By Cathy York

 

I am stunned. I am grieving. I am angry.

I thought Romney and Ryan were going to win, maybe even in a landslide.

But they didn’t.

And now we will be saddled with Obamacare for the foreseeable future. Doctors will leave their practices in droves because they will no longer be able to make a living on the paltry reimbursements they will get from the government for treating the patients they have devoted their lives to caring for. Catholic and other Christian hospitals will shutter their doors rather than provide contraception and murder unborn babies in violation of their deeply held convictions about the sanctity of life.

Babies born into the circumstances that surrounded Ian Rapp will survive much less frequently. My 81-year-old parents likely had five to 10 years unceremoniously lopped off their lives when the networks and pundits called Ohio for Obama.

When the first originalist SCOTUS justice retires or dies, his successors will render the Constitution increasingly irrelevant for a generation or more. Roe v. Wade will become even more entrenched in the nation’s psyche.

Businesses both big and small will be saddled with even more profit-devouring regulations, driving those who are able to relocate outside our borders, in countries that do not so disdain them, and reducing the number of available jobs here.

Our military strength will be significantly reduced, rendering us more vulnerable to attack from our enemies both at home and abroad. Our navy that has protected trade routes for decades will soon have fewer ships, and the cost of imported goods will surely increase.

And, despite what Prime Minister Netanyahu said to President Obama in congratulating him last night, I very much doubt that our strategic alliance with Israel is “stronger than ever.” (In fact, I wonder how big a dose of anti-emetic Bibi had to down to pen those words. But I digress.) Israel is very likely on her own when it comes to ensuring that Iran’s mullahs never get their hands on a nuclear weapon.

We can kiss justice for Brian Terry, Nicholas Ivie, Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Ty Woods, and Glen Doherty goodbye. God bless Darrell Issa, Jason Chaffetz, Trey Gowdy, and the rest of the Congressmen doing the Lord’s work on the House Oversight Committee, but with the Senate now even more firmly in Democrat hands, there is not a chance in hell that President Obama or anyone else in his administration will get so much as a slap on the wrist for their part in these patriots’ deaths.

Seized weapons and drug traffickers in Mexico

As I pointed out to a couple of folks in the chat room very late last night, if Issa et al. continue investigation proceedings on Fast & Furious and Benghazi in hopes of us regaining a Senate majority in 2016, that’s two years away, and the American people will get sick of hearing about it all. And if they wait until closer until those midterm elections, there won’t be enough time to complete the impeachment process before Obama concludes his second term.

And, to add insult to injury, we almost certainly face the prospect of more executive orders.

In a nutshell, we are hosed. Screwed. Defeated.

Barring a miracle, our Republic has begun its death throes.

Again, what happened?

As Duane Patterson, Hugh Hewitt’s producer, put it, Obama’s base is largely comprised of takers. They feel entitled to their Obamaphones, Obamacondoms, and Obamacare. They took to Twitter in the election’s aftermath, causing “F**k white people” to trend.

I refuse to point fingers at personalities or performances, for the problem goes much deeper than those distracting issues. There are no perfect candidates and every last one of ‘em screws up at one point or another. The travesty visited upon us last night is the direct result of an ideology, and it is that we must supplant if we are to take our country back.

Our education system and its popular culture outgrowth have tolerated—if not outright nurtured—this attitude that would likely have gotten us adults (and our children) a whuppin’ from parents who cared enough to do what they could to prevent us from becoming those overgrown brats. Our country as a whole ceded academia to the left a century ago (though with many exceptions), and last night we began to reap its rotten harvest.

FV Hayek

We must begin to reverse that harmful scenario. We must encourage our fellow conservatives to run for school boards (or do it ourselves!), volunteer for and fund their campaigns, vote for them, and encourage them in their efforts to mandate that our public schools teach free market economics and accurate history to every student who passes through those halls.

We must educate ourselves about the Constitution and free market economics as well. I have put off studying the fine resources that Hillsdale College has made available free of charge, but that changes this weekend. When I can get my hands on them, I’m reading Thomas Sowell’s, Walter E. Williams’s, Milton Friedman’s, and F.V. Hayak’s books.

This is critical. Without revamping the sorry state of academia, we have no hope of reconstituting our beloved Republic that, though imperfect, provides access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness more than any other form of government anyone has yet to dream up.

This feels as pivotal as the first 9/11, back in 2001. One person in the chat room suggested it was even more significant; I really can’t argue with that perspective. This election took us not forward, but all the way back to 1770 or so. If we are to live in a Constitutional Republic again, we have to birth another one. I pray this one doesn’t require a shooting war.