A lot of republicans are going to do some soul searching today wondering why the lost an election, that by all rights, they should have won. Though many will despair that Obama's reelection is a signal that the tradition American values of limited government and personal responsibility are dead. The truth is, they have been, if not dead, then on life support for some time.
What individuals need to keep in mind is that the sheen on Obama has lost a lot of his luster. In 2008 he won 53% of the popular vote, not a spectacularly abnormal amount considering past American presidential elections. But a healthy margin of victory over his rival by about 6 percentage points. This year his margin of victory dropped down to merely 2% points. We can dive into the demographic, gender, and racial lines if you want to try to read tea leaves. But I won't. The fact is that the republicans could have won the election if they really wanted too; they simply choose the wrong candidate.
Romney was the wrong candidate because he didn't offer much in terms of vision or a plan on how to fundamentally address the real problems of America, the entitlement system, debt, and the federal reserve, but then neither did Obama. The election was really a foregone conclusion after Romney was nominated, it was only through tremendous political blundering by Obama that Romney was as close as he was.
The small silver lining, in a growing congregation of glowering heavy storm clouds, is that Obama fully owns this egg now. There is absolutely no way the system as it currently stands can continue past 2016. When it finally comes down Obama, who will try to blame republicans but fail, will be in the captains chair and the captain takes the blame. As I had said earlier I was worried that a Romney win, which would have done nothing to change the general course America is on, would have put us at a severe disadvantage when arguing for freedom and free markets after this event. It will be the progressives, were blame rightly belongs, and we can move to unravel the system that has bankrupted and ruined so many an American. You can take some small measure of comfort in that.
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About Me
- Cogitans Iuvenis
- Seattle resident whose real name is Kevin Daniels. This blog covers the following topics, libertarian philosophy, realpolitik, western culture, history and the pursuit of truth from the perspective of a libertarian traditionalist.
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