anyway… and I voted for Romney because he was by far the lesser of two evils but he is no Sarah Palin and never will be.
Sarah Palin is hated by the left for only one reason… they fear the mass appeal of her personality… which instantly outshone Obama’s when she emerged on the world stage.
A commenter at Right Scoop said the 2016 GOP candidate has already been decided – Jeb Bush.
If so, then the GOP is defunct.
Well if I had known we were going to lose, I would have thrown Palin up there to see what she could do. But her time has passed now. She’s an interesting pundit and I think she is really good at that.
A most excellent post, VF. I wonder what Sarah Palin is doing this morning. My guess is that later today, she and Todd will be be riding their snow machines down some wilderness trail at 50MPH and laughing their a**es off.
I don’t think Sarah is laughing her ass off. She loves this country and so clearly sees what the heart of the problems are. My guess is that she is heartsick, as am I and millions of others.
[...] We aren’t down. We aren’t out for the fight. This is our Dunkirk, as Professor Jacobson has said. We should be prepared, as my blogfather, Miguel, has said. Shit [...]
The real lesson of Dunkirk was not the Hollywood style evacuation, it was that Hitler abandoned the field and let a massive defeat become a victory. Had he continued the battle, he would have wiped out the British Army and an invasion of Britain would have been a walk over.
I have no similar expectations of the Chicago Democrats. They will put the boot in.
USA, RIP
Florida voted 55-45 to NOT ban public funds for abortions & to allowhealth insurance to over.
That explains Florida.
Ashamed of my state.
It might not be the end, but I feel like I can see it from here.
They haven’t lost me, people who remember and have seen what kind of trouble is brewing on the horizon.
Sometimes, it’s the gift of being a naturalized US citizen. We understand why we came here, and don’t want the US to become the same shithole we escaped from.
Well said.
I see what you mean. Thank you for being one of us.
Brave New World.
Well, I’m no longer in a cold sweat. Just cold.
Impeach Obama, Biden and Hillary over Bengazi.
Texas to secede.
It would serve no purpose to impeach anybody except to make a few people feel good. The Senate will not convict and the media will have one more thing to bash us with for the next four years while ignoring Obeyme’s antics.
But as to your second statement, think I agree with you. I love my country, but I think it’s gone now. I’ve lost all faith in my countrymen to do the right thing. The socialists have won.
Ben Franklin was a faithful subject of the British Crown. After the Boston Massacre and Tea Party, he had to give a report before the King as an agent of the colony, at the Cockpit. Franklin couldn’t explain a thing: he was being humiliated left and right by King George and his court. They dressed him down, chewed and spit him out to dry.
It is said later that Franklin entered the Cockpit as a Brit, and left it as an American. Now I know what that means.
Last night, I went to bed a disappointed American. I tossed and turned at the tragedy that unfolded before my eyes. I knew then that, yes, I didn’t leave America, America left me. I only had two hours rest.
Then, I woke up this morning… as a Texan.
Cross posted from P4A and C4P
I have changed my usernames for both Disqus and Twitter. While I still feel strongly that we must refudiate everything Obama says or does, my focus will be changing.
As individuals, neither my wife nor I have experienced any deleterious effects of the last four years, and I don’t anticipate that we’ll experience any in the next four years of the scourge of Obama. That being said, I recognize that it’s not about my wife and me. It’s about what kind of country my grandchildren will live in and what hardships they will face living in a country controlled by takers who put more demands on the doers.
In World War Two, we fought in two theaters- the European and the Pacific. While the tasks were somewhat different, the objectives were not. We were committed to defeating our enemies and we would do whatever necessary to win. The rules of engagement were simple: Destroy our enemies by hitting them hard and not giving up until they were clearly defeated.
Today is the first day of a new war for freedom-loving patriots, and it must be fought in three theaters. If we have any expectations of ever restoring our country to the ideals that made it the greatest country on earth, we must take it to the enemies that want to destroy our country from within.
In my mind, the enemies and the theaters from which they operate are clear. We have three: 1. The GOP leadership and it’s cronies, the GOPe, 2. The media, and 3. The leadership of the Progressives which includes politicians, labor leaders, and educators(indoctrinators). I do not include the rank and file of the Democratic party on the enemies list. I see them as being recruits to fight this war. Not all will join, but many will when their eyes are opened.
