Republicans reduce taxes, not spending, like Reagan. They reduce taxes, not the size of government, like Reagan.

Conservatives conserve. What ever is enacted by the Democrats will be conserved by Republicans. The Republicans had their chance to repeal the New Deal and Great Society. Instead they conserved them.

That government should be smaller is contrary to the entire history of the 20th century. That expansion began when ‘Progressives’ (then Republicans) instituted an income tax. It will never be repealed, which would take a constitutional amendment. The state governments will never vote to terminate the federal income tax or their own.

Short of mass conversions to Islam, the future is clear and has been for decades: more bureaucracy, more regulation by self-appointed experts, more government.

Can’t see the future but in my lifetime the dems have always imploded early on. History says we have a decent shot.

(The experience of Illinois Republicans presents another set of ugly possibilities. The Illinois Republican Party has been flatlining for decades, a Party of empty husks despite ample opportunity for thoughtful opposition to a corrupt and incompetent Democratic establishment.)

A pro-freedom/markets/defense political resurgence in this country will take a combination of good ideas, good leadership and a favorable political environment. Right now the political environment is unfavorable, as a plurality of Americans is invested in high hopes for an Obama administration. Obama will now get a chance to do his best for good or ill, and this will probably take a while. At the same time it isn’t clear that Republicans (assuming that any classical-liberal resurgence will be a Republican effort) have leaders who are up to the task of challenging him. There is no Gingrich much less a Reagan, and who knows when the next one will emerge. Finally, the Republican Party needs to reevaluate its ideas, and probably to cull some of the dross of “compassionate conservatism.” That’s a minimum requirement. It’s possible that Republicans will go through a long period of internal struggle between competing ideological sub-groups (libertarian, populist, nativist, religious-conservative, etc.) before a coherent framework for challenging the Democrats nationally emerges.

And throughout this period the Democrats and the Left will be reworking the system to lock in their own advantages. They may overreach and create an opportunity for their non-statist political opponents, but I wouldn’t count on it.

I am not a happy bunny but what can one do. At least I shall enjoy being as rude as possible to Tory Socialists.

We need to just take stock, start over, and think about what republicans stand for. I don’t mind losing in a principled manner. Winning while acting like Democrats only worked for a while. Now it doesn’t work at all.

But I am VERY HAPPY not to have to think about it for a while.

Anyway, I have to say that if Franken loses (or actually even if he doesn’t since this race is so tight) it really speaks to how much of a crappy candidate Franken was. You’d think the DFL could do better. I mean, Norm Coleman is so slimely and such a Bush lackey, how could he pull off a win in a state that heavily favored Obama and had huge voter turnout? My opinion — it’s only possible if the opposing candidate was a poor, poor choice.

In fact, in those House districts that skim the Cities (as we out here call ‘em), Republicans (Bachman, Paulsen) did fine.

I should note, however, the usual collection of knuckleheads from “da Range”, my home county, Mower, and an odd area out in southwest MN, will also always go Democrat.