November 6, 2012: Why I'm Stoked!

[Dan Haggerty]

What?! A thread about the good of the election! Am I crazy?

No.

Well, let me say this, the election was not good and I am also disappointed... Very disappointed.

I voted for Romney but my primary course was always the desire to fire Obama. He was not fired. And isn’t it a kick in the teeth to know just how bad Obama is, and see America elect him anyway? It’s like America just told us “Tough – We want collectivism”.

But let’s be honest here. We already know America has accepted too much of the collectivist principles. Mysticism and collectivism are well entrenched no matter how we cast the dice, and while Obama is not qualified to run a lemonade stand let alone be the leader of a *free* country, there is no reason to think Romney would have been the cure to the poison.

Romney would have done a better job but that is when compared to Obama, which lets face it this is a pretty easy curve to beat. The issue is we would still be sliding down the path to central planning despite who won today.

So the good news?

Well, we won’t have a business man taking the blame and getting the free market painted as the bad guy so easily when the next recession hits. Let’s remember, Bush talked up the free market but gave us more Government than Clinton did, and yet Bush is blamed for “deregulation failures” on the economy when we know the Bush years added something like 18,000 new bureaucrats. So under Bush businesses were blamed and the free market was accused of failing when a first year economy grad should be able to tell you that we don’t have a free economy and that the failures are easily traceably to Government interference.

Note I said should. And that is the point. The free market gets painted as the bad guy when it’s government interference and with Obama such nonsense will reign hollow when Romney could have been easily painted with “market failures” and “pro-business” to an economically illiterate country.

The battle is still one of ideas, after all. The re-selection of Obama is just proof of that.

But there is still to be optimistic:

• Here is Michigan Proposal 2, which would have allowed Unions to challenge any law that restricted their contracts or right to collectivist barnstorming, and apply it retroactively, was shot down. This was the Union’s attempt to float a legal balloon to see if they can stop what happened in Wisconsin here in Michigan, and a lot of State’s have been watching to see if they could get away with this monstrosity. We shot it down in a pro-Union state which means it will be harder to bring to a local gang near you. I’m proud we voted it down and it is a good sign for attitudes.
  
• Two States legalized Marijuana? This could not have happened 20 years ago.
  
• Two States legalized gay marriage? Again, this is a sign of a good trend.
  
• As a long term trend, let’s remember that in the last twenty years we as a Country have enforced gun rights and except for one State (Illinois is, not surprisingly, the exception) all States have increased an owners rights to carry and conceal.
  
• These are examples. We should start a thread with more!
  

OK, these are examples of silver linings on a stormy day. Grasping a few straws? Maybe. But honestly there are signs of life in a sea of swill and the principle is people do want to be free and there is hope, real hope, if only we can get people to ply it consistently to their lives and principles. Jonathan could give us a lecture on this being an example of the sublime.

This election sucked, not because Obama won, but because we got a bucket of cold water reminding us that the Obamas of the world can and will be elected and the task to change it is greater than we want to admit. Obama just ripped the band-aid off and has reminded us of the problem for what it is. Whether Obama won or not, the ideas that make his Presidency possible still would exist and we have to see them for what they are. Romney would have been another band-aid to a wound that is festering and losing blood.

Well, enough with band-aids. Time to wake up and smell the napalm in the morning and get to work - We didn’t loose an election, but won the recognition that in the war of freedom it really is all or nothing when it comes to certain core principles. I say it is time that we each find a way to take advantage of this wake up call and do something about it. We’re upset because we are right and yet we are losing.

But that is the point. WE ARE RIGHT. Time to start acting like we are right and take the fight to the collectivists. We can beat these idiots by definition, since if they were competent they wouldn’t need the Government to be the man they are to lazy to be.

Thank you Obama for winning and showing me what needs to be done. Thank for giving me this bloody nose and I’m a big enough man to admit that I likely needed it.

I swear, by my life and my love of it, you just lit a fire under my ass that you will not be able to put out.

[Peter]

That was a great pep talk Coach.

