An excellent
analysis -- very thought-provoking regardless of who you voted
for.
Put aside a little
time to give this piece a meaningful "read"...
READ 7 AND 8 OVER AND OVER...THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY THE BEST TO EXPLAIN.
Laura Hollis is:Current: Associate Professional Specialist and Concurrent
Associate
Professor of Law at University of Notre Dame.
Past: Director at Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Associate
Director and Clinical Professor at University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Education: University of Notre Dame Law School, University of Notre Dame.
Summary: She has 20+ years' experience in curriculum and other program
development and delivery.
I am already reading so many pundits and other talking heads analyzing the
disaster that was this year's elections. I am adding my own ten cents. Here
goes:
1. We are outnumbered
We accurately foresaw the enthusiasm, the passion, the commitment, the
determination, and the turnout. Married women, men, independents, Catholics,
evangelicals - they all went for Romney in percentages as high or higher
than the groups which voted for McCain in 2008. It wasn't enough. What we
saw in the election on November 6th was a tipping point: we are now at a place
where there are legitimately fewer Americans who desire a free republic with
a free people than there are those who think the government should give them
stuff. There are fewer of us who believe in the value of free exchange and
free enterprise. There are fewer of us who do not wish to demonize
successful people in order to justify taking from them. We are outnumbered.
For the moment. It's just that simple.
2. It wasn't the candidate(s)
Some are already saying, "Romney was the wrong guy"; "He should have picked
Marco Rubio to get Florida/Rob Portman to get Ohio/Chris Christie to get
[someplace else]." With all due respect, these assessments are incorrect.
Romney ran a strategic and well-organized campaign. Yes, he could have hit
harder on Benghazi. But for those who would have loved that, there are those
who would have found it distasteful. No matter what tactic you could point
to that Romney could have done better, it would have been spun in a way that
was detrimental to his chances. Romney would have been an excellent
president, and Ryan was an inspired choice. No matter who we ran this year,
they would have lost. See #1, above.
3. It's the culture, stupid!
We have been trying to fight this battle every four years at the voting
booth. It is long past time we admit that is not where the battle really is.
We abdicated control of the culture - starting back in the 1960s. And now
our largest primary social institutions - education, the media, Hollywood
(entertainment) have become really nothing more than an assembly line for
cranking out reliable little Leftists. Furthermore, we have allowed the
government to undermine the institutions that instill good character -
marriage, the family, communities, schools, our churches. So, here we are,
at least two full generations later - we are reaping what we have sown. It
took nearly fifty years to get here; it will take another fifty years to get
back. But it starts with the determination to reclaim education, the media,
and the entertainment business. If we fail to do that, we can kiss every
election goodbye from here on out. And much more.
4. America has become a nation of adolescents
The real loser in this election was adulthood: Maturity. Responsibility. The
understanding that liberty must be accompanied by self-restraint. Obama is a
spoiled child, and the behavior and language of his followers and their
advertisements throughout the campaign makes it clear how many of them are,
as well. Romney is a grown-up. Romney should have won. Those of us who
expected him to win assumed that voters would act like grownups. Because if
we were a nation of grownups, he would have won.
But what did win? Sex. Drugs. Bad language. Bad manners. Vulgarity. Lies.
Cheating. Name-calling. Finger-pointing. Blaming. And irresponsible
spending. This does not bode well. People grow up one of two ways: either
they choose to, or circumstances force them to. The warnings are all there,
whether it is the looming economic disaster, or the inability of the
government to respond to crises like Hurricane Sandy, or the growing
strength and brazenness of our enemies. American voters stick their fingers
in their ears and say, "Lalalalalala, I can't hear you." It is unpleasant to
think about the circumstances it will take to force Americans to grow up It
is even more unpleasant to think about Obama at the helm when those
circumstances arrive.
5. Yes, there is apparently a Vagina Vote
It's the subject matter of another column in its entirety to point out, one
by one, all of the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the Democrats this
year. Suffice it to say that the only "war on women" was the one waged by
the Obama campaign, which sexualized and objectified women, featuring them
dressed up like vulvas at the Democrat National Convention, appealing to
their "lady parts," comparing voting to losing your virginity with Obama,
trumpeting the thrills of destroying our children in the womb (and using our
daughters in commercials to do so), and making Catholics pay for their birth
control. For a significant number of women, this was appealing. It might
call into question the wisdom of the Nineteenth Amendment, but for the fact
that large numbers of women (largely married) used their "lady smarts"
instead. Either way, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are rolling
over in their graves. (in case you don't know, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote)
Professor of Law at University of Notre Dame.
Past: Director at Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Associate
Director and Clinical Professor at University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Education: University of Notre Dame Law School, University of Notre Dame.
Summary: She has 20+ years' experience in curriculum and other program
development and delivery.
