Once again another election in my life and once again we see division. The vote goes right down the middle. As a Republican I found it hard to get 100% behind Romney, but I voted for him and I thought he would win, but I never thought for a minute that it would be a landslide and it was what I thought it would be.
Elections don't really matter. I have learned that. I go through the motions and participate, but Governance is what matters. These elections don't decide issues. The issues are decided each and every day by actions of our representatives.
As someone who has studied Economics virtually my whole life, I saw Romney as representing austerity and Obama represents cranking up the printing presses and passing out the dough. Both of these extremes are bad. Romney's austere budgetary cuts would have led to deflation and Obama's print and spend policies will lead to hyperinflation -- way too many dollars pushed to the Banksters chasing commodities.
We have seen so many of these nail biting elections here lately. There will never be 100% agreement on anything, but we aren't even close to having a united front on the issues that face this nation.
My opinions are in the minority, because they take deep reflection and listening to others to develop. I care about the people in this country, but I am very frustrated by their trivial and material desires. The Republican Party is 100% the opposite of its original founding. The GOP was the party of Lincoln, ended slavery, reined in the Robber Barons, and believed in keeping the military from getting overly involved in foreign entanglements. The Republicans need to get back to their roots or they are going to wither.
The Republicans have learned nothing over the last 12 years. The GOP still has the same strongholds and over the last 4 election cycles has not been able to expand its base. It has been spinning its wheels in the same battleground states; razor thin differences in Florida, Ohio, and Virginia and constantly trying to win Pennsylvania and Michigan, but failing each and every time by a couple percent.
The Republican Party is stagnant. It has not in my life seemed to have a long range plan and has for the most part been in denial about their prospects come election day. Look at what happened today. The Party always thinks candidates who aren't in the established hierarchy should wait their turn -- Bob Dole, Reagan, GHW Bush, McCain, and Romney. GW Bush was a product of his father. Democrats have pulled candidates from the background to the forefront -- Carter, Clinton, and Obama are prime examples.
The Republican Party needs to refresh itself. It needs to seek younger participants. It needs to represent the future generations and build momentum to the future. The GOP needs to reassess its priorities or it will keep having these failures. The Democrats can't help but overstep their bounds. It is in their inner being to create mandates out of thin air. The Republicans were able to capitalize on the overreach of 2009-10 in 2010, but the Republicans couldn't get out of their own way in this election, because of the staleness in the party.
The Republican Party couldn't motivate the Tea Party and they POed the working class with intolerant rhetoric and not thinking out, establishing, and educating the electorate about their positions. It is time that the Republicans take a look in the mirror to realize where the problems lie. When you represent narrow interests, then it is hard to gain expansive results. The Republican Party is viewed as the party of grumpy old white men. In order to move this nation forward, someone is going to have to step up to the plate and take us in another direction.
