November 6th, 2012 - Final Post-Mortem: An Autopsy On Constitutional America...


Selene

Recommended Posts

Robert Stacy McCain comment today in the American Spectator:

Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption

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.

I believe this is pretty accurate.

Adam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Well, the U.S. survived the Civil War. Maybe not all hope is lost.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the U.S. survived the Civil War. Maybe not all hope is lost.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Bob:

There was a different civil society and citizenry then.

I hope you are correct.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Adam,

It's hard to disagree with the American Spectator article that you linked with. Curiously (since between the lines, the writer appears to be a pro-Lifer trad conservative), his ultra-pessimistic point of view is reminiscent of Leonard Peikoff's pronouncements over the past several presidential elections (except that Peikoff clearly changed his mind and urged people to vote for Romney-Ryan). Unfortunately, the mass populace does not wait with baited breath to get Peikoff's suggestions).

But here are a few random thoughts about the Obama victory:

Obamacare: even better than Romneycare!

Tea party: what tea party? Oh, you mean all those fund-raising parties that the Dem fatcats, TV-movie personalities, and Silicon Valley billionaires (who supported Obama, big time) held?

Chris Christie: et tu, Brute?

(However, his Mussolini impersonations during the storm, last week, were so inspiring!).

Chris Matthews: his thoughts, post-election - "I'm so glad that we had that storm, last week!"

Ohio: See how easy it is to buy votes? Just pretend to "save" the auto industry (with Confederate money).

Wisconsin: so much for Paul Ryan's and Governor Scott Walker's influence on the electorate. In their own state. (Well, at least Paul Ryan stood up for his principles and courageously reaffirmed his admiration for Ayn Rand's philosophy! What a guy!).

Florida: and that was a really great idea of Romney's to reject Marco Rubio for his Veep choice. Anyway, who needs the latino population, they're only the largest ethnic minority in the country.

Greece? Italy? Spain? Portugal?: Damn,...those europeans have really great benefits and entitlements!!!

Libya: Who cares? Anyway, isn't it nice how the "Arab Spring" has been working out?

Israel? Who?

Iran? Just ignore them. Maybe they'll go away if we just don't think about them!

Russia? Don't worry about them becoming unhappy, Obama reassured Medvedev that he could get "better terms" for Russia - after his reelection.

So,...Is this a great country,... or what! ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well put Jerry.

I know that I am a minority here about the issue of a strike. However, can we have a more clear and obvious situation to justify a strike than now?

Many refer to the time that Ayn warned would be the time to strike and that is when you cannot speak due to state censorship.

I am very clear that despite the idea that we still can print and speak, it has become meaningless, in my opinion because of the overwhelming blanketing of the main stream media in support of the progressive agenda.

Clearly our ideas are not going to take root without a complete collapse, or, so I believe.

Adam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I weren't so lazy about such things, I would figure out how to embed this little video.

Much wisdom in there, I think.

One of my favorite shows...Deadwood...very realistic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jerry *Seinfeld* Biggers wrote:

Chris Christie: et tu, Brute? . . . Ohio: See how easy it is to buy votes? Just pretend to "save" the auto industry (with Confederate money).

end quote

Your comments, Jerry, are insightful and hilarious!

I was at my granddaughter’s third birthday party last night as the election results came in. I voted for Maryland’s civil “marriage” amendment much to everyone’s surprise and it passed.

I was also discussing Maryland Proposition 7 which expands gambling like table games. I voted for that too. However, gambling is like the “broken windows cause prosperity” fallacy. If you discount the initial lost money it does seem to cause a phony boost to the local economy. Likewise, gambling might bring a thousand new jobs but at the cost of lost millions to those betting.

I am glad Peikoff recommended voting for Mitt instead of his old philosophical fallacy of voting to stalemate government instead of voting for the better man. The cost of a “demonstration of failure” to our country is another great depression or the rise of Fascism. We will be lucky if there is a stalemate. Somehow I think Obama’s “Chicago way” will be as frightening as the rise of Hitler’s Germany.

Batten down the hatches Adam and the Jersey Shore! The wind has started to howl here in Maryland and we are only expected to get an inch of snow on top of another inch of rain. I am watching the Weather Channel’s local weather-scan and I see extreme southern Jersey around Cape May is getting some snow at noon. You are going to need boots.

Peter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jerry *Seinfeld* Biggers wrote:

Chris Christie: et tu, Brute? . . . Ohio: See how easy it is to buy votes? Just pretend to "save" the auto industry (with Confederate money).

end quote

Your comments, Jerry, are insightful and hilarious!

