The Day After Tomorrow

Yes...that's hyperbole, not be equating the election results with the farcical disaster film...

Nothing good to wake up to, that's for sure. But I'm not one that is ready to proclaim the end of civilization - and please note that the responsible reaction is "OK, how do we fix this" and not "I'm moving to insert country here"

Let's take a look at some of the positives -

In the last 5 years, all but one state amendment protecting marriage have passed. The lone exception was Arizona last night. Look for a) this to be back in 08 (especially if McCain is the GOP nominee for president) and b) Bishop Olmsted to make a huge push again.

The California "alternative energy" proposition failed.

Ohio rejected the slot machines as well as passed the indoor smoking ban, which means I'm really going to enjoy hanging out with my friends when I head home to visit (the smoke ban in Florida is easily one of my favorite details about the state).

Most of the eminent domain issues passed.

Finally, the word I'm hearing is that a big chunk of the house Dems that won (and even a few Senate Dems) ran on more conservative themes (particularly a handful of pro-life Dems). This alone could be a huge turning point for politics in our country, but I'm taking a hopeful "wait and see" approach.

As far as disappointments, there are two big ones:

Santorum lost to Casey, Jr. Santorum was hands down one of the best Senators around, and it's a huge loss to both the right and to the country to have him bumped from office by an empty suit. I'll take some solace that Casey, Jr is supposedly pro-life, but again, wait and see. Expect to see Santorum back though - I would not be surprised at all if he's either a) given a serious leadership role in the party (can we replace Liddy Dole with him?) or b) the Vice-Presidential nominee in 2008.

South Dakota's abortion ban is the other big disappointment. I had real hopes, not that it was going to go into effect, since we all knew it wouldn't, but rather that it would force the Supreme Court to reexamine it. At least we've got the court looking at the Partial Birth Abortion Ban today...hopefully that'll come out on the correct side.

Also in the disappointment category is losing the Senate altogether, given that our chance to fix the courts was just jacked.


Now we step back and see if the Democrats actually know how to govern. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "um...no." They ran an entire campaign based on "we're not Bush" with no actual communication of, well, ideas period. I also expect Bush's veto stamp to get a little more exercise (a little late). So best case, we get deadlock with Democrats carping at Bush a little bit through tons of investigation. I'm hoping two years from now there's a collective "what were we thinking?" and a return to sanity. The GOP is already starting to clean house in their leadership. So we get two years of deadlock with the GOP doing a collective self-examination and coming out, you know, actually conservative in 2008.

Two points to share -

Michelle Malkin:

The GOP lost. Conservatism prevailed. "San Francisco values" may control the gavels in Congress, but they do not control America. Property rights initiatives limiting eminent domain won big. MCRI, the anti-racial preference measure, passed resoundingly. Congressman Tom Tancredo, the GOP's leading warrior against illegal immigration--opposed by both the open-borders Left and the open-borders White House--won a fifth term handily. Gay marriage bans won approval in 3 states. And as of this writing, the oil tax initiative, Prop. 87--backed by deep-pocketed Hollywood libs, is trailing badly in California.

I would append to this only to remind about the so-called "conservative" Democrats that won. If that pans out, her point is doubly valid.

Mark Shea

Some folks are already forecasting the Apocalypse. I urge such people to get out more. And as you take the Autumn air, remember the hysteria of the Left two years ago when Bush won. It's true that he's bungled things quite badly in many ways, as the Left feared. But the world is still here, the concentration camps remain unbuilt, and the gassing program has been indefinitely delayed. I submit that everybody take deep cleansing breaths and remember the elections are followed by--other elections. If the idea-free Dems prove themselves to be as idea-free as they appear, then they too will be gone again in a couple of years.

The Left, being largely composed of secularists, generally has no transcendent vision of things. The loss of an election is treated as a world-historical ultimate, with prophecies of apocalyptic doom and a strong tendency to blame the voters as stupid or evil for not seeing the Ultimate Goodness embodied in liberalism. Those who profess the gospel must not follow suit. Politics is provisional, temporary, and deeply not-eternal. A loss is loss, not a sign of the End. So the Right should pick itself up, ask, "what happened?", learn from prudence and not from a mindless ideology, and move on.