No Election Night Blogging

It's going to take a while to digest the results of tonight's election. The overall results seem too close to predicted, so I am not sure what I can add. Further, there are reasons to believe that tonight's results is just round 2 in a 15 round heavyweight bout expected to go to the final bell, round 1 being the primaries that purged a number of elitist Republicans.

But what have we won? Certainly, we will bring the Obama agenda to a halt, but how much can be undone? There are signs that the Tea Party candidates may not have the stomach to deal with Medicare and Social Security, for example:

For starters, polls by the New York Times and Bloomberg have found that although a vast majority of Tea Party supporters favor smaller government, they don’t want cuts in their Medicare or Social Security. . .
Literally all of the others are equivocating if not completely backing off from their original plans to give at least partial ownership of Medicare and Social Security to individuals themselves—the only realistic way of limiting the government’s liabilities without completely screwing over future seniors or taxpayers or the economy.

The whole article has some flaws, but we need to take seriously the need to deal with entitlements in a way that is fair to both current retirees without totally screwing future generations. If we in the Tea Party don't find a way to deal with this issue, then the political class will reach for tax increases to solve these problems.

Fortunately, there are some easy things to do first. If the newly elected Republicans don't do the easy stuff now, then we need to hold their feet to the fire and threaten to give them the boot in 2012.

My previous nominations for the easy button:

• End all stimulus spending. Return all unspent funds to the Treasury.
• End all TARP spending. Return all unspent funds to the Treasury.
• Freeze the pay of federal workers, since the CPI stayed flat last year, so too should have federal pay, but it went up. (Full disclosure, I work for the federal government.)
  
• De-Fund all of the committees, czars and regulatory boards for Obamacare.
• De-fund the Department of Education, for starters, since it doesn't educate anyone.

The Perfect Closing Argument - UPDATE

P.J. O'Rourke makes the perfect closing argument this election season as to why one should vote Republican, and surprise, it's not because Republicans are so worthy of our love and devotion, because they aren't. Please allow this little rant. They ran up deficits and expanded government power through Medicare Part D and extra-legal of the prosecution of the war on terror. They invented TARP and the first bailouts. They took the public good will over the war on terror and used it feather their own nests and further their own power. They caved on free trade. Their total incompetence made the supermajorities that Obama enjoyed, the vehicle on which the largest power grab in American history was transported. They sucked eggs and deserved to be thrown out of office for the bums they were.

So after that resounding endorsement, why should we vote for "dese bums?" 'Casue dose uddah bums are worser. As P.J. O'Rourke points out in his inimitable style, Democrats hate you:

Democrats hate Democrats most of all. Witness the policies that Democrats have inflicted on their core constituencies, resulting in vile schools, lawless slums, economic stagnation, and social immobility. Democrats will do anything to make sure that Democratic voters stay helpless and hopeless enough to vote for Democrats.

. . .

Democrats hate immigrants. Immigrants can’t stay illegal because illegality puts immigrants outside the legal monopoly on force. But immigrants can’t become legal either. They’d prosper and vote Republican.

Democrats hate America being a world power because world power gives power to the nation instead of to Democrats.

And Democrats hate the military, of course. Soldiers set a bad example. Here are men and women who possess what, if they chose, could be complete control over power. Yet they treat power with honor and respect. Members of the armed forces fight not to seize power for themselves but to ensure that power can bestow its favors upon all Americans.

This is not an election on November 2. This is a restraining order. Power has been trapped, abused and exploited by Democrats. Go to the ballot box and put an end to this abusive relationship. And let’s not hear any nonsense about letting the Democrats off if they promise to get counseling.

The whole article is worth a read. My closing argument? Nancy Pelosi makes my case for me:



UPDATE

Ed Koch, former Democrat Mayor of New York, must be channeling P.J. as he predicts a Republican tsunami because of Democrat ineptitude. He says that if the Republicans had any decent leadership it would have been worse. Worse? Just read the article.

Image of the Day

Questions for Democrat members of the House of Representatives: "How are those votes on porkulus and Obamacare working out for you?" "Doing any campaigning with Nancy Pelosi?

