We are *expletive deleted*ed

[longeyes]

And yet Reagan did and Goldwater did.

Romney was incapable of enunciating his position, of explaining why 'his way was better'. This is why he lost, and why he thoroughly deserved to lose.

It is foolish to wait for a cataclysmic event to 'demonstrate' something to the voters - people whose views tend towards the megastate will simply 'conclude' that 'the system has failed' and the solution is even more megastate solutions.  This is how every major emergency, and almost every fake emergency, in the last 100  years had worked out.  WW1, the Great Depression, WW2, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Kennedy assassination, the crime wave of the 1970's and 1980's, the War on Terror and the last 'market collapse' - each of these left the political status-quo to 'conclude' naturally what it had always wanted to conclude - that more and expanded state measures were supposedly needed. The only way that the public will ever make a new conclusion is activism (from voting to civil disobedience) and educational efforts to persuade them that something different would work. There are no short-cuts. Cowardice won't work, crafty political subterfuge won't work, miracles will not happen. Only the bravery to repeatedly restate the truth and the hard work of repeating the truth again and again, year after year, during elections and in off-years, no matter how unpopular or ridiculous it might seem, will eventually shift the game.

Who was he to explain it to?  There are not enough Romneys left, not in THIS America.  First we need to face that. 

[MicroBalrog]

There's not enough Romneys?

Thank god for small favors.

[birdman]

I think the tea party / GOP house should go full scorched earth.  Debt ceiling?  Don't raise it.  Tax increases?  Don't pass it. Etc.  let the government shut down...

Think about it, without a debt ceiling increase, we BY DEFINITION obtain a balanced budget.

The ONLY vote mandate there is in this election is that the people prefer the house the way it is. MIT shifted dramatically in 2010, and the people responded with a substantial margin with "more of that".

The sooner the correction occurs, the less overall damage there will be.

Let the house force a choice between overwhelming statism (forced by the fixed debt ceiling and thus a forcing of a budget and selection of what matters) and an alternative, because I think only by experiencing the former will the population ever get a clue.

[seeker_two]

By 2016 the Constitution will have been shredded.  They are dreaming.

Guess the next question is "What do we plan to replace it with?...."

[Boomhauer]

I'm not a fan of Romney in the least, and I completely agree that he is a "Northeastern Republican" with many Dem tendencies but at least he didn't absolutely hate this country and everything it stands for. I highly doubt Romney would actively work to destroy the nation through his actions nor would he deliberately nominate justices like Elena "The Wise Latina" Kagen, justices who actively hate the constitution. Romney would have been a fairly lame-duck president IMHO but he's not the guy that grabs the wheel, cranks it over to aim the car at a bridge abutement, and stomps on the gas pedal.

We are not dealing with an inept idiot at the helm, remember that, folks. Obama is a highly indoctrinated communist who absolutely wants to wreck the country and he will do what he can to effect that. He's already given us so much in his first four years, now he's going to really crank it up I think. And his constituents will cheer mightily because one of the things he's going to do is to use mugging by federal government to give them what they want.

The worst thing about it is we won't be able to fight them unless there is a major change in the neocon controlled GOP. At this time, the GOP is the ONLY political party large enough and capable enough to counter them but the Republicans are only interested in sitting there fat, dumb and happy and putting up nothing more than a token protest.

[Ben]

Does anyone have any sources for a full breakdown of Presidential candidates, including write-ins? I'm curious as to how many write-in votes Ron Paul got (I know this may not all be counted for a good while). I saw Gary Johnson seemed to average about 1% just about everywhere, except for some of the Northwestern states, where he was averaging 2%.

[kgbsquirrel]

I think the tea party / GOP house should go full scorched earth.  Debt ceiling?  Don't raise it.  Tax increases?  Don't pass it. Etc.  let the government shut down...

Think about it, without a debt ceiling increase, we BY DEFINITION obtain a balanced budget.

The ONLY vote mandate there is in this election is that the people prefer the house the way it is. MIT shifted dramatically in 2010, and the people responded with a substantial margin with "more of that".

The sooner the correction occurs, the less overall damage there will be.

Let the house force a choice between overwhelming statism (forced by the fixed debt ceiling and thus a forcing of a budget and selection of what matters) and an alternative, because I think only by experiencing the former will the population ever get a clue.

I'd like to believe that. I really would. But they'll raise the debt ceiling in exchange for hollow promises just like last time. And again. And again. And again.....  Presuming the whole house of cards doesn't collapse and then burst into flames, our great-great-grand children will be born into a slavery of debt from what we are going to experience in the next four years. 

[longeyes]

There's not enough Romneys?

Thank god for small favors.

By "Romneys" I mean Americans who care about liberty, care about morality.  I don't mean his policies specifically.  He was never my first or second choice.

[MicroBalrog]

To win, you need to explain and promote the policies of liberty among those who do not yet share your views. This includes the 47%.

