Conservative Contemplations on the Electoral Disaster

Many conservatives, including this one, are in a deep blue funk over the election disaster.  Some have posted well-written essays on what it all means.  The first step in a long-term solution is understanding what happened and why, and these essays are soothing to the troubled soul.  Unvarnished truth is liberating and may lead to a better future for those who love liberty.  Once we have an accurate diagnosis, then we can work on a cure.

Here are some quotes from some of these essays.

Lawrence Auster, of View From the Right:

.... even if the historical American order is finished, which I believe it is and have said so repeatedly, the world hasn't ended, we are still living in it and have to try to understand it and make sense of it and figure out how we are going to live in it. Indeed, I and readers are at this moment trying to come to terms with the overwhelming disaster that has come upon us, and that’s part of what VFR is about.

 Flyovercountry, of The Blogmocracy:

There really are two America’s, and the problem is that they are geographically intertwined. One American wishes to live under the rule of law established by our founders, who saw the destructive potential of a democracy, and the lasting virtue of a republic. Protecting individual rights against the tyranny of a majority who would simply vote themselves authority to systematically rob the fruits of the labors of those who chose to be productive. The second American wishes to live in a society that would seek to cede all responsibility and consequence to a federal authority in exchange for having their basic needs provided for. The second America is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave, but is instead the land of the kept and the home of the clueless. They seek nothing more than to have their freedoms traded one by one for a stream of relatively cheap consumer products and state run reeducation at one of the labor camps known as land grant colleges. Unfortunately, these two Americas live side by side, and have very little if any geographical division, which would be necessary for the divorce that I believe is now inevitable. Said divorce will be a messy affair, but there is no chance of a reconciliation that I can see as being possible.

Kurt Silverfiddle of Western Hero:

If we couldn’t sell a conservative, small-government message with a moderate-friendly candidate running against an imperious ruler many perceived to be a crypto-marxist, or at best constitutionally-challenged, then small-government conservatism is a spent force. Many conservatives will drift to the middle looking for morsels, while the rump right will meet the fate of its European cousins, enduring a meager existence as either principled cranks or angry extremists.

One bright spot: We conservatives and libertarians are now the subversives.
Oh, and GOP, you can kiss my ass. I hate your party more than the Democrats. At least the Donkeys know who they are and aren't suffering a perpetual identity crisis. And they know how to grab what they want. The typical Republican politician couldn't grab his ass with both hands and a mirror.

Melanie Phillips -- "America Goes Into the Darkness":

The greatest satisfaction today over the re-election of Obama is not being felt in the Democratic Party. It is not being felt among the media, who are no longer objective observers but have turned instead into corrupt partisans who ruthlessly censored the truth about Obama and helped peddle his demonising propaganda about his opponent. It is not being felt among the gloating, drooling decadents of the western left who now scent a great blood-letting of all who dare defy their secular inquisition. No, the greatest satisfaction is surely being felt in Iran. 

Four years ago, America put into the White House a sulky narcissist with an unbroken history of involvement in thuggish, corrupt, far-left, black power, Jew-bashing, west-hating politics. Obama’s agenda has been crystal clear from the get-go: to increase the power of the state over the citizen at home, and to neutralise American power abroad. Four more years of this and he’ll almost certainly have succeeded. The impact upon western security could be cataclysmic.

John Hinderaker of Powerline:

Then there is the fact that relatively few Americans actually pay for the government they consume. To a greater extent than any other developed nation, we rely on upper-income people to finance our federal government. When that is combined with the fact that around 40% of our federal spending isn’t paid for at all–it is borrowed–it is small wonder that many self-interested voters are happy to vote themselves more government. Mitt Romney proclaimed that Barack Obama was the candidate of “free stuff,” and voters took him at his word.

The question is, can this vicious cycle ever be broken? Once we are governed by a majority that no longer believes in the America of the Founding, is there any path back to freedom and prosperity? The next four years will bring unprecedented levels of spending, borrowing and taxation. The national debt will rise to $20 trillion or more. When interest rates increase, as they inevitably must, interest costs will squeeze out other government spending. That might not be all bad, except that defense will go first. If Obama’s second term turns into a disaster, fiscal or otherwise, voter revulsion may return the Republicans to power. But that doesn’t mean that America will be saved.

Daniel Greenfield of Sultan Knish:

The left got this far by having a plan. We will either find a plan or we will be gone. America will go the way of Latin America, with gated communities, conservative oligarchs, violent ghettos and red politicians screaming about power to the people. There will be no law, just men with guns and newspapers, and generals in convenient positions, and suitcases full of cocaine in the right hands. If you like this system, it's probably only a generation away. Given enough immigration from south of the border-- maybe less. And then California turns into Brazil and America turns into California.

Revolutions are not born out of success, they are born out of despair. They rise out of the dark hours of the night. They come from the understanding that all the other options are running out. Sometimes you have to fall down to rise and sometimes you have to hit bottom, to gather one last breath and fight to reach the top.

 We live in a very troubling time.  Can America be saved, or is the culture too corrupted by third-world immigration and the demise of the western ethos?  I tend to agree with flyovercountry, that a divorce between two groups of Americans (left vs right) is inevitable.  Yes, I am talking about secession.  I do not believe that America, as we knew it and loved it, can be saved.  It is already gone.