The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

On the Encroaching Gloom: ‘We Are Permanently and Irretrievably Screwed’

Posted on | November 7, 2012 | 43 Comments

GAHANNA, Ohio
Sitting here sorting through the debris of last night’s utter catastrophe, I saw an e-mail from a friend in Colorado, who wrote to say that he shared my dark mood. So I sent him a brief reply:

Yeah. The full implementation of ObamaCare — how can we possibly recover from that? And it pains me even to think about the intractable stupidity of the electorate. The future looks a lot like “Idiocracy.”
Anyone seeking words of encouragement can look elsewhere today. The best I can offer is dark sarcasm.
— RSM

Here’s the thing: Conservatives warned that the re-election of Obama would have disastrous and irreparable consequences. In the wake of what happened, it ill behooves us to say now that the future offers anything but a descent into squalor and despair. If our arguments before Election Day were correct, we can scarcely enhance our credibility after Election Day by pretending that we can prevent what we previously said would be inevitable. The re-election of Obama heralds the advent of the post-American era.

Buzzfeed pays Rosie Gray mock us, while Melissa McEwan does it for fun. We fully deserve the mockery, for the folly of hoping that America might come to its senses. Ed Morrissey writes at Hot Air:

Many conservatives — myself among them, to be sure — operated on the assumption that the 2008 election had been the anomaly, driven by the fiscal crisis, and corrected in the 2010 midterm elections. The Left assumed that the fiscal crisis in 2008 had realigned the electorate toward greater government interventionism, and that the 2010 cycle was the anomaly, driven by a partisan fight over health care and the lack of a presidential contender at the top of the ticket. . . .
The partisan split in the electorate was 38/32/29, nearly identical to 2008. We argued that Barack Obama and Democrats couldn’t win a base turnout election again, but they did, as evidenced by Mitt Romney’s five-point win among independents, 50/45. Romney even lowered the gender gap from an Obama +14 in 2008 to Obama +4 in 2012, but that clearly wasn’t enough to overcome what now looks to be a significant realignment four years ago towards Democrats and not an anomaly.

A “significant realignment,” indeed, and in the worst possible sense of the term. Remember that it took the conservative movement 16 years to recover from the landslide defeat of 1964. Think of what a carnival of errors might ensue with another 16 years of Obama-style “progressive” governance, and what a desperate wreckage any future conservative leadership would be left to attempt to salvage. And of course, Rachel Maddow “making cream pies in her shorts.”

Remember what I said on Election Day?

Keep an eye on Loudoun County, which George W. Bush won with 56 percent of the vote in 2004, but Obama won with 54 percent in 2008. Should this affluent Northern Virginia county tip back toward the GOP column, it would not only likely mean a Romney win in Virginia, but could be a bellwether of results in other similar upscale suburban communities that shifted from Republican to Democrat four years ago.

Obama won 51-47 percent in Loudoun County, and Obama won Virginia 51-48. A Memeorandum thread I’d rather not have? Yeah, nothing to be done about it now. I hit my deadline at 1 a.m.:

