So conservatives kinda got spanked on Tuesday, and they aren't happy. Not only are the conservablogs pissed, I'm getting endless discussions on TV and radio about how conservatism, or the Republican brand, can rebuild. But I don't care. If they don't rebuild, I don't know that anyone will be worse off.
Disco. Inst. blogger and Kentucky Focus on the Family activist Martin Cothran tells his fellow conservatives to get over it, concluding:
We will know that conservatism has righted itself when its adherents don't go into a funk when they lose one election.
Cothran, apparently, hasn't noticed that this is the second major wave election in a row. Democrats picked up a Presidential landslide, 7-8 seats in the Senate (depending how Minnesota pans out), 21 or more House seats, after picking up 31 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate in 2006. That isn't "one election." It's 66-67 elections, and many of them were won by pretty stark margins.
Here is a map of the counties where Republicans gained vote share between 2004 and 2008:
That isn't "one election," it's Appalachia versus the rest of America. It's a mandate. The country has rejected the failed policies and failed ideas of contemporary conservatism, and I say good riddance. Conservatives should be upset. They lost, and lost badly.
I just don't want the media to waste my time with their wanderings in the desert. I will, however, enjoy watching the internal purges underway already.
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Don't forget what happened in 1994.
It's very important dems at least hold on to what they have - and preferably gain seats in 2010.
I do care if we don't have a second viable political party other than the Democrats. A one-party system is not a good thing. Checks and balances disappear in the bandwagon effect.
What's more, voters will see that, and will happily elect more creationists in the drive to "throw out the bums."
I really want to see a second viable political party rebuild itself. The Republican Party that recognized it was a mistake to the desires of those who, erm, live near me... go back to the values of individual freedom, fiscal responsibility would invigorate the national debate and give us a two-party system that might mean something other than cultural wars with ignorance. (The GOP currently *talks* about those values, but does just the opposite when in power; witness the Bush administration for the most egregious example ever.)
I don't disagree about the importance of multiple parties, I just don't care if that party is the Republican party. If the Libertarian Party or the Green Party managed to become more viable options, I wouldn't see the problem.