It seems a majority want to continue with high unemployment, no budget, trillions in deficits, a world in chaos, high taxes and the destruction of small business. With the re-election of Obama, Republicans staying in control of House and Dems of the Senate, it’s going to be a very busy 4 more years.

I’ll assess what all this means in tomorrow’s Tammy Radio, which again will be at 8am PT, after which I again go to PJTV. Obviously not the result any of us wanted, but our commitment to our principles has not wavered. As of this post, I don’t know the ultimate popular vote count, but Obama is millions short of what he had in 2008, so we know this election is not the mandate he had in 2008. This matters because it helps us remind the Republicans about what’s important and how to stand their ground. Our work is now to strategize to minimize the damage and we can only do that if Boehner and the machine grow a spine.

One thing the House needs to do immediately is get serious about investigating Benghazi. Those four men deserve justice and we will insist they get it.

Please consider this post an Open Thread, and I’ll see you Wednesday with shiny new cleats on 🙂

Obama defeats Romney to win second term, Fox News projects

Romney’s Concession Speech

Republicans Stand Firm in Controlling the House

Obama Victory Comes With No Mandate

Hugh Hewitt: With A Deep Sadness And No Little Fear

This section is for comments from tammybruce.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Tammy agrees with or endorses any particular comment just because she lets it stand.
52 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. mindidawn says:

    I’m just sick about this but I will not let it defeat me.

  2. weatherwench says:

    Thanks for all you do, Tammy and thanks to all the other awesome TAMS.

  3. In thinking about the results of this election it occurs to me that many Americans may indeed believe the meme that the current state of the economy is not the fault of the current president. It is well to remember that most Americans are not political junkies, nor are they schooled in economics. And many are too young to remember the difference that Reagan made once he was in office. I was in college back then and saw for myself the difference. But millions of young people have no memory of that era. And since the schools don’t teach them, they do not know.

    Perhaps conservatives need to give some thought to this fact. We may need to become teachers to a generation that does not know the cause of our current problems. Reagan never stopped explaining why he believed what he believed. He spoke about his beliefs and why he held them at the same time. Conservatism is about a set of ideas and how those ideas work in practice. When people understand them, they tend to adopt them. But understanding must come first.

    The next four years will be no different as long as the left is setting policy. And it may take that long for some to realize that this is indeed the norm for the European socialist model. For real change to take place at the ballot box, a majority of Americans must understand the way that these policies really work and the conservative alternative that we have to offer.

    • mmeusa says:

      Excellent, thank you. You are right on here.

    • Chuck says:

      Very well put, RMP.

    • Maynard says:

      People fail to understand because they see no consequences. We live beyond our means year after year because we’ve always gotten away with kicking the can down the road. Our political structures focus on distribution while taking financing and production for granted. 2008 was a foretaste of what happens when the financing chokes and you have to go begging. But we quickly moved back to our erring ways. Quantitative easing is the drug of the moment. But how long can that go on? When the next shock comes, the dollar may rapidly depreciate. At that point, the holders of dollars will play a panicked game of musical chairs, trying to lock in some value before the music stops. In order to keep commerce from freezing, the Feds will get heavy-handed about compelling producers to accept the shrinking dollars. They’ll have less latitude over foreigners, but they’ll try to beat the homeland into submission. So staples will be made affordable by law, but there will be shortages. Black markets will spring up; the Feds will overlook some but raid others, based upon considerations of political expediency. We’ll all be criminals in the technical sense; the crackdowns will target the political opposition, who will be made examples of. If only people would cooperate, we’ll be told, the system would work.

      Then again, maybe I’m spinning a delusion. I’m not saying these things will happen; I hope they don’t. But we simply cannot continue on the path we’re on. The status quo is unsound.

    • Tammy says:

      Excellent points. Conservatives have got to make sure that liberals fully own the next 4 years.

    • GarboSpeaks says:

      Very well said, RedMoonProject.

      I’ve been struggling with the results tonight. If the economy is the #1 issue, and more people think Romney is better at handling the economy, then how could they have voted for O? It just doesn’t make sense.

      Was it the ground game? Did people get cold feet voting for a Mormon? Was it Sandy? Todd Akin? The negative ads against Romney? The bias MSM.

      Perhaps it was a bit of everything.

      Many Americans are not political junkies. They don’t see the dangerous Obama policies the way some of us see them. While there were two clear choices — Big Government vs. Small Government — people don’t understand the dangerous path of BG. All they were hearing was “If you want big government, vote for Obama; if you want small government, vote for Romney.” But what does that mean to them exactly?

