Posted by
Patrick "Sarge" Murray on Thursday, November 06, 2008 3:00:00 PM
How could this have happened, you no doubt ask? How could America elect someone whom they know so little about, someone who traveled in the circles of people who have expressed open hatred for America? How could we elect someone who has only served for 193 days in the U.S. Senate, and has the most liberal voting record while in that august body?
I could offer a long, drawn-out explanation, and I just might in a later post. But for now, a shorter explanation will do. More to the point, I prefer the Occam’s Razor approach at this point in time at any rate. The ‘razor’ in question, for those uninformed, states that all things being equal, the simplest explanation is the correct one. And it’s very simple to point out that the timing was simply bad. Let’s face the facts: you don’t want to be the party in the White House when there’s a financial meltdown on Wall Street just month or so before a new presidential election. It’s as simple as that.
Add in the bursting of the housing bubble, and that was enough to sway some erstwhile red states (Virginia, Florida, possibly North Carolina) into the blue camp. Whether or not this swaying is a temporary dalliance remains to be seen. Despite continuously stagnant economies in Michigan and Pennsylvania, they’re determined to remain blue, and shoot themselves in the foot economically in so doing. Why? Labor unions make up large percentages of both states’ populations, and various factions, such as large black populations in the Detroit and Philadelphia areas combined with a very odd population overall in the Keystone State amount to lots of factions dependent on government entitlements/handouts. Why did Ohio go blue this time? Honestly, it’s a wonder it didn’t go blue earlier, since it’s facing the same sort of problems that led to economic suicide elsewhere in the Rust Belt. Apparently, not enough time has passed for Ohio to forget about the perfidies of the Bob Taft Republican machine in the Buckeye State.
Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada swinging blue can largely be accounted to changing demographics. Simply put, there are large Hispanic populations in all three states, and the Republican party in particular and conservatives in general have done a horrible job extending our message of economic opportunity and individual liberty to this and other ethnic groups. Indeed, these three states are a stark reminder that if the conservative movement is not to be reduced to a glorified debating society, we are going to have to bring in more blacks, Hispanics and Asians, to remind all Americans that conservatism is for everyone, and that the Republican Party is not just the party of white middle class males. Which Which
Which leads me to the most puzzling state of all to turn blue, that being my current state of residence, Indiana. The Hoosier State has not voted for a Democrat presidential candidate since 1964. For 40+ years, it was considered the most reliable state for Republicans on the electoral map. Why the change? As of right now, my initial response would be that some in-depth analyses would be necessary to give an intelligent answer. But for right now, my gut feeling tells me that people with options have moved out of this podunk state to greener pastures in places like Florida, Georgia, Texas and Arizona, leaving only under-educated losers who cannot overcome their own character flaws and warped values so as to increase their productivity and improve their way of life. This ‘gut feeling’ dovetails into a much broader, macro issue with which those of us in the center-right Republican coalition have to contend as we move forward. Our opposition is primarily composed of an unholy alliance between the upper class who loves the idea of boutique social liberalism and the Great Unwashed who think they’re entitled to every government handout conceivable by man. How to attack and defeat this two-headed monster will be for future discussions and debates, but in the meantime, we should make efforts to at least keep the middle class as unified as possible into our coalition, and increase our outreach to ethnic groups and to young people. A party and political movement in the wilderness is in the perfect position to do just that. We can only go up from here. Time to break the huddle and concentrate on winning the second half.