I am already reading so many pundits and other talking heads analyzing the
disaster that was this year's elections. I am adding my own ten cents. Here
goes:
1. We are outnumbered
We accurately foresaw the enthusiasm, the passion, the commitment, the
determination, and the turnout. Married women, men, independents, Catholics,
evangelicals - they all went for Romney in percentages as high or higher
than the groups which voted for McCain in 2008. It wasn't enough. What we
saw in the election on November 6th was a tipping point: we are now at a place
where there are legitimately fewer Americans who desire a free republic with
a free people than there are those who think the government should give them
stuff. There are fewer of us who believe in the value of free exchange and
free enterprise. There are fewer of us who do not wish to demonize
successful people in order to justify taking from them. We are outnumbered.
For the moment. It's just that simple.
2. It wasn't the candidate(s)
Some are already saying, "Romney was the wrong guy"; "He should have picked
Marco Rubio to get Florida/Rob Portman to get Ohio/Chris Christie to get
[someplace else]." With all due respect, these assessments are incorrect.
Romney ran a strategic and well-organized campaign. Yes, he could have hit
harder on Benghazi. But for those who would have loved that, there are those
who would have found it distasteful. No matter what tactic you could point
to that Romney could have done better, it would have been spun in a way that
was detrimental to his chances. Romney would have been an excellent
president, and Ryan was an inspired choice. No matter who we ran this year,
they would have lost. See #1, above.
3. It's the culture, stupid!
We have been trying to fight this battle every four years at the voting
booth. It is long past time we admit that is not where the battle really is.
We abdicated control of the culture - starting back in the 1960s. And now
our largest primary social institutions - education, the media, Hollywood
(entertainment) have become really nothing more than an assembly line for
cranking out reliable little Leftists. Furthermore, we have allowed the
government to undermine the institutions that instill good character -
marriage, the family, communities, schools, our churches. So, here we are,
at least two full generations later - we are reaping what we have sown. It
took nearly fifty years to get here; it will take another fifty years to get
back. But it starts with the determination to reclaim education, the media,
and the entertainment business. If we fail to do that, we can kiss every
election goodbye from here on out. And much more.
4. America has become a nation of adolescents
The real loser in this election was adulthood: Maturity. Responsibility. The
understanding that liberty must be accompanied by self-restraint. Obama is a
spoiled child, and the behavior and language of his followers and their
advertisements throughout the campaign makes it clear how many of them are,
as well. Romney is a grown-up. Romney should have won. Those of us who
expected him to win assumed that voters would act like grownups. Because if
we were a nation of grownups, he would have won.
But what did win? Sex. Drugs. Bad language. Bad manners. Vulgarity. Lies.
Cheating. Name-calling. Finger-pointing. Blaming. And irresponsible
spending. This does not bode well. People grow up one of two ways: either
they choose to, or circumstances force them to. The warnings are all there,
whether it is the looming economic disaster, or the inability of the
government to respond to crises like Hurricane Sandy, or the growing
strength and brazenness of our enemies. American voters stick their fingers
in their ears and say, "Lalalalalala, I can't hear you." It is unpleasant to
think about the circumstances it will take to force Americans to grow up It
is even more unpleasant to think about Obama at the helm when those
circumstances arrive.
5. Yes, there is apparently a Vagina Vote
It's the subject matter of another column in its entirety to point out, one
by one, all of the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the Democrats this
year. Suffice it to say that the only "war on women" was the one waged by
the Obama campaign, which sexualized and objectified women, featuring them
dressed up like vulvas at the Democrat National Convention, appealing to
their "lady parts," comparing voting to losing your virginity with Obama,
trumpeting the thrills of destroying our children in the womb (and using our
daughters in commercials to do so), and making Catholics pay for their birth
control. For a significant number of women, this was appealing. It might
call into question the wisdom of the Nineteenth Amendment, but for the fact
that large numbers of women (largely married) used their "lady smarts"
instead. Either way, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are rolling
over in their graves. (in case you don't know, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote)
6. It's not about giving up on "social
issues"
No Republican candidate should participate in a debate or go out on the
stump without thorough debate prep and a complete set of talking points that
they stick to. This should start with a good grounding in biology and a
reluctance to purport to know the will of God. (Thank you, Todd and
Richard.)
That said, we do not hold the values we do because they garner votes. We
hold the values we do because we believe that they are time-tested
principles without which a civilized, free and prosperous society is not
possible.
We defend the unborn because we understand that a society which views some
lives as expendable is capable of viewing all lives as expendable.
