I’ve already noted that this won’t be a political blog. I
can’t, however, let an event like a Presidential election pass without offering
a few comments. My side lost. It was a punch in the gut. I really didn’t see it
coming. I believed the pundits that said the polls were over-sampling
Democrats. I thought the majority of voters would realize that electing Obama
in 2008 was a huge mistake and elect Romney. I was wrong. I totally misread the
mood of the country. I thought I’d be mad, but I’m not. I’m disappointed and
I’m puzzled.
I’m not going to rehash the nomination process. Romney was
the most electable candidate in a weak field. I wasn’t a Romney fan at the
beginning, but I ultimately grew to admire him. Mitt Romney is a good and
decent man with a great family. I was moved by the many stories told at the
Republican convention by friends and acquaintances that were beneficiaries of
his generosity and compassion. He is a very accomplished man with impeccable
credentials and would have made a great President.
I wish with all my heart that this wasn’t necessary, but I
have to address an issue that always lurks near the surface when discussing
Barack Obama. That, of course, is race.
I’d be happy to ignore the topic altogether and the world would be a
much better place if I could, but I can’t. I can’t because, sadly, racism still
plagues certain segments of our society and if I fail to include this
disclaimer, then I become an easy mark for the intellectually lazy race-baiters
and cretins who counter every criticism of Obama with charges of racism. So let
me simply state for the record that I’m not a racist and have zero tolerance
for racism. I have some pretty tough things to say about Obama, but not a
single one of them have anything to do with his race. My quarrel is with his
behavior and his beliefs. If you don’t believe that, the problem is yours.
There was a part of me that rejoiced when Obama was elected
President even though I was appalled that anyone so bereft of qualifications
and experience could be elected to the highest office in the land. I’m not
going to go down the laundry list of reasons why I think Obama is not fit to be
President. You’ve heard them all before. I’ll just sum it up by saying that
he’s an imposter and an empty suit who espouses a worldview that is contrary to
the principles this country was founded upon. I’ll offer one caveat. I generally deplore race or
gender-based politics, but I don’t blame black Americans for supporting Obama
wholeheartedly. If I was black, I’m reasonably certain that I’d have voted for
him too. Obama is unquestionably a hero and a source of pride in the black
community, as well he should be. The litany of injustices foisted upon blacks
by white America throughout much of our history gives them every right to hoist
a huge collective middle finger directly at their oppressors even though Obama
represents a party that seldom acts in the best interests of black Americans.
I’m most interested in what motivated people to vote for
Obama and against Romney when it was apparent that we needed a change in
leadership. If you’re a political junkie like me, you’ve probably already read
or watched dozens of post mortems on the election and the preceding campaign.
God help those of us wallowing in the aftermath of this election after being
unable to turn in any direction without being reminded of it for the better
part of a year. If you’ve made it this far, you either share my addiction or
you’re really, really bored.
I’m incapable of just walking away from this election and
moving on because I believe there will be dire consequences as a result of it.
I want to know why Romney lost. Conservative think tanks need to examine the
turnout numbers, demographics, and exit polling from every possible angle.
Campaign strategy needs to be dissected. Republicans need to consider revamping
a nomination process that leaves their candidate victorious, but bloodied by
his primary opponents. Most importantly, they need to find a way to marginalize
an overwhelmingly leftist mainstream media that manages to define the
Republican party as a bunch of angry, extremist, racist, Bible-thumping,
cold-hearted white guys. You can never win a war of ideas when you let your
opponent define you. Besides, the angriest white guys I know are Chris Matthews,
Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell, Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, and (the Devil made me do it)
Rachel Maddow. Every one of them is a far-left ideologue without a shred of
credibility.
I have a perspective on the electorate that I haven’t read
elsewhere although someone somewhere may be making the same argument.
Immediately after Obama was declared the winner, I posted the following on my
Facebook page: Moral Relativity + Poor Parenting + Failed Education System +
Lack of Personal Responsibiliy = Four More Years. I originally intended to
write a couple of hundred words about each of the four factors above, but
decided to do a quick Google search to see what someone smarter than me had to
say about them. I’m glad that I did because I found something that I believe sums up the election and the state of our nation very well. In his 1995 book When Nations Die, Jim Nelson Black identified ten factors that led to
the downfall of formerly great societies:
- Increase
in lawlessness
- Loss
of economic discipline
- Rising
bureaucracy
- Decline
in education
- Weakening
of cultural foundations
- Loss
of respect for traditions
- Increase
in materialism
- Rise
in immorality
- Decay
of religious belief
- Devaluing
of human life
With the exception of the rising bureaucracy, which no one
would deny we’re in the midst of, all of those points would fit quite neatly
underneath one of the four factors in my equation above. I have my own opinion, but you can
decide for yourself if any of those factors apply to Barack Obama personally or
to his worldview. It doesn’t really matter. It’s a large percentage of Obama’s
base that causes, contributes, or subscribes to each one of those factors.
