Be that as it may, I would like to make some predictions, and suggest some tactics and strategy.
Obama is going to lose badly, really badly. He is trending badly now, and as he gets hammered on Benghazi (not optimal? What do you think Romney is going to do with that, combined with his patent lie at the last debate, and his decision to fly to Las Vegas rather than actually act like he cared)), and the expansion of the Welfare State, and the enormity of his increase in our national debt, etc, etc., even many Democrats are going to turn on him.
Here is where it gets interesting. The lunatic radicals that have taken over the Democrat Party, and who thought they had found the winning combination by putting suits and congenial smiles on some of their members (pretty much the whole inner circle, certainly including Obama and Holder) and talking in generic platitudes, are going to get unmasked. They only constitute perhaps 10% of Americans, and the really nutty ones are only perhaps 1% (the Bill Ayers, the Jeremiah Wrights, the Saul Alinskys, the Frank Marshall Davises, the Anita Dunns), but through the sheer force of will and tenacity that lunacy gets you, they have achieved much broader power. That is, in my view, about to end. I think this will be their Gettysburg, where their insurgency, and invasion of normal, non-lunatic America will end.
What did Candy Crowley do? She tipped her hand. She openly supported Obama. She supported his lie. She interrupted Romney more often, and gave him fewer turns at bat. Moderates noticed this. The hard core Obama partisans of course didn’t care, since they are increasingly a maddened shrieking mob. And this is important: when Obama loses, they are going to take to the streets and internet in droves, screaming bloody murder, and I think large segments of the middle will notice this, and realize that their support for Obama was never rational in the first place. This will be sobering for them.
And this creates an opportunity for conservatives (or as I like to say, genuine Liberals) to educate. I was talking last night with someone in bar about talking points. I have said this before, but talking points are propaganda, and propaganda damages our public dialogue, our capacity for rational thought, completely. Even if your side wins the election, the cause of truth has lost. The cause of GENUINE national debate about anything has lost. The willingness to study issues and reach emotionally unbiased conclusions atrophies. That is how we elected Barack Obama in the first place.
But in my view there is NO OTHER WAY to get our nation back on track but by recreating–or more likely creating for the first time–an actually educated electorate. The elitism among our Founding Fathers was based on deep historical knowledge. They knew most people are driven by vanity and self interest, and that such people, granted access to other peoples money, would take it, even though in the long run it would plainly hurt them as well, and probably most of all.
But everyone has the vote now–and I am not saying this is intrinsically bad thing, merely that it HAS been a bad thing. Our task is to make voting an expression of social coherence based upon factually accurate information. We need to generalize economic knowledge. We need to generalize political knowledge. That is why I spend so much time writing my pieces. I don’t know who if anyone reads them, but I have increased MY OWN knowledge, my own internal qualitative richness, and prepared myself for a time when such material may be useful.
I think the Left is right in its argument that George W. Bush was elected on talking points. Karl Rove appropriated the Alinsky method by channeling widespread conservative hatred of Clinton to get Bush elected. And conservatives were happy, for a very long time, even though Bush acted like anything but a conservative. He didn’t just start two wars: he expanded social spending as well. And people forgave him because he wasn’t Bill Clinton.
Mitt Romney is not George Bush. He is much smarter, and I think more capable, at least potentially. What our task will be on the first day he takes office is to begin putting steady pressure on him to stick behaviorally behind all the excellent rhetoric we have been hearing in debates. The Mitt Romney of the debates is who the people will be voting for, and so there is NO REASON to back down once he gets there. We need to keep him honest.
OF COURSE the attacks from the Left will be relentless, but we have been learning over the last four years how to refute their arguments in depth. Grandma’s Medicare is ALREADY insolvent. Adults understand that you can’t get everything you want for nothing. Social Security is ALREADY insolvent. Between the two of them, our actual increase in national indebtedness is something on the order of $5 trillion a YEAR. The most important stuff they keep off the books. Neither the private sector nor State and Local governments are allowed, by law, to do accounting the way the Federal government does. To actually pay for the bills coming due, we would have to hand over ALL of our income, today, and IT’S GETTING WORSE. Unaddressed, Medicare alone may soak up the entirety of our tax base within 10-15 years. Annual interest on our national debt will be more than the current Dept. of Defense budget within ten years, assuming no more debt downgrades.
Put accurate facts in people’s hands, coherent arguments. There is no need for stentorian yelling. There is no need for fighting.
Our decline has been gradual, and our ascent back up into usefulness will be gradual as well. But we can all thank Barack Obama and his fellow radicals for enabling the organization of a long term and vital conservative resurgence.