It was exactly one week ago tonight that President Obama secured his 2nd four year term in the White House. Anyone who hasn’t accepted that reality needs to now. You can be doubters no more. He won, and it would take a miracle to legally overturn the results of the election. The only feasible scenario is if an unprecedented number of the actual Electoral College switches their vote to Mitt Romney. The chances of this happening are immeasurably tiny.
For a week now, all I’ve heard is the whining, fussing, and crying from the Right. If I wanted to be around a bunch of crying babies, I would go to a nursery and start punching babies in the face. The Republicans, Conservatives, GOP, Tea Party people, or whatever else people upset with President Obama’s reelection call themselves these days, need to stop whining, man up, and move on. Crying hasn’t solved anyone’s problems since they turned 4, and I don’t expect the sympathies to start now.
As I pointed out in a previous article, posted here, last week’s election was not a rejection of Conservatism. In short, it was an election where minorities overwhelming and nearly unanimously supported Barrack Obama, a minority. In an election cycle where minorities make up a near 25% of the electorate, it was tough to make up the voter difference, and that’s what happened to the Republicans and Mitt Romney.
The newly reelected President Obama has called the results “a mandate” to promote his vision. That’s not entirely accurate. He became the first President reelected with a smaller margin of the popular vote then he was initially elected. He lost a lot of voters in these last four years, and he won with a narrowly divided popular vote, 48% of the country voted against him. That’s not a mandate of his principles. He is right when he says received a mandate, but it was not a mandate of his policies. It was rather a decree from minorities supporting a minority President. HE won the election because of HIM, not because he was a democrat or republican. This was HIS victory, not the Democratic Parties Victory.
The Democrats failed to even come close to retaking the House of Representatives, and they really didn’t expand their majority in the Senate. Geographically, Mitt Romney, and the Republicans dominated, winning over 80% of the individual counties, and a majority of the individual states themselves. Today, Republicans control a high number of Governorships and individual state legislative chambers, if not both chambers, when compared to years past. Conservatism is not dead; it’s just behind, barley.
Critics of the Republican Party and those promoting the concept of its death and need to restructure need only to look back 20 years and the history of the Democratic Party. In the mid-90s, Newt Gingrich led a Republican takeover of Congress. The pundits assumed this was the end of the Democratic Party as we knew it. Discussions of revamping their platform were rampant. This conversation was brought up again in 2000, 2002, and especially in 2004. Then 2006 happened, which led to the massive Democratic resurgence in 2008. The Democratic Party was back, alive, and stronger than it has been in anyone’s recent memory. They didn’t drastic change their platform, if anything, they moved farther to the left.
The GOP isn't dead, its just down. In 2010, Republican candidates had one of the greatest election cycles nationwide, from the local level to the national level, of modern time and just two years later its a dying breed? That doesn't make and sort of sense. History teaches us not to count a party out. If the Democrats came back, so can the Republicans. Whining and crying won't solve any if the issues. Mourning is ok, and often needed to re-energize, but for the future of the party, I ask that you get over it, sooner than later.
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