Republicans got off easy...

In the aftermath of a Presidential election, it's natural for the losing side to do some soul searching. No longer burdened with worrying about the election itself, people tend to open up and admit to themselves where the faults in their political party exist. That is indeed unfortunate, because while the lessons you learn in defeat are helpful in reassessing what you stand for and what you want to achieve, it also means not having the power to implement your policy and correct your mistakes.

For me, this election cycle was one that I watched with morbid fascination. I remember how I felt after the 2004 elections, reading a story about how shortly after President Bush won a second term, liberals were depressed, sullen and not even close to gaining back the House and Senate, let alone reclaiming the Whitehouse. Some felt so lost that a John Kerry supporter went to the former site of the World Trade Center and shot himself in the head in protest. I look back at the 2004 election and just can't help but marvel at how...in politics...nothing is set in stone. In less than four years, Republicans managed to lose the House, Senate, Presidency, a majority of Governorships and public confidence in their policies on National Defense, Taxes and Fiscal Discipline, the bedrock of conservatism itself.

Now, I knew that Republicans stood no chance at winning the Whitehouse when John McCain became our nominee. Once again, Republicans...in their unwillingness to admit that sometimes its OK to piss off liberals and not try to be their friends...allowed democrats and liberal independents to use the open primary system in lots of states to vote for non-conservative candidates. John McCain represents to me the exact type of person Republicans had to get rid off. President Bush had spent a majority of the second term of his Presidency acting like a liberal democrat, and here the Republicans had chosen the most liberal of the candidates we as Republicans had to choose from. Let's not kid ourselves, either, they were all liberals: Romney, Huckabee, Guliani, McCain...none of them were interested in promoting conservatism as a whole. McCain was such a bad candidate that he was trailing in the polls until he selected a running mate that actually spoke directly to the American people and acted like a conservative. Gov. Sarah Palin is everything McCain was not. She is young, attractive, focused, fun, a well-polished orator and was the only one who showed determination to win and draw huge crowds. For a short time, things looked a lot better for the Republicans, that is until the Subprime meltdown. That was the final nail in the our coffin.

To say what happened on November 4th was a disaster would be kind. The election of Barrack Hussein Obama was a complete refutation to Republicans and conservatives alike. It was nothing short of the most embarrassing, shameful and humiliating political experience that I have ever witnessed. We, as a political force, have simply been dismissed. I certainly can't blame voters for throwing Republicans off the bridge, because if someone came into my house and tore it up the way Republicans have dismantled the principles it once stood for, they'd be in the trunk of my car with a shovel headed for the Pine Barrons of New Jersey...

As bad as it all sounds, I can only think of one scenario that would have been worse: What if John McCain had won?

In an earlier article, I had outlined the dangers of Political Paralysis. In short, it is the combination of having a member of your party consistently go against its core principles in favor of appeasing your political enemies, refusing to be partisan and leaving supports in a state where they can neither defend themselves or support their candidate.

In my opinion, John McCain goes against Republicans so often because his experience with being tortured by the filthy Vietnamese animals who held him captive left him in a mental state that meant being at odds with your enemies causes pain. Cooperation, on the other hand - led to better treatment. So, when liberals at the NY Times routinely praised McCain and gave him special treatment because he attacked his own party and the President, he was ill equipped to have the mental strength to engage in a on-on-one partisan fist fight. Barrack Obama had so many political weaknesses and flaws that prior to Bill Clinton becoming President, he never would have been someone that an active politician would have been comfortable saying he knew, let alone become the nominee and winner of the Presidency. If I had been running, I would have called Obama on every weakness he had and made him look like the political joke he actually is. Win or lose, I would have said in no uncertain terms that Obama was a liar; a liar who in fact comes from a corrupt state that is exclusively run and controlled by corrupt liars. McCain did none of that, perhaps a half-hearted attempt at it in the end, but nothing significant. He demonstrated in the end that he didn't have the stomach or heart in victory, because doing so meant having to draw a line in the sand and paint your opponent for the fraud that he is.

If John McCain had won, we would be left once again in the position we have been in for the past 4 years. We would have to spend all of our resources on defense, clawing back at liberals who would paint McCain as a doddering old man and trashing the actions, words and family of Sarah Palin. We would have cringed and held our heads screaming every single time McCain "worked together with Democrats" and allowed our Party to be the wholesale sponsors of the sick, creeping doom of Socialism. He would, in effect, have been treated NO DIFFERENTLY and with LESS RESPECT than President Bush and would have to contend with a liberal electorate and press who would be more uncivil and more biased than they have been for the past few years, and that is difficult to comprehend.

Recently, on the political boards I attend, a liberal started asking Republicans what they thought about a certain issue, and when I responded that what Republicans think doesn't matter anymore because we do not have any more political power, he was uneasy to say the least. He wanted to argue in the same manner he had for years taking pot shots at Republicans for taking ANY stand on ANY issue, but when hit with the realization that liberals were now left in a position akin to a child standing alone in the park with his ball and nobody to throw it back to him, the idea of actually leading and being responsible for decisions and their consequences does not seem quite so easy.

When you have a lot to lose and watch helplessly for years as more and more of what you have is taken away despite your efforts, it is painful beyond words to lose in spite of your attempts to keep what you have. Once you have lost it all, however, there is a certain peace that comes to mind because once you have nothing, you are keenly aware of what you've lost, what is important to you and how you plan on getting it back. Republicans have to figure out if they are going to remain Democrat-Lite or grow a set of balls and stand for something worth voting for.