Peter

[Jonathan]

OK, these are examples of silver linings on a stormy day. Grasping a few straws? Maybe. But honestly there are signs of life in a sea of swill and the principle is people do want to be free and there is hope, real hope, if only we can get people to ply it consistently to their lives and principles. Jonathan could give us a lecture on this being an example of the sublime.

Heh.

I wish there were some signs of Sublimity in the Republican party -- the will to stand up and fight against threatening phenomena -- but I have serious doubts that that will happen any time soon. I thought that Ryan was a good choice for a running mate, on the grounds that he had previously shown an eagerness to fight for economic liberty, but he has definitely gotten a lot wimpier in the past year. Turning into a typical politician.

I don't know how many times I saw the Romney campaign miss (or intentional avoid, apparently for stupid, superficial strategy reasons) the opportunity to refute the primary economic falsehood that the Obama campaign was constantly peddling.

Obama and company: "We inherited a horrible economy, and our opponent wants to take us back to the policies of deregulation and low taxes for the rich that caused the economic crisis. We can't let Romney take us back to those failed economic ideas. We need to move forward."

Romney and company: Silence. Not even an attempt to offer an alternative explanation to what caused the recession.

Has the Republican party learned anything yet? First McCain, now Romney. I wonder who they'll nominate next time. Perhaps Olympia Snowe or Colin Powell? Or maybe this jellyfish would be interested in running:

J

[Robert Campbell]

A pretty fair sizing up of the mess, in Investors Business Daily:

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/110712-632457-obama-reelection-makes-gridlock-look-good.htm?p=full

I wonder whether even Barack Obama will be able to get a free pass, if his policies put the United States into a second recession and/or a sovereign debt crisis.

Robert Campbell

[Dan Haggerty]

That was a great pep talk Coach.

Peter

Thank you.

Now get back in game, grab the ball, and don’t stop until you see the end zone and cheerleaders!

[Jonathan]

A pretty fair sizing up of the mess, in Investors Business Daily:

http://news.investor...good.htm?p=full

I wonder whether even Barack Obama will be able to get a free pass, if his policies put the United States into a second recession and/or a sovereign debt crisis.

Robert Campbell

If the US dips into a second recession, Obama and the media will blame the Republicans, and their response will be to politely say that Obama is a nice guy but they respectfully kind of disagree with him, and that they're only partially or mostly to blame, but not entirely, and that Obama is somewhat at fault too.

J

[Jerry Biggers]

Instead of a jellyfish, how about a bully? Say, Chris Christie. Nice middle-of-the-roader, with no principles except power. And all too eager to exercise his considerable weight and threaten New Jersey residents (as in his performances in the "derecho," last spring, and last week's superstorm, Sandy.

[Jonathan]

Did somebody cut Chris Christie's torso in half and then sew the bottom half on backwards? Look at pictures of him. His butt is in the front.

J

[Dan Haggerty]

@ Jonathan:

I agree that Ryan was a solid choice and realistically he was likely the best we could have got for VP, but like you said Team Romney blew so many chances to stand on principle it is not funny. The jellyfish is an awesome example. In fact, you could say that, to paraphrase Peikoff, the choice next time we could have a choice between non-man versus anti-man.

My big fear is that the take away for the Republicans is that Romney was to moderate and while they will get the need to stand on conviction they’ll screw the pooch instead and nominate a fundamentalist like Bachman or Perry.

[PDS]

Not sure the legalization of dope is a good harbinger. I understand government has no business outlawing hooch, but I don't think that is why those majorities carried the day.

Let's face it folks: we are now mostly a nation of moochers and hoochers.

But I do like your spirit, Griz!

[Jonathan]

My big fear is that the take away for the Republicans is that Romney was to moderate and while they will get the need to stand on conviction they’ll screw the pooch instead and nominate a fundamentalist like Bachman or Perry.

Totally. The odds are that the Republicans will either go RINO or Fundie.

J

[bobkolker]

Four more years for the f**k-up Obama and his neo-fascist buddies to complete the destruction of the U.S.A.

But I am not complaining. I am living in interesting times.

Bob Kolker

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Dan,

I was going to write something like this and you did it first.

Good job.

