Election Day fall-out
I didn’t bother trying to cover the elections last night, because there were plenty others who were doing it better - staying up all night and posting on every return that came in. I went to bed after hearing that the House had fallen to the Democrats. Now, we are stuck with San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi wielding the gavel in the House. As I get up this morning, the Senate is hanging in the balance, with two seats still in play.
Naturally, I’m not happy. The Republicans had grown lazy the last year or two, but they were infinitely better than the agenda the Demos are now going to be pushing. Michelle Malkin looks for a silver lining here, noting that although the House fell, most conservative ballot measures across the country were approved by the voters. Brian Maloney sees this loss as an opportunity to revitalize the Republican party.
Of course, the DailyKos kids are gloating, as are the Huffers - as I suppose we would if we had won so much. They are claiming that conservative values have been thrown out the window, but I find that hard to believe. In my own state, measures which denied bail to illegal immigrants who commit felonies, limited lawsuits damages for illegal immigrants, proscribed English as the state’s official language, limited government’s ability to take land, and limited education services for illegal immigrants all passed. Each of these measures are definitely “conservative” in nature. The only conservative measure that failed - and then by a small margin - was a change to the constitution to ban gay marriage.
Let’s face it - Iraq and corruptions were the flies in the soup for the Republicans. Both Democrats and Libertarians, along with a sizable number of Republicans, feel that Iraq was either a mistake from the very beginning, or has turned into a major thorn in America’s side. So, while conservative measures were handily passing, Republicans, stigmatized by the Iraq experience, were being punished. Also, a long list of corrupt and perverse Republicans soured the public on the Grand Old Party.
No, despite the liberal crowing this morning, conservatism is not dead. It’s received a setback, but it’s not dead. I’m hoping this will be a wake-up call to the Republican leadership to root out the corrupt and perverse in their ranks, refocus on the things that their base is calling for, and find a way to make this new balance of power work.
Update - Speaking of silver linings, Scrappleface has a (tongue-in-cheek) look at the Top Ten Positive Outcomes of the election.
Update - Dean Barnett, writing at Townhall, summarizes many of my own feelings about the GOP. I too found myself defending a party that I could only describe as “better than the Democrats”.
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