Late Tuesday night, the pundits on TV began jabbering incomprehensibly along the lines of, “What does it mean?”
The American people — or, at the very least, a sufficient plurality of them — decided that they want another four years of clumsy policy failures and vengeful “progressivism,” as Democrats nowadays describe their agenda for wrecking what remains of our constitutional republic. Even before the unmitigated political disaster of November 6, 2012, a date that will live in infamy, the prospects of salvaging the United States were not particularly hopeful. Now, however, we are permanently and irretrievably screwed.
Let’s not mince words, eh? It was one thing, obviously, for the electorate to choose Barack Obama in 2008, when Bush-era “brand damage” was still a fresh irritant in the wounds of a war-weary nation. Four years ago, Obama was untested and enshrouded in the glowing mantle of Hope. No intelligent person could possibly believe that “Lightworker” crap anymore, but then again, it’s been a long time since any intelligent person believed anything a Democrat said. The cretins and dimwits have become an effective governing majority, and the question for conservatives at this point is perhaps not, “What does it mean?” but rather, “Why should we bother ourselves resisting it any longer?”
Alas, as always, the duty of the Right is to manfully endure, to survive the defeat and stubbornly oppose the vaunting foe, and so this brutal shock, this electoral catastrophe, must be absorbed and digested. At some point next week or next month or next year, then, we shall recover our morale and plot some new stratagem for the future. In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s debacle, however, it is difficult to see any glimmer of light amid the encroaching gloom. Surely, there are many Americans who now sympathize with that New York infantryman who, in the bleak winter of 1862, when the Union’s Army of the Potomac was under the incompetent command of Gen. Ambrose Burnside, wrote home in forlorn complaint: “Mother, do not wonder that my loyalty is growing weak.… I am sick and tired of the disaster and the fools that bring disaster upon us.” . . .

Read the whole depressing thing at The American Spectator.




 

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Category: Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption, Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Ohio, Virginia

Comments

43 Responses to “On the Encroaching Gloom: ‘We Are Permanently and Irretrievably Screwed’”

  1. CPAguy
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:16 pm

    Thanks, RSM.

    You are the best blogger on the net.

    When that earthquake hit that island paradise so long ago…it was over…we hoped that it wouldn’t be…but a liberal Republican trying to beat a leftist Democrat is simply not a recipe for success.

    Time for a new party.

  2. mare
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:20 pm

    You tweeted that Reince Preibus is not the problem. No? Well, he’s part of the problem. Today Mike Gallagher (conservative talk show host) opened up about the many avenues he took to try and get Romney on his show (and convince him to go on several radio shows) to help sell himself to the public as most candidates do. Reince Preibus was one of many who said, “no.” I might be able to understand not going on Rush’s considering the left’s use of Sandra Fluke, but all conservative radio?

    I can only assume a distancing from conservative talk radio. Not smart. It also shows the ugly “republican establishment” colors…again. Do you recall Romney doing the rounds of any radio talk shows? I don’t either.

    Preibus is not THE problem he’s just one of many.

  3. K-Bob
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:25 pm

    It wasn’t over when the Germans

    …ahh f*ck it.

  4. Your Reckoning
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:30 pm

    I don’t think Rosie Gray and Melissa McEwen are making fun of Republicans as much as they are making fun of people like you.

  5. JDP
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:36 pm

    1964

    so what you’re saying is we have to find our new Nixon before we find our new Reagan.

    hard to see easy parts of the D electorate we can peel off like Nixon did though

  6. JDP
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:39 pm

    If you really think the main issue was that Mitt Romney was officially a moderate Republican, I don’t know what to tell ya

    note that I do not endorse a generic, David Frum “BE MORE LIBERAL” strategy, and i’m pretty sure Romney would’ve been a fairly centrist technocratic president. but the problem’s deeper than that. he was not perceived that way.

  7. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:44 pm

    I would humbly suggest Obama is the Democrats Nixon. Remember Watergate came in the second term.

    Now of course, Obama has the Senate and the Lamestream Media to back him up. But the economy may just flip over like a koi in Geraldo’s pumpless pond (interesting what the market did today).

    I am not suggesting Obama will get impeached. What I am suggesting he might end up damaging the Democrat brand before he is through.

  8. smitty
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:55 pm

    he was not perceived that way

    Class warfare. That was the election in two words.

  9. Mike G.
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:57 pm

    Maybe the next Republican candidate for President needs to do like Obama did and hit all the popular culturally iconic TV shows. Hell, Nixon went on Laugh In. It must have helped ‘humanize’ him some and made him more palatable to the electorate.

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:02 pm

    We need to buck up.