[longeyes]

I am tired of hearing about the "fastest growing minority constituency" in America.  Is this about out-populating us?  If so then we need to encourage our side to have more children, not figure out ways to compromise our remaining liberties.  But that would run afoul of the people who are obsessed with abortion and everything that precedes it.  We are intentionally stupid.

Well, one good thing is that liberals are a dying breed, literally.

[red headed stranger]

Does anyone have any sources for a full breakdown of Presidential candidates, including write-ins? I'm curious as to how many write-in votes Ron Paul got (I know this may not all be counted for a good while). I saw Gary Johnson seemed to average about 1% just about everywhere, except for some of the Northwestern states, where he was averaging 2%.

Google has a good interactive map that breaks things down in pretty good detail:
http://www.google.com/elections/ed/us/results

They don't have the write-in info yet.  

The only Swing State where Johnson voters might have siphoned off enough votes from Romney is FL. The Johnson votes were not a "spoiler" in the other potential battleground states (IA, VA, OH, NV, CO, WI. PA, NH).

Another thing that I found interesting was that, in NV, "none of these candidates" garnered ~5700 votes in the presidential race, and ~45,000 in the Senate race.  

[longeyes]

To win, you need to explain and promote the policies of liberty among those who do not yet share your views. This includes the 47%.

Is that what you've done in your country?  The people who get and promote liberty are and always will be a fraction.  Until we accept that, face that, we are whistling in the dark.

There is a country for those who love liberty, but it is not any country that currently exists on this planet.

[Fitz]

Google has a good interactive map that breaks things down in pretty good detail:
http://www.google.com/elections/ed/us/results

They don't have the write-in info yet.  

The only Swing State where Johnson voters might have siphoned off enough votes from Romney is FL. The Johnson votes were not a "spoiler" in the other potential battleground states (IA, VA, OH, NV, CO, WI. PA, NH).

Another thing that I found interesting was that, in NV, "none of these candidates" garnered ~5700 votes in the presidential race, and ~45,000 in the Senate race.  

Johnson helped us in CO... many obama supporters voted for johnson this time around. Still not enough

[Fitz]

By "Romneys" I mean Americans who care about liberty, care about morality. 

 

[Waitone]

The good news, if you can call it that, is there are forces about to impinge on the USofA that will swamp any president.  With Romney we had a fighting chance, small as it was.  With Obama we have no chance.  The man is clueless.  So I guess we finally achieve the goal of a number of Romney's brain trust. . . . let the opposition have it and we get to clean up the mess and create a better system.  As small as our president has been in the past, he is about to become even smaller.  He is not remotely capable of dealing with what is coming down on us.

[MicroBalrog]

Is that what you've done in your country?  

That is the only thing to do in any country. It is hard work and it takes time. But that's all there is.

[makattak]

I cannot help but think of the situations before WWI and WWII where we look back and wonder how anyone thought something other than war would result.

I understand much better now. Although there were many Cassandras that did see it and were warning, leaders were willfully blind (and incompetent.)

Yes, I am saying that's where we are today. I have a very bad feeling that a real war will occur in the next few years. (No offense to those who served in Iraq and Afganistan, but what we faced there cannot be compared to facing the military of a country that has the capacity to wipe you out, as we did in WWI and WWII.)

[Fitz]

I cannot help but think of the situations before WWI and WWII where we look back and wonder how anyone thought something other than war would result.

I understand much better now. Although there were many Cassandras that did see it and were warning, leaders were willfully blind (and incompetent.)

Yes, I am saying that's where we are today. I have a very bad feeling that a real war will occur in the next few years. (No offense to those who served in Iraq and Afganistan, but what we faced there cannot be compared to facing the military of a country that has the capacity to wipe you out, as we did in WWI and WWII.)

Maybe they'll allow us to win the next one

[Balog]

Maybe they'll allow us to win the next one

We won the "war" part, they just refused to rule over our enemies like a conquered nation so we lost on the "rebuilding" part.

[brimic]

Yes, I am saying that's where we are today. I have a very bad feeling that a real war will occur in the next few years. (No offense to those who served in Iraq and Afganistan, but what we faced there cannot be compared to facing the military of a country that has the capacity to wipe you out, as we did in WWI and WWII.)

Yep, and its going to be worse than any living person has seen.

We won the "war" part, they just refused to rule over our enemies like a conquered nation so we lost on the "rebuilding" part.

Our enemies are currently regrouping and consolidating from Algeria to Pakistan, our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are a but a small bump in the road for them.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

What if your best worker is a Democrat?

Lol unlikely. But they will be fired.

[RoadKingLarry]

Is it too late to hope the Mayans were right?

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

I didn't vote so at least I am not part of the problem.  Ask yourself this:  how much would you pay to cast an individual vote?  The reason lobbyists spend so much is they are laser-focused on a specific wealth transfer.  The R and D factions spent almost two billion to get at the helm of trillions of dollars, that is a healthy return on investment for the winner. The individual vote: worthless

.  

Yes. You are part of the problem

[charby]

Lol unlikely. But they will be fired.

Enjoy going to court then.

[lysander6]

Yes. You are part of the problem