I was at my granddaughter’s third birthday party last night as the election results came in. I voted for Maryland’s civil “marriage” amendment much to everyone’s surprise and it passed.

I was also discussing Maryland Proposition 7 which expands gambling like table games. I voted for that too. However, gambling is like the “broken windows cause prosperity” fallacy. If you discount the initial lost money it does seem to cause a phony boost to the local economy. Likewise, gambling might bring a thousand new jobs but at the cost of lost millions to those betting.

I am glad Peikoff recommended voting for Mitt instead of his old philosophical fallacy of voting to stalemate government instead of voting for the better man. The cost of a “demonstration of failure” to our country is another great depression or the rise of Fascism. We will be lucky if there is a stalemate. Somehow I think Obama’s “Chicago way” will be as frightening as the rise of Hitler’s Germany.

Batten down the hatches Adam and the JerseyShore! The wind has started to howl here in Maryland and we are only expected to get an inch of snow on top of another inch of rain. I am watching the Weather Channel’s local weather-scan and I see extreme southern Jersey around Cape May is getting some snow at noon. You are going to need boots.

Peter

Peter,

Personally, I could not bring myself to vote for Maryland Proposition 7. Not because I am against other people gambling. If that's how people want to throw away their money, fine. But what I was concerned with was that the bill authorized Maryland tax money to build the casino(s). If Harrah's and MGM want to build casinos to fleece people, fine. Let the builders pay for it! I don't see why other Marylanders should have to pay for it.

Secondarily, there were allegations that MGM and/or Harrah's were covering up the real organizations behind the casinos, the ChiComs and/or gambling interests in Macao. Apparently, this is what happened in New Jersey, causing the state commission to not approve their bid to build more casinos there..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jerry,

Gotta agree with what you say about Chris Christie, who should be encouraged to apply for membership in the Democratic Party.

I'd like to see breakdowns of the electorate yesterday versus the electorate when Scott Walker was up for recall before passing judgment on Walker, Ryan, or a significant number of voters in Wisconsin.

I find it hard to fathom how the same folks who rejected Governor Walker's recall could help Barack Obama carry the state—or elect Tammy Baldwin, who makes Sherrod Brown and Nancy Pelosi look like feeble moderates, to the US Senate—but obviously I'm missing something.

Robert Campbell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Folks:

Simply put, this is why Romney lost...

I thought the Republican learned one lesson from 2008 and 2010...I was wrong...

POPULAR VOTE, per AP
: Obama 50% (58,779,121 votes), Romney 48% (56,518,209)

In 2008
, Obama got 53% (69,498,215 votes), McCain got 46% (59,948,240)

In essence, Obama was ripe for the taking...he received nine and a half million [9,500,000] less votes in 2012 than in 2008.

All Romney had to do is produce is the same amount of votes as the awful, incompetent campaign of John McCain ...

What happen? Romney produced 3, 300, 000 thousand less votes than McCain!

Incredible...no ground game once again ...

What a travesty!

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Folks:

Simply put, this is why Romney lost...

I thought the Republican learned one lesson from 2008 and 2010...I was wrong...

POPULAR VOTE, per AP
: Obama 50% (58,779,121 votes), Romney 48% (56,518,209)

In 2008
, Obama got 53% (69,498,215 votes), McCain got 46% (59,948,240)

In essence, Obama was ripe for the taking...he received nine and a half million [9,500,000] less votes in 2012 than in 2008.

All Romney had to do is produce is the same amount of votes as the awful, incompetent campaign of John McCain ...

What happen? Romney produced 3, 300, 000 thousand less votes than McCain!

Incredible...no ground game once again ...

What a travesty!

A...

How could you expect a congenital schmuck like Romney to produce a decent "ground game".

And he is shit stupid. He said in public that anyone who is sick can go an an emergency room. Emergency treatment is the most expensive and least effective way of delivering medical care and health maintenance. Romney lives in his Mormon never never land.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Romney couldn't make the moral case for capitalism & freedom. He advocates cap & trade and State run healthcare.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bob:

The candidate needs to be a candidate.

The field organization does the ground game. O'bama's field organization lost about ten percent of it's effectiveness because of the candidate. However they still did a great job with their early voting organization and their ability to deliver their votes in the urban centers,

The Republican "Rino," blue bloods do not want to get their hands dirty in the streets where the voters are. The Tea Party understand s the ground game and they are, and were, openly opposed by the Party big wigs.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw Sarah Palin a couple of weeks ago hint at sending the Republican Party the way of the Whigs.