The real problem with the Republicans is they talk a good talk about freedom, but then when it looks like they are going to get power, here they come sniffing around the abortion thing, or the drug laws, or hardline immigration stuff on kids, and crap like that. It's pure bait and switch and I think many people (like independents) not only see it as an old trick, they are sick of it.

Just look at the circus with idiotic rape comments from people who were sure they had their elections in the bag--the ones who ended up losing. Did they get chastised by the Republicans when they spouted off their crap? Hell no. There was some lip service, but the old boy network ended up supporting them. They were so arrogant this time around they pulled the switcharooney during the campaign.

Ironically, I believe Obama was not elected solely due to collectivism, or not even mainly due to it, but instead because of a strong sentiment of, "You are not going to push me around."

That's supposed to be our line.

What's worse, it won't work out that way if he is anywhere near successful with his financial plans, but I believe people perceive it that way right now. And they voted on their perception because the alternative looked like just one more attempt to shove a specific lifestyle down people's throats while saying otherwise.

There's another structural problem. The USA literally has a moocher class now, and each person in it can vote. When those folks get so numerous that they far outnumber the producers, you will get Greece. This can be reversed, but not by selling what people perceive to be an old con.

For the conservatives, either freedom means leave folks alone, all folks, or it will soon be lost to involuntary servitude to big government committees and panels for many, many moons to come.

I'm divided. In one sense, I'm enormously disappointed Romney lost. In another, I'm encouraged.

Michael

[Mikee]

"Naked Prey" [1966]:

"A group of men are on safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways."

[william.scherk]

Not sure the legalization of dope is a good harbinger. I understand government has no business outlawing hooch, but I don't think that is why those majorities carried the day.

Headline news in Canada for Washington state's ballot initiative 502:

B.C. marijuana activists cheer Washington pot vote

In Canada, the Harper government quietly celebrated the coming into force of one of its crime bills, the one that establishes mandatory minimum sentences on marijuana offences. This is not a popular move in BC, where four former solicitor-generals told the feds it was the wrong way to go. PM Harper issued a terse message from the PMO referring to the south of the border initiatives: "Other jurisdictions are free to do as they please. This government will not be legalizing marijuana."

Colorado joins Washington in decriminalizing marijuana for personal use. The parameters of the Washington law are striking.

This measure removes state-law prohibitions against producing, processing, and selling marijuana, subject to licensing and regulation by the liquor control board; allow limited possession of marijuana by persons aged twenty-one and over; and impose 25% excise taxes on wholesale and retail sales of marijuana, earmarking revenue for purposes that include substance-abuse prevention, research, education, and healthcare. Laws prohibiting driving under the influence would be amended to include maximum thresholds for THC blood concentration

BC already has 'medical' dispensaries, a tolerated bong culture, and a lesser chance of being charged and convicted on pot offences than in other provinces. It looks like a number of us BCers will be looking with interest and envy at our neighbour's experiment.

Moochers, hoochers and 'businessmen' ...

About 90% of the [british Columbia] commercial crop winds up in the U.S., where its street value ranges from $5 billion to $25 billion.

Edited November 8, 2012 by william.scherk

[BaalChatzaf]

"Naked Prey" [1966]:

"A group of men are on safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways."

That was a wonderful movie. It was not only exciting action, but it treated the Africans with some respect.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Dan Haggerty]

I'm divided. In one sense, I'm enormously disappointed Romney lost. In another, I'm encouraged.

It is OK to be both disappointed and hopeful. We should be disappointed that Obama won. He has no right to be elected in a rational world. The disappointment is an emotion that is screaming at us what values we have that are experiencing the pain side of the pleasure/pain reaction. Experience the pain and acknowledge it for what it is, the values at stake, then build.

We should be mad. Why should the mooks who Occupy Random Locations™ get to be the people who are mad? To paraphrase Ragnar, let them discover the consequences of when the mindless mad meets the man with the mind who is mad.

[Jonathan]

"Naked Prey" [1966]:

"A group of men are on safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways."

That was a wonderful movie. It was not only exciting action, but it treated the Africans with some respect.

Ba'al Chatzaf

It was so good that Mel Gibson remade it as Apocalypto.

