Post-election Observations, or The Stupid Party's Game Attempts at Living Up to its Nickname

The current election cycle that just concluded in a big, steaming pile offers an important message for the Republican Party. Here's the lesson in a nutshell:

Fake conservatism is a tottering foundation for the GOP, and in the current political climate, it loses elections.

It's that simple.

We live in a center/right country, so this poses a serious problem for liberals seeking the presidency. The only avenue around this obstacle is by masquerading as something other than the dull-eyed beast known as the liberal. Take Bill Clinton, a liberal who ran from the center and stole Republicans' thunder by implementing some of their own agenda. And now with Obrotha, who jabbered on ad nauseum about tax cuts for the middle class--a decidedly non-liberal initiative--in the final weeks leading up to the election. Leftists can win presidential elections only through trickery and deceit. Bubba Gump Clinton understood this. Hillaroid understood this. And Obrotha understands this. If Barelyblack had come out for open socialism, McAmnazi would've cleaned his clock. Instead, he took a page from the Bill Clinton play book and used the "I feel your pain and just want to help" tactic, and took home the prize.

Did he win because he's the right man for the job, or because he's a superior candidate to McAmnazi? No. He won for several other reasons:

1. He ran a better campaign. After McAmnazi fought a hard fight in the primaries, he set his campaign on "Coast" from there to the end, and reaped his reward.

2. Barelyblack is a good public speaker with lots of charisma.This superficial talent sways unprincipled moderates who straddle every fence they encounter.

3. He seems to have Baracked the black vote, including turncoat Republicans like Colonic Powell and J.C. Watts.

(A brief digression: Are Powell, and Watts and others of like mind color-infatuated, or are they examples of how little the two major parties differ, in their comfort with the idea of endorsing Obrotha?)

4. The most important reason for Obrotha's win, in my view, is that he pitted himself against a phony conservative. The Democrats have the liberal/leftist/socialist/Communist/utopian market cornered. By championing liberalism, Obrotha caters to his base. But the GOP party base is conservative; so a conservative-in-name-only is a person who stands aloof from the GOP base. This poses an interesting challenge for someone who likes winning presidential elections.

When a political candidate is at war with his own party's base, his sole chance for victory either lies in hoodwinking that base, or in pitting himself against an opponent so blatantly inept or extreme that the party faithful vote for him anyway, despite their reluctance.

Duhbya defeated Gaia Gore by putting one over on his base, and in challenging a stiff golem fashioned by Mother Nature's cruel jest. He won his second term by facing gross ineptitude embodied in a man with less personality than a cigar-store Injun. The interesting part is that he won the first by the skin of his teeth in a contentious, ugly recount process that terminated in a court decision. The second was a close race, as well. These are not what I'd call strong votes of confidence for fake conservatism.

In 2006, we watched the GOP lose Congress. This came after years of phony conservatism from the Executive and Legislative branches. Congressmen who ran as conservatives and governed center/left got their treacherous backsides booted from office. "Conservatives" who supported open borders were deported from their offices in D.C. People who typically voted Republican sat home or sought third-party alternatives. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, and so I dared hope at the time that Republicans had learned that people will take an honest liberal over a phony conservative any day.

Then came the 2008 election season, and I realized that Republicans had learned nothing from the midterm elections. In fact, quite the opposite: the party's leadership had fallen arse over tea kettle in love with the idea of future defeat. That's when we witnessed "conservatives" like Sean Vannity gushing in orgiastic fervor over pro-abortion, anti-gun, pro-"gay" marriage liberals like Booty Giuliani. That's when we saw party elites scrambling in support of virtually anyone but a genuine conservative. This gave us the Aw-Shucks Huckster, Juan McAmnazi, and Mitt Mormon, none of whom are true conservatives, but all of whom attempted convincing the electorate otherwise.

As further evidence that this country swings center/right, look at the near draw in the popular vote. Obrotha had a difficult time convincing the populace that he was a superior choice to the pretend conservative who has expressed hatred for free speech in public, is an open-borders globalist, and holds a weak, contradictory record on the rights of unborn children. What an impressive achievement. Imagine Obrotha's performance if he'd faced the Real McCoy, rather than the Real Counterfeit. Can you say GOP landslide?

The short of it is that political pragmatism eked out narrow-margin victories in 2000 and 2004, lost Congress in 2006, and conceded the 2008 presidential election. How is this a winning strategy?

A party dedicated to endearing itself to moderates doesn't just alienate its conservative base; it necessarily transforms into a party lacking in principles, since moderates, themselves, stand distinguished by their unprincipled, vacillating outlooks.

Say what you want about the Democrats, but they have principles. Sure, they're abhorrent and counter to everything this nation stands for, historically speaking; but they defend them with vigor, in uncompromising fashion. They don't field fake liberals as candidates; just the genuine article.

Would that the Republican Party did the same with conservatives.

Ronald Reagan was the last genuine conservative whom the GOP offered its support in a presidential election. He was neither a perfect man, nor a flawless president. Nor was he a charlatan. Somehow, he managed a landslide victory not once, but twice, and the first was against a sitting president. This is what happens when conservatism is given a chance.

I've said this a dozen times, and I'll say it again, for it bears repeating:

People vote Republican because they want an alternative to the Democrats. When the GOP leadership presents them with candidates indistinguishable from Democrats on major issues, or ones who differ insignificantly, they kill all incentive for those people to vote Republican. This is particularly true in cases where the GOP touts these stealth liberals as conservatives.

If the Republican Party can't come to terms with these simple facts, it should settle in and embrace the reality of a losing streak with no foreseeable end.

After all, for a Republican to "out-Democrat" the Democrats, he first must become one--which is a concession of defeat and an admission of irrelevancy.