Thursday, November 8, 2012

2012 - Post-Election Musings for Conservatives


The people have spoken.
 
They have re-elected their president for another four years. While I admit to being no expert on the subject of running campaigns; I do have thoughts and opinions as anyone else may who had invested a great deal of time and energy trying to assist their candidate(s) to victory.
 
Will anyone ever read what I have written?  Is there anyone else out there who reasons as I do?  Does anyone really give the slightest darn what I think?  In the great scheme of things I suppose the answers to my ponderings don’t matter.  What does matter is that it is cathartic to write them down; to get them out of my head, and onto virtual paper.

 In reflecting upon the results of the 2012 election, I have been grappling with the same age-old questions posed by the losing side of any election campaign; How can “these people” (the majority of voters who elected “candidate X”) think the way they do…what is wrong with them…how can they not see what I see, etc?  Getting to the bottom of these nebulous musings is like trying to catch fog in a mason jar.  For conservatives like me, the paradigm in which we live is so black and white in contrast - so “clear” to our entire being that it is nearly impossible to venture outside it, to even catch a glimpse of the converse universe.
 
The first place I “went” with my post-election attempts at trying to understand what went wrong was to explore the ticklish area of electorate intelligence.  I say ticklish, because it’s too easy and condescending to suggest that you are merely “smarter” than your average liberal voting counterpart. However that would be mean-spirited, and called out as ad hominem criticism.  While there may be large nuggets of truth to the claim that the majority of voters don’t understand the complexities of enormous national budgets, crippling deficits and looming “fiscal cliffs”; it is this meme that conservatives all too readily rally towards; attempting to “explain” their way to victory.  It’s like serving up a steaming plate of Brussels sprouts trying to pass them off as French fries…uh, uh…no way Jose’.

Both conservatives and liberals each have a time-tested way of energizing their bases.  These voters are basically a “given” and I’m not suggesting an abandonment of this effort; I merely suggesting a fresh look by conservatives specifically at the table-turning voting electorate that shuns and ignores things that are uninteresting to them or their (in-the-moment) lives.

Let’s take the rough percentages and margin of victory from the just completed presidential election.  As of this thesis the popular vote went, 50% of Americans voted Obama, and 49% voted Romney.  If you are reading this as a conservative you know why the 49% voted for Governor Romney. If you are reading this as a liberal; you wouldn’t have a clue, and the point of this blog entry would have bored you by now anyway.  While I admit to not knowing the exact percentage breakdown on the following categories, allow me to guess at a few magnet issues that appeal to that 50% and influence their voting trends:
  • Woman’s reproduction and choice
  • Health care
  • Screw the rich derangement
  • Immigration
  • Environmental and “green” initiatives
  • Labor unions
  • Free stuff

I may have missed a few, but that’s not the point. Let’s imagine that the above list constitutes the lion’s share of that 50% amount - people who vote democrat for one or more of their core issues.  The REAL question -the one that needs to be answered is:  What about the “rest” of the “independent” left-leaning electorate…the percentage that has put democrats over the top in the two (head-shaking) terms of Bill Clinton and now has Barack Hussein Obama back in the POTUS saddle for another bumpy four-year ride?

 After this election I truly believe that I have the beginnings of a theory that is so simple that conservatives (republicans) completely miss (or dismiss) it.  I’ll call it (AIS) or the “American Idol Syndrome.”  For those conservatives still reading this, you are now either chuckling or your jaw is starting to drop.  Think about it…democrats have long understood this concept without actually naming it.  Republicans focus on elimination of supposed “cheating” and voter ID legislation to save the process of casting legitimate votes as their salvation and path to the Whitehouse.  I say, forget those efforts and EMBRACE the AIS voter, and the concept of wooing them!
 
Democrats understand that there is a certain percentage of American voters that will forever be swayed by “popular” opinion and just how “cool” and “with it” their candidate “appears.”  Face it, that particular voting bloc has been asked to root for specific human beings and to cast their “votes” accordingly since before the TV show “Survivor” hit the airwaves.  The individuals “chosen” by these AIS voters need to be cool, good looking, talented, approachable, funny, vulnerable, and to forever come off as the underdog.  Obama’s re-election bid handlers successfully spun this sitting president (with his  woeful economic and abysmal fiscal record) as the challenger…the challenger!  American AIS voters bought it as they sat lapping up the late-nite host interviewer’s softball questions for Obama designed to make them “feel” that the guy was one of them, and was getting the shaft.  If these voters would have had a call-in number flash on the bottom of the screen during Letterman or Jimmy Fallon’s show; believe me they would have “voted” then and there for the president to stay on the island, or to advance to the final round.

Republicans entirely dismiss the so-called “social” issues as meaningful election-fodder when staring at eminent fiscal collapse has them distracted.  Old guard campaigners on their team have only one playbook and unfortunately it does not include being “popular” as an option.  I suggest hiring a successful Hollywood director/producer next election cycle to craft an image that has America eating out of the republican candidate’s hand, instead of the same old offering of pan-scorched spinach.  Again, I’m not suggesting an abandonment of conservative principals - just a little maple sugar sauce on the carrots for those that need the extra enticement into consuming something that’s good for them; despite its reputation.

My thoughts…what are yours?

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