It’s tempting to blame voters for rejecting what seems so obvious to those of us who live and breathe politics. Democrats do it; Republicans do it. And whether you are on the Red team or the Blue team it is both a tactical mistake and a moral blind spot.

The reason why it is a tactical mistake is too obvious to belabor. Nobody likes to be yelled at and told they are stupid. Yelling “don’t you see?!?!?!” ever more loudly has convinced exactly nobody ever. It is the equivalent of yelling “calm down!” It fails every time.

The moral reason seems equally obvious to me. A free people simply has to be responsible for maintaining their own freedom, and unless and until it is unquestionably obvious that tyranny has replaced freedom we are obligated to respect the decisions of our fellow citizens. If our elections became shams–and no, they are not shams–we must respect them, even when we disagree. We ask no less of our neighbors.

You and I can look around and conclude that we are on the path to ruin–and I believe that we are–and be frustrated that others don’t agree enough to kick out the wannabe tyrants, but unfortunately that is how it is.

We are morally obligated to respect the judgment of our fellow citizens, and pragmatically obligated to treat them with respect. Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” won her no votes she didn’t already have, and as much as anything cost her the election. Not the phrase, but the obvious contempt she had for us that was oozing from every pore as she spoke.

Either you believe that a free people should be allowed to govern themselves, or you don’t. If you do, commiserate with your neighbors and get organized to fight back, or watch your freedom slip away.

We all know that a self-governing, free America is not inevitable. The powers-that-be are working diligently to replace our Republic with a transnational Elite running things, but whatever we fear we are not there yet. The 2022 midterm elections seem to have moved us a step closer to that outcome, but they haven’t appreciably. The Republicans in Congress can still stymie Biden’s legislative programs, and no electoral victory on Tuesday would have changed his impulse to use his legitimate and illegitimate executive powers to impose his will on us.

In practical terms, nothing has really changed for the worse, and perhaps things changed a bit for the better on Tuesday.

Biden, if anything, is emboldened by dodging a bullet, and as a result will act in ways even more offensive to even more people–and it’s not like people aren’t angry already. As the country and the world slide deeper and deeper into an inevitable crisis he will be given and even embrace more and more credit. He revels in his power.

Biden to @AP's @ZekeJMiller on what he'll do differently: "Nothing b/c they're just finding out what we're doing. The more they know…the more support there is….[T]he problem is that the major piece of legislation…takes time to be recognized. pic.twitter.com/nU3u7173Oq

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 9, 2022

A crisis of massive proportions is upon us, and Biden owns and embraces the responsibility for it. No victory on Tuesday would have changed the course of the next two years much. But they have left the responsibility for causing the crisis indisputably on Biden and his party. Biden, the author of this tragedy, will ultimately be tarred with responsibility alone.

Lest you survey the electoral landscape post-Tuesday and despair, take heart from Ron DeSantis’ total victory in Florida. I am not going to make my pitch for why DeSantis should be the presidential candidate in 2024 here, because that is not my point at the moment.

Instead I want you to to take a look at the fact that Republicans can not only win elections with the right message combined with the fact of obvious competence, but can actually do so decisively. DeSantis didn’t just win; he won a mandate. A mandate he earned through deeds, not just words.

DeSantis’ victory was absolute, and was not based only upon saying the right things, but upon doing those things and doing them superbly. Almost without peer, DeSantis proved that the combination of selling a great product matched with actually delivering one is a winning combination. Most of our candidates were basically running against their opponents, promising not to be as awful as they.

Not being totally awful is better than the alternative, but not by much. And, it turned out, not by enough to win enough races.

The voters doubted the sincerity and competence of Republicans in too many cases. They said: “no, I think you will suck too.” And, in too many cases, they would have been right.

Making the right promises and going after your opponent can provide temporary victories, but is not exactly going to inspire a lot of confidence. Way too many voters thought they were presented with the choice between Crazy #1 and Crazy #2, and wished they had a Sane alternative #3 instead.

DeSantis, on the other hand, had already proven he could govern, and govern superbly. Only after meeting that threshold could he make significant progress on the issues that matter most to us. DeSantis’ competence in hurricane recovery buys him the right to fight the other battles we know are vitally important.

If the bridge is out and food can’t get delivered, drag queen story hours are a distant concern.

DeSantis’ undeniable competence at governance and not just jousting skill is what makes his success possible, and that is a lesson we must take in. And in this voters have a point. They are, after all, being asked to allow the electoral victor to govern.

We have to demand more of our own. If we want to prevail in the cultural battles that matter so much, we all have to provide and deserve competence in doing the basic government tasks that matter to everybody regardless of ideology. Ideological battles come after, not instead of, bread and butter issues.

Republicans talked an awful lot about those bread and butter issues, but voters feared that our real concern was elsewhere. At least I think they did, because that is what I heard from my Republican-skeptic friends and relatives. They bought the MSM spin about our nuttiness because they hear it constantly. And they, unlike us, don’t get bombarded daily with examples of how nutty the Left truly is.

They are aware of it, but they think it is fringe among Democrats, and central to us. The opposite is the case, and DeSantis proved that in Florida. Kemp, Abbot, Youngkin and DeSantis have to keep it up, and as they do Republicans gain credibility.

This is why Republican governors have tended to be our best candidates–they passed the threshold of competence and earned a listen from the voters. There is a lesson in that.

FROM THE BOSS:

Now that the midterms are over, we must now prepare for the all-important 2024 presidential cycle — in fact, even more urgently than before. We need to make sure Democrats are one and done in the White House, and keep them locked out of control of Congress too. If you want real in-depth analysis and exclusive content and wish to support the long-term mission, join HotAir VIP today and use promo code VIPWEEK to receive 45% off your membership!