      As far as some people are concerned, maybe Bill Clinton was right, the country just needed a little more time and things will be ok again. People are not happy with the economy, but they are not SCARED of the path Obama was taking the country, at least not the crucial small percentage of voters. They are not scared because they don’t understand how harmful his policies are.

      I was not thrilled about Romney as the GOP nominee at first, but I have grown to respect him a great deal as a candidate and as a person in the last few months of the campaign. In the end, I think he was indeed the best candidate out of the bunch. He did as well as he could, and interestingly, I don’t blame him for the loss at all.

      The reason for the loss is too complex to blame any person or campaign organization. It’s a combination of the image of the GOP as a whole and the lack of a more compelling (and convincing) message.

      That said, Romney came close. A point here, a point there in the swing states he could have made it. Romney did much better than McCain did with the popular vote, and many people did switch from Obama to Romney. It’s painful how close we came.

      The GOP has a lot of soul searching to do. They should start with easing up on the social issues. Some people will disagree, but as long as the hardcore social conservatives hold the GOP hostage, they will have a hard time winning in this changing environment. If they can’t win women, they don’t win.

      They have to make fiscal conservatism the core of the party platform and become better teachers and messengers.

      A new generation of GOP talents are waiting in the wings. If GWB gave us Obama, perhaps it will take 8 years of Obama to get a young Reagan 2.0.

  4. tamcat says:

    Unbelievable race. Speechless.

  5. mrcannon says:

    It may be the vodka talking, but the masses are asses.

    • SwimnLA says:

      My whiskey is telling me that too & that their brains are located between their legs. ::hiccup:: My id wants to shoot paint balls at every car w an Obama sticker here in LA. My boring ego is telling me “too much whiskey; bad idea” and the freaking super-ego is saying “the TAMs wouldn’t approve”. Maybe hummus or deviled eggs?? Didn’t someone mention something about placing Romney Ryan stickers on cars w an existing Obama one?? How is that vandalism…? Oh yeah, can’t leave. Still too much whiskey. Good grief. Is the doctor in? Sh*t $5,000 instead of five cents… Ok. I’m done whining. Tomorrow we’re going to wake up and kick some a$$.

  6. dr4ensic says:

    Allen West loses too? Can it get any worse?

  7. Maynard says:

    Well, whaddya say? A troubling situation.

  8. Tammy says:

    I am truly gobsmacked at the losses of Mia Love & Allen West tonight. But, it did happen and we must understand why and then determine what to do about it. As a conservative and not a Republican I understand the why people don’t like the party, but the *conservative* message has got to be articulated in a much more agressive fashion. Lots to talk about on the show tomorrow…

    • Pat_S says:

      I would like the conservative message to be articulated in a clearer fashion. I’m not sure what it is myself these days.

      Make abortion illegal?

      The rich man is more important than the working man?

      Cut government spending for everything but the military?

      Welfare is unconditionally a bad thing?

      If you’re struggling to get by it’s your own fault for not trying hard enough?

      That’s what the conservative message sounds like.

      Conservatives first have to decide who they really are and then tune their message to resonate in the 21st century.

      Morals changed over time because of societal influence and will not be initially undone by political action.

      All wars are not as well-defined as WWI and WWII.

      Capitalism needs to be regulated. The FDA, unions, OSHA, etc. came into being because of Capitalism’s excesses.

      Wealth is not the only measure of success. Poverty is not a sign of weakness.

      The little house on the prairie, rugged individualism days of conservatism are gone forever. The world is far more complex than Adam Smith’s time of farmers and shopkeepers and the Protestant Ethic.

      My conservatism was born and nurtured during the Cold War when the demarcation between ideologies was stark. It is a finer distinction in domestic politics. The question is, how much government should there be in a free society and for what purpose?

      America certainly doesn’t want the status quo of the 19th century. If the conservative message sounds anachronistic, it won’t matter how aggressively it is promulgated.

      • Alain41 says:

        Two disagreements: One, is that both sides have to be well-meaning.

        It’s hard to argue over the correct amount of regulation, if the other side is yelling that you want to destroy the foundation of safety. And when liberals argue that raising taxes on the 1% will fix things, they don’t care when you point out that a 100% tax rate on the 1% won’t raise enough money.

        Welfare assistance is a moral issue, but never ending welfare is a greater cultural societal issue. Unfortunately, greater cultural societal issues will always sound anachronistic because the old truism sayings are old. Just because it is old, doesn’t make something untrue. You still can’t have it all (regardless of no budget). There is still no free lunch (regardless of debt limit being continually raised).

