Countdown to 2012
I know I may piss off my Republican fans, but the fact of the matter is, the only use I have for Republicans is the opposition to Democrats. Only a Republican can defeat Obama in 2012, but I fear the formula necessary to do it will not be implemented by anyone.
The unfortunate reality is our election for President is now a student body election. Being smart or on the right side of policies matters little if at all. Liberal democrats oppose gay marriage vehemently, yet they didn’t blink when they pulled the lever for Barack Obama. It could seem reasonable if perhaps they voiced their objection, but voted for him anyway, as many conservatives and Republicans did for John McCain. But the vast majority of Obama voters really did not even acknowledge it. How does that happen?
The Democrat party has been extremely successful in their ability to partition society into groups, aka identity politics. Convince the leadership of a group to only vote for one party, and that leadership will get impressive results. Part of this process has been to convince large amounts of Americans that Republicans are insensitive at best, and vicious bigots at worst.
These generalizations CAN be defeated in political discourse, but the Republican party often refuses to. They opt for short term solutions and screw themselves in the long term. Apologizing for a racial comment would be one example. I didn’t say racIST; I said racIAL. Mentioning a mistake by an individual that happens not to be white is not racist, but many liberals pounce on any racial comment and declare is racist.
A month ago, I would been able to name three people capable of combatting the success of Democrat identity politics. The first would have been Newt Gingrich. He has been more eloquent than most about explaining fiscal conservatism and contrasting it with fiscal liberalism or socialism. In other words, he has had the balls to take the Democrats head on concerning multiple issues. He left his balls at home when he apologized for calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist, which she is. He has proven he can’t go all the way in a long, arduous campaign.
The second person is Dick Cheney. The guy ran circles around Obama a few weeks back concerning interrogation, etc. Just demolished him, despite Keith Olbermann’s best efforts to tell people otherwise. Cheney has been steadfast (as far as I’m aware) about sticking to his guns and not backing down from any debate, even if people call him names. Unfortunately, I fear he has been so damaged by the many myths about him and Halliburton that he is unelectable. I would also file Sarah Palin under this category, at least in the short term. (Update 7/2/09 - Krauthammer agrees with me)
The third person is Mitt Romney. I fear he is the last hope of defeating Obama in 2012. Barack Obama thanks his lucky stars that Romney didn’t get the nomination, because if he had, the economic crash of September would have played right into the hands of Romney, an extremely successful businessman who has shown he knows the economy. I don’t pretend Romney is the biggest expert on the economy. Again, this is a student body presidential election, so he is as close as its gonna get.
Romney has the look, the voice, the gravitas that has a chance with the pop culture vote that Obama courted in 2008. I know Obama supporters that love Romney. Now for anyone out there that follows politics, you might wonder how the hell one person could simultaneously like Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. The answer is simple, albeit irritating. It’s because Presidential elections have ceased to have anything to do with being qualified and having experience. It doesn’t matter that Romney and Obama disagree on virtually every major issue. They’re both likeable to the ignorant masses of voters. Yes, I am calling voters ignorant. Not all of them, just 90% of them.
Romney is the guy. Moral purists like myself will just have to ignore Romney’s occasional flip-flop if they want to replace the Marxist Barack Obama. I think the situation is so dire that the lesser of two evils has become absolutely necessary if we don’t want to spend decades cleaning up Obama’s mess.
There are other people out there who have potential besides Romney, but until they become bigger celebrities, they won’t have a chance against Obama’s pop culture vote. The next Republican has to tap that demographic to have a chance, and Romney is the current front-runner for accomplishing that.
The only other way is to have someone blacker run on the Republican ticket. I’m not in favor of picking a candidate because they’re black, but in the discussion of how to beat Obama, that would be one possible way. Clarence Thomas, Ken Blackwell, JC Watts… I dont know much about Blackwell or Watts, but they’re both young and black enough to grab a lot of 2008 Obama voters. Again, I only point this out in a political context. Come to think of it now… Clarence Thomas would wipe the floor with Obama if there was a snowball’s chance in Al Gore’s melting Arctic that he would step down from his lifetime appointment to be viciously attacked again. He won’t.
Like I said, Romney’s the guy.