Swami Stogie's Prior Political Prognostications, Reviewed and Reconsidered

Back in 2008, after Republicans suffered a massive defeat at the polls, Time Magazine published a cover with the GOP elephant captioned "Endangered Species?"  Pundits were saying the Republican Party had been wiped out, eroded to a regional party doomed to spend eternity as minority in American politics.

"Nonsense," shouted Swami Stogie.  As he consulted his crystal ball, he issued proclamations and prognosticans that rival those of Nostradamus.  Let us see what the wise Swami predicted amidst the dark and swirling mists of long ago.

On October 3rd, 2008, the Swami awoke with a feeling of certitude that Obama would win the election.  He wrote:

My intuition is often very accurate. This morning when I woke up, I had a strong feeling of certitude that we Republicans are going to lose this election and that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. It wasn’t a panicky feeling or a worried feeling or a feeling of fear, it was a calm realization, an inner knowing. It told me in a quiet but clear voice that the election is lost. The inner voice presented it to me as a done deal.

The reason is simple. Americans just get tired of the same brand, the same color, the same style and want to make a change. It’s a gamble that they are willing to take, that some way, somehow, someone new may have the answers to the country’s ills just as he promises. They just want a change, and not for any deep political or philosophical reasons, but as a simple reaction to boredom. That's the main reason Hillary lost to Obama. The public is tired of hearing about the Clintons. It's an old book that they've read before.

It’s as if they (the voters) have been driving a blue car for eight years and now want to buy a green one or a red one. After having been on a diet of bland food for eight years, they decide to throw caution to the wind and eat a banana cream pie. Whole. Screw it, they say, I’ll worry about the consequences tomorrow.

This need for change, any change, even potentially dangerous or harmful change, is somehow buried deep in the psyche of humans and is not entirely rational. All the debating and cold analysis won’t change enough minds to make a difference. Obama will be the next president because America wants a binge and will have it. After the binge will come the hangover and the violent retching over the porcelain throne, followed by the election of Republicans as sanity returns.

It's sad, but politics is somewhat cyclical, like the annual rites where religious penitents cut themselves with knives or whip themselves with chains. Pain must be inflicted and blood must be shed, and who knows why. Obama's election will be America whipping itself. America will bleed and it will be painful, but then the healing will begin.

On November 6, 2008, the Swami ate his usual breakfast of Yak curd and bean sprouts, and then wrote:

Some advice to depressed conservatives and Republicans: keep this [2008] election in perspective. Politics is cyclical. The tide has rolled out but it will roll back in again.

On May 7, 2009 the Swami once again held forth as he discussed the "death of the Republican Party":

We are hearing a lot of silly comments from Democrats and liberal Republicans lately. They say that the Republican Party is all washed up, fini, kaput. Some of the liberal Republicans like John McCain and his daughter Meghan say we should try to be more like the Democrats.

Today Mark Steyn, filling in for Rush Limbaugh, rebuts this. He says that this concept suggests that we must have an express lane and a regular lane to liberalism -- and that it is wrong. He says a two-party system must have two parties -- not one and a half parties. We must make the case for liberty and let the Dems be the one party that supports big government. We don't need "Democrat Lite." I agree.

On KSFO Radio this morning, guest Richard Viguerie of ConservativeHQ.com said the same thing. He said that if you want to sell a product, you must differeniate your product from all the rest. A second Democrat Party is neither needed nor does it provide the consumer with a clear choice. As a result, there is little motivation to make a switch.

It is foolish to project all of our tomorrows on what the situation is today. After the 1994 Republican Revolution, when we achieved majorities in both houses, many Republicans predicted the end of the Democrat Party. It was a vain hope, because politicians have a great talent for shooting themselves in the foot. Right now, Obama is shooting himself in both feet with a howitzer. Bad policies will come back to haunt him and a reaction will eventually set in. Or, as I said when Obama was elected, the tide goes out but will come back in again. Politics tend to be variable.

Remember when the GOP's fortunes were at a low ebb with the resignation of President Nixon? The American electorate reacted with a vengeance to Watergate and Nixon's pending impeachment (which wasn't pursued because President Ford granted him a pardon). They reacted and voted in the second most leftwing President in our history (Obama being the first), i.e. Jimmy Carter. Many pundits said then the GOP was all washed up. However, Carter fouled things up quite thoroughly and was booted out by a landslide for Ronald Reagan.

The political situation in this country is never static and it is foolish to believe that it is. We'll be back, count on it.

Yes, the political disaster of 2008 even now is righting itself as the full karmic reconvergence permeates the ether, sending the minions of Marx scurrying in fear among the catacombs of the political undead. However, the reconvergence of light and truth did not begin on November 2nd, 2010; it began on November 4th, 2008.