The Election

Some thoughts about yesterday’s election:

Abortion may be  the new gun control. Gun control is an article of faith among leftist Democrats. For years it was also a major part of their programs and campaigns. Then they started losing elections because of it and dropped it as a national issue, perhaps deciding pragmatically that while anyone adamantly in favor of gun control was likely to vote for them anyway, people opposed to gun control who might otherwise have voted for Democrats were being  driven to the Republicans. That seems to be where the Republicans are on abortion.  They lost two senate races yesterday in Indiana and Missouri that should have been easy victories because of dogmatic yahoo-ish statements by their candidates about abortion. The question could also have been a factor in Romney’s losing among women in several states where the overall totals were close and a better showing among women would have made Romney the winner.  It may be time to for the Republicans to realize  that they are not winning with this and drop opposition to abortion as a national issue. (They could of course still use it as a local issue in places where it is popular, just as the Democrats have done with gun control.)

I hoped Romney would win and thought he would win, though realizing that the issue was much in doubt.  However I am not surprised that I was wrong. Defeating an incumbent president is very difficult in this country. Since 1900 there have been only two incumbent, elected presidents who lost elections in which there was not a strong third party candidate - Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter.  While the country is not in good shape just now, it is in nowhere near the bad shape it was in in 1932 or 1980.  In the same period, all former vice presidents who had assumed the presidency after the death of a president and then sought re-election won.  Also since World War II, the Republicans and Democrats have alternated holding  the presidency in eight year intervals every time but one (Carter’s loss in 1980).

Still I hoped that  the difficulties with the economy, coupled with Obama’s execrable views, unpopular policies, and unpleasant personality would allow a Romney to pull it off. Well they didn't, and the country will suffer for that failure.  But the man is not really a Duce or a Generalissimo for life with unlimited powers. He only behaves as though he wishes he were. We can hope that a Republican house and an alert citizenry can keep the damage to a repairable level.