The Day After the Day After

I spent yesterday in something of a fog. I couldn't sleep Tuesday night and got no more than about 2-1/2 hours of shut-eye. Then Wednesday came and with it, all of the normal Wednesday responsibilities. I tried to put the result of the election out of my mind and do what needed to be done.

I did listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few minutes yesterday. I wanted to see how he, eternal optimist when it comes to conservatism and the American spirit, would react to the re-election of President Obama. The segment I heard was not encouraging. He said that he went to bed feeling, as I did, that the country is lost. And he said something that I think is contradictory. In pure Rush Limbaugh fashion, he said he doesn't believe conservatism lost in this election but that what this election demonstrates is that it's impossible to compete with Santa Claus. Well, in my opinion, that means conservatism lost to Santa Claus (or in this case, Santa Barack). We have apparently reached a point in the United States that the majority of voters desire, more than anything else, to be taken care of by the state. They don't want to know how the state is going to do it and they don't care what freedoms will have to be sacrificed along the way. They don't want elected representatives who will work for them; they want a Godfather who will take care of them. In spite of our 16 trillion dollar national debt President Obama convinced them that he is that Godfather and that all that is needed to ensure their well-being is to continue "investing" in a multiplicity of programs. Where he will find the money to "invest" I don't know. There aren't enough rich people in the country to pay the debt and finance all the new spending he continues to espouse. Oh, wait, I guess I do know. We will continue to borrow from China while printing worthless paper money and refusing to face the reality that we can't continue on this path without grave consequences.

Yesterday I told my husband that I have come to the conclusion that conservative, Judeo-Christian values can no longer win elections in this country because the majority of people in the country no longer believe in them. It's not a matter of weak candidates or ineffective messaging; it's the message itself. Political analysts who describe the United States as a center right country are wrong. The country no longer wants what conservatives are offering.

Maybe if President Obama's second term does not result in the economic turnaround he promises, people will start looking for an alternative and conservatives will have another chance to make their case. But I am not hopeful. I am also not hopeful that social conservatism has any chance of succeeding in its efforts to protect the sanctity of life or the institution of marriage. The secular socialists have successfully taken over the mainstream media, the schools, and the popular culture, and they have spent the last 50 years indoctrinating young people via those tools. Children reflect their upbringing: if they spend the bulk of their time in government schools, interacting primarily with people their age while being constantly plugged into the prevailing news and entertainment media, their worldview will reflect those influences. This is true for the broader culture as well. Those who do not research or think deeply about the issues will have their opinions shaped for them like so much silly putty.

I have largely avoided the news since Tuesday night. What's the point? I did come across several articles online that closely reflect my feelings about this election. One is by Roger Simon, who identifies the same three tools I do when analyzing the scope and power of liberal influence. Another is by Ann Coulter, who says not to blame Mitt Romney for the loss of this election. I agree. He was not my first choice in the primary, but he won me over, and I don't think any of the other candidates would have fared better. Someone like Rick Santorum would have probably fared even worse. The problem is not, as some of my conservative friends believe, that Republicans are not nominating principled enough conservatives. The problem is that the number of conservatives is dwindling. Mitt Romney won the independent vote. It wasn't enough.

I find this realization to be incredibly depressing, and I wonder what the point is of continuing to follow the news. Better to accept that I am in a dwindling minority and to do what I can to make my life and my family's life better. I think I need to pray more, exercise more, study the Bible more, and get back to reading classic literature. I need to play piano and teach my children and accompany my choirs and clean my house and plan meals. I need to get off of Facebook and the blogs and go outside and take a walk. If this Election Day results in my successfully redirecting some of my time and energy to those things, perhaps it will turn out to be a blessing. Still, I fear for the day when I can no longer ignore what's going on in the outside world because of the ways it is invading my day to day life. Lord, have mercy on us all.