A comeback for limited-government conservatism
But as tempting as it will be for analysts to pin the GOP’s 2012 defeat on an embrace of small-government extremism, the results from last night don’t actually bear this out.
According to exit polls as described by Politico, “53 percent of those surveyed said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals — a figure that’s risen 10 points since the 2008 election. Comparatively, 41 percent of voters said they believe government should be doing more.”
When House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled his first budget proposing sweeping reforms to Medicare and Medicaid in 2011, Democrats celebrated because they thought it would destroy the GOP. …
And yet, the Romney-Ryan ticket obliterated Obama among voters over age 65, winning the group by a 12-point margin. …
If Romney lost the election because the electorate was rebelling against small-government extremism, it should be reflected in his numbers among independents. Yet that group of voters broke for Romney by a five-point margin, according to exit polls.
Blowback
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If that’s the case, why do we have 31-32 of the governorships?
Mitt let himself be used as a punching bag. He didn’t have his surrogates hound Reid, refutting everything that crazy old man said. Mitt didn’t have Rubio all over Telemundo, and never personalized his vision of the future. Mitt ran like he was a Wigg, not a Republican. There was no attack instinct.
Mitt appealed to the base, but few others.
LincolntheHun on November 8, 2012 at 11:50 AM
If small-government conservatism wasn’t popular, we would not have won in 2010. We will win again in 2014 because the country is divided and Obama/Reid don’t seem to get that. they will take this election to mean they have a mandate to do a ton of ultraliberal things and they are going to get smacked down for it. It’s kind of EXACTLY like Bush’s second term, where he said jack about social security in the 2004 election and then insisted he had a mandate to reform SS. Obama now thinks he has a mandate on climate change even though neither candidate said anything about client change. He will overreach and there will be consequences.
Today, I am happy for Ted Cruz and Deb Fischer. They are way better than Dick Lugar and Olympia Snowe.
alwaysfiredup on November 8, 2012 at 11:51 AM
Great point. The “Liberty Campaign” at Universities around the country have been good at show just how ridiculous the Democrats. Point out progressive hypocrisies on issues of choice. They love the “it’s our body” and “it’s my choice’ so use that in all contexts.
MoreLiberty on November 8, 2012 at 11:53 AM
This
single stack on November 8, 2012 at 12:03 PM
The problem is that government entitlements and the welfare state do not force the immoral to face their duly earned consequences.
So long as Social Security and medicare and welfare are on the books, we will never again have a moral society that can be fiscally sane.
astonerii on November 8, 2012 at 12:03 PM
This is why need to support Palin as our 2016 nominee.
ChuckTX on November 8, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Please excuse the redaction.
davidk on November 8, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Exactly right!
davidk on November 8, 2012 at 12:19 PM
Right, like the consequences for ramming obamacare down our throats: a second term.
This election does tell us that the majority of the electorate does not mind crony liberalism, incompetence, corruption, and government interventionism all that much: Obamacare, porkulous, trillion dollar deficits, Fast and Furious, Solyndra et al, hyper-partisanship, attack on religious freedom, Benghazi. After all this they handed Obama and Harry Reid another term.
neuquenguy on November 8, 2012 at 12:19 PM
Only if she runs. Personally I think we need her in the senate first, but again, she has to run.
alwaysfiredup on November 8, 2012 at 12:22 PM
The framers of the needed third party must keep this in mind.
davidk on November 8, 2012 at 12:23 PM
I believe this is correct, although I will note that 2 million McCain voters stayed home this time. Since Obama lost 10 million from last time, had those voters showed up, Romney wins.
I think those people were conservatives who saw Rmney running his nice-guy campaign to woo independents and disillusioned Obama voters.
It seemed to me that every time Romney gained in the polls it was when he was acting and talking like a conservative.
As for the 10th Amendment, the precedent is there, set by Democrats who pass state laws legalizing pot and declaring amnesty status for illegal immigrants while the Feds do nothing to enforce the primacy of Federal law.