We defend family - mothers, fathers, marriage, children - because history
makes it quite clear that societies without intact families quickly descend
into anarchy and barbarism, and we have plenty of proof of that in our inner
cities where marriage is infrequent and unwed motherhood approaches 80
percent. When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, many thought that the
abortion cause was lost. Forty years later, ultrasound technology has
demonstrated the inevitable connection between science and morality. More
Americans than ever define themselves as "pro-life." What is tragic is that
tens of millions of children have lost their lives while Americans figure
out what should have been obvious before. There is no "giving up" on social
issues. There is only the realization that we have to fight the battle on
other fronts. The truth will win out in the end.
7. Obama does not have a mandate. And he does not need one.
I have to laugh - bitterly - when I read conservative pundits trying to
assure us that Obama "has to know" that he does not have a mandate, and so
he will have to govern from the middle. I don't know what they're smoking.
Obama does not care that he does not have a mandate. He does not view
himself as being elected (much less re-elected) to represent individuals. He
views himself as having been re-elected to complete the "fundamental
transformation" of America, the basic structure of which he despises. Expect
much more of the same - largely the complete disregard of the will of half
the American public, his willingness to rule by executive order, and the
utter inability of another divided Congress to rein him in. Stanley Kurtz
has it all laid out here.
8. The Corrupt Media is the enemy
Too strong? I don't think so. I have been watching the media try to throw
elections since at least the early 1990s. In 2008 and again this year, we
saw the media cravenly cover up for the incompetence and deceit of this
President, while demonizing a good, honorable and decent man with lies and
smears. This is on top of the daily barrage of insults that conservatives
(and by that I mean the electorate, not the politicians) must endure at the
hands of this arrogant bunch of elitist snobs. Bias is one thing. What we
observed with Benghazi was professional malpractice and fraud. They need to
go. Republicans, Libertarians and other conservatives need to be prepared to
play hardball with the Pravda press from here on out. And while we are at
it, to defend those journalists of whatever political stripe (Jake Tapper,
Sharyl Atkisson, Eli Lake) who actually do their jobs. As well as Fox News
and talk radio. Because you can fully expect a re-elected Obama to try to
reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in term 2.
9. Small business and entrepreneurs will be hurt the worst
For all the blather about "Wall Street versus Main Street," Obama's statist
agenda will unquestionably benefit the biggest corporations which - as with
the public sector unions - are in the best position to make campaign
donations, hire lobbyists, and get special exemptions carved out from
Obama's health care laws, his environmental regulations, his labor laws. It
will be the small business, the entrepreneur, and the first-time innovators
who will be crushed by their inability to compete on a level playing field.
10. America is more polarized than ever; and this time it's personal
I've been following politics for a long time, and it feels different this
time. Not just for me. I've received messages from other conservatives who
are saying the same thing: there is little to no tolerance left out there
for those who are bringing this country to its knees - even when they have
been our friends. It isn't just about "my guy" versus "your guy." It is my
view of America versus your view of America - a crippled, hemorrhaging,
debt-laden, weakened and dependent America that I want no part of and resent
being foisted on me. I no longer have any patience for stupidity, blindness,
or vulgarity, so with each dumb "tweet" or FB post by one of my happily
lefty comrades, another one bites the dust, for me. Delete. What does this
portend for a divided Congress? I expect that Republicans will be
demoralized and chastened for a short time. But I see them in a bad
position. Americans in general want Congress to work together. But many do
not want Obama's policies, and so Republicans who support them will be
toast. Good luck, guys.
11. It's possible that America just has to hit rock bottom
I truly believe that most Americans who voted for Obama have no idea what
they are in for. Most simply believe him when he says that all he really
wants is for the rich to pay "a little bit more." So reasonable! Who could
argue with that except a greedy racist?
America is on a horrific bender. Has been for some time now. The warning
signs of our fiscal profligacy and culture of lack of personal
responsibility are everywhere - too many to mention. We need only look at
other countries which have gone the route we are walking now to see what is
in store.
For the past four years - but certainly within the past campaign season - we
have tried to warn Americans. Too many refuse to listen, even when all of
the events that have transpired during Obama's presidency - unemployment,
economic stagnation, skyrocketing prices, the depression of the dollar, the
collapse of foreign policy, Benghazi, hopelessly inept responses to natural
disasters - can be tied directly to Obama's statist philosophies, and his
decisions.
What that means, I fear, is that they will not see what is coming until the
whole thing collapses. That is what makes me so sad today. I see the country
I love headed toward its own "rock bottom," and I cannot seem to reach those
who are taking it there.
No Republican candidate should participate in a debate or go out on the
stump without thorough debate prep and a complete set of talking points that
they stick to. This should start with a good grounding in biology and a
reluctance to purport to know the will of God. (Thank you, Todd and
Richard.)
That said, we do not hold the values we do because they garner votes. We
hold the values we do because we believe that they are time-tested
principles without which a civilized, free and prosperous society is not
possible.