Graphic from Realclearpolitics showing the trend in leans/solid Republican House seats (red line) vs. leans/solid Democrat House (blue line) seats over time.



Temple of Mut repeats a warning from Stromata Blog, that bears repeating here (the whole article is worth a read):

5 reasons not to get cocky.

1. It’s not enough to win; you have to win by more than the margin of fraud.
2. An unenthusiastic vote counts just as much as an enthusiastic one.
3. Money still talks, and Dem money talks louder and smarter.
4. If lying didn’t work, nobody would do it.
5. The pollsters are skating on stilts.

Do Republicans Deserve Victory? Part II

After reading my article about the Republican party yesterday, Jonah Goldberg has extended my remarks, and quite eloquently, I might add. He compares the current state of the Republican party to Domino's pizza, an apt comparison. He says that the party should take a page from the new Domino's ads (I have embedded the famous YouTube one below) and admit their past mistakes and do the repentance I have been urging. Some key quotes:

But the GOP’s troubles over the last decade have a lot to do with the fact that Americans didn’t stop liking what the Republican party is supposed to deliver. They stopped liking what the GOP actually delivered.

Spot on. Hence the rise of the Tea Party movement, the desire for limited government still burns strong in America. On "compassionate conservatism" being like a pizza chain getting into Chinese:

Indeed, by my lights, that’s what George W. Bush tried to do with his “compassionate conservatism.” He surrendered to liberal arguments about the role, size, and scope of government on too many fronts. In effect, he said you can have your pizza and Kung Pao chicken all in the same dish. That’s not a good meal, it’s a bad mess.

Goldberg goes on to say that it's time to attack "crony capitalism," the corrupt union of big business and big government. A little contrition and honesty will go a long way to regaining the trust of Americans. Then, they will have to deliver. Time for the GOP to adopt the Freedom Coalition agenda, because soon, just being against the execrable pseudo-socialist crony-capitalism of the Democrats won't be enough; we will have to be for something.


Domino's Turnaround

Do Republicans Deserve Victory?

Certainly the Democrats deserve defeat for their execrable management of their first year of full control of both Houses of Congress and the Presidency. As Peggy Noonan points out in the WSJ today, the focus on health care and global warming is causing the public to believe they don't care about jobs, the deficit or national security. The last failing on full display with two terrorist attacks. (BTW, it's not so much the attacks themselves but the curiously slow and lackluster response by senior officials and the President himself that makes you wonder. HotAir tips that Panetta didn't even break vacation, and apparently this is partly a CIA cock-up.)

But the question is really about Republicans. I have stated repeatedly that McCain's failure to break without bailout nation cost him any chance at the Presidency. Further, it was spending like drunken sailors and becoming identified as the party of big government that lost control of the Congress in 2006. Peggy Noonan phrases the question as:

The question is whether the party will be worthy of victory, whether it learned from its losses in 2006 and '08, whether it deserves leadership. Whether Republicans are a worthy alternative. Whether, in short, they are serious.
They do not see that 2010 could be a catastrophic victory for them. If they seize back power without clear purpose, if they are not serious, if they do the lazy and cynical thing by just sitting back and letting the Democrats lose, three bad things will happen. They will contribute to the air of cynicism in which our citizens marinate. Their lack of seriousness will be discerned by the Republican base, whose enthusiasm and generosity will be blunted. And the Republicans themselves will be left unable to lead when their time comes, because operating cynically will allow the public to view them cynically, which will lessen the chance they will be able to do anything constructive.

Interestingly, Michael Steele, chair of the RNC, seems to think this might be a problem as well. Despite being pilloried in some corners, I think Steele makes a valid point in this report from a Hannity interview:

In fact, when Hannity followed up on the point, Steele said he doesn't know if the GOP is ready to take back the reins of power.

"I don't know. And that's what I'm assessing and evaluating right now. Those candidates who are looking to run have to be anchored in these principles," he said, referring to 5 conservative ideals he lays out in his new tome. "If they don't [anchor themselves], then they'll get to Washington, and they'll start drinking that Potomac River water, and they'll get drunk with power and throw the steps out the window."

Notice how politicians get in the most trouble for telling the truth?