  11. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:26 pm

    Boehner has the right idea: offer to compromise, agree to tax hikes “on the rich” in exchange for whatever crumbs Obama will give us – tax reform, restoring some defense cuts maybe, he certainly won’t touch entitlements at all, or ObamaCare. Nothing we can do to stop most of it anyway.

    If we oppose him and block the debt ceiling increase, etc., the coming recession will be blamed on “Republican obstructionism.” If we make the best fast deal we can get, Obama and the Democrats OWN it all.

  12. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:27 pm

    Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out. Good riddance.

  13. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:36 pm

    Exactly – damn well put.

  14. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:37 pm

    Understood.

  15. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:39 pm

    Adj, you know damn well the Fifth Columnists will still blame it all on us. Face facts: We are living in Post America. All the Rules, political and Social, have changed.

  16. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:41 pm

    You think Preibus told the Romney campaign what to do? Of course not.

    Romney determined himself to run a serious campaign, no frills and light stuff that demean the dignity of the office he sought. And talk radio is a minefield best avoided.

    Remember the “47%” brouhaha? All it takes is one slip in that environment – or for the host to say something that can be targeted, unless the candidate rebukes him on the spot.

    The talk radio audience was already ours, and those cranky fringe nuts who weren’t were not about to be won over.

  17. Kerry Dar-Du
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:42 pm

    Kerry Dar-Du liked this on Facebook.

  18. Finrod Felagund
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:44 pm

    Sadly The Offspring has had it right for nearly 5 years now:

    Now we’re rockin’ the casbah
    And taking the flack
    The genie’s out of the bottle
    And we can’t put him back (put him back)
    All this stuff
    It’s overwhelming my brain
    Can’t you see the storm coming
    It’s coming this way

    And I don’t know much
    I don’t know too much
    But I know this
    Shit is fucked up

    La, La, La La, La
    I guess it’s all about the dream
    La, La, La La, La
    The ends justify the means
    La, La, La La, La La La
    I’m telling you
    Shit is fucked up

  19. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:44 pm

    If we give the Democrats what they want and make a deal and the voters still blame us, then there is no possible way to win anyway, is there?

    The coming recession will wake a few up. These folks haven’t seen bad yet.

  20. Rose
    November 7th, 2012 @ 6:00 pm

    We’re a one-party country now. You might as well assimilate. Resistance is futile. California is totally a one-party state, that was cemented last night.

    Now – all Republicans should stand firm on CUT SPENDING and NO TAXES. Don’t give the Dems a single R vote to point to. Make them OWN this disaster, hook line and sinker, 100%, every last cent.

    And call attention to what they have done at every turn.

    Even with that, there’s no hope. HOPE is a four-letter word.

    I’m just glad I lived when I did. I feel sorry for my kids. Two of whom voted for this monstrous liar.

  21. K-Bob
    November 7th, 2012 @ 6:00 pm

    It occurs to me that we have only a few peaceful routes out of this misery:

    1) Capitulate. Wait, that won’t get us out of it.

    2) The long, slow, slog of generations enduring Japan-like terrible economies

    3) Starve the beast.

    Somehow I like that last one, best. It’s kind of Randian, but I think in this internet-connected age, we can come up with some way to have a virtual gulch.

  22. Charles
    November 7th, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

    The real message of this election is that Americans aren’t ready to fully trust either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Where is the fault in that?

  23. arminla
    November 7th, 2012 @ 6:16 pm

    For months Nate Silver, other pollster and even RCP has had Obama ahead in every state he won last night. Republicans did not believed them because in their little world we live in a socialist/communist land where our president wasn’t born here, our economy is doomed and NOT recovering, the world as we know is over. They made this election about birth certificates, Benghazi, abortions, gay rights, and countless of other things, among them many lies or stretched truths. Look at your article, you use the words “doom”. “gloom”, “dread”, and “horror”. You put down christie, where all he was doing was looking after his own state and doing his damn job (politics aside). I mean outside of the far right tea partiers, these pictures you paint are just not tue. When people hear these non truths in the press, from the republicans, from your nominee for president they want no part of it. They see the true reality and this bubble that you guys paint your self in, is not reality sadly (as seen last night). No matter what I sit here and type you will still not see reality. All you will see is doom and gloom and your readers will respond to me with snark, cynicism, put downs, and anger.