        2nd disagreement: Both sides have to be committed to freedom. Many in power want to take away freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. Trading freedom for accomodation never works. To paraphrase Churchill, you won’t get either.

      • pamelarice says:

        Much food for thought in your wise words Pat.

    • TheGreenHornet says:

      When good, honorable people like West and Love can not win, it tells me that the left has so corrupted the system, that it’s time to find a pocket of conservatism somewhere, and move there.

  9. tamcat says:

    I am crushed over Wests loss. Mis Love too.

  10. Maynard says:

    The underlying question is, has the system reached a point of terminal dysfunction? How much of the population now pays no taxes and/or relies on the government for sustenance? That’s going to bias the voting patterns.

    The nation was founded on the rallying cry of “No taxation without representation.” But representation without taxation is likewise destructive. If too many voters have no skin in the game, the system fails.

    • Charles_TX says:

      Yes, the system is at the point of terminal dysfunction. The question is rapidly becoming what to do after the collapse. How do we save what’s left, and get rid of the flotsam of liberalism?

    • demfool says:

      Yep. I think that there has been in a big turn in the “culture” of this nation and I fear that the final stone was laid with this election – no turning back.

      It is so ingrained in many of our citizens that they are entitled to everything they want whether they can afford it on their own or not.

      I am always amazed when folks talk about the ‘poor’ in this country. I haven’t seen any since I was a kid and some relatives in the mtns still had outhouses and wells.

      If you claim to be poor and have cable, flat screen tv, cell phone, computers – you are not poor!! You are either ‘on the dole’ or you prioritize this ‘stuff’ over your health care, rent and food!

      I worked my way through college and paid off my loans. I understood when I got out that I would have to start at the low end and work my way up – and work my way up to having ‘stuff’. I didn’t have furniture, tv – much less cable or even a phone starting out….but that was okay….I knew I could work for it. And I took pride in getting myself to a place where I could get my ‘stuff’.

      But not any more…everyone wants college paid for by – who? – anyone but them. They expect to get out of school w/hi pay and a furnished condo w/all the electronic toys and a great car!

      Until/unless you can change this mind-set, we will continue on the path this election has set us on.

      I have read folks saying we need to look to Reagan for our conservative message but I don’t think that his message would resonate now – in this culture. The ‘culture’ is not the same as 1980.

      Our culture has lost its decency, morality, sense of independence, pride and rational thinking.

      This makes me very pessimistic…I never thought my countrymen would vote for more ‘stuff’ and a maxed out credit card.

      • demfool says:

        Oh yeah…and I see that CA voted themselves a sales tax increase!? Wow!

      • EllSee says:

        I totally agree. It is very discouraging. I use to work inside the welfare state. Clients would come to the window to pick up their petty cash, EBT cards, gas vouchers, bus tickets to a place of their choice, General Relief checks and they would be talking on their cell phones with their sculpted nails, colored hair, tattoos and jewelry and smell of pot. Why should we keep working hard each day? The government is only going to take it away from us.

        This election shows there are more takers than producers; the destruction of our country will be made complete. And California is leading the way!

        • MaryVal says:

          EllSee, don’t even get me started. I am a health care professional, you should SEE the abuse of the system that I witness every single day. I have absolutely no problem with providing assistance to those that truly need it. 4th generation welfare families have to stop. Subsidizing illegitimate birth has to stop. One Welfare client with 4 children by 4 different fathers wanted fertility treatment, although she clearly was not infertile. That isn’t paid for by private insurance, but Welfare pays for it. She needed a 5th child, right now, to boost her monthly ADC check (Aid to Dependent Children – the illegitimacy subsidy) so she could get a BIGGER big screen TV. She was totally open about her ultimate goal, told the whole staff. (The doctor refused to accept her as an infertility patient.) Free health care, free Rx and over the counter drugs, food stamps, housing assistance is given to every illegal immigrant in the city. Drug addicts show up in the ER to get their Rx fix for free. Case workers use the general welfare fund and buy hundreds of tickets to expensive theater productions each season that *I* can’t afford to buy, except for very special occasions, with my full time, good paying job. I have seen them purchase $800 pedigreed dogs for their clients using our tax dollars. I have rescued mutts that needed a home. The legal immigrants are indigent and dependent on the government from the day they arrive.

          I can’t being to tell you how disappointed I am today.

          One bright spot – Nebraska elected Deb Fischer. We spanked that nasty arrogant old lib Bob Kerry and sent him back home to New York. Lousy carpetbagger.

