Because...

Last night I drank an entire bottle of wine, sitting in the kitchen listening to Mitt Romney lose the election one swing state at a time.

This morning, I have a headache.

Here are just a few random thoughts.

·      I have some very specific reasons for voting for Mitt Romney. Do Obama supporters have theirs? I'm working on a theory that most people, if asked, could not give their reasons. Some day I'd like to ask people who voted for Obama in 2012 to fill in the blank: I voted for Obama because_____________. I am not a betting person, but I'd be willing to bet real dollars that they could not complete the sentence. Theirs, I'd wager, was an emotional vote, not a rational, reason-based vote. Real dollars. 

·      Some people celebrate Obama’s win the way fans cheer for their team. But  we are not two teams. We are America. What if Obama’s re-election is not good for America?

·      One of my liberal friends on Facebook basically suggested I get a life (take up a musical instrument?) Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard says something similar. In saying “good riddance” to the 2012 election, he writes, “What’s worrisome, perhaps only to me, is that too many people take politics too seriously. More than a few folks I’ve run into in recent years are obsessed. They’re political junkies in the non-metaphorical sense. They’re addicted. It’s fine to be concerned about this year’s presidential race. It’s enormously important. And it’s smart to keep up with the news. But there’s a limit. Politics isn’t life." 

·      Another of my Facebook friends nudges me toward God: “Society will continue to run. God’s purposes will continue whether it includes a strong America or a weak one. Society will continue in its disordered love to make attachments and idols about them. We will continue to believe lies. But if there is any value in the Incarnation, it is the grace of God stepping into our lives to turn our heart toward Him and say, In spite of it all, You are enough.”

·      OK, so I admit, I'm a political junkie. And I also admit my faith took a bit of a beating last night. My good Christian friends posted or texted things like, “God is still on the throne.” While I don’t think I stopped believing this, I do admit to being found muttering last night, somewhat despondently, “So I guess you have turned your face away from America after all.”

·      Of all the people who voted to re-elect Barack Obama, it’s the twenty-somethings that irk me more than anything. Some of their Facebook postings (“Congratulations, Mr. President! “We Won!” “Get over it, Obama-haters!”), for example, suggest they they don't have a clue about what just happened. To these young people, all I can say is, Be careful what you wish for. You just re-elected a man to office who has nothing to show for his first term and who offered no new ideas about how things would be different during his second. This is now your America.

·      More than anything else about this election, the thing that has distressed me the most is the media. Those who voted to re-elect Obama did so, I believe, for two reasons: the lies they heard (about Republicans in general and Mitt Romney in particular) and the truth they didn’t hear (about the Obama administration in general and Barack Obama in particular). Both of these factors can be traced to a corrupt (yes, I did say corrupt) and left-leaning (yes, provable, proven) media who did everything in their power, including concealing information (yes, provable) in order to protect from scrutiny and/or promote Obama. This aspect of the 2012 election, and also the 2008 election, is what frightens and disturbs me the most, especially since the twenty-somethings who are jubilant this morning don't seem to appreciate how dangerous this is. 

·      Is America doomed? I guess I'm thinking so. I have many sunny and optimistic friends. But I’m not so optimistic. Civilizations rise, civilizations fall. America has been a dominant player on the world stage for a long time. It appears, however, to be in decline, militarily and economically. There was an extremely good chance that Mitt Romney could have altered the trajectory of this decline. As a Christian, I prayed for him to be given this chance. But, to be honest, as a Christian, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that these prayers weren’t answered. After all, there is a Biblical time-table for human history, and America’s place in this history is looking more and more like a footnote, especially with Barack Obama at the helm, steering us leftward, possibly into obscurity.

Those are my thoughts for now. Here are some additional musings from the conservative punditry:

Michael Barone: One America tends to be traditionally religious, personally charitable, appreciative of entrepreneurs, and suspicious of government. The other tends to be secular or only mildly religious, less charitable, skeptical of business, and supportive of government as an instrument to advance liberal causes . . . there are going to be many Americans profoundly unhappy with the result of this election, whichever way it goes. Those on the losing side will be especially angry with those whose candidate won . . . Now the two Americas disagree, sharply. Government decisions enthuse one and enrage the other. The election may be over, but the two Americas are still not on speaking terms.

Jedidiah Bila: I always hear "We are a center-right country." No. A center-right country does not elect Barack Obama twice. Time to re-evaluate."

Mark Steyn: A lot of the telly chatter is about how Republicans don’t get the shifting demographics: America is becoming more of a “brown country,” as Kirsten Powers put it on Fox. But New Hampshire is overwhelmingly white — and the GOP still blew it. The fact is a lot of pasty, Caucasian, non-immigrant Americans have also “shifted,” and are very comfortable with Big Government, entitlements, micro-regulation, Obamacare and all the rest — and not much concerned with how or if it’s paid for.

Kevin D. Williamson: The lessons of Ohio are that Barack Obama is a skillful demagogue, that the ancients were wise to number envy among the deadly sins, and that offering Americans a check is a more fruitful political strategy than offering them the opportunity to take control of and responsibility for their own lives.