Obama may have gotten 52% of the votes - but - Conservatives were the winners of this election!

What?  BoBo - you must be out of your freakin’ mind!  How the hell do you figure that?  Obama won a clear majority of the votes.  Republicans got their asses handed to them again in Congress.  Republicans barely held on to a filibuster proof minority!  Oh - I get it - you’ve been hittin’ that sauce a bit too hard since the election ended.  You need to sober your ass up and join us in the real world!

Okay - now that we’ve gotten that out of the way.  Here’s why I am saying that - I came across two really good posts at some lefty blogs today: (well this appears to be a lefty blog - can’t quite figure this guy out) - Fearless History - On Conservatism and the other post comes from Left of Center - Dissention in the ranks?

Fearless History goes on to point out the differences between classical conservatism versus the neoconservative.  I would have to agree with his assessment - in doing so - this puts me staunchly and squarely in the classical conservative category.

Left of Center discusses the possible fracture of the Republican party as a result of this past election.  He pits the GOP against the Conservative base.  He posits that the GOP will be forever fractured and a new third party of conservatives will emerge as a result.  Based on Fearless’ definition of classical conservative and neoconservative - those that Left of Center believes will emerge as a third party would be those neoconservatives.

Go ahead - check out those two posts - then come back over here and see how these posts brought me to the conclusion that conservatives actually won this election.

Okay - your back - good!  The conservatives actually won this election.  Remember, Republican is a party.  Conservatism is a system of beliefs and values as it relates to government.  You can be a Liberal, Moderate, or Conservative Republican - and the same goes for Democrats.  John McCain is a liberal Republican (RINO) - that’s why he lost.  Obama by no means was given a mandate when he won this election.  It was reported that the turnout for this election was the same as 2004.  Yet, the Democrats registered 700,000 more new voters and the Republicans lost 1 million (a net deficit for Republicans of 1.7 million) - and there was a very large new voter turnout that ever before.  So - what happened to the rest of the voters?

The voters that John McCain needed to win stayed home or voted for a third party candidate.  The total number of votes for 3rd party candidates was approximately 1.5 million. Even if McCain picked up those votes - he still could not have won.  However, when you look at it by total states won - Obama only won 28 to McCain’s 22.  Obama picked up a few traditionally red states.  But - in those traditionally Red states that Obama won the electoral and popular vote - Republican Congressmen and Senators were still overwhelmingly voted in to office.  Where the Republicans lost seats were those traditionally Blue states that had Republican senators and representatives.  Those guys were tossed out.

Okay - so - it still looks like I’m losing my case - right?  Wrong.  There were a total of approximately 124 Million votes cast this election (Obama won 52% to 47%).  In 2004 there were approximately 122 Million votes cast (Bush won 51% to 48%).  There were only 400K third party votes in 2004.  So - we need to understand 1.) why were there 1 million more 3d party votes this year compared to 2004, 2.) If there were only 700,000 new Democrat voters - where did the other 2 million come from, and 3.) why did the Republicans lose seats if the Democrat led congress is at a historical low of 9%.

To answer the first question - the difference is directly proportionate to the number of registered Republicans lost.  They either changed party affiliation to independent or to a third party.  Conservative Republicans have been EXTREMELY pissed at the way Repubs have lost their way in D.C. - I will attest to that as I am now a registered Independent.  I’m one of those who defected from the Republican party out of disgust.

To answer the second question - There are 72 million registered Democrat voters.  Obama won with 65 million - some of those being Independents and pissed off Republican voters.  The Obama campaign did a helluva job mobilizing those registered voters who usually don’t come out to vote.  In addition - he mobilized the youth vote.  Obama capitalized on technology by setting up social networks and using text messages - considering McCain doesn’t even use e-mail or a computer (due to his injuries) - he missed the boat on capturing the attention of the youth voters.  Either way - there were still a large majority of registered Democrat voters that did not turn out for Obama - but - enough to win with independents and Republican defectors.

There are 55 Million registered Republican Voters and 42 million registered independents. McCain received 56 million votes - 1 million more than registered Republican voters.  So where did all of those votes come from?  If you figure 27% of the total voters were Independents as reported by all the pollsters - and Obama got 56% of them and McCain would receive 42% - then 14 million of the votes that McCain received are Independents.  However, according to Affinnova - there was about a 10% defection rate for Democrats.  That means that about 7.2 million who voted for McCain are registered Democrats.  By process of elimination - McCain only received 36 million votes from registered Republicans.  This means that about 19 million registered republican voters stayed home this past election.  McCain lost by 8 million.

I know, I know - that’s a helluva lot of freakin’ numbers there BoBo!  WTF are you doing, man!  Just stating my case.  According to the latest results from the American Issues Project - Republican voters who did turn out - voted against the Republican party because they lost their way.  AMEN, Brother! That’s what I was saying - here’s some of that article:

The decisive defeat Republicans suffered in Tuesday’s election came because conservative voters decided the party had lost its way, not because the electorate has shifted to the left, according to Issue Autopsy ‘08,

“Tuesday’s elections were a shellacking that revealed the Republican brand is diluted to the point where the American people do not really know what the GOP stands for anymore,” said Ed Martin, the organization’s president. “The clear lesson from the American Issues Project survey is that while the United States remains a center-right country, voters no longer trust the Republican Party to represent those interests in Washington.”

The survey found that approximately 72 percent of those voters agreed that: “The Republican Party used to stand for keeping government spending under control, but not anymore.” More than 75 percent of likely voters agreed with the statement: “When the Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994, they promised to reform government and clean up corruption in Washington, but they failed to live up to that promise.”

Respondents gave Democrats huge edges on fiscal issues, typically a Republican strength.

So - my friends - Obama may have gotten the votes - but - it was Conservatives who really won!  The conservative electorate has chosen to give the country over to the Dems for three purposes - 1.) To weed out those moderate Republicans from D.C. who lost their way by voting their asses out, and 2.) To let the country see just what happens when a far-left socialist President and Congress has power, and 3.) To energize the conservative base and give the GOP the opportunity to recreate itself and to go back to their roots.

IF - and that is a very big IF - the GOP gets the message - and if the Dems do exactly what we expect them to do (they have totally misinterpreted the results of this election again - just as they did in 2004) - come 2010 - there will be more Republicans put back in the house and the senate.  Maybe not enough to gain back the majority - but, enough to start the momentum going in to 2012.  If true classical conservatives (as detailed by Fearless History) get back to their roots of small government, lower taxes, and free-market capitalism - and can prove by their actions in D.C. - we will see a true Conservative (not neocon) Republican President in 2012 with a Republican majority again.

The Obama win is a loss for Republicans - but - not for conservatism!  Conservatism is just as strong today as it ever has been.  Now - the GOP just needs to remember that.  The fact that they shoved a RINO down our throats as the candidate - and the fact that he lost - should REALLY hammer that home to them. Now is not the time for conservatives to be hanging our heads.  Now is the time to re-unite and to continue to send the message to the GOP.  Return to your Reagan conservative roots - and - WE THE PEOPLE will put you back in control.