  11. yayii says:

    Folks remember this day the next time the Establishment tells us to go with the “one who could win”. Like Tammy says when you put two Liberals, guess what? Now can we get rid of all the other RINOs. We knew this was coming but Noonan & Co get it wrong.

    • yayii says:

      Ok if that is what you believe is the reason for the loss. I guess after the McCain loss and now Romney you still want to appeal to the moderates, well it will happen again. A candidate has to know who he is and own it. Unlike Romney who had to evolve into the role. Please don’t compare Ronald Reagan to Romney not even close. I believe if RR was running today it would be the same result as when he ran back in the day. President Obama had his organization prepared and in high gear to get out the vote. You would think the Romney people would have been ready for that.

  12. midget says:

    All explanations are relevant.But as I look at life(not through rose colored glasses but spiritually), I see that there is a blindness in the eyes of people who do not recognize that God has had it with us.He gave us one more chance and we cared more about money than His principles.The Bible has loads of scenarios where Gods people turned their back on Him even after they were warned by the prophets.They suffered at the hands of their enemies and learned.I believe that Obama is a warning that people ignored and now we all will have to face the consequences.I’m not depressed, I have faith that God will see us through this mess, but it will be more of a struggle than we think because God has removed His protective hand. And since Congress gave Obama free reign, there is no doubt they will stand aside and watch him continue to destroy America.And I doubt that all the phone calls and letters and even great Radio Talk Show hosts like Tammy can put out that fire.

    • Maynard says:

      midget, I agree. I’m not looking at every natural disaster as a judgment from God. But if we overtly oppose His guidance, we will find ourselves without foundation. We will collapse under our own weight. That’s the path we have placed ourselves on.

      I enjoy material comforts, and I hope to continue to avail myself of them. A warm shower, a soft bed, an electric light in the night, a choice of meals. Yes, good stuff; I wouldn’t want to lose it.

      But materialism can be comforting but never satisfying. We hunger for something transcendental. I realized this later in life, after having been raised in a secular environment. There was a missing piece of the puzzle…but what? Yes, that quaint notion of “God”; it took me a long time to accept this, after so many years of having dismissed it. (FWIW…Particularly helpful was Tolstoy’s essay, “A Confession”.)

    • Teri says:

      Exactly Midget. A society, civilization will eventually crumble and cease to exist when it throws it’s creator out. God in his graciousness blessed us abundantly and in turn we become so arrogant that we feel we do not need God and replace Him with materialistic gadgets, comforts, pleasures and things that we keep throwing in the hole but we never get filled up. We are never satisfied. I am not depressed either. God will never abandon those that love Him. I prayed for a Romney victory but at the same time I prepared myself to accept that if that did not come about, that this is part of our punishment. I will live one day at a time praying daily that God show me His will to do. Like Maynard says below, I also enjoy my simple comforts. I am blessed. But all the material possessions I have do not make me happy to the point that they are all I want. I need God. Without my faith, I would be miserable. As Saint Augustine said ” Our hearts are restless until they rest in God “

  13. Mary says:

    I’m trying to to see the good in this…but I can’t just now.

    We lost our nation last night, at least the country I grew up knowing.
    We are Socialist….I just did not know it until last night.
    So stunned, shocked and disappointed!

    I see that Allen West & Mia Love lost, How? I thought Love was WAY ahead!

    Here in Ohio, they are saying Mitt was really hurt by the 47% ads and auto bailout comments.
    Radio host just said the John McCain got more votes, is that true?
    I will not be watching TV for a long time, I just can’t take seeing/hearing DB!

    THANKS TAMMY FOR ALL YOU DO. Good wishes to all the TAMs.

  14. midget says:

    Sorry Tammy. I went to bed before I found out.I just woke up to unbelief. I know you warned us but I wasnt ready. Had to get that off my chest.

  15. dennisl59 says:

    As for me, my district voted 61% for the incumbent House Republican(Carter), for U.S.Senate(statewide) 56% for Ted Cruz and 57% Romney. I’ve just unsubscribed to every political email newsletter and deleted every political bookmark I’ve kept for the last 4 years. If the country goes from bad to worse then so be it. And the how I will know? The prices at my local Walmart and gas station, my 1040 Tax Returns and my Gold Stocks. None of which I have any control over either.

    It’s been downhill since July 20,1969 and now I’ve lived long enough(born 1950) to see the end of America as I knew it. It’s officially Ameritopia(a Soft Tyranny)now.

