While calcified Cal Thomas represents the frightened (and, consequently, most dangerous) among conservatives, Chuck Krauthammer speaks for those simply living in denial. For Krauthammer, the recent elections aren’t a sign of hope that the pendulum is swinging back his way. No, the pendulum never swung away for Krauthammer. We remain a nation of conservatives. Not merely a 50-50 split, but a majority of conservatives. 2008 was merely aberrant, according to the sage.
Charles Krauthammer – Charles Krauthammer on the realignment myth of 2008 – washingtonpost.com
Just last month Gallup found that conservatives outnumber liberals by 2 to 1 (40 percent to 20 percent) and even outnumber moderates (at 36 percent). [mjh: Plus they’re better armed!] So on Tuesday, the "rump" rebelled. It’s the natural reaction of a center-right country to a governing party seeking to rush through a left-wing agenda using temporary majorities created by the one-shot election of 2008. The misreading of that election — and of the mandate it allegedly bestowed — is the fundamental cause of the Democratic debacle of 2009.
[mjh: Frankly, there still seems ample evidence of the following]
… the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.
Charles Krauthammer – Charles Krauthammer on the realignment myth of 2008 – washingtonpost.com
On Reagan, Obama and my favorite hysteric | Jay Bookman
So what does history tell us?
Well, Reagan was elected in November 1980 with 50.7 percent of the vote (Obama got 52.9). In December 1980, just a month later, the U.S. economy officially went into a deep recession. …
So, what happened in the off-year election of 1982?
Why, the Republicans under Reagan lost a net of seven governorships and 27 seats in the House. That result clearly demolished any claim that the GOP had a mandate and proved that the election of 1980 had been “one of the great flukes in American political history.”
Right, Mr. Krauthammer?
I mean, if losing two governorships while gaining one congressional seat proves that the American people have rejected Obama, surely the loss of seven governorships and 27 House seats ended Ronald Reagan as a political force.
Right?
Hello?
On Reagan, Obama and my favorite hysteric | Jay Bookman
While I have no advice for conservatives other than keep doing what you’re doing, Democrats would do well to remember that awful moment when Karl “The Architect of Victory” Rove declared after 2004 that a generation of Republican rule was beginning. Within two years, that ship was burning and two years after that the only people still clinging to the wreckage of the party were ready to kill each other. Things always change, which is a reality that ultimately repudiates Conservatism, if the actions of its worshippers don’t already. You’re up, you’re down, you’re never the same in the long run.
To those who voted in 2008 but not in 2009: You can’t just vote one time – you have to vote every goddamn time. Yeah, it’s tedious, but not nearly as much as Duhbya’s Reign of Error. Do you want to return to the good old days? No? VOTE!