Webloggin » So Now What?

Shellacking, woodshed, creamed, destroyed, upended. These are all terms that come to mind when I look back at the destruction of the Republican Party in yesterday’s mid-term election.

Quite frankly I felt like I was watching the brutal Raiders of the mid-70’s pulverize my team who simply wasn’t up to the task.

In retrospect it had to happen. The Republican Party did this to themselves. Races that should have been about ideological differences were reduced to personal slugfests that simply didn’t fly with the electorate.

America will survive and Republicans will get a much needed opportunity to rebuild the party with conservatives who will get back to what it means to be a conservative. Unfortunately there was much to be done and this last Republican Congress let it slip. Good riddance.

So now what?

That question will immediately move to the Democrats. Will the Republican House defund the war? Probably over time but not immediately. I envision a phased approach and we will see how exactly the plan unfolds.

To determine what will happen next we need to look at the landscape. We can get a clue on where the people are by looking at the initiatives.

One of the biggest losses was in the initiative in Missouri that effectively brings cloning in under the guise of stem cell research. Personally not in favor of this but I like it where it is as a state measure. This is where it is supposed to be so I have no problem with that from a states rights initiative. I am not sure that this will lead to an expansion elsewhere.

The other big losses are where Parental notification failed in California and Oregon. This is a big loss for parents and their children IMHO.

Same sex marriage failed in all states that had the initiative on the ballot (8 states in all), minimum wage increased in 5 and they won’t be smoking pot legally in Colorado or Nevada. (correction: at the time of this report it appeared that Arizona had banned same sex marriage. This is incorrect as they did not pass the ban. AZ was the exception.).

Immigration will be a nightmare. Bush is closer to the Dems on this than he is the Conservative Party base.

Don’t take this as a rebuke on Conservatism though. It is a rebuke of Bush and the prosecution of the War in Iraq. This is what happens when Republican leaders spend like crazy and turn their backs on conservative principles. What did they expect?

Across the board you can see that many Dems moved toward the center so take a little solace in this.

I’ll have to sit back for a while and see what happens. We got crushed, the electorate spoke.

Others Blogging on this Subject:

Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Captain’s Quarters, Wizbang, Babalu Blog, The Moderate Voice, Blue Crab Boulevard