    Frankly if they focused on the economy, Romney would not have lost. But the tea party could not let that happen, they forced Romney into the situation where he had to keep flip flopping. The flip flop is what lost it and I guarantee if he stood far right (without flip flopping) he would have lost even more. Unfortunately the existence of the tea party puts republicans in tough corner for the primaries that they cannot get out of in the general election. Reality check, it was not Christie, it was not Sandy, it was not the lack of focus on Benghazi, etc… It was the the lack of focus on the economy and the flip flops. It was the bubble that every tea partier lives in. And in this bubble, Romney was going to win in a land slide. Everyone of them believed it no matter the proof that they were shown: Simple math and science.

    Bubble meet reality please, reality meet bubble please.

  24. arminla
    November 7th, 2012 @ 6:18 pm

    Fully trust? if it wasn’t for the house america would have become completely liberal. Did you see the amendments that were passed? Come out of your bubble. The tea party (and their ideology) is NOT good for the republican party nor for America.

  25. mare
    November 7th, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

    Seriously, you’re saying conservative talk radio (across the board) is a mine field? I’d like to point out that Stacy tweeted Reince was not the problem. I respectfully made an argument why he didn’t help Romney.

    Gallagher stated he went through several channels to get Romney to go on his show, one of them was Reince and he was a “no.”

    What political candidate cannot go onto talk radio and be articulate, warm, and get his political point across? No mine field, this is what he needed after the debates, friendly territory to get his point across. Or even explain his 47% comment?

    Come on, this is a no brainer. I’ve heard several other politicians use talk radio and they always had more points, rather than less, when they were done.

  26. JDP
    November 7th, 2012 @ 7:50 pm

    again I’m not for cooperating on something we think is wrong, period, but this is basically a description of what McConnell did in O’s first four (especially first two) years. it’s not enough, and depending on how it’s played can backfire obviously.

  27. Wombat_socho
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:02 pm

    1) You must be new here.

    2) You obviously don’t know anything about the Tea Party, or the Romney campaign.

    3) Bye, troll.

  28. Quartermaster
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:37 pm

    That Mittens was a “moderate” WAS much of the problem. “Moderates” have historically had no anchor to anything, and Mittens was typical in that regard.

    Adjoran, if you really think there is a future in the GOP for conservatives you are more deluded than you have let on these past months. If the boy you have shilled for getting beat like a drum does not teach you anything, then no one will ever teach you anything. The GOP establishment will not allow conservatives into any position from which they can seriously influence the direction of the party. It is still the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt, and has maintained the deadly traditions of the Whigs before them.

    We’re already seeing how your philosophy has worked out. I ain’t buying anymore of the evil you shill for.

  29. arminla1
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:42 pm

    wow you guys actually edit comments becuase you dont “like/agree” with it? I didn’t call anyone names. A comment that had 3 up votes, btw. Now go and give it down votes, or delete it all together, that’s the America you want, right?

    One main point you edited out was:

    “No matter what I sit here and type you will still not see reality. All you will see is doom and gloom and your readers will respond to me with snark, cynicism, put downs, and anger.”

    Thanks for making my point.

    now delete/edit this comment, ban me again, and make my point again. I will go away laughing at your asinine stupidity and hypocrisy.

    🙂

  30. Quartermaster
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:42 pm

    You are pushing the same drug that got us where we are. If the GOP had any stones they WOULD obstruct then tell the insane left to call them anything but late for chow, because they aren’t going to support anything deadly for the country.