    Reagan is spinning in his grave…

    posted 11/7 Texas[Serenity Prayer]Time

  16. pamelarice says:

    Excellent points made above by RedMoonProject, GarboSpeaks and Maynard.
    I went to bed after Ohio fell because I was physically ill. I could not bear any concession or victory speech. I was in shock enough as it was, but to wake up this morning and find that Allen West and Mia Love lost? To say I’m speechless would be an understatement. How could the pollsters and pundits get it so wrong? Over 53% of the country thinks we are going in the wrong direction but vote for more of it? It does not make any sense.
    I have a very earnest and serious question: have we conservatives been living in a bubble of group think? We surround ourselves within the spheres of twitter, talkshows and blogwriters where we all tell ourselves what we want to hear and, excuse the phrase, mentally masterbate. We do also go to these places because it is a safe place to express ourselves. The challenge now becomes to find a balance. We conservatives have much soul searching to do.
    One other point – we can get through the next four years, but how do we get through 30+ years of what will surely be a far left Supreme Court?

  17. shellym says:

    Good Morning All.

    I went to bed before it was all said and done and just finished looking through the full results.

    On the positive side, thank goodness Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann retained their seats.

    Allen West and Mia Love. shaking my head.

    As someone who ran for Mayor earlier this year and lost, I can tell you that the day after is so much worse and more painful than the night of the election. So, I ask that you keep these two happy warriors — as well as the Romneys and Ryans — in your prayers, especially today.

    Not surprised that Akin lost — and handily I might add to McCaskill. Missourians have short memories about her record apparently. At least the state went to Romney.

    Certainly not in the mood for happy talk, but I will say how grateful I am for the TAMily and our fellowship. Days like today are made better by it.

    -sm

  18. PopArt says:

    On the morning after, two distinct thoughts. It is now clear that the Bushes and the establishment GOP have poisoned the brand of conservatism (by practicing liberalism) far more deeply than we realized! It remains to be seen if the GOP structure is worth expending more effort on, other to go after the incumbents with equal energy as we go after the Liberals. In some ways, I can better live with a first term for an Elizabeth Warren or Tammy Baldwin than a 21st term for McTreason or WhinerBoehner. The latter two are even more crucial to knock out of DC at this juncture.

    And my second distinct thought???? Making Obama the Democrats version of………… N-I-X-O-N!!!

  19. All fine points my fellow Tams, I am trying to stay positive but feel utterly exhausted for all that we did in the last four years on social media, in our local town halls, at rallies and on our blogs. I just feel the progressive infilitration has truly taken hold in all institutions of our great country. History is being rewritten in our schools, young people are taught to hate capitalism and embrace socialism, our politcal correctness overrides accountability and negative campaigning is the only way to win, can a conservative ever win?? It scares me the power the Democrats have. In my state (MA)the only Republican that could even be in the race couldn’t even say he was a Republican and a the poster child for communism wins after every scandel that would have taken a GOP candidate down rolled off her back. Obama will not be held accountable for Benghazi and the federal govt response to Hurricane Sandy. How can we elect individuals that will continue the fight in the House? I am so discouraged.

  20. ffigtree says:

    On a local level, our staunchly blue county went RED and all tax levies defeated. That’s my little silver lining and I’m clinging to it!

  21. makeshifty says:

    To answer one of the questions asked here, I think we have been living in a bubble. I did not expect this result, at least not for it to be all over within 4-1/2 hours. I do kind of wonder if the GOP had a turnout problem. The party kept saying “our enthusiasm is way up, above Democrats.” Well obviously that was wrong.

    I had a feeling this would happen about a year ago, back during the primaries. I looked at the Republican field of candidates for president and said to myself, “I don’t see a strong contender among any of them.” I thought maybe Obama’s (bad) performance as president might give an edge to Romney. It did not.

    Others within the GOP thought that they could write their own ticket, because the voters would see that Obama was SO bad that “anyone but Obama” would prevail. I warned a few of the party faithful that conservative voters might stay home, because Romney would be seen as a liberal within the party, even though he tried to “talk conservative as a second language,” as Jonah Goldberg put it. I have a suspicion this is what happened, just as with McCain in ’08. I remember during the primaries vote counters kept saying, “Uhh…This is about the same turnout as we had in the same primary in ’08…” In primary after primary there was apparently little increase in enthusiasm among Republicans, even when they had more than one candidate to choose from. This did not bode well for the election. I think a lot of Republicans had the same response I had to the field of candidates. Romney was clearly the strongest among them, but he was a mediocre candidate in the Republican pantheon. As Laura Ingraham said back in September, “If you can’t beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party. Shut it down, start new, with new people because this is a give-me election, or at least it should be.”

