In the next two years or so we will see a lot written about this election. Much of it will be written about Hillary with people in her campaign writing tell-alls and Robbie Mook and Jennifer Palmieri writing books to make them look better after a disastrous campaign. They will blame (in no particular order) Comey, Russia, Bernie Sanders, the media, Obama, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (TM), fake news, voter fraud and a plethora of other BS. What they will not blame is the thing that they can never admit--it was their ideology thrust on the country over the last 8 years that was the real reason they have been shunted to the hinterlands. To admit that would mean to admit their entire paradigm is false and a lie.
During the Obama years we've seen the following:
Obamacare: an ill-conceived scheme that gave government control over 1/6 of the economy and had no chance of succeeding. Instead of working with the GOP, they rammed it down the countries throat to the point we actually had the Speaker of the House say this:
Does anyone outside of DC or NYC actually think that's the right way to handle such critical legislation? No, evidently not. Americans wanted a discussion and Democrats just wanted to pass anything. The GOP did not cast a single vote for the bill and then we watched as the exchanges were botched, we lost our doctors, paid way more for worse coverage and the very people needed to prop it up ran away from it.
The Apology Tour: This was one event liberals really never comprehended. To everyone but the most ideologically left zealots America is unique and special. We are the greatest country on the planet and that's as ingrained in the American psyche as anything. To watch a sitting president bow to every despot and apologize for past actions was just too much to handle. Yes, Obama was re-elected after but there were other factors at work as well including a bad GOP candidate and the fear of being labeled racist. But very few actions by Obama were as detested as his groveling on the world stage. America doesn't do that. Liberals believe very deeply that American actions over the last 50 years have been bad for the world versus good. They do not believe in American exceptionalism but believe the exact opposite.
Race Relations: Liberals at their very core believe America to be racist. It's not even a question to them. From the very beginning of his first term Obama made it clear that he was African-American first and American second. It started with the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry gates--an African-American who couldn't get the door to his house open and when he appeared to be breaking in, police were called. The responding officer allegedly had an altercation and the professor was arrested on disorderly conduct charges. Without all the facts, Obama jumped into the fray:
"I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home, and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."
His commenting on the event was a clear sign that racial healing was not going to be a strong part of his administration. It just expanded from there eventually hitting a tipping point with Ferguson and the false claim of "hands up, don't shoot". The fact that the words were never spoken was immaterial, it was a rallying cry. The hoax was perpetrated by CNN and others:
The Culture Wars: Americans in the aggregate have ceded the culture wars to the left. Gay unions became acceptable, abortion is not nearly the issue it once was except to strong supporters on either side and other issues that conservative fought against for decades became normalized. But liberals couldn't just accept victory and had to keep pushing. It all came to a head when they demanded that bathroom being open to all based on what they identified themselves as that day. When sane people pointed out that this is a major safety concern to us they screamed us down as bigots and homophobes.
Immigration: Americans have had enough of unchecked immigration. The left kept pushing for more and more rights for those who have none in this country. The right to vote, sanctuary cities where those who were already criminals were protected from the federal government and the high instances of crime perpetrated by illegals was too much. Kate Steinle being murdered by an illegal who had been arrested before and should never had even been in the country was enough. When we debated the point we were labeled xenophobic or racist. When we pointed out that ISIS or al-Qaeda can easily traverse the border, we were called Islamophobic and we should just shut the hell up.
Terrorism: This was an enormous part of the equation that ultimately led to Hillary losing and the rise of Trump. The Fort Hood jihadi attack was labeled "workplace violence". A car bomb in NYC, the Boston Marathon bombing and numerous other instances of blatant Islamic terrorism were labeled as "shootings" or "bombings" but never labeled as terrorism. And worse yet, every time an attack occurred, the media and liberals all hoped it was a white man killing minorities but once it became clear it was jihadism, they immediately called for calm and urged that not all Muslims be blamed. The exact opposite happened when a truly deranged white kid attacked a black church and it was blamed on every white person in America. San Bernardino, Orlando and Dallas were treated as normal crimes, not terrorism. When those of us said that this is a concern and something needs to be done, we were scoffed at and called Islamophobes.
Global Warming: This is a bigger repudiation of leftist ideology than anything else. Since the 1990's, the media and left have been pushing global warming as a major issue. Hell, as recently as last June John Kerry labeled it a more dangerous concern than terrorism. Whenever those of us who are skeptical want to debate it we get slammed with the popular "it's settled science" or the erroneous "97% of scientists agree..." bullshit. If you want to spend billions of dollars on a "problem" we at least want the problem identified and the actions expected to be taken.
These things singularly are not that big. These things taken in their entirety is the reason we now have President-Elect Trump. Large sectors of this country have been shoved aside and left out of the American Dream. Obamacare forced their hours from full-time to part-time. Trade agreements have left them jobless when the factories closed. An entire industry that was provided work for generations was wiped out in the war on coal. The standard of living for millions was reduced and for the first time people had less hope their children would do better than they did. When these very people spoke out and asked why they were ridiculed and called every "ist" in the liberal lexicon.
The entire leftist ideology was put on trial in this election and it lost. Not by much as the country was essentially split but things that liberal hold very dear were repudiated on November 8. They will either do some soul-searching and realize that they have no appeal to half the nation or they will continue with their usual arrogant, elitist attitudes and lose again. I'm betting on the latter.
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