J

[william.scherk]

The real problem with the Republicans is they talk a good talk about freedom, but then when it looks like they are going to get power, here they come sniffing around the abortion thing, or the drug laws, or hardline immigration stuff on kids, and crap like that. It's pure bait and switch and I think many people (like independents) not only see it as an old trick, they are sick of it.

I agree with the broad-strokes here, in that 'the abortion thing' and 'crap like that' being a drag on Republican chances of advancement. This is the pure awful demographics of O'Reilly's white man elite. Surely you can take every nuts-for-gawd yahoo and every Uterus Patrol fanatic, and every Tea Party '76er, and every family-with-a-bunker, and every hardcore Mormon, and all the uptight about sin Catholic papists.

You can do all this, gather all these votes under the Republican tent, add in a certain amount of purely economic voters who identify with 'the party of business,' but you will fall short of a majority.

This is the challenge for a Republican party. What do you actually do about present feeble support among 'minorities'? Among the majority of Americans who do not want officialized government reproduction monitors, it just does not take.

Romney (or advisors) were smart enough to blandify his public utterances on contentious issues late in the campaign. He turned to fudgy statements about women, fatuous statements about 'the son of Mexican immigrants,' murky statements about 'taking care of needy' ... but it did not take.

Just look at the circus with idiotic rape comments from people who were sure they had their elections in the bag--the ones who ended up losing.

Mourdock lost his Senate bid, as did Todd Akin. The lady electorate thought it best to return Claire McCaskill by a thumping majority of 55%. Rape commentary by the whacked religious Republicans cost two Senate seats.

Whatever the particular reasons, the Senate also gained Elizabeth Warren, lying 'half-breed', and another Democratic dragon-lady in the person of the first openly gay Senator, Tammy Baldwin.

I did argue some time ago (around the time of the Rush-Slut hearings) that the evangelical Transvaginal Express Republican policies were an electoral problem. If the GOP could not knock the 55%-Maoist tendency among women, and remove the taint of I-will-legislate-your-innards-for-Jayzuss from its platform, then it would be a problem. I can't remember how my reasoning was disposed of ...

I can only stress to my disappointed friends here that America is Great. Big, rich, powerful, dynamic, productive, inventive, magnetically attractive, flush with energy and ability and reach. I have no fear of America falling into the toilet. Not in four years, not in forty.

I hope as always for a little more realism and a stronger sense of proportion. In a cartoon world of Mao and Freedomfighters, the game seems over and the pits of horror gaping.

Just take a break from alarmist analysts for a week or so, and breathe, breathe.

Edited November 8, 2012 by william.scherk

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I hope as always for a little more realism and a stronger sense of proportion. In a cartoon world of Mao and Freedomfighters, the game seems over and the pits of horror gaping.

Just take a break from alarmist analysts for a week or so, and breathe, breathe.

William,

What great advice.

That sounds like something the black slaves might have heard on arriving on America's shores in centuries gone past.

In Brazil, they say, "Relax. It only hurts the first time," and "If you're being raped, you might as well relax and come."

And then there's the Kübler-Ross model: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance--right before dying.

Don't forget Thaler-Sunstein's nudge, nudge, nudge, nudge, nudge...

Which of us reality-denying cartoon characters are where in those things, William? Which of them is best to convince us to give up the ghost and join the herd as happy cattle?

(One of these days I'm sure I'll get to you and you'll start seeing that love of freedom is chosen and proactive, not socially engineered for reactive complacency like everything is attempted to be in a nanny-state. At such time, don't be surprised by the feeling of exhilaration that comes when you realize you don't have to have a human master lording over you. It's a rush like no other. Until then, keep looking at those who so love and wondering what in the hell is wrong with them--or, who knows, trying to ignore the nagging doubt that you're missing out on something...)

EDIT: I realize that people do not want a human master lording over their sex organs. Those people felt the rush of freedom this election as they did something about it. The problem is, they voted for a Trojan Horse who eventually will not deliver--not in the way they are thinking. You don't trade one freedom for another and expect freedom to prevail. I'm hopeful some of this busybody stuff can get out of the way with Obama, though, even as he "fundamentally transforms" the prosperity of America.

