The Foundation

“Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.” –George Washington

Political Futures

“On Tuesday voters rejected President Obama’s attempt to remake America in the image of an imploding Europe – not just by overwhelmingly electing Republican candidates in the House, but by preferring dozens of maverick conservatives who ran against establishment Washington. Why the near-historic rebuke? Out-of-control spending, unchecked borrowing, vast new entitlements and unsustainable debt – all at a time of economic stagnation. So what is next? Like the recovering addict who checks himself into rehab, a debt-addicted America just snapped out of its borrowing binge, is waking up with the shakes, and hopes there is still a chance at recovery. It won’t be easy. Obama and his Democratic Congress ran up nearly $3 trillion in new debt in just 21 months – after running a disingenuous 2008 campaign that falsely promised to rein in the fiscal irresponsibility that had been rampant during the spendthrift Bush administration. So the voters intervened and sent America in for rehab treatment. In our three-step road to recovery, we, the sick patient, must first end the denial, then accept the tough medicine, and finally change the entrenched habits that caused the addiction.” –historian Victor Davis Hanson

Opinion in Brief

“What the tea party, by which I mean members and sympathizers, has to learn from 2010 is this: Not only the message is important but the messenger. Even in a perfect political environment, those candidates who were conservative but seemed strange, or unprofessional, or not fully qualified, or like empty bags skittering along the street, did not fare well. The tea party provided the fire and passion of the election, and helped produce major wins – Marco Rubio by 19 points! But in the future the tea party is going to have to ask itself: is this candidate electable? Will he pass muster with those who may not themselves be deeply political but who hold certain expectations as to the dignity and stature required of those who hold office? This is the key question the tea party will face in 2012. And it will be hard to answer it, because the tea party doesn’t have leaders or conventions, so the answer will have to bubble up from a thousand groups, from 10,000 leaders. Electable doesn’t mean not-conservative. Electable means mature, accomplished, stable – and able to persuade.” –columnist Peggy Noonan

For the Record

“The most important outcome of [last] week’s election is that Republicans clobbered the Democrats in the state gubernatorial and legislative races. Next year, state lawmakers draw new congressional districts, determining the congressional map for the next decade. In the past, Democrats have had a 2-1 advantage in congressional redistricting. Not anymore. Tuesday night, Republicans won governorships in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Alabama, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina – pause, deep breath – New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, Maine, Iowa and Florida. They also swept the state legislatures. Meanwhile, the Democrats won governor’s races in California, New York, Massachusetts, Arkansas and Maryland. Not only are all the Democrats’ states losing population, which isn’t as important for redistricting, but the Democrats’ biggest plum, California – losing congressional seats for the first time since the ‘50s – also approved a ballot measure that will take redistricting out of the hands of the California legislators and turn it over to a Citizens Redistricting Commission. So the Democrats got nothing out of this election. Worst of all, now they’re stuck with Harry Reid.” –columnist Ann Coulter

Government

“The public is in the mood for repairing America’s crumbling financial house. Democrats will have a more difficult time demagoguing spending cuts when they have been primarily (though not entirely) responsible for the ocean of red ink. The Debt Commission will issue its report on Dec. 1. Many conservatives suspect it will include a call for tax increases. Republicans should say 'no’ to any tax hikes and focus entirely on government overspending and misspending. Many of us are ready for strong medicine. ‘We can’t afford it’ still rings in the ears of those old enough to remember what parents or grandparents said when we asked for an expensive toy as a child, or a car at 16. That Puritan ethic remains in the DNA of many Americans. It is now up to Republicans to get it out and remind us of what fiscal and personal responsibility can do to restore financial solvency. It may take a while and there will be some discomfort and even pain involved. But in the end, we will all be better off than we are now and much better off than we will be if we fail to reduce our unsustainable debt.” –columnist Cal Thomas

Liberty

“[W]here [does] all this talk of rich equaling $250,000 a year, a million a year … start? What right does Obama have to sit there and proclaim that people who earn X are gonna be punished with Y, people who earn less than X won’t be punished with Y? … Looked at within the prism of liberty and freedom, as our founding documents spell out, the Declaration, the Constitution, in nowhere in any of our founding documents was it ever said that people earning X would be punished for it. It was never said in our founding documents that people earning X would share a greater burden of funding the government than people who didn’t. … [A]ll this is nothing more than a direct attack on liberty, a direct attack on freedom and it creates class envy and resentment and anger between the classes, between people of different income groups. So all of a sudden we’re faced with a possibility here of the Bush tax cuts ending for people who earn $250,000 a year or more. Well, why are we even discussing it in the first place? What did those people do? What is the magic? Who sets arbitrarily this figure of $250,000 a year? Why are they targeted? And look how easily people fall into the trap of debating the premise, when the real question is when is the federal government going to assume responsibility for the deficit spending, for the irresponsible position they put this country in? When are they going to be forced to reduce the behavior, to limit the behavior they are engaging in that is causing a usurpation of our liberty and freedom?” –radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

