A Grave Concern

While my analysis on the election prior to now has been rather sober and thoughtful (or so I like to hope), I do have one really pressing concern that could see me in crazy town by week's end.  Before you ask, no, it has nothing to do with extensive widespread voter fraud swaying the election (though I believe that quite a bit occurred or at least want to see investigations into allegations).  Nor does it have to do with secession.  While I appreciate the sentiment behind it, I also find it silly and the people who take it seriously silly.

No, my concern has nothing to do with any of that, but with the state of our republic.

I probably could have chosen a slightly more flattering picture.

When I saw the projection that Barack Obama won reelection, I was, as I said before, flabbergasted.  I was utterly surprised.  I was shocked.  I was any number of other adjectives that imply I was terrified for my country.

Then I started thinking: What else does the Obama victory suggest? 

My conclusion was not pretty.

As you may remember, in the lead up to election day (all 50 years of it), the Obama campaign relied on going small.  It attacked Mitt Romney for his tenure at Bain Capital.  It targeted minority groups, telling blacks that he wanted  to them all "back in chains."  It pandered to Hispanics with the unconstitutional loosening of immigration law.  It terrified young people with the idea that he was going to set women's and gay rights back 40 years (thank goodness our school teach them that our president has no power to do that).  It tried to scare seniors into thinking he wanted take away their Medicare and Social Security (the only attack that backfired).

Remember back in 2008 when Barack Obama said these words?  "If you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters."  That is exactly what he did this cycle. 

He tried to scare voters away from Mitt Romney into his campaign and made the argument about small, petty issues.  Instead of the debate being about big government vs. small, it was 'free' birth control vs. hating women.  Instead of it being about entitlement reform vs. ruinous entitlement expansion, it was 'free' stuff vs. 'heartlessness.'  Instead of Constitutional governance vs. executive fiat, it was Obama = good; Romney = evil.

And small won on the 7th.

I believe this bodes ill for the nation.  Obama's win on divide and demonize indicates that the nation is not only highly polarized, but possibly skewed in favor of government dependence and belief in the evils of conservatism.  Now, note, I don't believe that such a mentality is 'locked-in' to the popular mindset.  But the fact that small, petty and dependency won should still be alarming.  It means that we, as a nation, are well on course to that eventual outcome if nothing is done to reverse the momentum.

I believe that if conservatives fail to solidify a place for our ideas before the next election cycle, we may very well find our ideas unelectable in the face of progressive scorn.

If you think me defeatist, however, you have misjudged the words in this post.  I am merely assessing the situation as it now seems.  I have not given up hope.

I believe conservatism is not only correct, but that it is true, like I am sure many of you do.  I believe, in light of our electoral defeat, it is time for conservatism to rebrand itself.  We must become a force, not just in politics, but in the culture and communities as well.  We must make ourselves better known in the public square, not as those racist rednecks we are portrayed as, but as the thinking, caring human beings we really are.  We must turn aside the perception that we are stodgy and backward and show the world who we really are.

The re-election of President Obama will certainly make things even more difficult, as progressives push ever harder for their ruinous policies under a presumed mandate, but that is irrelevant.  Standing by and allowing irrelevancy to slowly overtake us is not acceptable.

Surrender is not an option.