I bet something like this is brewing.

Michael

Completely agree. We will lose some elections for a few cycles. However, if we concentrate on getting on the ballot in all fifty (50) this year, we can be a force in the next house cycle.

Additionally, we can certainly elect school board members, city councils, alderman, etc. A State Senator and State House members. This will form the "ground game" for the Congressional races.

In Massachusetts, I heard that the Libertarian got 15,000 votes in a State race, or, Congressional race...but, I have not been able to track it down yet.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Adam,

Here is a cool google map which reveals the votes in each state if you just click on the one you are interested in.

Sure enough Gary Johnson did get 28,730 votes for president in MA as the Libertarian Party candidate. See how many he got in Texas and California. As you will see the LP got him on the ballot in 48 states and he got about 1% or more or less everywhere which includes many Ron Paul supporters.

http://www.google.co...12/president/us

Now all we have to do is watch while the students for liberty and the young americans for liberty and the campaign for liberty grow "exponentially" in time for the next presidential election and pro freedom candidates will be running all over the place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Gulch...

Gary Johnson Breaks Ed Clark’s 1980 Vote Record of 921,128 Votes for President of the United States.

2012 Libertarian Presidential Ticket of Gov. Gary Johnson and Judge Jim Gray More Than DOUBLED the 2008 Vote Total of Bob Barr and Wayne Root.

http://www.google.com/elections/ed/us/results

Top 3 States for Gov. Gary Johnson and Judge Jim Gray

New Mexico - 3.5% of the Vote

Montana – 2.9% of the Vote

Alaska – 2.5% of the Vote

2 Key Factors that Held Down Gary Johnson’s Vote Total

Money Fact: Republicans and Democrats Spent $2 Billion on the Presidential Campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Libertarians raised and spent $3 Million for the Presidential Campaign of Gov. Gary Johnson.

Romney and Obama Outspent Gary Johnson 667 to 1.

Media Fact: News Media Showered the Mitt Romney and Barack Obama Campaigns With More Than 1,000 Times the News Coverage that they Devoted to Gov. Gary Johnson and his Libertarian Presidential Campaign.

“It’s a great day to be a Libertarian,’ said Harry Browne. Gov. Gary Johnson, Judge Jim Gray, and our 580 Libertarian Party Candidates Make Us Proud to be Libertarians.

More Election News to Come. Stay Tuned.

Yours for liberty,

Carla Howell

Executive Director

National Libertarian Party

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found this interesting...

So how did Barack Obama win re-election?

One of the first explanations offered by campaign handicappers is that he did so by destroying his opponent.

The Wall Street Journal describes a key early decision.

"One Sunday in May, [Jim] Messina, the manager of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, went to the president along with other top advisers and proposed an unorthodox strategy. The campaign, he said, wanted to spend heavily, starting immediately, on ads blasting away at Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

"The idea, explained to the president in a PowerPoint presentation in the Roosevelt Room, was to shape voters' impressions with a heavy expenditure before Mr. Romney had the money to do it for himself. The plan defied conventional wisdom, which said a campaign should start slowly with a positive message and save money for the stretch run. And it could leave the president exposed later....

"The president gave his approval. And within weeks the Obama campaign was blasting away in a late-spring offensive, forcing Mr. Romney to respond to charges about his business record and personal finances rather than making the president defend his record."

A Washington Post report agrees.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The President got away with doing nothing to try to come to the rescue of our US Ambassador who was being attacked in Bengazi. The attack went on for seven hours before the deaths of at least two of the defenders.

They had requested help long before the attack and were quite vulnerable for weeks. Requests for support were denied, refused and ignored. The President had no answer for this other than his attempt to deceive the public as to the nature of the attack by attributing it to a spontaneous demonstration in response to a video.

The fact that Romney did not press this issue is unfortunate because there appears to a case of being caught with no excuse and poor judgment on the part of the President.

On the issue of the divided Congress where the GOP still holds the House this is small comfort because the President has learned that if he fails to get legislation passed he can and has resorted to signing Executive Orders to accomplish whatever he wants bypassing the Legislative Branch.

Question is whether there will be another presidential election in four years or not.

