A Brief Reprieve

WARNING: the next post will be a political diatribe (or rambling, depending on how you view it).

The media has made a big stink about Governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia and whether it is a referendum on Obama and his agenda.
Dumb Republican strategists give you the party line: it absolutely is, no doubt about it, people across the country are fed up and it's showing up in these gubernatorial races. And they look and sound like idiots in their response: people across the country aren't voting in these races, unless they are ACORN employees...
Then you get blind Democratic strategists who give you the excuse: the party in power ALWAYS loses these elections. It's no big deal. It means absolutely nothing. Then they point to the Conservative party candidate in NY District 23 losing and talk about how the Republican party is falling apart and it keeps kicking its own members out. They sound just as unintelligible as their Republican counterparts. You can't just blow it off and say: look at how divided their party is. Their divided party just kicked your butt in Virginia and New Jersey and a Conservative in a Moderate district gave you a run for your money: if they can do that divided, imagine how they will do if and when they unite.

It doesn't mean everything: it isn't a total referendum, Reps. It isn't something to completely blow off either, Dems, like you did with Tea Parties and Townhalls, etc. It is, however, equivalent to firing a warning shot for ALL parties: stop selling my children out. Colin Powell said during the 2008 election season that people were willing to pay for the services offered to them by the government. This is a warning that people are willing to pay for services they WANT (not for all the services the government is willing to provide/spend our money on) and that the government can afford to pay for RIGHT NOW. In other words, PEOPLE are willing to pay for productive and needful services, but they are not willing to let their children pay for it any more. This has been happening on too grand a scale for far too long and its speed and size have doubled in Obama's first year and only promises to get worse with Cap and Trade (will cripple the economy and actually reduce tax revenues while raising energy costs on the American people), the current form of the Health Care bill (will inevitably be paid for by FUTURE taxpayers because it doesn't have much in it to reduce the cost, only to shift who is paying the cost), and the discussion of a second stimulus bill (increasing spending and reducing tax revenue: bigger deficit).

As far as the "Big Tent" philosophy and how there is a fight amongst the Republican party. The Dems opened their party tent to everybody, and independents went flocking to it because they saw a lot of great ideas. However, this election shows that: if you come under the Democratic tent you get EVERYTHING that comes with it, whether you like it or not. So Independents left the tent this time around because they don't want the extremism of the Democratic party. THIS TIME, they went to Republicans: however, they won't be satisfied with the extremism of that party either. You can't really have a stable big tent. People come and go, so just stick to your values and explain your positions with facts, not with George Bush- or Al Gore-style scare tactics. Al, the earth is cooling but greenhouse gas emissions are rising. How does that fit in with your computer model?

In 2004, the Democrats were supposed to have a banner year: defeat George Bush, take control over Congress, etc. They lost. People asked the question: where does the Democratic party go from here? Obvious identity crisis, how will they recover, etc. Go back to CNN post-2004 election coverage and you'll see it there. It was a devastating defeat: I think James Carville was in tears, or close to it. They came back, though. They returned stronger in 2006. Obama brought them all the way back in 2008. But: what if there was no Barack Obama? Where would the Democratic party be right now? They say it's about ideas, not the man. But if it is, why haven't any of their ideas been able to pass through Congress other than the stimulus bill and the takeover of GM? And why didn't their ideas win at the ballot box this year, when his name wasn't on any of those ballots? All the Republicans need to come back is an eloquent candidate that is loved by the media with no actual voting record that can be criticized...

On a final note: the most crushing part about another loss for gay marriage advocates is not the fact that it is their 31st consecutive loss at the ballot box. The part that hurts their cause the most, as it always does, is their reaction. It always sounds something like: I cannot believe all those hateful, bigoted, selfish, gun and religion-clinging hicks; why do they hate me so much; they are so full of hate it makes me want to strangle them. They might start winning a few of these as soon as they start to see the hypocrisy in their responses. Be a gracious loser for once and you might get some empathy/sympathy from the undecideds.