Lurch to the left?

I have enjoyed reading all the editorials and opinion pieces in the past week.

American conservatism is dead. The Reagan revolution is over. The Republican party has been repudiated and will slowly decline as the younger, enlightened generation take over.

I wonder if I was this bad at the end of the Clinton administration? I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I was more than ready to embrace George W Bush and put the Hillary Care, White Water, and Lewinsky days behind me. I remember I thought the country had finally come to its senses.

President Bush had my support in his first term and while I was alarmed at the huge spending increases taking place under his watch, we were attacked and we were at war. I was going to support the President and I would overlook the growth in entitlement spending. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress forgot who sent them to Washington and kept spending. If you want to know why Republicans lost big in the last two elections, here it is; Republicans stopped governing like Republicans.

So what do the tealeaves tell us about the American people? Have we seen a true realignment in the electorate or is this just an angry reaction to the status quo and a a desire for something new?

I think it is the latter. For those on the left, the true believers who think President elect Barack Obama is going to legislate his way into a new utopia, they are heading for a industrial-sized case of buyers remorse. Reality is still reality and you can't wish away your enemies and hope for buckets of money to fall from the heavens.

Those Reagan Democrats and 'decline to state' voters who thought they would give Obama a chance, because he could hardly do any worse than the current crop of big spenders, they will give him a year or two but in that third year, they will say enough of this liberal nonsense.

The overall voter turnout was within a percentage point of the turnout for the 2004 election. While the youth vote went overwhelmingly to Obama, the percentage of young voters stayed within two percent of the last election. The next two election cycles will favor republicans, especially in the Senate where more Democrats will be defending seats, unlike this year. If the new administration plays it smart they will tell Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid to not propose anything crazy for at least the first year. Good luck with that.

The American electorate is not a Ferrari, it does not turn on a dime and change direction in the blink of an eye. Americans are more like a 1971 Ford station wagon. A bit slow to respond, a bit sluggish to accelerate and it wanders down the road from right to left and back again.

If you think America has finally turned from a center-right country to a center-left country, please explain why liberals have stopped calling themselves liberals. They hide behind the new label of 'Progressives'. When you have to hide who you are to get elected, you are not winning the battle of ideas, you are just better at re marketing your brand.

P.S. - It has been a week since the election and I am yet to find a unicorn in garage. So much for campaign promises.