The Quiet Conservative November 4, 2009
Can You Fix Stupid?
In the early morning the television pundits were trying to coordinate a message on what happened in
yesterday's elections. Both political camps, the Marxists on the left and the clueless on the right, were
trying to spin in their favor or limit the damage of the results.
Yesterday Baghdad Bob Gibbs stated the President would not be watching the election coverage on
television. That was an odd statement considering how much campaigning Obama has done in the
races. But it provided cover for what the national level Democrats already knew, they were going to
lose the governorship in Virginia. New Jersey was questionable with too many people watching to steal
the election the old fashioned way. So Mr. Gibbs, reading the tea leaves, tried to infer the President
was up for a marathon of Golden Girls on TV Land and couldn't be bothered watching politics.
Virginia, which had voted for Obama, went with the Republican McDonell instead for governor one
year later. Even after the Washington Post tried to sink his campaign. New Jersey, ever the Democrat
stronghold, finally had enough of Corzine and went Republican too. That's two governorships that
definitely send a message to the leaders in DC that socialism isn't popular with the people.
There were other signs too. In New York, two counties that were reliable Democratic went red.
Westchester County, suburb of New York City, and Nassau County, Long Island blue blood land, both
voted in Republican leadership. How can this be? New York is the heart of liberalism! In fact, the
Northeast has been lost to the forces of darkness for decades. But it gets worse.
In Maine, voters rejected the legislature mandated gay marriage. If there is a touchstone of how
liberalism attacks the family, gay marriage is it. Yet voters rejected the law telling the lawmakers that
they aren't quite the masters they thought. Not very progressive of them, is it? This makes every state
that has had a vote on gay marriage turning it down. Thirty one states have voted, thirty one have said
no. Gay marriage only exists where it is mandated by liberal courts or imposed by liberal legislatures.
This guiding principle of Socialism has been soundly rejected by the populace. Liberalism, when
defined and not hid, always loses.
And then, there is New York Congressional District 23. This is the most famous and most spun race
in the election cycle. This is the microcosm of the 2008 election and the coming 2010 election in one
neat little morality play. The Republican incumbent John McHugh leaves office to work for the
Obama Administration as Secretary of the Army. This creates a vacancy for the congressional seat
and a chance for the Republicans to retain the seat that has been Republican for over a hundred years.
The district voted for Obama but otherwise has been Republican. So, who do you put up?
If Republicans learned anything from the 2008 elections it should have been that conservatives stayed
home. McCain, socially liberal as they come, was adored by the press as a "maverick." Which meant,
he could be reliably counted on to vote against his own party at every turn. He and his "Gang of
Twelve" sunk the Republican majority in Congress from passing any meaningful reform and hamstrung
most of the initiatives that President Bush put forward. When it became time to go to the polls in 2008
the only reason McCain didn't get shellacked like Walter Mondale did facing Ronald Reagan, was
because Sarah Palin was his V.P. pick. No one went to the rallies to see McCain, they went to see
Palin. She was the unashamed conservative.
Nationally in '08 Democrats won not because they ran as liberals, but because they ran as more
conservative than their Republican opponents. The "big tent" philosophy of the national Republicans
could have been crafted by the DNC. It certainly worked in their favor. Even Obama tailored his
speeches to appear fiscally conservative. He ran as a centrist and people that didn't follow politics or
believed the corrupt press were fooled. But did the national Republicans learn from this? Oh, heck no.
You wonder if you can fix stupid. Now a year later the New York state and national Republicans had
to pick a candidate to retain the congressional seat. The Democratic party put up Bill Owens, a former
Air Force captain. Owens ran as a fiscal conservative who would bring jobs to the region. A family
man and grandfather, he would be a political neophyte who isn't a radical member of the Marxist
machine running the country. What wasn't there to like?
In response the Republican party put up Dede Scozzafava, a long time politician and member of the
state assembly. She would be the most liberal, sorry, "moderate", candidate in the race. Scozzafava
was pro choice, for card check (eliminating secret voting for unions), pro stimulus, pro union, anti
business, and arguably more in tune with Nancy Pelosi that Bill Owens. She had the prior support of
ACORN, the AFL-CIO, the SEIU, Planned Parenthood, and NARAL Pro Choice America. You can't
get much more Republican than that, can you?
The national Republicans threw their support behind Sozzafava. Newt Gingrich threw his support
behind her. The Republican establishment had spoken. Yet the people didn't accept what the
Republican establishment served them. They looked for a third party candidate that represented what
the Republican Party used to stand for. This came in the form of Doug Hoffman, third party
candidate. Hoffman was solidly conservative and soon garnered the endorsements of Sarah Palin,
Fred Thompson, the Club for Growth, and many, many other conservative groups.
It quickly became a two person race, the conservative Democrat Bill Owens, and the Conservative
Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Oh, Scozzafava? She was a distant, fading third place. You
remember her, she was the one backed by Newt Gingrich, the state Republican party, and the national
Republican party. 2008, meet 2009. Still clueless.
Out of money, out of votes, Scozzafava did what any RINO would, she dropped out of the race and
actively campaigned for the Democrat. For truly she was more liberal than the person with the "D"
after his name. Her efforts in turning out the votes for Owens might have made the difference, it might
not have. Hoffman, while right on the issues, wasn't an eloquent or even good public speaker. When
the election totals came in, the end result was Owens (D) 49.1%, Hoffman (C) 45.4%, and Scozzafava
(R) 5.5%. The seat goes to the Democrats and arguably the whole face of the blame sits squarely on
the national and state level Republican party. As in 2008, the people voted for what they perceived as
the most conservative candidate. While it might be a sham, when the Democrats manage to portray
their candidates as that most conservative candidate, they win. When the Republicans insist on running
liberals, they lose. They lost this seat, they lost the presidency, they lost this district. They will always
lose when promoting RINO's.
The Republican Party picked up two governorships and numerous seats in Democratic districts. Gay
marriage failed in both Washington state and Maine. People are socially and fiscally conservative.
Values win, prudence wins, freedom wins. While the national level Democratic party is devoted to
instituting socialism and the demise of America as a superpower, the Republican establishment is
dedicated to not learning from its mistakes. They have two clear examples smacking them in the face,
will they wake up? Can you fix stupid? They have one year to show if they can or not.