Demise of Conservatism Greatly Exaggerated

The abundance of articles online of those who are processing the numbers and pontificating provides some interesting reading material for those of us who are political junkies. The far left, for example, is in full out bewilderment as to the fact that this is still, clearly, a center right country in political philosophy. They thought that because Barack Obama pulled off a healthy victory on election night in November 2008 that the country had finally wakened to the wisdom of the liberal agenda put on hold since the 1960's and 70's. They could not have misread the election more incorrectly.

Remember the onset of all the articles and even books about the death of conservatism? Why, we were told by the likes of James Carville that the Democratic majority would be in place for a good 40 or so years. Certainly for the next couple of generations, anyway. Their arrogance ran wild as they showed all the signs of really bad winners - no good sportsmanship for the Democrats. They strutted, smirked, preened, and outright boasted about their superior intellects and philosophy on display.

Magazine covers were on sale with photos of elephants as endangered species and then the Tea Party began. A lone trader on the Chicago stock exchange lost his temper and was filmed declaring his refusal to accept the bad policies brought forward by the administration to heal the sick economy. His video went viral in no time as a good many Americans were feeling the same frustration and disgust at what was presented around them. It was solely economics, baby.

Folks who were never involved in politics, certainly not publicly, discovered the power and security of numbers and got involved. The rabid left in the political elite chambers of Congress decided to paint ordinary citizens as racist and Nazis and even astroturf. How could so many be so opposed to the agenda of the administration and others who desired to implement passe political philosophy from decades ago?

Some are starting to put two and two together:
Self-described "moderates" turned out in lower numbers than in 2006 and shifted Republican in lower numbers than average. Put these two things together and they suggest that there's a large number of independent voters who have shifted their self-ID from moderate to conservative. Were they really conservative all along but only started fessing up to it this this year? Or is there a genuine ideological shift in progress? Hard to say. But either way, this year they showed up at the polls in much larger numbers than in 2006. This is the famous "enthusiasm gap," likely driven by tea party fervor and millions of dollars of Medicare demagoguery.

I wonder if Mother Jones includes the taxpayer funded Medicare ads filmed by Andy Griffith to push Obamacare?

Obama and his staffers plus the Democrats in leadership are very busy declaring that it is poor communication skills that have created a discontent electorate and not the bad policies they have rammed down our throats. Maybe a little time will bring the out of the denial. How much more communication could Obama have done? He devoted speech after speech, day after day, trip after trip covered with the national media to health care/insurance reform along with his other pieces of his agenda. Communication is not the problem.