What Did the Elections Teach Us?

Anyone who tries to paint Tuesday’s election results as anything other than a crushing defeat for the Democrat Party and Obama is either deluded or lying; and yes, I’m including New York in that analysis.

RINOS and right wing wingnuts both need to take the appropriate lessons from these three elections. Republicans won governorships in Virginia and New Jersey because they won the independent vote. They won the independent vote because they ran on fiscal, NOT social conservatism. An independent Conservative candidate beat the tar out of a RINO in New York not, in my opinion, because of her support for abortion and gay rights, but her support for Obama’s “stimulus” package and her endorsement by ACORN. The Conservative lost in the general because 5% of Republican voters were so uninformed they didn’t know the Republican dropped out or so stupid they protest voted.

The left wing of the Oregon Republican Party is fond of fantasizing that if those pesky conservatives would just sit down, shut up and go along with them, there would be a grand republican resurgence in Oregon. The right wing is fond of fantasizing that if the party would nominate “real” Republicans for statewide and national offices independent voters would flock to support them. Notice the use of the word “fantasizing” to describe both opinions.

In the most recent Oregon gubernatorial election and the most recent Oregon election for United States Senator Republicans lost because a small number of conservatives either stayed home or protest voted for third party candidates. Ron Saxton was FAR from my idea of an ideal candidate and I disagreed with Gordon Smith on several substantial issues, but they were the best choices I had. To those ideological purists on the far right I simply say “How are Ted and Jeff working out for you?” Likewise, the left wing of the party had best remember that unless the party can offer candidates that can articulate compelling positions clearly different from the Democrat opposition, we’ll stay in the minority.

Ronald Reagan once said “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally “” not a 20 percent traitor.” RINOS and wingnuts would all do well to remember this.

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