Election Hangover
I'm so happy the election is over, no more negative ads forced on us, no more robo-calls to my cell phone and no more polls. The only poll that matters settled the issue. Now we can go back to the business of being a divided united states. The nutters on the extreme right wing are in full bloom this week. Reelecting Obama means four more years of lunacy.
I feel a little badly for moderate conservatives. I have many friends who voted for Romney because they believed he was the best man for the job. Now they're left with a party trying to figure out what direction to go to repair their connection with the middle of the electorate. They still took 49% of the vote, so it's not a catastrophe, but you wouldn't know this while reading post election political commentary.
Anyone paying attention knows where they failed. You can't alienate woman and the growing Latino population and expect to win a national election. Conservatives have driven a wedge between themselves and a large portion of the electorate on social issues alone. They're terribly out of touch with half the country so now they must reshuffle the deck, reinvent, or risk becoming irrelevant for the next decade.
I voted for Obama and I'm okay with the current GOP turmoil, but as an independent I want a viable alternative to Democrats. I may loathe the two party nonsense we face, partisan gridlock, but I don't want one party rule. The GOP must get their shit together to provide reasonable balance in the system ...... emphasis on reasonable.
I've read many articles in the past week about how the GOP must reach out to Latinos, drop the misogynist rhetoric, stop lashing out against gay marriage, consider tax hikes for the 1%, and end this 'giver vs taker' propaganda that has 47% of the people thinking the party is personally against them. This redirection sounds great but talk is cheap. Action speaks louder than words .... even if those words are screeched daily on right wing radio. The party must start now by working with Obama to pass legislation and enact policy based in compromise that will get this economy back on track. Anything short of action is lip service.
Let's pretend for one minute, because more than that would be folly, that conservative thinkers, pundits, politicians and policy wonks can change course and bring the party back to the center where moderates and independents of all races, creeds and color would consider voting for them. Two things would happen, they would cease being conservatives and the Tea Party base would run screaming for the party emergency exit because there is NO COMPROMISE with a large faction within the Republican Party. This is the root of the GOP's challenge. How do they appeal to new voters, women, young people with moderate social views, and minorities ..... and keep the right wing nutters they rely on come election day?
My dear liberal friends, you needn't worry, your political adversaries will not be coming back very soon.
Immediately after the reelection of Barrack Obama I commented somewhere that Fox News and the right wing radio propaganda machine is not as upset as we might think. Obama 2.0 is good for business and if there's one thing Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck have in common .... besides believing Obama is a Kenyan socialist Muslim terrorist ... it's their lust for money and influence over the unwashed masses. Their goal is to keep their brainwashed right wing followers frustrated, angry, misinformed and TUNED IN.
How can the moderates in the GOP possibly gain control of a party when 75% of the rank and file Republicans are tuned in to Fox News or anger radio unwilling to compromise with evil liberals and their illegitimate foreign born black messiah? Limbaugh, Hannity and the countless local right wing profiteers aren't going away. They've already changed the subject from what went wrong on Election Day to the 24 hour Bengazi Broadcasting Service. As always they misdirect the minds of the lemmings to keep them from considering issues that might actually affect their lives to keep the hate and heat up.
I truly believe the GOP would be better off if Rush Limbaugh and his phony conservative ilk would simply drop dead. It's not going to happen and a Republican Civil War is upon us. The first Senators and Representatives to reach out to Obama on any issue will have cross hairs on their forehead. If you don't think so, consider Governor Chris Christie, they've already turned on him like a pack of wolves because he hugged Obama and thanked him for prompt disaster aid.
Politicians don't sacrifice themselves. The GOP is held hostage by the Tea Party and ignorant right wing lunatics.
All this to consider and I haven't even touched on the 20 states with citizens petitioning to secede from the union. We're not dealing with rational minds. The red staters have gone off the deep end. I don't see rational conservatives in bow ties leading the party to the center and appealing to independents unless they can jettison the crazy rednecks from their camp.
......... but I've been wrong before.