    That was a warning shot. It wasn’t just hyperbole. She was making a statement that the GOP, contrary to what the leadership was saying, was and is in serious trouble. I hear ya when you say, “We can’t go on like this,” talking about the country. Here’s the real issue: THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CAN’T GO ON LIKE THIS! This should’ve been in the bag. The fact that it wasn’t shows that the Republican Party is practically dead. That doesn’t mean we’re in a one-party state now. It does mean, though, that the GOP establishment is not working.

    To give some perspective, though this is not too encouraging, the Republicans went through a time like this before, during the 1930s and 40s, the Great Depression, and WW II. From 1932 to 1952–20 years–the Republicans were not able to elect a man president. It was a politically weak party. On one end of that was Herbert Hoover. On the other was Dwight Eisenhower. This gave us 12 years of FDR, and about 8 years of Harry Truman. We got through it, though it was a hard slog. Some historical analyses have tried to show that that period of hardship made us better as a country. It wasn’t because the political leadership made us better, but because we had the stuffing beaten out of us by circumstances, the economy, and war. This hardship built character, and good life habits that made us a stronger country in the end. I have a sneaking suspicion we’re entering another one of those periods whether we like it or not.

    The old way of forming our politics, I think, is falling away. It doesn’t mean that conservatism is dying, but the way we’ve formulated the political debates in our government, and the governmental structure those debates built, is. What I’m speaking of is the dynamic of the “free lunch,” where politicians promise benefits to get elected that cannot be paid for, no matter what the tax rates are. This is clearly unsustainable, and there will come a point of reckoning. I almost feared that that point would come during a Romney presidency, if he won. I feared it because, if we had yet another economic collapse under yet another Republican administration, either because of the federal debt finally hitting a wall, or Wall Street experiencing another collapse due to the even more massive, reckless bets the large banks have been making since the ’08 crash, that the Republican Party would be discredited for a generation. Then we would really have a one-party state! Even though I didn’t like the idea of another Obama term, I thought maybe, if such a collapse were inevitable, it’d be better if it fell on Obama’s head. Then the blame for it would fall where it belonged, and maybe we as a country could finally start having a rational conversation about what really works, and what doesn’t, once the disillusionment has cleared. Though…given that it seems impossible for many people to handle rationality, I have my doubts if that will even be possible. Maybe the best we can do is, “That clearly didn’t work. I’ll give something else a shot, even if I don’t particularly like it.”

    • GarboSpeaks says:

      Yes, it’s the classic “things will have to get worse before it can get better”. I knew that Obama will make people finally realize that Socialism doesn’t work. I just didn’t think it would have to take 8 years for people to see it. [Sigh]

  22. TheGreenHornet says:

    Well, here we are-again. The dumb masses did it again. I guess this country is either more socialist or more brainwashed by the media than before. I am very upset with the so-called “experts” that predicted a Romney win. Glenn Beck has been saying for weeks that this would be a Reagan style landslide. Karl Rove, Dick Morris, Ann Coulter all predicted a win for Romney. Neal Boortz said Obama would win because of the moochers and parasites. I guess he was right. On the other end of this disaster, I have worked in construction for 33 years. Many people I know have been waiting to see which way this election will go. We have been hanging on by our fingernails for the last 4 years. Now, I don’t know if we can last another 4 years. My wife works in the medical field. She tells me everyday about the negative changes Obamacare makes in her business, not to mention, worrying about her well paying job. I sure there are a million stories just like mine out there. We are circling the drain.

    • FrankRemley says:

      Ann Coulter and Dick Morris have always been idiots when it comes to prognosticating. Karl Rove is nothing but a Republican establishment flack. For these reasons, I pretty much discounted their predictions. The one who really disappointed me was Michael Barone. He’s usually pretty accurate so when he said Romney would capture over 300 electoral votes I started to believe in my heart that Romney would win. I should have stayed with my gut feeling and I would feel a lot less disappointment today. We re-elected a horrible president. What does that say about us?

      • makeshifty says:

        I’ve been giving Diana West’s book, “The Death of the Grown-Up,” some thought lately in relation to this, but perhaps I’m putting more meaning into the election than it deserves. Like I said earlier, we went through this with FDR. He wasn’t a good president, in my judgment, on domestic policy, though I give him some credit for being a good wartime president, in his last term. Still, he got elected two times before that with high unemployment, and up-and-down economic growth, with regulatory policies that stifled freedom and economic growth. I haven’t looked back on that history in great detail, but it seems to me on first blush that Americans had some kind of death wish back then. I guess what could be said about him is that he made himself appear to sympathize with the people who were hurting, and they really appreciated that.

