The Election Was Fun But Don’t Get Too Happy

electionEighteen years ago I met a Democratic consultant who said to me, “David, your side doesn’t give people a reason to vote for them. Republicans only win when Democrats screw up big time.” This year Democrats screwed up big time (along with many pollsters), and Republicans won big time. There’s a lot of good news here, especially the Republican gubernatorial victories in Democratic states like Michigan and Wisconsin, and battleground states like Ohio and Florida. Perhaps the most inexplicable good news of the day was the fact that Sandra Fluke got trounced by a Republican in the People’s Republic of Santa Monica. No wonder Democrats are weaker now than at any time since the 1920s.

Looking over this Democratic wreckage, Republican doomsayers should take note. The American people are not “low information” dummies, who will believe anything Democrats tell them. Abe Lincoln had it right: “You can fool some of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Republicans should also note that despite all the people on food stamps and all of the voters getting free stuff – 47% by Mitt Romney’s misguided count – they were still independent and savvy enough to return Scott Walker in Wisconsin, to elect Tim Cotton in Arkansas, and to defeat Sandra Fluke in Santa Monica. Finally, Democrats’ racist appeals to minority voters don’t seem to be working as well as they used to. All these Republican whines were in fact excuses for poorly run political campaigns. Normally, you have to defeat your opponents. You can’t count on them to defeat themselves. Normally.

And this raises the big question, which is 2016. Democrats, when they are not over reaching and claiming against all evidence that the party of Joni Ernst and Shelley Moore Capito and Nikki Haley is conducting a war against women, are formidable political opponents. When they regroup after this defeat they will not be so easy beat in 2016. Unless…

Unless Obama, ideologue that he is, determines to stay the course, grants amnesty to 11 million illegals, continues to use fly swatters to combat ISIS, alternately stonewalls and heads for the golf course in the face of major crises, and vetoes Republican bills to restore the economy. There is always this possibility but don’t count on it. And in the absence of such screw-ups, Republicans will need to get their act together and give voters something to vote for.

Here’s an idea. What Republicans should offer voters is a national security program that protects them, and individual freedom. Freedom to choose their healthcare; freedom to run their businesses in an environment where government is not looking over their shoulders at every turn and stifling their incentives to create jobs; freedom to go about their lives without fear of terrorist attacks; freedom to shape their country and its culture within secure borders; freedom from electoral fraud, and IRS intrusion designed to turn their country into a one-party state.

These are not only policy preferences; they are moral themes – calls to action – that sum up what the Republican Party is about.

David Horowitz is the author of the recently published book Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan For Defeating The Left (Regnery 2014).

Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.

  • Race_Dissident

    If the Repubs had adopted Horowitz as their primary political guru 30 years ago, this country wouldn’t be ready to shuffle off its mortal coil.

  • physicsnut

    yup – what was that about “tea baggers” and “old white men” etc etc
    and can Mark Zuckerberg hear us now ?

  • garyhope

    Is it OK if I’m giddily happy for at least a couple of days? I’m trying to get over 6 years of depression and despair. I’m having a glass of wine. Actually a couple of glasses. Heck, maybe even the whole bottle.

    • Bamaguje

      Don’t celebrate too much yet, until GOP regains the White House in 2016.
      That’s when the nation’s fortunes can begin to positively turn around.
      With Obama still around, the Republican agenda to rescue the nation will remain hamstrung.

      • claspur

        Need to get past all the swearings-in, in January.
        Then both houses have to keep Obola on a short leash, as
        best as possible.
        This guy isn’t a mad-cornered animal, yet, until January.
        I can see him getting ‘yanked’ out of office by both parties if he
        goes totally rogue.

      • garyhope

        I know what you mean and I agree that we can’t rest.

        I also had a funny thought today that since Obammy is a petulant spoiled brat, that he might get bored and since he doesn’t know what to do when anybody says “No” to him and he doesn’t get what he wants that he may just resign. He can move to Hawaii and just coast along and play golf every single day without all of those pesky and so beneath him problems of “typical white person” “folks”. What a whining sissy and incompetent narcissistic loser.

    • truebearing

      In vino veritas? Well, maybe not, but enjoy yourself. I’ll be celebrating on Friday.

      • garyhope

        There may not be total truth in wine, but there will be a little temporary enjoyment, and schadenfreude pleasure over the Dim Dem, Dhimi loses.