If Texas decides they are going to make their own energy policy on 10th amendment grounds and nullify EPA edicts not ratified by Congress, they are on firm ground. make Eric Holder sue them.
Curmudgeon on November 8, 2012 at 12:24 PM
I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but if a third party based of conservative ideals were to form, who would you like to see at the top of the ticket?
davidk on November 8, 2012 at 12:25 PM
They handed Obama another term. Reid was the beneficiary of Dem turnout spillover and some really awful GOP senate nominees. Reid’s days are numbered.
alwaysfiredup on November 8, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Meat Fighter: Ted Cruz won. WTF are you talking about??
SuperBunny on November 8, 2012 at 12:31 PM
Those who vote for their bread and circuses (I wonder how many states in which 0bama won but Rs won down ticket only had President and/or Senator marked on the ballot?) need to see empty stadiums and “No Bread Today” signs. Until we break the machine, we will find it awfully difficult to outvote the 0bamaphones.
This is actually doable. If there’s anything Hollywood and Silicon Valley fear more than Republicans, it’s pirates. The enemy of my enemy… We can let folks have free stuff made at others’ expense too—at the expense of Democrat donors like Bill Gates and Beyonce’
Wouldn’t a telecom company be ecstatic if they got a ruling that merely providing a cell phone without service satisfied the goals of the Lifeline program? FCC rules already ensure that any cell phone that dials 9-1-1 must be passed through to 9-1-1, whether or not it even has cellular service! Bye bye 0bamaphone!
If I were Ulsterman’s Wall Street Insider, I’d be thinking, “Hey, if market manipulation popped the mortgage bubble in time to elect 0bama, what would happen if I did some jiggling and popped the student loan bubble?” Heck, just passing what could be a very popular bill to allow student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy will get banks going Galt. Too bad for the universities with brand new gyms and building-full departments of Bureaucratic Doily-Counting Studies.
We refrain from moves like this because either we find them ungentlemanly or we operate under the delusion that if we don’t attack these voters, they won’t vote against us. Consider this delusion shattered. They’ll hate us no matter what. Let’s be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. As for ungentlemanly, that’s the way the game is played.
Sekhmet on November 8, 2012 at 12:31 PM
Meat Fighter: Cruz won by 16 points. What planet are you on?
SuperBunny on November 8, 2012 at 12:32 PM
I am 100% against third parties. They always lose.
alwaysfiredup on November 8, 2012 at 12:34 PM
will not happen in this millenium.
Myron Falwell on November 8, 2012 at 12:40 PM
In a nutshell, the conservative message is a tough sell when competing against the party of “free stuff.”
Let’s see, personal responsibility or free stuff, hmmm. Which should I choose?
Also, since around 2007, we have more people employed or otherwise living off of various levels of government than are employed in the private sector. The majority of those folks are going to vote to preserve their way of life, their paycheck, not for smaller government.
There’s no question this nation is on a collision course with reality. Until something catastrophic shakes this people to their core and destroys their faith in the “Great White (or black) Father in Washington,” it is only going to get harder for conservatives.
Until then, we need to take the long view and raise our children to understand the basic principles of personal responsibility, free-market economics and limited government. Then we or they will be there when it comes time to rebuild this nation anew.
Ace ODale on November 8, 2012 at 12:43 PM
17 Trillion in debt and we’ll be well over 20T by the time Obama’s term is complete.
Small Government Conservatism WILL make a comeback – it’ll be the only option after the government bankrupts.
Let it bankrupt folks.
HondaV65 on November 8, 2012 at 1:13 PM
@superbunny
No sh1t Sherlock.
I’m on planet earth. It is my understanding that the internals showed he lost 2/3 of the Hispanic Texas vote imon his way to winning.
Meat Fighter on November 8, 2012 at 1:24 PM
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