        I guess for people who are fearful about their economic prospects what they want to hear is that somebody is on their side. I think Romney made that argument from the Republican POV. However, we like talking about policies and their effects, and I think there’s a good reason for that. From where I sit, voters in the general public are conscious of policy, but only where they encounter it. They’re not thinking about the corporate tax rate. They don’t understand how that effects business decisions, nor what they pay for the things they buy. They’re not particularly thinking about regulations, either. As far as many of them are concerned regulations are good, because they prevent abuse in the private sector, and make the economy more fair. From what I was hearing during the campaign Obama had more of the “common touch” than Romney did. People could relate to what he talked about. If they couldn’t understand Romney, they likely just ignored what he said.

        Something that Ronald Reagan understood was how to translate conservative principles into terms that a lot of people could understand. An idea that’s been floating in my head is for conservatives to study just what the Frankfurt School did re. Marx’s ideas. Marxism was originally written in economic terms. What the Frankfurt School understood was that communicating those ideas to people that way didn’t work for socialists. So they worked to translate Marxism into cultural and social terms. The spreading of socialism has been implemented in this country this way since the 1950s. It’s been very successful. Half of young adults now say they prefer socialism to capitalism, so I hear. I think constitutional principles, and free market economics can be translated into cultural and social terms, if conservatives worked at it. I think back to what Judge Learned Hand said, “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” I’ve heard conservatives say lately, “The Constitution can’t save us. It’s just words on paper. *We* have to save it.” In other words, it must live within us. If it doesn’t, it’s not going to do anything for us. The whole point of it being written down, in the common language of the day, was in the hopes that we would internalize it.

  23. JHSII says:

    Corruption and fraud have made my vote pointless and worthless. Unless something changes on those fronts, I’ll never vote again.

    The republican party left me in 2006 when they didn’t even try. They’ve been moving farther away ever since. I’m done.

  24. strider says:

    Thanks Tammy. Feels like our tent is now pitched on the edge of a fiscal cliff.

  25. GarboSpeaks says:

    I couldn’t sleep last night and kept trying to comprehend how this could have happened, not just the 2012 election, but how America could have elected BHO in the first place.

    What I’m about to say may be controversial, but I’m going to say it anyway.

    For better or for worse, Barack Obama is part of the American legacy. We can talk about the founding fathers and all the great things about American exceptionalism all we want, but the American history had not always been pretty. Slavery was part of that history, and it resulted in America feeling white guilt in 2008 and elected an unqualified (and Socialist) first Black President.

    The American people in the 21st century may not have anything to do with what happened two hundred years ago. But if you want to embrace the good things about its heritage, then you have to live with the consequences of ALL of its heritage too.

    What will happen to America from now on? That part of history is still to be written. It’s up to the American people of all colors and political ideologies to write that history.

  26. otlset says:

    Good people and fellow TAMS, I am bitterly disappointed and *sobered* by this election result. Sobered by the realization of how far the intelligence of the general voting populace has declined.

    Now I hope we renew the effort to uncover the truth about the Benghazi debacle and cover-up, which may do at least in part to this corrupt administration what the voters were too stupid to do.

