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The celebrations surrounding the inauguration of President Obama on Tuesday had many on the political right feeling left out. . . .So far as I can tell, conservatives aren't going through anything like the grief/angst/outrage that Democrats went through after the 2000 and 2004 elections. There may be activists who would like to generate that kind of reaction, but most conservatives have got real lives -- jobs and families -- and don't go in for the sturm und drang stuff like those 28-year-old gay grad-student types who attach themselves to the Democratic Party like barnacles to a ship's hull.
Losing the White House is a letdown for Republicans, who lost control of Congress two years ago. Nevertheless, some conservatives such as Liz Mair, the former online communications director for the Republican National Committee, said they were proud of the new president.
"Like many others, and perhaps Republicans especially, I'm also a little bit apprehensive about what the next four years will bring," Mair said in an e-mail after the ceremony.
"The majority of conservatives are, to some extent, bummed out," says Robert Stacy McCain, a conservative blogger and contributing writer to The American Spectator magazine. "But I don't think there is any sense of deprivation or depression among the people I talk to."
UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers! (Who throws more traffic -- USA Today or Insty?)
UPDATE II: Hmmm. Now I'm looking at the line about "28-year-old gay grad-student types" and worrying that it might be misconstrued. First of all, I went to college in the late 1970s and '80s, when there were quite a few 28-year-old hippie types who'd arrived on campus circa 1969 and stayed on in sort of perpetual student status. Second, it cannot be doubted that Democrats have benefitted from the support of gay activists who, being unencumbered by dependents, have more time to devote to politics than the married-with-children types who are the basic GOP constituency. So the offhand phrase was intended to combine those two ideas.
UPDATE III: Speaking of "married-with-children types," the Insta-Wife has a new PJTV video online.
UPDATE IV: Linked by Gay Patriot.
Agreed. Politics is politics. It shouldn't run your life. Like Dennis Miller says, once you get that "feeling a lump under your armpit in the shower" moment, politics and all the ancillary noise is just that...noise.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the most frustrating part of this business for conservatives and some Republicans is likely to be the smarming-up and "bipartisanship" some Republicans in Congress are likely to fall all over themselves demonstrating.
ReplyDeleteThe Republican Party, as an institution, is very worried about its declining position in the Northeast, and is likely to try (wrongly in my opinion) to shore it up, at the expense of Western and, more especially, Southern concerns.
not 'barnacles on a ship's hull' but 'leeches on a paranoid schizophrenic'...
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are a bit more resigned, though. The party has treated their constiuents very badly in the past four years, in particular, and the election was lost the moment McCain backed the bailout bill and couldn't begin to defend why.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Obama really did start to look like a better option for president than McCain at this point. And most conservatives, and proven in the post-game polls, simply just stayed home.
There was, literally, no reason for the Republicans to vote. So while it may be frustrating that Obama won the White House, and Lord Reid and Lady Pelosi run the congress, most Republicans know - deep down - that they have their own party to blame.
Truthfully the only thing which has really irked me about this election is the fact that I have to put up with people who spent the last 8 years wishing harm upon this nation, its leaders, and its military suddenly deciding its great to be an American again.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of angst, but we keep it to ourselves because we attempt to be mature.
ReplyDeleteBut we are not sitting idly by.
Well, my 30 yr old step-daughter at work in the Bronx Tuesday left the office in tears to have lunch alone, after being bombarded by the stuff on TV and all the office hoopla (cake and ice cream parties!). My husband is absenting himself from all politics and will not even look at Drudge. I turn off Rush and Mark when audio clips of the Messiah start. This family is extremely upset, the most upsetting aspect being that saying so is so forbidden. I disagree that conservatives are not upset and angry. We are biding our time and going underground.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, we don't put Jindal '12 stickers on our cars because we know the new Religion of Peace (Obamania) would key and and deface our cars.
Peg C. couldn't have said it any better; I "ditto" her comments. We, conservatives, may be "underground", but we can also let Congress know how we feel even if we are in the minority--at least they'll know there is some dissent & Congress isn't getting total affirmation!
ReplyDeleteSend me all the GOP "moving to France" alerts.
ReplyDeleteThe right, coming from the classical American tradition of stoicism, simply does not practice the hyperbolic over-emoting we have seen so much in certain quarters. Ululation is a custom of the left.
ReplyDeleteHow that stacks up culturally is your own mileage, but I did have fun the last week with a couple of leftie friends who had sworn that Evil Chimpy McHitler would never leave office, but would stay in power in a military coup. (Yes, it's pretty obvious they know little about how our military people think, and how seriously they take their own oaths, isn't it?)
You know, I come over here occasionally from Instapundit and I have to say, you are one of the most intellectually dishonest writers I've come across on the web. (And that's saying a lot.) First, you cite a liberal blogger who didn't even see the inauguration speech as "proof" that liberals were disappointed by the speech. Now you attempt to compare conservatives' reactions to Obama's clear and undisputed victory this year with Dems' reactions to 2000 and 2004? Please! First of all, I'd like to see you and some of the other stalwart, "I have a job" conservatives wait for hours in the rain to vote like thousands of people in inner city Ohio had to do in 2004. And second, you know and I suspect, deep down, every self righteous reader of this site knows that if McCain had won the popular vote, and there was a fair chance he had won more votes in the deciding electoral college state but was denied victory by a Democratic Supreme Court, this site and every other right-leaning outlet would be out and out bedlam. Come on. I know people view the world through partisan blinders, but this is ridiculous.
ReplyDelete"every self righteous reader of this site knows that if McCain had won the popular vote, and there was a fair chance he had won more votes in the deciding electoral college state but was denied victory by a Democratic Supreme Court, this site and every other right-leaning outlet would be out and out bedlam."
ReplyDeleteBull. Look at Minnesota. The Repub won the first, second, and third counts. With each count, it got closer. On the final hand recount, Al Freakin' Franken pulled ahead, and the Dem secstate quickly certified that result. The Dem judges consistently ruled ballots in favor of Franken. The Dems run most of the counties in the state and certified most of the vote totals.
I heard a LOT of wailing and gnashing of teeth in 2000 and 2004, but I have yet to hear a single person complain out loud about this election, and I live in MN and listen carefully to all things politics.
But then, you know, Repubs have jobs and families and stuff.
"wait for hours in the rain to vote like thousands of people in inner city Ohio had to do in 2004. "
ReplyDeleteThat story was all BS. 2004 was not contested in any real sense, and 2000 was put to rest by the NYT and other media outlets. I can't believe there is ANYONE in 2009 that still hasn't figured this out.
Looks like "Tired of it" is -- just a day or two after his guy getting inagurated with majorities in both houses of Congress -- still an angry person after all that.
ReplyDeleteA lot more angry than most conservatives are.
So in a way, he unwittingly helps RS McCain make his point.
Personally, I'd like to get a "I miss W" bumper sticker, just to watch certain heads explode.
ReplyDeleteLeftism is a fanatical religion. That is why it dominates their lives, and why the 20% of the US population that are leftists have so much power - they spend far more hours per day on their politics than anyone else.
ReplyDeleteLeftism is rivalled only by Islam in its fervor.
This funny picture shows why being a leftist is all-consuming.