First off I need to admit that I drank the Republican kool-aid, thought the polls were wrong and believed Romney would win… by a lot! That didn’t happen. I was wrong. Oh well.

The 2012 election lasted nearly two years and cost close to two billion dollars. Despite all of the ads, campaign stops, interviews, debates, polls and pundit predictions nothing changed. Republicans still have the House. Democrats still have the Senate. Barack Obama is still president. For all the effort of Tea Party patriots and Occupy Wall Street protesters nothing has changed.

There were a few abnormalities which could suggest fraud. Fifty nine Philadelphia voting districts and nine Cleveland districts went for Obama by almost 100% with Romney receiving no votes at all. There were districts in Florida that had record turnout upwards of 140%. Ohio and Florida were two very important states for Romney but both went to Obama. However, no one is challenging the results of the elections or filing for recounts and investigations (except for Allen West).

It appears that what happened is Republicans didn’t show up to vote! Romney received three million fewer votes than John McCain. That’s something I never would have believed on November 5th but it’s what happened. I assume that some people were concerned that Romney was too moderate and others just didn’t like or trust him. It doesn’t matter now..

Since the election the stock market has gone down. Gun sales have gone up. Several companies large and small have announced layoffs and cut backs. The CIA director resigned. The Attorney General and Secretary of State are both considering to leave their positions after the first term. Iran, who fired on a drone of ours two weeks ago, is openly mocking us again. Israel and Hamas are fighting again. Hostess is done so no more Twinkies or Donettes. No new answers on Benghazi… the list goes on. Basically, nothing is better and any hope for change ended several days ago.

The brilliant minds of the media are telling Republicans to widen their tent and reach out to blacks, latinos, women and gays. It’s as if they think minorities have been banned from the party or tried to get in but those damn Republicans just wouldn’t let them. It’s absurd! Democrats, with their allies in education and media have done their best to keep minorities voting Democrat and now their blaming it on the Republicans. The worst part is that the GOP is listening and talking about compromising principles to get votes. The fact is that people will vote for a real Democrat before a fake Democrat every time. Bending principles will not win elections. You certainly don’t see Democrats ditching all of their ideas when they lose, not even after 2010 when the Tea Party took over. It’s a marketing problem not a principle problem.

My solution goes like this: First, encourage your congress people to give Obama everything he wants. Let him own his failures. People are tired of congressional obstructionist anyway. Next, instead of never fighting back, always taking the highroad and letting the media and Democrats define Republican positions the GOP should grow some balls and get mean. Instead of apologizing for conservative values, put them on a mantel, shine a light on them and talk about them proudly every possible chance. Republicans are on the right side of history and they have the only policies that can pull people out of poverty. It’s time for conservatives to take a stand, fight for their ideas and relentlessly mock those who try to shut them up. The old game of playing nice and taking the hits doesn’t work anymore. Sitting back an letting people paint the party as racist, homophobic and anti-woman is lazy and stupid.

The RNC and Romney’s campaign were centered around the idea that any person regardless of race, religion, sex or class could rise up and control their own destiny. They were running on the American dream. Romney ran a positive, uplifting and future focused campaign. The problem is that 51% of the country didn’t believe the dream or didn’t trust Romney to see it through.

In the end, Obama’s divide and conquer campaign of misrepresentations and complete lies worked. His pandering to special interest and minority groups worked. Obama promising people free stuff worked. If Republicans really want to learn a lesson on winning elections it appears to be that lying a lot and promising free college, healthcare, birth control pills and amnesty will get you elected. Yay!

2016 can’t come soon enough…

- Craig