In this war, we cannot let our enemies to set the rules of engagement. We cannot allow them to frame the issues. We must hit hard in our quest for sudden and relentless reform.
There are some things I’d like to see happen:
1. I’d like to see Governor Palin, Allen West and Mark Levin write a book. This book would be a bible of sorts and they could recruit the likes of Michelle Malkin, Rand and Ron Paul, Thomas Sowell, Steve Bannon and other constitutional conservatives and libertarians. The bible would serve as a guide and an inspiration for every member of the ground troops. Subjects in the bible could include how the media has failed at its job, with specific instances and specific names, a discussion on Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals showing how the left and the media have used those rules against us, and a how-to guide on recruiting soldiers in our army. Sales of this book would be enormous.
2. I’d like to see Governor Palin, Allen West and Mark Levin call a summit of all of the major Tea Party groups and to enlist them in this effort. I’d like to see all the Tea Party factions pool some of their resources and hire a good PR firm to undo and debunk all the lies told about the Tea Party either by the GOPe, the media, and Progressives. Let the various Tea Party factions to operate independently, but get them committed to a list of ideas and a common doctrine. Yes, let them adopt the Palin Doctrine on the use of military force, the use of our natural resources, and the use of our tax dollars. I’d like to see all the Tea Party factions get the Palin/West/Levin book into the hand of every Tea Party member.
On a level playing field, we can defeat the Progressives. On the issues, there’s no contest. We must find a way to defeat the media. Last night, after it became clear that Obama won, I saw many comments that had the same basic question: How could so many people be so blind to what Obama is and what he stands for? It’s really pretty simple. Our opinions are formed by what we are taught, by what we read, by what we see, and by what we hear. Too many people depend on the media to tell them what to think. A lot of Obama voters didn’t really vote for Obama, they voted against what they were taught to believe about the Republican Party.
Four years from now, I have no idea who may step forward as a candidate for POTUS. Maybe Sarah will feel like it is her time in 2016. Maybe she won’t. The one thing I do know is that it is Sarah’s time now to gather her troops, organize them, and to send the message #War!
And I thought the last four years were the longest years of my life. Get ready for some real hard times, folks. Hunker down even more if you can, but don’t do anything drastic. Take a few weeks to assess your situation, and see what needs to be done to adjust and take care of the family. The way I look at it we are on the cusp of a long downhill slide, and the magnitude of the upheavals will be determined by how well the decline is managed. The House speaker should have a ready list of demands made up if Obama extends his hand to try and govern from the center. The GOP governors can help by organizing amongst themselves a strategy for how to resist or cooperate as a group. These efforts can be coordinated as well. Make local contacts and organize for the future. It’s going to be a rough one. When I was a kid for some reason I always picked the roughest horse to ride (or maybe it was always the only one left–many times all the saddles were gone,too). Maybe I can saddle that sucker up one more time.
[...] just vulnerable, but facing a more volatile world, the takers, now the majority in the US, opted not to stop the decline but to give us 4 more years of the same. And this painful outcome happened with what now looks like [...]
You know, I never liked a government of limited powers, federalism, checks and balances, and an executive branch obliged to uphold the law and constitution anyway.
Our long national nightmare…continues.
This is a pretty easy result to understand. The 47% voted themselves a free lunch. As there is no such a thing, the markets are tanking, unemployment will go way up and we will be back in recession in the next quarter or so…Electing unicorns and leprechauns is not the path to a strong economy.
After Dunkirk, the Brits needed Russia, America, and a great deal of self-inflicted stupidity by Hitler to survive the war.
Americans have gone John Galt on world leadership. And there is no rival candidate who a vision of a decent world order and the power to make it real.
[...] Fighting a Holding Action Now, Nothing More Posted on November 7, 2012 7:30 pm by Bill Quick » Dunkirk – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion Wrong lessons will be drawn from the Senate races. We nominated a moderate who lost in a [...]
This whole election thing (2008 & 2012) just p*sses me off.
No more hand-wringing.
No more whining.
The GOP needs to be taught how to fight.
And go in for the kill.
Election outcomes are not inevitable. You can make it what you want it to be so long as you are not afraid of your own shadow and are willing to crack some eggs.
We don’t need John Galt. We need John Connor.