Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Right Reaction, part 1

in the aftermath of the election I turned on my radio and listened to Glen Beck for a few minutes. Of course, Obama had done nothing good in his campaign besides raise too much money and spend it. It was the fault of John McCain, who is not conservative, the media bias and other scapegoats. While mentioning the albatross of George W Bush in passing, there was no mention of the financial crisis, Sarah Palin or Obama's ground game. It was pathetic... and amusing.

On Facebook and other places, I saw Conservatives making plans for a move to Canada,* others warning us of the "real" Obama that we will now see and many more wanting to buy guns before they are illegal, warning us of the anti-Christ, God's impending judgment on our nation, the anointing (not election) of Obama, our slippage in communism and complaints about stolen elections, voter fraud and recounts.** To all of this I respond, "And I thought the Left was full of unpatriotic, Anti-American sentiment." I guess they can make room at the "hate America" bash for a bunch of Conservatives that don't like democracy unless it favors their guys. 

None of those guys admitted that a good ground game wins. Instead of knocking on doors, making phone calls, driving people to polls and putting in the work to win an election (like Bush did in 2004), they sat around and complained about media bias and stupid Americans (a few of them stood on street corners with signs while the Obama volunteers were "getting out the vote"). And then they blame someone else for the outcome.

However, in the midst of it, there was some graciousness from unexpected quarters, including the National Review. One of my came from Jonah Goldberg:
Look, I expect to be one of the most severe critics of the Obama administration and the Democrats generally in the years ahead (though I sincerely hope I won't find that necessary). But Obama ran a brilliant race and he should be congratulated for it. Moreover, during the debate over the financial crisis, Obama said that a president should be able to do more than one thing at a time. Well, I think we members of the loyal opposition should be able to make distinctions simultaneously. It is a wonderful thing to have the first African-American president. It is a wonderful thing that in a country where feelings are so intense that power can be transferred so peacefully. Let us hope that the Obama his most dedicated — and most sensible! — fans see turns out to be the real Obama. Let us hope that Obama succeeds and becomes a great president, for all the right reasons.

*if they like socialized medicine and decreased military spending, they should have voted for Obama and not move to Canada. I think Columbia is a better place for them to move.

** this argument only works when you have documentation and the election is close.

2 comments:

Porthos said...

Heh. My favorite quote of the morning has also come from NRO.

"Fourteen years ago, [Republicans] took control of Congress on the strength of their ideas. Over time, though, they put the retention of power ahead of the advancement of principle."

Sad, but true.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWM0YmZkNTkwM2FkOWNlZGZkZjY3OTkwMjNlZTFiYTg=&w=MQ==

RDF said...

Prior to the election, I got a good dose of the conservative "my way or the highway" attitude. The morning after Colin Powell endorsed Obama, it came up at work. A co-worker who is a self-professed born again Christian, decided to comment (loudly and very agitated). "He's just doing it because of race...and he showed his true colors - he doesn't care about the troops." And finally, "if he were a real man, he would have run for president himself!"

Kingdom or empire?

Ron