"The most charitable way of explaining the election results of 2012 is
that Americans voted for the status quo – for the incumbent President
and for a divided Congress. They must enjoy gridlock, partisanship,
incompetence, economic stagnation and avoidance of responsibility. And
fewer people voted. As I write, with almost all the votes counted,
President Obama has won fewer votes than John McCain won in 2008, and
more than ten million off his own 2008 total. (Note: this was written
the day after the election. The final results indicate that Romney
exceeded McCain’s total by less than one million votes, while Obama
received almost four million votes fewer than he did in 2008 – the first
time in history that a president won a second term with fewer votes than
he scored in his first victory. RSP)
But as we awake from the nightmare, it is important to eschew the facile
explanations for the Romney defeat that will prevail among the
chattering classes. Romney did not lose because of the effects of
Hurricane Sandy that devastated this area, nor did he lose because he
ran a poor campaign, nor did he lose because the Republicans could have
chosen better candidates, nor did he lose because Obama benefited from a
slight uptick in the economy due to the business cycle.
Romney lost because he didn’t get enough votes to win."
"Ronald Reagan himself could not win an election in today’s America.
The simplest reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to
compete against free stuff. Every businessman knows this; that is why
the “loss leader” or the giveaway is such a powerful marketing tool.
Obama’s America is one in which free stuff is given away: the adults
among the 47,000,000 on food stamps clearly recognized for whom they
should vote, and so they did, by the tens of millions; those who –
courtesy of Obama – receive two full years of unemployment benefits
(which, of course, both disincentivizes looking for work and also
motivates people to work off the books while collecting their windfall)
surely know for whom to vote; so too those who anticipate “free” health
care, who expect the government to pay their mortgages, who look for the
government to give them jobs. The lure of free stuff is irresistible."
The Rabbi's entire blog entry is well worth reading. I hope you will take the time to do so.
I will. Thank you for the link.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Vee. Thanks for dropping by. I thought the Rabbi had some very insightful thoughts on the situation. Pappy
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