Michael

[Robert Campbell]

Just look at the circus with idiotic rape comments from people who were sure they had their elections in the bag--the ones who ended up losing. Did they get chastised by the Republicans when they spouted off their crap? Hell no. There was some lip service, but the old boy network ended up supporting them. They were so arrogant this time around they pulled the switcharooney during the campaign.

Michael,

Todd Akin in Missouri got blasted by a number of prominent Republicans. Some snuck back to support him toward the end; others did not. I hope his loss to the widely detested Claire McCaskill, in a state that Mitt Romney carried easily, will lead to a permanent reduction in Mike Huckabee's influence—because Akin was Huckabee's guy all the way.

Richard Mourdock in Indiana made his slightly less imbecilic comment a lot closer to election day. The Democrat who beat him is actually also opposed to abortion… Again, Romney had no trouble carrying Indiana but Mourdock still lost.

I'm divided. In one sense, I'm enormously disappointed Romney lost. In another, I'm encouraged.

If his failure takes down those members of the K Street Establishment who promoted Romney's "electability," it will be worth it.

Robert Campbell

[Robert Campbell]

Whatever the particular reasons, the Senate also gained Elizabeth Warren, lying 'half-breed', and another Democratic dragon-lady in the person of the first openly gay Senator, Tammy Baldwin.

I did argue some time ago (around the time of the Rush-Slut hearings) that the evangelical Transvaginal Express Republican policies were an electoral problem. If the GOP could not knock the 55%-Maoist tendency among women, and remove the taint of I-will-legislate-your-innards-for-Jayzuss from its platform, then it would be a problem. I can't remember how my reasoning was disposed of ...

I can only stress to my disappointed friends here that America is Great. Big, rich, powerful, dynamic, productive, inventive, magnetically attractive, flush with energy and ability and reach. I have no fear of America falling into the toilet. Not in four years, not in forty.

WSS,

You have Akin, Mourdock, and their ilk dead to rights. Even though Mourdock lost to an anti-abortion Democrat (one of the few that remain, after the great wave of 2010).

As for the power-hungry Elizabeth Warren, I still get the impression that for you she can be a Cherokee simply because imagining herself to be one floats her boat, and that lying on Affirmative Action forms to gain professional advancement never entered her mind. While the guy she beat is pro-choice.

I have no problem with Tammy Baldwin's sexual orientation. I do have a problem with her opposition to sanctions against Iran, and her attempts to establish a Department of Peace. The same folks who slightly enlarged the Republican majorities in the Wisconsin state legislature will be questioning their own judgment soon enough.

I hope as always for a little more realism and a stronger sense of proportion. In a cartoon world of Mao and Freedomfighters, the game seems over and the pits of horror gaping.

Just take a break from alarmist analysts for a week or so, and breathe, breathe.

No need to summon the medics. I only quit breathing for an hour or so

Barack H. Obama, I've said many times in these precincts, is no Mao Zedong. Not even a François Hollande. He merely wants to complete the work of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnson and doesn't care to get as much popular buy-in as they managed to. Which is plenty bad, but not yet occasion to seek a remote, survivable stronghold.

The United States is, however, already beginning to slip in economic terms. (Yaron Brook, yesterday, was noting that it's now easier to start a business in Denmark than here—and that no country in the European Union has come up with a regulatory scheme as costly and crippling as SarbOx—which was enacted under the supposedly anti-regulatory Dubya.) A sovereign debt crisis tends to brew up alarmingly fast. Just think what's going to happen to Federal debt servicing costs as soon as Bernanke (or his successor) quits holding interest rates down to 0.20%.

Robert Campbell

[Robert Campbell]

Sean Trende is already on the case, when we don't even yet know the full popular vote in this election. But we do know it's well down from 2008.

Looks like one of Obama campaign's biggest accomplishment was getting a lot of voters to stay home. Which is why politicians pay for negative ads...

http://www.realclear...ers_116106.html

Robert Campbell

PS. There is also evidence that while Obama's own totals and percentages were down from 2008 in nearly every state, they weren't down nearly as much in Ohio, Virginia, and Florida... where his campaign spent 100s of millions on negative advertising.