Election Results - 2010

If anyone would have predicted the day after Obama was elected in November 2008 that two years later Democrats would lose control of the House of Representatives, and conservative Senators Rubio in Florida, Toomey in Pennsylvania and Johnson in Wisconsin would take the national stage, no one would have believed it.

Even more fundamentally, if anyone would have predicted that two years after Obama’s election, virtually no Democrat would run on his or her deep philosophical alliance with Obama but rather highlight differences and resistance to his agenda (West Virginia Governor Manchin being Exhibit A), not only would no one have believed it, they would have said such a scene was pure fantasy. Yet that is the reality of November 2010.

Forget any positioning by the mainstream media and public positioning by Democrats who may have won election or re-election. Behind the scenes, they all know that the mood and thinking of America has dramatically changed against Obama and his agenda and much more in the direction of the tea party worldview, and they will tread carefully as to most liberal themes even if Obama doesn’t. The results of 2010 will pale in comparison with 2012 if Democrats do not moderate significantly and quickly.

This is all to the good for America and the world.

The two areas of biggest disappointment are (1) California’s results, and (2) more evidence of black Americans in lockstep, ignorant allegiance to the Democrat Party. Harry Reid’s re-election is a disappointment, but when two-thirds of Nevada’s population lives in and around Las Vegas, and Las Vegas is organized crime, there probably never was a chance for Sharron Angle to win.

California is a fiscal and cultural train wreck, engineered by liberalism. It faces likely bankruptcy, engineered by liberalism. It is a petri-dish of political correctness run amok, engineered by liberalism. It presents a picture of a future of dangerous balkanization of ethnic groups rather than unification as Americans—the byproduct of liberalism. To turn to more liberalism in the form of Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer is a sign of a California electorate in terminal denial.

To be fair, neither Meg Whitman nor Carly Fiorina presented genuine heartland conservatism as an alternative—they are mostly just wealthy elitist moderates, who can only feign connection with the heart and soul of America. The real test for California would have been if a Marco Rubio-type candidate had emerged and presented the conservative worldview more articulately and with greater passion than either Whitman or Fiorina were capable of.

Things are now likely to get much worse for California. There is no liberal solution to any of California’s problems; on the contrary, liberal prescriptions of more taxes on achievement and risk-taking and entrepreneurship in order to prop up a bloated bureaucracy and unpayable state pensions and other retirement benefits will only drive more people out of the state. The Democrats in California government and the media can tell each other they are doing the right thing, and all will be well, but so long as people can vote with their feet, a reality check is on its way.

The conventional way to formulate ‘hope’ in this scenario is that with Democrats clearly in charge throughout California, there should be no way to escape responsibility. There should be an ability to at least consider conservative solutions because they can be viewed on their merits rather than in the default mode of political demonization. Perhaps the state can become a petri-dish for the awakening of liberals. Our guess is that the pain is going to have to get worse before California can experience the collective wakeup it needs.

We’re not sure how to formulate hope for the black community. Yes, there are some new black leaders who won election—such as Tim Scott in South Carolina and Allen West in Florida—but they were not elected by black voters. They were elected by conservative and predominantly white voters. Where predominantly black Congressional districts were presented with black conservative candidates—two standout examples were Michel Faulkner in Charlie Rangel’s Harlem-centric district, and Stephen Broden in Eddie Bernice Johnson’s south Dallas’ district—they were rejected out of hand.

Rangel is a model of corruption on a scale that even embarrasses his Democrat colleagues in Congress. Eddie Bernice Johnson was exposed during the campaign in a display of abject dishonesty and corruption that a child could understand. Faulkner and Broden were credible community insiders; both of them pastors; and both delivering messages of new ideas and new possibilities. Yet Rangel and Johnson were re-elected with overwhelming majorities, and the tales that have emerged from voting precincts, particularly in Dallas, reveal a raw and brazen perpetuation of racist stereotypes which disserve everyone affected by them. The lawlessness in voting locations—open ‘vote Democrat’ cheerleading by election judges; ignoring of voter ID requirements so that anyone can vote who will ‘vote Democrat’; stupid, illusory promises of benefits for ‘voting Democrat’—is enough to make honest people cringe for the future of the black community.

Yet Faulkner and Broden would probably still maintain their hope, because they still maintain their faith. Just a few election cycles ago, there weren’t candidates like Faulkner and Broden even willing to enter a Congressional race and proclaim themselves to believe in something other Democrat liberalism. It takes awhile to open a long-closed mind.

There is an old political story of California Governor Ronald Reagan proposing welfare reform at a national conference of Governors. His proposal lost by a vote of 49 to 1, but within 20 years, it became the foundation for massive welfare reform passed into law by a Republican Congress and signed by a Democrat President (Clinton). It may take another 20 years for black Americans to open up to the conservative message (which is essentially the message of Martin Luther King) sufficiently to break through years of mesmerism relating to race-based identification with one political party. So we give credit to Faulkner and Broden for sticking their necks out for what is right and true. Maybe they will run again and win, or maybe others will stand on their shoulders and win. The early pioneers in any righteous cause take a few casualties.

A linchpin to a brighter future for Americans is a reawakening to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. It was enough to guide the country to eliminate slavery in the Civil War. But the need now is for Americans to see the universality and eternality of its message of individual freedom and responsibility under God. Californians don’t get it for now, and most black Americans surely don’t get it, and are nearly in a new condition of slavery as a result.

More Brushfires of Freedom are needed.

Paul Gable

November 3, 2010