First: I am sick to death of the Zombie meme and the place of Zombies in popular culture. I don't get it, and I hope making it a metaphor for how people on the alleged right-wing of American politics will put the thing to death.
Before I get on to my Friday bowl of whole-wheat beat-down, let me recommend a video for you which is fine except for about 90 seconds right in the middle. Our dear friend Todd Friel has this to say about what happened in the election this week:
Which, like I said, is fine except for the 90 seconds in the middle where he says that God-centered beliefs necessarily lead to "conservative political" outcomes. I think that's a broad brush at best. I think a perfectly-godly outcome of YHVH-centered biblically-serious study would be to say that a government like Israel's -- which mandates a tithe/tax for the sake of the poor -- doesn't look like what Todd's talking about. I think his brush is too-broad there, and he could tidy that up a bit for the sake of his own beliefs and thinking.
That said, the post-mortem cycle on the election this time around proves only one thing to me -- that the Right Wing pundit class of our nation is only capable of shooting the wounded and eating their dead. We want to blame Mitt Romney for running a crappy campaign when his closest team is literally what made this a close race in the last 60 days of campaigning? We want to blame Chris Christie for one photo op and his stupid gushie response to a phone call from Bruce Springsteen? We want to blame the MSM and a freak storm that put the largest part of NYC into the dark ages through the middle of the voting cycle?
Please: just shut up. The only people to blame for this loss, quite frankly, are ourselves. I can prove it by looking at the last 5 presidential elections.
Here are the high-level results from 1996:
You remember that one, right? Bill Clinton wins a plurality of voters, Ross Perot splits the right, and Bob Dole goes into early retirement. But look at the vote counts: roughly 95 million voters, only about 47 million on the right.Before I get on to my Friday bowl of whole-wheat beat-down, let me recommend a video for you which is fine except for about 90 seconds right in the middle. Our dear friend Todd Friel has this to say about what happened in the election this week:
Which, like I said, is fine except for the 90 seconds in the middle where he says that God-centered beliefs necessarily lead to "conservative political" outcomes. I think that's a broad brush at best. I think a perfectly-godly outcome of YHVH-centered biblically-serious study would be to say that a government like Israel's -- which mandates a tithe/tax for the sake of the poor -- doesn't look like what Todd's talking about. I think his brush is too-broad there, and he could tidy that up a bit for the sake of his own beliefs and thinking.
That said, the post-mortem cycle on the election this time around proves only one thing to me -- that the Right Wing pundit class of our nation is only capable of shooting the wounded and eating their dead. We want to blame Mitt Romney for running a crappy campaign when his closest team is literally what made this a close race in the last 60 days of campaigning? We want to blame Chris Christie for one photo op and his stupid gushie response to a phone call from Bruce Springsteen? We want to blame the MSM and a freak storm that put the largest part of NYC into the dark ages through the middle of the voting cycle?
Please: just shut up. The only people to blame for this loss, quite frankly, are ourselves. I can prove it by looking at the last 5 presidential elections.
Here are the high-level results from 1996:
Then there was 2000:
Roughly 111 million voters, and 50 million on the right -- with a win-fall of winning Florida in spite of missing the popular majority.
Here's 2004:
Roughly 121 million voters, and the Right wins both the election and the popular vote with 62 million votes.
Then 2008:
About 129 million voters -- the highest turnout on the list -- and the right-side gets 59 million votes.
Last, we have the results for this year (provisional, as I think there is still some vote counting going on):
Roughly 119 million voters this year, and the right-side getting 58 million votes -- oh yes, not to forget to mention an additional 1.139 million votes for Gary Johnson, so let's call right-side voting 59 million in 2012.
Look: in the only election in the last 20 years which the right-side vote won the majority of votes to win the election, the right-side candidate got more than 60 million votes. Someplace in this country, there are at least 60 million people who have, at some time, voted for the right-side of the ticket.
They did not all show up on Tuesday.
People have got to show up to win elections. People have got to show up to win elections. People have got to show up to win elections. And they have to vote for the candidate who is running to win the election. You can't just shamble around before and after the election bemoaning how bad things are when you treat your vote with less respect than a Zombie treats the living. Even a slow-moving Zombie knows he has to go get the brains to eat the brains. If you're not doing at least that much, you got the country you deserve.
The rest of this stuff? Hogwash. Stop complaining and blaming everyone else. We have met the apathetic and morally-oblivious voter, and he is us.
I'll have part 6 of the government spending vs. private income posts next week.
As you undoubtedly noticed, I like comics. I wouldn't call myself a "fan boy" because I don't give a flying FOOM what they are worth. That said, almost all the images on my blog are scanned from comics I own -- so they are scanned from comics I own and are used under what I assume is 
8 comments:
Good math, Frank, and good thinking. The no-shows are even worse than the third party purists. And we had a boatload if each on the right, this time. Now to pray that Obama is given wisdom, forbearance, and integrity even if in the natural it is against all odds.
Amen.
Frank,
I didn't crunch the numbers, or do an extended analysis, but I'm not sure it's just that some on the Right didn't show up; they've switched sides. I have in mind numerous friends who grew up going to church youth group with me and voted for George Bush in 2000, but since leaving college in the early part of last decade have gone completely liberal on one particular issue: homosexuality. Perhaps it's that I live in CA, but this is no small number in my social circles, including those who once identified as conservative Christians. The cultural war fought to marginalize and castigate those who identify homosexuality as sinful has been an overwhelming success - even in our own ranks! If even once self-identified Christians cannot bring themselves to "vote against gay rights," why in the world would those in the secular right not start to switch as well. People don't care about economics because they still think that our standard of living is a guaranteed constant. They do, however, care about the perceived "injustices" done to their gay friends, and therefore refuse to participate in that "discrimination." You can see this in the propositions about gay marriage which have been steadily losing broad support in the previous decade.
With all due respect, THIS should be the first and last "post-mortem" blog anybody (esp. Republicans) needs to read.
http://informedevangelist.blogspot.com/2012/11/vote-with-your-feet.html
Andy that's true here in Ohio too about homosexuality.
Of course Frank isn't saying that the same people constitute the right today as did in the past. People die, and are replaced by people who were 14 years old in 2008 but can vote now. But I think he's saying that the net number of conservatives hasn't changed much, and Possibly also reacting to reports (by both pachyderms and donks) that the GOP left the get out the vote effort to retirees, while donks hired pros.
Frank's right: the voters themselves are to blame, especially those on the right who stayed home for WHATEVER reason.
Shane
That is a very ridiculous article.
We need to get MORE hidebound and only vote for ideologically pure candidates that don't exist? And by thus losing every election and becoming a nonentity that serious politicians ignore, evangelicals are going to make things better?
I think you ought to go read Frank's articles on third party voters and why they are wrong on every count, at pyromaniacs. Not comment, just read, and re-read until you get it.
Get a grip!
It's too bad we can't clown people over here anymore, because Shane needs clownin'.
lol
If he wants to go into politics, I hear Dick Morris is hiring.
Marginalizing your voting bloc, as a path to political success... Why didn't anyone ever think of that before!?
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