Thoughts On The Election

I know this is late, but here are some thoughts on the election. Some of these are not related to each other. I just wanted to get these down.

There are a lot of people who say that it is pointless to vote, that Big Money has too much influence and we are no longer a democracy. I think this election refutes this. I think in this election we saw the Big Money spend $400 million and get nothing for it. I don’t think they are just going to go away. They are going to change their tactics, and we have to be ready.

But when regular people stop voting because they say it’s pointless, they are making things worse and are part of the problem. The Big Money is not giving up or opting out. When you opt out, you increase their power and influence. Granted, it takes a lot of regular people to equal the influence of a billionaire, but I think people just need to suck it up and take responsibility for their lives and their country.

* So now we are seeing conservatives saying they lost because Romney was “not conservative enough.” First off, they picked Romney. This is the second time he ran. If they picked a guy they did not like either time he ran and after they had about half a dozen others to choose from, perhaps there is something wrong with your party. I think there is something wrong with conservatives. I think a lot of them are pathological. For a lot of them, NOTHING is ever “conservative enough.” Everything is “too liberal.” Except of course, for them.

As far as Romney not being conservative enough, you cannot say that about a lot of the other candidates. If all the anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-gay anti-reality candidates were not conservatives, then why were they running as Republicans.

Now a lot of Repubs are looking to Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and George P Bush to help them win Hispanic votes. (Yes, there is ANOTHER generation of Bushes entering into politics.) Repubs are looking to these guys because they speak Spanish. Repubs are saying they just need to “reframe” their message to make it more appealing to women and Hispanics. They think they just didn’t explain conservativism very well. Or the rest of us just didn’t get it.

I say that those of us in Blue America got it. We understood your conservative message. Your message is corporate fascism and feudal theocracy. We understood it, and we do not want it. You can paint it pink and say it in Spanish, but that won’t change it.

* In 2008, Sarah Palin campaigned around the country saying that if you were not white, christian, and did not live in a small town, you were not a “real American.” And you had to check all three boxes. I thought at the time that bad-mouthing everyone who is not white AND christian AND living in a small town is not a smart strategy for national office in a country that is becoming less white, less christian and less rural.

So now all the pundits are saying that the GOP should stop relying on a shrinking demographic to win elections. Wasn’t that the message from the 2008 election? I guess the pundits were fooled by the 2010 election by the rise of the Tea Party. But the pundits should also have realized that midterm turnout is lower. And usually more partisan.

* A lot of Republicans are finally coming to the realization that Karl Rove has been taking them for a ride.  They feel like they were used, and they were. They are saying he is a liar and a piece of filth, and he is.

But I have to wonder if these conservatives think they are honest, ethical people who were taken advantage of. I don’t see how they can be disgusted by Rove’s ethics, or his relationship with the truth. They had no problem riding Rove’s bus in 2000, 2004 and 2010 when he was able to get Republicans into office.

He loses both elections and a lot of people’s money, and NOW they have issues with him. Folks, those of us in Blue America have known for 12 years this guy is a snake.

Kind of how we realized that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction long before you did.

That said, I am not so sure the Republicans will splinter. It would be great if the death embrace of Wall Street and the Religious Right will unravel into a civil war (within the party, not the country). People keep making that prediction, but all that happens is that the checks from Wall Street get bigger, and the Religious Right just get crazier.