That’s why we should have elected Mitt Romney.
Moral decay was a chief contributor to the collapse of the
great Greek and Roman civilizations and it’s contributing to ours. Liberals and
even many libertarians who can’t decipher the difference between freedom of
religion and freedom from religion chafe at the slightest mention of religion
or any suggestion that the country’s moral compass is pointed in the wrong
direction. Some don’t believe that there is a God before whom they will stand
in judgment someday while others prefer not to be reminded of it. No system of
morality, personal or otherwise, is valid unless the individual that subscribes
to it believes there are consequences attached to violations of it. There’s an
old adage, erroneously attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, but nonetheless
true, that says America is great because she is good; and when America ceases
to be good, it will no longer be great. The U.S.A. has plunged into a moral
abyss so deep that many of the things we once considered good- church,
marriage, and financial success, for example- are now looked upon with
suspicion.
The current electorate is so dumbed down that much of it was
easily distracted from Obama’s record and the serious issues that the country
faces. Obama racked up more debt in his first term than every other President
in our history combined. Millions are unemployed and many have given up looking
for work. One in five Americans receives food stamps. We’re fighting a war in
Afghanistan that no longer seems to have any purpose. The U.S. government left
an ambassador and three others alone to die at the hands of terrorists without
lifting a finger to help save them. And what was the hot issue? Whether Sandra
Fluke, a Georgetown University law student who, by the way, pays $40,000 per
year in tuition, ought to have to pay $9.00 a month for her own
contraceptives. This was merely a
part of the larger war on women that Democratic strategists claimed the
Republicans were waging. This
would be comical if it weren’t so pitiful. Even worse, a lot of women,
apparently unable to think above the waist, fell for it.
Let’s not leave out the cool factor. Never mind that the
only thing Obama is capable of doing competently is reading a speech off of a
teleprompter. He was so busy laughing it up with Leno, Letterman, and Stewart
on late night television, giving interviews to frivolous media outlets, and
hanging out with the Hollywood elite in Las Vegas and L.A. that he couldn’t
find the time to attend his intelligence briefings. He spent most of his first
term playing golf, raising money, and campaigning.
The Democrats have managed to do something in the last two
elections that both parties essentially failed at for decades. They motivated
young people aged twenty to twenty-nine to vote. This is a demographic that is
easily influenced by media, but generally not interested enough in current
affairs to examine issues in depth. So they tend to go along with the
mainstream media, musicians, and actors who are overwhelmingly liberal and they
voted for Obama in large numbers. The old saying that says a young man who is
not a liberal has no heart and an old man who is not conservative has no brain
comes to mind. I’m not sure what the Republicans can do to get through to
people who refuse to think, ignore realities, and vote against their own
self-interest because it’s the cool thing to do.
I should note that there are plenty of good, moral, principled people on the left. I have a lot of friends and family who support Obama and the Democratic Party. I don't question their motives or their patriotism. I think some of them vote Democratic simply because it's a family tradition and others because of the cool factor. Liberalism fails the logic test. It's failed everywhere it's been tried and it's failing here. I'm not sure how much worse things are going to have to get before some people get the message.
The country is in need of strong leadership and could use a
serious morale boost. Nothing Obama has done in his first term suggests to me
that he is capable of providing either. One thing is for certain. Obama and the
Democrats own this economy now. No one on either side of the fence wants to
hear more excuses. I expect the economic malaise to continue. Obamacare will be
a disaster and companies are already laying off employees as a result of the
election. Energy and food prices are likely to soar. Obama thinks he can solve
our economic woes by taxing the rich. This is a personal crusade of his that
has nothing to do with economics and the numbers prove it. I wish I had some
answers and I wish I had some level of confidence that the President could get
the nation back on track. I just don’t think he’s up to the task. It’s going to
be a long four years.
