No Long Faces

Back in the Spring, many of us looked at the GOP Presidential field, and sighed. The polls indicated that the party folks thought the same way. One week, Cain was up. After he self destructed, Gingrich rode high. Throughout it all, the candidates all behaved like a bunch of children (except Ron Paul).

An especially perceptive cartoon showed Romney as a suitor of a Republican elephant, saying, "you don’t seem interested; is there someone else" and the elephant thinking, "there must be." But, ultimately, there wasn’t.

In short, we had a weak field, which produced a relatively uninspiring candidate, about whom very few were particularly enthusiastic. He was our guy; we supported him over the catastrophic alternative. But how many people voted FOR Romney as opposed to against Obama?

Against such a weak opponent, Obama got about 502 votes of every 1000 cast.

THIS is cause for gnashing of teeth and rending of shirts?  This "landslide" portends the death of the GOP?

Admittedly, the prospect for harm from a second Obama administration is great. His policies virtually ensure national bankruptcy, unless he pulls a Clinton and utterly reverses course, highly unlikely since he, unlike Clinton, is a True Believer in the Hard Left.

 

And the possibility to utterly destroy American constitutional law with nutty appointments is a grave prospect indeed.

But while a GOP Congress can continue to obstruct some of his worst new proposals, we should NOT delay them. If they’re going to happen, better than they happen NOW and that all the harm they cause be laid squarely at the feet of the Democrats. In short, if we can’t stop the harm, give liberals what they want, and make sure that they take the blame.

Think on it: leftist affordable housing policies caused the great collapse, but who got the blame? Bush and the GOP. The last thing the GOP should be doing is playing responsible adult and acting as the tax collector for socialist policies. We can’t stop Obamacare now. Fine: make sure that it’s implemented, exactly as written. If it "works" and people like it, we fold up our tents and go home. But INSIST that the Dems pay for every last nickel of it without increasing the deficit or raising any additional taxes. Make the left OWN its policies and answer for the consequences. We’ll see how much the people like socialism when it hits them in their wallets.

Just so, the fiscal cliff. The spending cuts are fine; why not let them happen? If it means we have to bring troops home from Germany, Japan, Korea, etc., so much the better. And if it means no more farm subsidies? Oh, well.

On taxes, give the president a clean, one sentence bill: all tax cuts are hereby made permanent. Not a single Republicans in the House runs the risk of losing an election based upon charges of "obstruction" – their constituents did not send them to DC to be accomplices to socialism – and can go back to the district having voted to make the tax cuts permanent for everyone. Sure, the Times and the media will moan; let ‘em. If Obama is so obsessed with envy that he’ll hold the whole country hostage, that’s his problem. This should be non-negotiable; tax increases now are beyond stupid, and tax increases based upon envy, which have just about no impact on the deficit, are dumber still.

But long term, the prospects don’t look bad for the GOP; Obama got 10 million FEWER votes this time than last. The coalition he built has less to do with demographics – minorities, the young, single women – than with economics. In each case, members of the groups he won are disproportionately likely to be receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies.

 

So, for example, the GOP did not lose "women"; it lost women who are looking to the taxpayers to act as their babydaddies. 2/3 of single women voted for Obama; Romney got 53% of married women’s votes. Republicans don’t have a women problem; Democrats have a marriage problem.

Ditto Hispanics; Obama won 82% of the Hispanic vote from those earning under $50K, he won less than 60% for those earning more than that. When Hispanics no longer rely upon other people’s money, they become more Republican,.

Indeed, Romney won easily among all voters making more than $50K, but got swamped, 60-38 among those making less.

That said, Obama won eight of the ten wealthiest counties in the country (the exceptions being Morris and Hunterdon), many of which surround DC. In short, Obama cobbled together a coalition composed almost exclusively of wealthy socialists and their clients. It proved sufficient to (barely) win.

But young people age, grow wiser, and become Republicans. As Hispanics – a very young population – age and prosper, they become Republicans. When women marry, they become Republicans. So, why the long faces? (On the down side, socialists always do better in crummy economies, and socialism produces crummy economies, so the left may be sowing the seeds for both collapse and its own electoral success, a sobering thought.)

The GOP House should stand firm, insisting on deficit reduction and adamantly opposing ANY tax increases. Not one additional dime in rate increases. To the extent we can’t stop socialism, we should make the socialists own those policies and take full responsibility for the costs.

To paraphrase Ed Koch, the people voted for four more years of socialism; now, the people must suffer. The GOP should adamantly refuse to compound the sin, but should be absolutely certain that the people get precisely that for which they voted. And that they know precisely whom to blame (or credit) for the results.

Maybe, after four more years of economic catastrophe – blaming Bush should get pretty old by then – a Ryan-Rubio (you see how much we Republicans hate Hispanics?) pro-freedom ticket can bring this country back from the abyss.