The inevitable consequences of the ruinous, longstanding inflationary policy which is going to continue to provide the President with newly created fiat currency for him to spend is bound to manifest itself in a hyperinflationary depression within the next few years. He will not accept blame typically but will take advantage of the chaos he caused to accrue more powers. This might lead to martial law and suspension of elections with confiscation of weapons from the citizens as Hitler did first thing when he was also elected to power.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Adam, also: How They Did It: Political Tactics that Helped Obama Win a Second Term.

William, there is no question that there will be elections four years from now. There will be a Libertarian Party too.

There is serious question whether both you and I will both be alive four years from now due to the course of nature, or whether the site will still exist by then, but if all that goes as we hope, we can revisit your worries in four years.

The President cannot in the present system “accomplish whatever he wants bypassing the Legislative Branch.” The Judiciary has a say on that.*

. . .

The inevitable consequences of the ruinous, longstanding inflationary policy which is going to continue to provide the President with newly created fiat currency for him to spend is bound to manifest itself in a hyperinflationary depression within the next few years. He will not accept blame typically but will take advantage of the chaos he caused to accrue more powers. This might lead to martial law and suspension of elections with confiscation of weapons from the citizens as Hitler did first thing when he was also elected to power.

From the context, I gather that when you refer to "the President" and "He" you are referring to President Obama. That suggests you think the hyperinflation will occur in the next four years. It suggests too that you think President Obama might then impose martial law and follow the tactics of a dictator with respect to suspending elections and disarming the citizens.

Those suggestions concerning President Obama are incorrect. Hopefully we can revisit your dark vision in four years. Or did you mean only some unknown president after him?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Stephen:

This gentleman has a fascinating approach and methodology. I was more concerned than I indicated approaching election day because I follow his blog.

Political pundits, mostly Republican, went into a frenzy when Nate Silver, a
New York Times
pollster and stats blogger, predicted that Barack Obama would win reelection.

But Silver was right and the pundits were wrong - and the impact of this goes way beyond politics.

Silver won because, um, science. As ReadWrite's own
Dan Rowinski noted
, Silver's methodology is all based on data. He "takes deep data sets and applies logical analytical methods" to them. It's all just numbers.

Silver runs a blog called
FiveThirtyEight
, which is licensed by the
Times
. In 2008 he called the presidential election with incredible accuracy, getting 49 out of 50 states right. But this year he rolled a perfect score, 50 out of 50, even nailing the margins in many cases. His uncanny accuracy on this year's election represents what
Rowinski calls
a victory of "logic over punditry."

http://readwrite.com/2012/11/07/why-nate-silver-won-and-why-it-matters?utm_source=ReadWrite+Newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1a2eee99f7-RWWDailyNewsletter&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But Silver was right and the pundits were wrong - and the impact of this goes way beyond politics.

Silver won because, um, science.

I haven't checked into it, but the Fox News types were saying that Silver was totally wrong in 2010. So if all he's done is 2008, 2010, and 2012 then he's scoring 2 out of 3. It was all about turnout, the Dick Morris's were expecting a weaker turnout for Obama and a stronger one for Romney than what, as Joseph Smith would surely have dictated, "came to pass".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ND,

I was following RealClearPolitics as closely in 2010 as I have been this year, and Silver's predictions weren't that good in 2010.

This year, he decided to go with the state polls, not the nationwide ones, and this turned out to be the right decision.

Robert Campbell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations to PDS on your stunningly accurate twofold prediction.

I wonder how you voted on the bridge referendum, which I was pleased to see. The owner of the Windsor-Bridge-is-falling-down spent about $40 million to try and keep his monopoly on the crossborder traffic, but Michign voters in the words of one, "failed to be bought". Well done sirs and mesdames.

Afterthoughts from the outerverse:

1. Romney showed more and more class and grace as the campaign wound down, and nothing in his political life "became him like the leaving of it." I think he would have made a good president, and might have won but for the overweening influence of his own too-visible colleagues and supporters. Case in point, Akin and Trump. A religious fanatic, and a rich bully who mistakenly believes himself to be admired and popular, are the two highest profile faces of "Republicanism" around the world now. With friends likes those...

2. The reframing of the story, as I see it, cannot just be in reshaping capitalism vs socialism, individualism vs collectivism yet again. It has all been said. Instead the story must accommodate to the citizenry, who as one commentator put it, either see themselves as customers of a government which should be run like a business, or...they don't. They see themselves as individual US citizens, and the politicians who succeed will show them a nation that reflects their needs, aspirations, and yes, beliefs---good luck, Sisyphus!

Library again. More later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now