Election Wrap Up: The National View

I think the biggest take away from last night’s metaphorical bloodbath comes from one of my good friends (and fellow CrossFitter) Chris H, who reminded me that:

‘it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.’ Winston Churchill

Whether you see this as a victory or a tragedy, it happened peacefully and the opportunity to change it again remains in the next election.

While there have been (increasing) instances of political violence being perpetrated by unhinged Liberals, the overwhelming majority of our country is still (for now) able to hash out our differences via the ballot box.

Brooke L. Rollins, president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has the must-read analysis of what last night’s elections mean:

“Voters don’t want to be governed from the left, the right, or even the center. They want someone in Washington who understands that the American people want to govern themselves.”

That was the central point of Scott Rasmussen’s Wall Street Journal column published the day before the election. One of our country’s top pollsters, Rasmussen was among the first experts to pick up the theme of this election: that there is a political class in this country whose worldview and governing agenda is disconnected from mainstream voters in both parties.

Bailouts of our financial and automotive industries. Unprecedented pork-barrel spending under the false pretense of “economic stimulus.” The government takeover of our health care. Arbitrary and arguably unlawful interventions affecting America’s energy industry and Texas’ manufacturing sector. Higher taxes and suffocating regulations on small businesses. Taking power away from local governments and individual citizens and concentrating it in Washington, DC.

These actions made infinite sense to the powers that be in the political class – and to almost no one else.

And when mainstream Americans raised their voices against these actions, the response of the national political leadership was not to make our priorities theirs – or even to compromise on theirs. Instead, they took their deliberations behind closed doors, perverted our legislative processes, and exploited loopholes in our constitutional system of checks and balances.

But with that said, man — what a fantastic night to be an America- and freedom-loving Conservative.

The Good

Erik Erickson sets the tone appropriately:

This is an unusual Morning Briefing because you need to understand what happened while you’ve been sleeping. Republican gains are massive. And when I say Republican gains are massive, I mean tsunami.

• My prediction of a 64 seat pick up for the Republicans in the House is probably going to be right-on-the-nose when the final votes are all tallied up, which represents the largest victory for either party since 1938.

This will result in the smallest number of Democrats than in any House since the one elected in 1946.

What voter enthusiasm gap, indeed.

• Perhaps none of those House victories was more gratifying than LTC Allen West winning his bid in Florida.

• Right up there is the victory by Marco Rubio, who is beyond being a “rising” star in the GOP. This son of Cuban immigrants is a star.

I loved Patrick Ruffini’s tongue-in-cheek Tweet about the diversity of candidates that won in the GOP last night:

The racist teabaggers have elected Marco Rubio, and Susana Martinez, and Tim Scott, and Nikki Haley, and Bill Flores, and Allen West, and…

• Dear Nancy Pelosi: You’re fired. Now, in the words of Harrison Ford…Get off my [our] plane. Just hours before, Madam Blinky was still trying to convince herself and those 22% of Americans who still believe anything that comes out of her lying piehole that the Dems were going to retain the House majority, and that she would still be the Speaker of the House. All of that Botox has made the poor old moonbat delusional.

Andy Levy had the best Tweet of the night regarding San Fran Nan:

[tweet id=29525078409]

I watched MSNBC’s election night coverage most of the night just for the schadenfreude of watching Chrissy Matthews and Rachael Madcow, just in case one of their heads spontaneously combusted on live television. I did not want to miss that.

I thought it was about to happen when Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told Chrissy, “I imagine that thrill is maybe not quite so tingly on your leg anymore.”

In the Senate, it looks like the GOP picked up 6-7 seats. 3-4 short of getting to 50, but an amazing pickup nonetheless. And don’t let anybody try to tell you that last night was not one of the biggest waves (more like a tsunami) in American political history because the Dems “slit” by winning the Senate. As the reliably Left (but intelligent and mostly honest) Nate Silver remarked:

That’s an amazing result for Republicans — and far more remarkable from a historical perspective than the fact that Democrats were able to leg out a couple more wins than expected in the Senate. I’m not trying to be a media critic here, but Republicans have some legitimate gripe with portrayals of the night as having been a split decision.

• The most important Senate victory was Mark Kirk (R-IL) winning the seat held by Barack Obama less than 2 years ago.

• Ron Johnson (R-WI) beat one of the most un-apologetically and consistently Liberal Senators, Russ Feingold, who has held the seat for the last 17 years.

American’s voters sent a message not just to the Democrats, but to the GOP as well. We don’t want to know which one of you is better able to govern a government that is this big; we want to know which one of you can shrink the size of our federal government so that we the people are better able to govern ourselves.

The Bad

On a night described by everybody as a complete repudiation of Obama’s agenda and a desire for smaller and more limited central government, it’s hard to say anything really went “badly” for Conservatives last night. But in a perfect world:

• Harry Reid would have been fired, too. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the state, and more than half of Nevada residents have an unfavorable opinion of Reid. Yet he was easily re-elected thanks to his strong showing in Las Vegas and Reno. I don’t doubt that there was a lot of shady deals with local casinos and Labor unions to steal the victory.

• Barbara Boxer is still in the Senate. Add to that the Jerry Brown victory in the Governor’s race, and all one can ask is “WTF, California?” California is a failed state. But for some reason that detail hasn’t yet dawned on the people of the state, as they continue to elect the worst politicians in the country (or at least on par with the god-aweful politicians coming out of Massachusetts and New York).

• Bawney Fwanks easily won re-election. Even Comedy Central couldn’t help but shake their heads at that one:

Bawny Fwank won. Which sucks a lot of the joy out of the night. Or, as Comedy Central posted, “Mirthless, outspoken, homosexual, Democratic congressperson from Massachusetts Barney Frank has managed to hold onto his long-held seat despite being Barney Frank”

Lisa Murwhatshername (I-entitled, selfish little bitch-AK) most likely will beat the Republican nominee Joe Miller. I hope she decides to caucus with the Democrats.