Following the November 8th Special Election in Fornicalia every major proposition went down to defeat with a resounding “no” from the electorate.

We as conservatives can either fold our tents and decamp, or we can regroup, coalesce and fight back. Tom McClintock is running for Lt. Governor of Fornicalia and, as such, I receive his campaign newsletter. Within this newsletter was an article that provided an absolutely sterling insight into the special election results and what it means for the GOP and the state.

I feel compelled to reprint a portion of the speech Mr. McClintock gave to the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee on November 15, 2005:

Just days after leading England safely through World War II, Winston Churchill suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of British voters. As he watched the dismal results roll in, Clementine sat beside him, patted his knee and said, “Well, if you ask me, Winston, it’s a blessing in disguise.” Churchill growled, “Well at the moment, madam, it is very well disguised, indeed.”

Tonight I’d like to point out a few blessings in this election – however well disguised they might seem at the moment.

The first is that we didn’t lose any ground in this election. Propositions 73 through 77 were attempts to move us back in a conservative direction and although they failed, we’re not any the worse off. And don’t forget, the Left tried to move us in their direction with Propositions 79 and 80, which would have socialized the pharmaceutical and energy markets. Both of those measures were ALSO soundly defeated – and they were defeated by a greater margin overall than the Governor’s
measures. In fact, the two most conservative measures – 73 (parental abortion notification) and 75 (paycheck protection) did the best, and the two most liberal measures – 79 and 80 – did the worst.

The second blessing is the fact that to defeat the Governor’s initiatives, the Left had to outspend the Governor by well over $50 million. They can’t keep outspending us by that kind of margin, and when there’s a level playing field, the result will be dramatically different.

The third is that although the specific measures were all defeated, every poll that asked whether voters favored the general principles of the initiatives reported overwhelming public support. It was not the underlying philosophy that the people rejected. That’s why the left had to resort to a “Tsunami of lies and distortions,” as Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Weintraub observed. For example, they attacked the redistricting reform for giving the final say over district lines to judges when in fact, that measure gave the final say TO THE VOTERS. Empires built on lies don’t last very long. My favorite was the last two days, after they had spent over $100 million on negative ads, they went back to voters and asked, “Tired of all the negative ads? Then just vote NO.”

Fourth, although the Governor’s approval rating has been forced down – there is one political institution that consistently fares even worse: the liberal Democratic state legislature.

And fifth, in San Diego, voters overwhelmingly elected the Republican candidate against the Liberal Democrat in that city’s mayoral election – beating her by six points in her own district.

I’m not going to pretend that Tuesday’s election was anything for us to celebrate. Voters rejected some of the most sensible propositions ever put to a vote: that government should live within its means; that politicians shouldn’t chose who gets to vote for them; that teachers should demonstrate sustained competence before they’re granted lifetime tenure; that public employees have a right to decide for themselves what candidates they’ll support with their own money; and that parents have a right to know if their teenaged daughter is being spirited out of school to have an abortion. The rejection of these measures was a major setback in the cause of reform and a major victory for the government unions that are now ascendant, emboldened and unchallenged in their domination of our political and legislative process.

But I do make these points to illustrate that the situation is far from hopeless. And as we review the election results and re-assess the political landscape, we need to keep things in perspective. In the grand scheme of things, this was a setback; not a cataclysm.

Tom is correct; this was not a cataclysm but a temporary setback. Doomsayers are predicting a total crash and burn of the GOP, in Fornicalia and nationally. I don’t believe this is true at all! There are already plans being made for 2006. And last Friday was a very bad day for the Democratic party when they indicated, en masse, their fear of alienating the voting public.

We’ve taken some body blows but we have not even come close to putting down a knee.