November 7, 2012—When the AP called Florida for Obama only twenty minutes after polls closed there (8:00 EDT), any hopes of a Republican presidential victory were dashed.
And before polls closed in the West, we knew that the GOP had lost the House as well as seven state legislatures.
In short, the Grand Old Party died last night.
Here’s what went wrong.
Wrong Candidate at the Top: When Republicans run the candidate the liberal press wants them to run, they get creamed. That’s because the malleable voters—people who are somewhat politically aware, but lack any core philosophy of government—won’t vote for a moderate Republican. They proved this in 1976, 1992, 1996, 2008, and, alas, 2012.
When the GOP nominate candidates accused of being “too conservative,” compared to their Democrat opponent, they win: Reagan 1980 and 1984, Bush 1988, W 2000 and 2004.
Republican primary voters who voted for the “safe” candidate (most likely to beat Obama), might as well have voted for a unicorn. These voters took the mainstream media’s word for it, and they got screwed.
Wrong Campaign: Taking its lead from the top, and from so-called experts, the GOP decided to make the race about the headlines of the day – the “issues”—instead of campaigning on “America: the way it ought to be.”
Only idiots vote on issues of the day. That’s because every candidate who appeals to voters’ views on issues simply parrots the latest opinion polls. In other words, they lie. **And issues-voters believe the most outlandish lies. That’s how Obama won over the moderates. **
Issues campaigns will always favor Democrats, because Democrats offer bigger bribes to more people than the Republicans. And issues-voters couldn’t give a rat’s hind end for the country. They want handouts, freebies, largesse, and cases of condoms.
So the Republicans, afraid to take on Obama’s totalitarian absolutist ideology, decided to scan the New York Times and talk about whatever bur happened to get under Paul Krugmans’ saddle that day.
(The party that replaces the GOP had better take this lesson to heart.)
Good Money After Bad: Once it became clear that the GOP presidential candidate was dead in the water (in May), the money and effort should have been redirected away from the White House and toward, in this order, the Senate, key House districts, State Houses and Governors, up-and-coming conservative stars in smaller offices, and effective grassroots groups.
For decades, the GOP, conservative billionaires, conservative PACs, and conservatives in general, have refused to pay money to build a strong bench. Taking cues from failed business models, the right places huge bets on two or three favorites. When they hit the trifecta, the GOP rules for a couple of election cycles.
Usually, though, they don’t hit the trifecta.
When conservatives get creamed at the polls, they immediately start looking for the next Reagan. Well, Reagan’s dead, and he ain’t coming back. And if he did, he’d tell conservatives to stop betting on the races and, instead, start a horse farm.
What Now?: Obama will probably get to fill another vacancy on the Supreme Court, and this time it will be a hole left by a conservative justice. The new leftist court will look for cases that allow it to obliterate any notion of limited government. Amendments 1, 2, and 4 will join the 10th as political anachronisms in the dust bin of history.
The Republican Party will decay as Libertarians and Christian Conservatives form their own parties and fight over the fiscal conservatives.
The old Tea Parties might come back to life in a few locations. They may even become real parties and run real candidates until the Justice Department shuts them down as subversive organizations—a new rule dictated by Obama and endorsed by his Courts.
In other words, that sun carving on George Washington’s chair at the Constitutional Convention—the one Ben Franklin talked about—is now a setting sun.
Reality Check: It’s really April 11. This was a Pre-Mortem. We have seven months to create a different outcome. But, right now, the Ghost of Tyrannies Yet to come is pointing his bony finger toward a dilapidated tombstone that marks the grave of a republic born July 4, 1776.
One way to start changing history: attend The After Party on April 19 at Crowne Plaza Grille in Clayton.