We defend the unborn because we understand that a society which views some
lives as expendable is capable of viewing all lives as expendable.
We defend family - mothers, fathers, marriage, children - because history
makes it quite clear that societies without intact families quickly descend
into anarchy and barbarism, and we have plenty of proof of that in our inner
cities where marriage is infrequent and unwed motherhood approaches 80
percent. When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, many thought that the
abortion cause was lost. Forty years later, ultrasound technology has
demonstrated the inevitable connection between science and morality. More
Americans than ever define themselves as "pro-life." What is tragic is that
tens of millions of children have lost their lives while Americans figure
out what should have been obvious before. There is no "giving up" on social
issues. There is only the realization that we have to fight the battle on
other fronts. The truth will win out in the end.
7. Obama does not have a mandate. And he does not need one.
I have to laugh - bitterly - when I read conservative pundits trying to
assure us that Obama "has to know" that he does not have a mandate, and so
he will have to govern from the middle. I don't know what they're smoking.
Obama does not care that he does not have a mandate. He does not view
himself as being elected (much less re-elected) to represent individuals. He
views himself as having been re-elected to complete the "fundamental
transformation" of America, the basic structure of which he despises. Expect
much more of the same - largely the complete disregard of the will of half
the American public, his willingness to rule by executive order, and the
utter inability of another divided Congress to rein him in. Stanley Kurtz
has it all laid out here.
8. The Corrupt Media is the enemy
Too strong? I don't think so. I have been watching the media try to throw
elections since at least the early 1990s. In 2008 and again this year, we
saw the media cravenly cover up for the incompetence and deceit of this
President, while demonizing a good, honorable and decent man with lies and
smears. This is on top of the daily barrage of insults that conservatives
(and by that I mean the electorate, not the politicians) must endure at the
hands of this arrogant bunch of elitist snobs. Bias is one thing. What we
observed with Benghazi was professional malpractice and fraud. They need to
go. Republicans, Libertarians and other conservatives need to be prepared to
play hardball with the Pravda press from here on out. And while we are at
it, to defend those journalists of whatever political stripe (Jake Tapper,
Sharyl Atkisson, Eli Lake) who actually do their jobs. As well as Fox News
and talk radio. Because you can fully expect a re-elected Obama to try to
reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in term 2.
9. Small business and entrepreneurs will be hurt the worst
For all the blather about "Wall Street versus Main Street," Obama's statist
agenda will unquestionably benefit the biggest corporations which - as with
the public sector unions - are in the best position to make campaign
donations, hire lobbyists, and get special exemptions carved out from
Obama's health care laws, his environmental regulations, his labor laws. It
will be the small business, the entrepreneur, and the first-time innovators
who will be crushed by their inability to compete on a level playing field.
10. America is more polarized than ever; and this time it's personal
I've been following politics for a long time, and it feels different this
time. Not just for me. I've received messages from other conservatives who
are saying the same thing: there is little to no tolerance left out there
for those who are bringing this country to its knees - even when they have
been our friends. It isn't just about "my guy" versus "your guy." It is my
view of America versus your view of America - a crippled, hemorrhaging,
debt-laden, weakened and dependent America that I want no part of and resent
being foisted on me. I no longer have any patience for stupidity, blindness,
or vulgarity, so with each dumb "tweet" or FB post by one of my happily
lefty comrades, another one bites the dust, for me. Delete. What does this
portend for a divided Congress? I expect that Republicans will be
demoralized and chastened for a short time. But I see them in a bad
position. Americans in general want Congress to work together. But many do
not want Obama's policies, and so Republicans who support them will be
toast. Good luck, guys.
11. It's possible that America just has to hit rock bottom
I truly believe that most Americans who voted for Obama have no idea what
they are in for. Most simply believe him when he says that all he really
wants is for the rich to pay "a little bit more." So reasonable! Who could
argue with that except a greedy racist?
America is on a horrific bender. Has been for some time now. The warning
signs of our fiscal profligacy and culture of lack of personal
responsibility are everywhere - too many to mention. We need only look at
other countries which have gone the route we are walking now to see what is
in store.
For the past four years - but certainly within the past campaign season - we
have tried to warn Americans. Too many refuse to listen, even when all of
the events that have transpired during Obama's presidency - unemployment,
economic stagnation, skyrocketing prices, the depression of the dollar, the
collapse of foreign policy, Benghazi, hopelessly inept responses to natural
disasters - can be tied directly to Obama's statist philosophies, and his
decisions.
What that means, I fear, is that they will not see what is coming until the
whole thing collapses. That is what makes me so sad today. I see the country
I love headed toward its own "rock bottom," and I cannot seem to reach those
who are taking it there.
By :Laura Hollis
Terrific insight! This effort to inform needs publication on all media.
ReplyDelete