November 7th, 2012

So we conservatives got what we wanted.  With the republicans holding the House and taking the Senate, president-elect Romney will have one-party rule for at least the first two years of his first term.  We turned the corner, right?  It starts getting better now, right?  We can only hope so.  I have two worries.  Call them concerns. 

The first concern is short term.  Obama was a divider.  This country is more polarized that it has ever been in modern history. Obama accomplished this by using emotion.  His followers love him, not for what he has done, but for what he said.  The rich want to stay rich at the expense of the poor and middle class.  You cannot succeed without government assistance.  If one person gets more wealth, someone else must get more poor.  He has appealed to emotion and created a bond that cannot be broken by logic.  The 47% who voted for Obama are now devastated by his loss.  They will be enraged by media reports of an election stolen by republicans.  His followers will believe their lives will get worse without Obama looking out for them.  I expect sporadic instances of violence, and possibly major riots in urban areas.  Threats of rioting and assassination are prevalent on Twitter.  This will pass relatively quick.

The second concern is longer term.  Politicians will continue to be politicians.  Just because the House and Senate are now under republican control means little.  They will still be biased toward the easy thing to do instead of the right thing to do.  They will continue to look at the next election instead of solving problems.  And their democratic peers will not make governing easy.  With a new majority, Romney will be able to get a budget debated and voted on.  But the budget will be lambasted by the left as helping the rich at the expense of the poor, young, sick, and elderly.  Romney will get at least two opportunities to nominate Supreme Court justices.  Each will be denigrated as anti-women and pro-business.  Romney will make progress toward North American energy independence.  The left will claim that he is letting big oil ruin the environment.

Success will come with difficulty.  I am optimistic that the next four years will be better than the last four.  If Romney is successful, he must be Reaganesque.  He must communicate with all Americans.  He must make his case to the people, and force the politicians to listen to their constituents.  He must grow the economy as he shrinks the federal government.  He must narrow if not eliminate the deficit.  He must do this in four years, and make significant progress in two.  If he doesn't, the republicans will lose their congressional majority in 2014 and the presidency in 2016.