  • Erudite Mavin

    When Pures and Third party disrupters run, they enable the Democrats to victory.
    The Virginia Senate race – Democrat Mark Warner – 49.1% — Republican Ed Gillespie – 48.5%
    Then there is the Libertarian Sarvis at 2.5%
    Conservatives who think that libertarians are some other form of conservative (which is not the fact) and vote for that person rather than the Republican to make a point handed Virginia to the Democrat for the Senate.
    and libertarians if they were Conservatives would not enable a Democrat to the senate, but they did as the usual.
    ——
    The Louisiana Senate election will have a run off in a few months as they need 50% to win and would not have been necessary for the following:
    Democrat Landrieu – 42.1% — Republican Cassidy – 41.0%
    and then there was a tea party Republican running who in the polls was around 13% and obvious this is a disrupter and those who voted were making a point rather than defeat the Democrat. R. – Maness 13.8%

    • shinny_head

      This is not unusual in Louisiana. I remember several elections won by Dems because there was a 3rd ultra conservative candidate.
      I do not know about this election but in past elections Dems actually funded ultra conservative candidates to siphon votes away from the more acceptable Republican candidate.

    • dwayne roberson

      Same old bullmoose.

  • Hard Little Machine

    Obama is smart enough to do nothing so that the next Democratic candidate can run however they want. As soon as he states he wants to do ‘something’ he dooms the chances of any Democratic candidate with all the Obamyness that will stick to them. As it is, Obama’s main tactic is never have a direction or a stated goal and no operational plan to get there. He simply springs pronouncements and ‘successes’ on us by fiat.

  • Colt

    The first thing the Republicans should do is pass a real budget. Something the Dems and their fearless leader have never bothered to do. Then they should pass a bill a week. Start small and work their way up to repealing Obama Scare. Show the American people how to really govern. Screw Obama.

  • jzsnake

    I know this might not rate up there with the victories mentioned above but being from the great state of Jowja thank G-d Jimma’s grandson did not win as governor and Nunn’s daughter did not win as a senator. It was close for a while.

  • SoCalMike

    It’s criminal David Horowitz is not THE go to consultant for the Republican Party.
    At a minimum he could teach them “political karate” lessons which the Repubes need badly.
    They didn’t win because of anything they did.
    They won the way they usually win by inheriting power as a result of voter outrage against Dems.

    • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

      Indeed – what everyone underestimated was just how strong the resentment against Obama and the Dems was. That’s the reason Republicans won so handily. 75% of the people think our country is on the wrong track, but the majority also doubts that Republicans have a better program – they just wanted Obama stopped.

  • http://libertyandculture.blogspot.com/ Jason P

    “Moral themes …”

    Indeed. Let’s be honest with ourselves, isn’t that why we are on the right. We see it as a moral position. I’d add we have to translate moral imperatives into prospect for property. After all, liberty is practical as well as moral.

  • Veritasortruth

    Like a cornered rat, Obama will lash out now. The next two years are going to be the most dangerous in American History. I warned people way back in 2008 that Obama was a dangerous person. I’m surprised it took this long for many to “get it”. The guy is going to go rouge. Count on it.

    • truebearing

      Obama is already rouge and going rogue. Just kidding.

      I agree 100 percent and have been sounding the same alarm, practically from the first week of his campaign. Obama is evil.

    • fontana74

      Exactly! o’ is only thinking about his image. All he wanted from the presidency were the accolades and cheers from the Dems and some Rep’s. who voted him (twice) into office. His lack of leadership, local and worldwide, was evident from the first day in office. Its as if he literally despised the office as something that required 24/7 of his time…a total distraction that was beneath him…a working man’s job that required so much effort. Two years from now, we must vote again. Hopefully we will know what to look for in a President who will be proud to lead America…some person who will bring us to new fame and prosperity, not only here but worldwide — a true leader who will reach out and bring back our international and domestic trust and leadership roll. We have lost so much of that in the past 6 years.

    • garyhope

      I had a funny feeling or thought today that since the chosen “Won” and ace #1 “smartest guy in the room” and most entitled “black” man EVER,….that he may get totally bored, because it’s not going to be easy for him in the next two years and that he’s never had anyone ever say an emphatic “NO” that he can’t BS his way out of, that he may just resign in a fit of pique. Of course it will be “for the good of the party and country”.

      Good riddance to bad rubbish.

  • truebearing

    Yet another brilliant political analysis. Republican strategists…can you hear David now?

    The Democrats were the biggest losers in this election, but big money was a loser, too. People ignored the tsunami of spending and voted like they want to survive. The Republican leadership had better recognize that this election, like the one in 2010, was not won by what they did but by an alarmed electorate that had become aware of the existential threat of Progressivism.

  • DaCoachK

    Republicans won’t do a thing. They had the chance twenty years ago and did nothing. They had the chance with W in office and did nothing. That communist Obama, for all his faults, promised “fundamental change” and delivered. The Right doesn’t have the stones to do what is needed. They are too concerned with being liked.

  • dwayne roberson

    The democrats are injured but expect them to go out like Rasputin.