The Gipper

“Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic ‘yes.’ To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy. In the days ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed our economy and reduced productivity. Steps will be taken aimed at restoring the balance between the various levels of government. Progress may be slow – measured in inches and feet, not miles – but we will progress. It is time to reawaken this industrial giant, to get government back within its means, and to lighten our punitive tax burden. And these will be our first priorities, and on these principles, there will be no compromise.” –Ronald Reagan

Culture

“While ‘hope’ and ‘change’ were the mantras of yesterday’s elitists, ‘freedom’ and ‘truth’ are the rallying cries of today’s ordinary Americans. John Adams wrote, ‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’ That statement reminds us who we are called to be. That ‘faith’ is a verb – an ‘action word’. Our Constitution is the finest governing document of any country. And as voters, we need to work to make certain that our government protects our constitutional freedoms, whether they be economic, religious, or speech. We must demand that we remain free to associate with whom we choose, to travel where we wish, to work in the fields in which we feel called, and to teach our children in the manner we think is best. As citizens, we need to renew our commitment to live up to the moral and religious ideals that make it all work. Ordinary Americans need to continue to step forward and take charge.” –columnist Rebecca Hagelin

We Depend on You

“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” –George Washington

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Reader Comments

“For the first time since 1870 – 1870!! – Republicans took control of the North Carolina state house and senate. The GOP now holds more state legislatures than at any time since 1928. As Mark Alexander noted, there is a lot more going on here than a national congressional victory!” –Carolina Patriot

Editor’s Reply: This is only the beginning. We have a long way to go to undo the damage done, and remember that two short years ago, a majority of American voters were duped into supporting Obama and his Leftist cadres. If we are going to make a sustainable difference, it will only be if The Patriot’s mission to educate millions of additional Patriots about Essential Liberty and constitutional integrity succeeds. Please support our mission here.

“I support The Patriot Post because I do not have time to read the many other emails sent to me regarding the political scene in our country. I have found that, if it is important, I will read about it in The Patriot Post. Thanks for sifting through all the documents written by other Americans who still love this country and say what needs to be said. Thank you also for sifting through what is written by people (I hesitate to call them Americans) who do not love this country and say things I need to know about even if they make no sense. I appreciate all of you and all your hard work!” –MMW Taylor

“Concerning your ‘And Last’ item Friday about the San Fran politicians telling McDonald’s what they can and cannot sell, why is it that the leftists feel like they have to control what people eat but when it comes to abortion they feel people should have a ‘choice’?” –Dave

The Last Word

“At his post-defeat press conference, Barack Obama worked hard to project an air of somber reflection, even as his remarks revealed that he had learned nothing from the defeat. Amidst the practiced pauses and detached narration of the crash came a litany of excuses, evasions, and arrogant denials. He more or less cast himself as the victim of a ‘bad economy,’ as if two years of sending anti-business signals to employers had nothing to do with the high jobless rate. He made sure to note that other presidents had gotten similarly clocked after two years. And he essentially blamed the American people for a lack of perception and patience. But since he couldn’t say that directly, he had to couch his self-justification in the form of patronizing blather about how he could have ‘accomplished’ more, made better ‘progress,’ and ‘communicated’ more effectively with the American people. … At the end of the day, he is nothing more than a shallow pol with little interest in or knowledge of governing. He backed into the White House through effortless luck (he ran against one of the worst Republican presidential candidates ever), and apparently assumed that running the White House would be just as easy. His shallowness also makes him obtuse, even from a rawly political and self-interested standpoint. He suffered one of the worst defeats in decades because of his environmental, socialist, and Brave New World dilettantism, yet spent much of the press conference talking about ‘electric cars,’ gays in the military, and 26-year-olds who, thanks to his largesse, will get to stay on the health care plans of their ‘parents.’ … Obama admitted that he lives in a ‘bubble,’ but that too was the fault of others. He presented himself as the passive victim of his own presidency. Near the end of the press conference, he allowed himself a particularly absurd and maudlin moment, complaining that because of the presidency’s inherently insular character no one can see the depth of his concern for the people. He said that ‘no one is filming him reading those letters’ from them which leave him so anguished and inspired. Perhaps he needs his own reality show.” –columnist George Neumayr