After big losses for Democrats in 2002 and 2004, I was pretty disappointed to say the least. But reality set in and you realize that your guy or gal didn’t win and you’ve got to accept the results to get back to work.
It’s interesting watching some of our local conservative bloggers having trouble doing that this time around.
For example, according to conservative Wisconsin bloggers, it seems everyone except the Green campaign or Mark Green himself was to blame for his loss in the race for governor. The real culprits behind the Green lose read like the “who’s who” of conservative boogy men:
– The MSM (That’s “mainstream media” for the uninitiated.) You know, outlets like WISN radio, WTMJ radio, the Journal Sentinal, Fox News, etc.. The real liberal basitions of power.
– Michael J. Fox and other “hollywood liberals”.
– Women. If women would have just stayed home where they belong, they couldn’t have voted for Jim Doyle.
– Milwaukee voters (read: African Americans). If it wasn’t for Wisconsin’s largest city, liberals wouldn’t stand a chance, and that’s unfair! Either their votes should only count as 1/2 a vote, or voters in Milwaukee county should be forced to present a valid passport, an original birth certificate, proof of parental citizenship, and $85.34 in exact change.
– Angry liberal bloggers!
– The mainstream media! Again!
If that’s not enough, conservative poster girl Jessica McBride even threw out this doozy: “Going positive for too long. Green missed a chance to define Doyle before he could define himself.”
Wow, I must have missed those ads where Mark Green did anything except trash Doyle. I wouldn’t be surprised if the mainstream media probably refused to air them though!
And of course:
“No one flipped. The Georgia Thompson scandal stopped with.. Georgia. And she was a couple steps removed from Doyle. The MSM let Doyle get away with refusing to comment on whether he’s hired a lawyer”
Which makes about as much sense as saying Mark Foley was only a few steps removed from Rep. Denny Hastert, and yet Hastert didn’t get indicted. They just can’t accept the fact that maybe Doyle didn’t have anything to do with what an appointee of former Republican Gov. McCallum did.
And one more for good measure:
“The MSM. It’s pretty tough when the forces of the dominant media are working against you and defining your extremist opponent as a moderate and you as an extremist”
Again, the nasty MSM. Someone should just drop a house on them already! I must have been getting the bizarro-land Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that didn’t have a daily trashing of Gov. Doyle on it’s front page.
Now while it’s all fun and games to shoot fish in a barrel, let’s get back to reality for a moment, and this goes beyond Wisconsin.
Maybe, just maybe, Republicans actually lost in the numbers they did Tuesday because they were just to far to the right for most people. That goes for Wisconsin and it goes for the country. For the past 6 years, the Republicans in this country have had almost complete control of government, and what have they done with it? Exactly.
And when conservatives like McBride can’t stop for a moment to even consider that, or if you only continue to gravitate towards the fringe of an ideology after it’s been rejected, that says a lot.
Like I said, you win some and you lose some and life moves on. Conservatives across the country need to accept that. They can start by paying attention to their “W won, get over it” bumper sticker.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
hold on…hold on. it has been less than 24 hours, of course some republicans are still having trouble with this and i wouldn’t say all democrats (including yourself) accepted things and got back to work after the last presidential elections. perhaps the best thing to do would be to keep an eye on democrat and republican politicians to make sure everyone is playing fair. maybe point out some of the democrat screw ups along with the republican screw ups. make sure your side won’t mess things up too much and make sure their side plays nice.
i think the most important thing is to make sure your guys are the good guys instead of thinking the other guys are the bad guys.
This isn’t a comic book, there *are* no “bad guys” or” good guys”. There are people who have views you agree with, and some you don’t. People who try to paint everything in black & white are nothing but blind extremists.
bryan – so all you took away from what i said above is that i thought there are good guys and bad guys? man, read it again and this time ignore my silly turns of phrase (especially ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’) and try again. and, where did you get the black and white stuff from? i think this highlights a real problem in political discourse these days – few people argue actual points and facts, they just throw stuff in willy nilly (sorry, another silly phrase, i know…i know)
There’s a difference between the disappointing acceptance I talked about in 2002 and 2004 and “blame-everyone-but-Republicans” denial that’s going around on conservative blogs right now that I point out above.
“There’s a difference between the disappointing acceptance I talked about in 2002 and 2004 and “blame-everyone-but-Republicans” denial that’s going around on conservative blogs right now that I point out above.”
Brother, you said a mouthful in more ways than one! I distinctly remember the self-flagellation of the left in the aftermath of the 2004 elections. It went on and on, and I joined in myself. We painted a big bullseye on John Kerry’s head and let fly. Granted, much of it was deserved – from lackadaisical campaigning through the summer, to the failure to aggressively confront the Swiftboat liars, to his concession before the votes were counted. Kerry showed himself to be less interested in the job than what’s necessary to win.
But then I went to Ohio to observe the recount, and my attitude changed. That experience, which I will not detail here, focused my attention on the serious and fatal flaws in our election procedures around the country. Added to the blatantly illegal behavior I personally observed in Ohio, along with thousands of reported incidents around the country, I concluded that had the presidential election been conducted in conformance with applicable state laws, the outcome would not have favored Bush. You can agree or disagree with that, based on whatever hard data or personal experience you happen to have, but I’m not going to debate anyone who has not delved deeply into the reams of evidence of fraudulent and illegal conduct in 2004.
Still, progressives continued to berate their “losing” candidates for months after the election, perhaps because we were so lukewarm on them to begin with. This has been accompanied by near total refusal to acknowledge the real threat of stolen elections, despite the fact that in recent polls a significant number of Americans appear to recognize that their votes may very well not be counted. Denial – it ain’t just a river in Egypt any more!
But as to the Republicans and their current round of boo-hoo – we have to understand that they have a different relationship to their political leaders that is more devotional in nature. How often to you hear a Republican criticize even the most egregious misbehavior by a fellow Republican? Generally this only happens when the object is seen as a loser. And even then the miscreant will be excused if he goes into a rehab program. Hey – maybe that’s the solution to Bush’s falling numbers! Ooops. Let’s not give him any ideas.
Republicans are participating in a different political world than Democrats, which is why trying to make Democrats more like Republicans doesn’t work very well. The Republicans run a very top-down, command and control hierarchy. Their marching orders, like their talking points, are issued from a small group of strategists in Washington D.C. for the most part. The party is run like a large, traditional corporation right down to the sophisticated marketing, advertising, training, and finance operations. Much like the failing giants of the American automotive industry. With the same results
The Democratic Party, on the other hand, is more of a guild or a holding company for a lot of independent organizations. This is why it is futile to keep ragging on the national leadership about not having a clear message for the American people. They can certainly settle on some broad statement of principles, but for the most part Democrats need to embrace their local issues and concerns and show that they can best represent the people of their state, district, or locality – unburdened as they are by mandates issued from far away. That’s what they did in this election, and it worked very well despite the obstructionist tactics of the senate and congressional campaign committees.
Democrats need to speak clearly with one another and with Independent voters. It’s a waste of time to engage with the hard core devotees of the Bush Corporation at this time. I don’t buy into the Republican model that we must annihilate the opposition – we simply need to prevail at the polls and then hold our elected representatives accountable. The only way we can get back to this is to insure first of all that every vote is counted as cast – and we have a long way to go to get to that point. I hope that will be the personal mission of every American, regardless of party, in 2007.