  27. LJZumpano says:

    My two cents. I know everyone is feeling kinda low, and the only reason I am not is becuause I have been involved in enough elctions on the “losing” side to take it with a grain of salt. One of the lessons I learned is that while we may have lost an election it doesn’t mean everything was for naught. We fought both the political machines and the media to force them to acknowledge us. Despite efforts to make us irrelavant, we promoted some good conservative candidates, like Mia Love, and brought them into the national scene. We are still standing and the good candidates we found will live to fight another day. Hopefully their courage will inspire others to get involved and take a shot at elective office. We desperately need more good people to jump into the swamp of politics. Hard lessons and much experience was gained and will be put to good use as we regroup and get ready for the next battles.
    In addition we caused a number of “safe” candidates to fight us, with everything they could get, in order to keep their seats. Why we even worried poor ole Orin Hatch for a bit there. He did not expect to face our wrath. I do not believe he has worked this hard or spent so much money, (and politiccal capital) to get re-elected even once in his long, long, long term of office. We made all them spend money, campaign and learn that they could no longer consider themselves to be “safe”. The ones who won may not like us, but they are beginning to realize we aren’t going away and are prepared to challenge them whenever necessary. The election also showed that newpaper endorsements are not the prize they once were and social media, and especially Twitter, are the new force to be to watched.
    Most of all I think we woke up the machines. After what we accomplished in 2010, they realized they needed to step up their game to beat us. In 2010 Time Bishop DEM (NYCD1)almost lost his seat to Randy Altshuler by a couple of hundred votes. The GOP, in their wisdom, decided to run the same guy again == and we saw a battle of the schmucks == but Bishop woke up and ran a nausiating TV campaign that resulted in a win for him of over 10,000 votes. The GOP could have run with a real fiscal conservative, but they were too smart to do that. In the same way Wendy Long, a fiscal conservative, won a 3 way primary and presented a real choice for the Senate seat held by Gillibrand, but I guess to “punish” her for challenging the good ole boys, she had no money or help. Why should good candidates put themselves up for the grueling task of a race when their own party won’t go all out?
    In MA Brown should never have won his first election. He did in part because the usual ground game of the Democratic Party was sloppy. Pelosi had predicted his loss because she assumed the machine was in fine-tuned shape and it let her down. This time around the Dems knew what they had to accomplish, they did it, and MA returned to the fold.
    In part the reason for our losses this time around can be traced to our victories in 2010. They didn’t expect us to pull off the massive result we got. They were asleep. In 2012 they woke up. They do not want to lose power or control and we must be prepared for harder and harder battles as they try to maintain the staus quo while we upset their applecarts.

  28. LauraW says:

    For 100 years socialism has never worked and it will not work now, 4 more years of Obama’s marxist regime will crumble and America along with it, only then will the misfits who voted for him be able to wake up to the reality that the liberal ideology of government control over individual liberty is a complete failure and that they must awaken to Laissez Faire Capitalism; the only true form of a free society whereby prosperity, freedom and liberty is available to all who aspire to achieve it.

    Obama’s policies keep men down and out- dependent on a tyrannical government, where man demands to be taken care of in every aspect, and it never succeeds, look at New York right now, liberalism/government control has made man incapable of being self-reliant, and has dumbed him down to the level of a subhuman, people in New York after Hurricane Sandy are using the floor of apartment buildings as a toilet. A cat would not even do that! (maybe Sandy victims should start learning how to use a litterbox!) what does that tell one about the current state of the mind of man? That he has de-evolved into an ape.

    Now with Obama in for 4 more years he and his mindless followers can no longer blame the destruction of the economy of America on anyone but his marxist ideology, it all belongs to them now as it has the past 4 years. America is going to be burnt down within the next 4 years to something unrecognizable, refuse to comply with any of Obama’s mandates, if you own a business walk away, do not keep supporting the looters, walk away from it rather than handing it over as it is no longer yours at that point anyway. Start from scratch.

  29. Chuck says:

    Bill Whittle’s latest “Stratosphere Lounge” video titled “A New Beginning” is worth watching, especially starting at the 45 minute-mark, when he sketches a strategy to circumvent the Left and their poisonous agenda. It’s a long video, but well worth watching. Being an independent contractor myself, I have been applying some of the principles he lays out for quite some time, but he takes the ideas even further.

    If you have some time, watch the video.

    • makeshifty says:

      Thanks for posting this. It’s inspirational, particularly the historical part where he describes the rationale for the founding structure of our gov’t, then how the progressives altered it as a response to our industrialization, and then the new distributed culture that’s coming into being. I knew from the moment Obama had been elected in ’08 that he represented the past grasping to hold on for dear life against the economic changes that have been happening all around us. What Whittle said helped make things clearer.

      The only blind spot I thought he had was his concept of complying with the law, and paying taxes, but otherwise ignoring the political system. I agree with complying with the law, and paying taxes, as a way to keep the gov’t at bay, but as conservatives have been saying lately, “You may not be interested in the business of politics, but politics is interested in you, and has been getting into your business.” His call for us to ignore the political system added some clarity to how I’ve been doing my advocacy, but we can’t totally ignore it. If we do, what’s happened so far will look like nothing compared to the problems the gov’t can cause for us in the future, and his idea of networks.

  30. GarboSpeaks says:

    Most people are low information voters.

    The GOP message can’t be “Big Government vs. Small Government”, or ” Handout vs. Handup”. They don’t sound scary. The idea of free stuff sounds great to most people. If you give them that choice, they’ll choose freebies!

    It should be a choice between “Bankruptcy and Prosperity”. Do you want the country to go Bankrupt or Prosper?

    Even Romney’s 5-point plan sounded too complicated.

    That’s why “Hope and Change” was so effective for O. It was a very simple and catchy slogan.

    The GOP needs a new slogan. I know, it has come to this.

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