  • kevinstroup

    There is a huge divide within the GOP. The Establishment GOP believes in socialism just like the Democrats, they think they can manage it better. The Tea Party wing wants less government, period. The GOP is not one happy family at the moment. We will see how this works out. But I still must admit, watching the Democrat bloodbath this last election was sooooo sweet.

  • sendtheclunkerbacktochicago

    It was a really fun night, I broke out my best scotch! It was the second most exciting political night in my life, the first was John Hanoi Kerry going down in flames thanks to the Swift Boat Vets.

    The fun is about to begin as Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his lead investigator Lt. Mike Zullo have been crossing every “T” and dotting every “I” before they present their evidence to the American people that Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama) is a fraud based upon the use of fraudulent documents, all of which are felonies. This Tsunami cleared the way for that to happen. It is too bad the David and Frontpage missed this SCANDAL. Oh, well, you can jump on the bandwagon as it unfolds. Leading from behind!!

    • Dave B.

      Yeah, that’s going to be a LOT of fun. I can hardly wait. It’s more like they’ve been crossing their eyes and spotting their drawers, and the con is starting to come apart at the seams. Zullo’s admitted taking $10,000 from a donor whose information he was supposed to be investigating. Arpaio’s said the whole mess was going to bring in more money than they’d know what to do with. It was never anything but a fundraising scam, and you’ve been had.

      • sendtheclunkerbacktochicago

        So who has been scammed, I think it is you Dave. Here we have a number of people attempting to take down the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States. If these men didn’t have the goods on this Fraud in Chief, Eric Holder and the entire DOJ and the FBI and even the Secret Service would be arresting them for sedition and rightfully so. They do not want to stir up this hornet’s nest for fear that if they go after all of them it would open up the barn door for them to use the evidence they have on these traitors to defend themselves in court. They are hoping they run out the clock on this. Eric Holder would love to put these men in prison, he cannot do it. Only fools would be running around claiming they have evidence to take down the POTUS if they didn’t have it. Very little money has been flowing into that investigation. Arpaio is now using tax payers money since it is an official criminal investigation.

        • Dave B.

          They’re not “attempting to take down the most powerful man in the world,” they’re attempting to shake down– successfully– the most gullible people in America. You know, the kind who don’t have a clue what terms like “sedition” and “evidence” mean, and who don’t know what the heck an “official criminal investigation” is. Go ahead and call the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and see what they have to say about that “official criminal investigation.”

          • sendtheclunkerbacktochicago

            What the Cold Case Posse has been doing can easily be defined as a seditious act if they do not have the evidence to support their claims. They have the evidence thus as evil as Eric Holder is he doesn’t have the balls to take action against these investigators. This Fraud in Chief is about to get BIRTHERED! Enjoy the show.

          • Dave B.

            Well, yeah, it can be easily defined as a seditious act by people who don’t know what a seditious act is in the first place. They aren’t investigators, and they don’t have any evidence. They’ve got an ongoing scam that will never result in ANYTHING of substance, and you’ve already been BIRTHERED.

  • 1Indioviejo1

    In 2016 we will still face the L.I.V. nurtured by our public schools and academia. To the DemonRats it is a temporary set back and I am sure they will rally the leftist soon enough. What are we ready to do in order to face the real fight we have ahead ? We are the one’s who will need to fundamentally transform America into the Republic it was made to be, will we do it/ do we have the leadership who understands the challenge? To me, that is the question.

  • Crassus

    Didn’t Sandra Fluke lose to another Democrat?

  • Randy Townsend

    With one caveat: Nothing the Dims did has been repealed, rolled back, or in any way reversed. The car has simply been stopped from going forward. For now. If R’s persist in this nonsense of “cooperation” with Obama, the car will move again, albeit slowly, in the same direction it was going under Reid and Obama. The fight had better happen SOON, or it never will.

  • gabydewilde

    While kids are send to far away lands to die for big business the republican voter is well over 60. It is easy to be pro war if you are to old to go there yourself. All hat no cattle. Partially thanks to their own environmental pollution and anti health care agenda the whole show will be over in less than 20 years.

    Then a whole new people will take over, people who are technically sophisticated, deprived enough to be empathic, loving and caring. Americans will finally be free from old ideas that belong in the 70′s. Whatever evil greedy the reptiblicans have on the agenda it will all feed into the new world. The longer the solar panels can be pushed back the more efficient they get. 3d printing, electric cars, cold fusion, hemp plastics, permaculture, artificial intelligence, gen therapy. ohh it will be wonderful. A bit sad the hippie generation wont be here to see it (chose not to)

    So good luck! Bring on the corporate hysteria, lets do this “war on everything” show for 20 more years. Give the kids another good scare before they inherit your battle ground.
    :-)