    The problem is the GOP has no stones and you are simply pushing more of the same. It doesn’t work Adjoran. I doubt there is anything that will get you to see that your path is just as idiotic as what the insane left is pushing. You never compromise with evil.

  31. Elizabeth
    November 7th, 2012 @ 9:06 pm

    It is really difficult not feel disheartened. I write as a Canadian and I am stunned by the result of your election. We have a (barely) Conservative majority here so, I thought if we could make that choice in these times, surely America would!
    I just read Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin and The Anchoress’s thoughts – which were are comforting – but it is just so …disgusting!! America is the last refuge for freedom. We Canadians who cannot get healthcare under our socialist system travel to the US, people fleeing “hate speech” violations fell there, etc., etc. Now you have Obamacare and a filmmaker getting a year in jail!
    I honestly think Palin could’ve done much better than Romney. McCain/Palin actually got more votes than Romney did with all the Bush/economic crash/historic black prez stuff they were up against.

    Someone who can articulate the foundations of the US Constitution is what’s needed and take it to the MSM and call them on their BS. Romney could do neither. He was tepid, safe, moderate, establishment and a known flip-flopper lacking bedrock principles.

    I for one hopes Palin makes a Senate run in 2014 to attempt to re-establish herself.

  32. The Day After: Obama Unbound « The Camp Of The Saints
    November 7th, 2012 @ 10:02 pm

    […] from a related post by him over at The Other McCain: …Conservatives warned that the re-election of Obama would […]

  33. Dai Alanye
    November 8th, 2012 @ 1:20 am

    The most stupid thing arminia1 has said is that the Repubs depended upon lies. In fact, Obama does little but lie, and is protected by the mainstream media who generally ignore his “inconsistencies.”

  34. Dai Alanye
    November 8th, 2012 @ 1:28 am

    Worse, perhaps, was that Romney ran a moderate campaign. Simply doing a better job of defending his stance on the auto bailouts would have helped, as would making Benghazi a much bigger issue. The prevent defense rarely works in politics.

    But this was bigger than Romney and his mistakes. It goes back, in fact, to the failure to aggressively defend Dubya on the economy and Iraq, a weakness that was partly Dubya’s own. In effect, we let the Dems control the narrative.

  35. Dai Alanye
    November 8th, 2012 @ 1:32 am

    Adjoran’s proposals worked so well for the Repubs against FDR, didn’t they? Limited him to a mere four terms in office. We only need to find a new Alf Landon to run in 2016.

  36. Dai Alanye
    November 8th, 2012 @ 1:34 am

    Quite. This might well be the socialists’ last gasp if we play it right.

  37. Bob Belvedere
    November 8th, 2012 @ 8:50 am

    Partys are not eternal – just ask the Whigs and the Federalists.

  38. Bob Belvedere
    November 8th, 2012 @ 8:56 am

    Well-worth considering, as is working to effect a separation from King George Obama.

  39. Bob Belvedere
    November 8th, 2012 @ 8:57 am

    No…the message is that a majority in this country want to be taken care of by a nanny state as long as they get to keep enjoying their luxuries.

  40. Bob Belvedere
    November 8th, 2012 @ 9:00 am

    I wasn’t going to say it, but it seems I must: We who supported Sarah Palin warned you.

  41. Quartermaster
    November 8th, 2012 @ 12:53 pm

    It’s time for Operation Whig. The Republican Party must die.
    Don’t worry Adjoran. I’m sure the Dimocrats will be glad to get you. Mittens would fit right in with you.

  42. CPAguy
    November 8th, 2012 @ 2:40 pm

    I don’t agree with you at all….

    But I’m against the banning.

  43. Deer: They’re Also Racist : The Other McCain
    November 9th, 2012 @ 4:29 am

    […] 7: On the Encroaching Gloom: ‘We Are Permanently and Irretrievably Screwed’Nov. 7: Blame Bush, You FoolsNov. 6: ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS HQ; UPDATE: OBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION; […]