A Compelling Narrative
By Emma X

Emma X
I'm still your best alternative.

In politics there are winners and losers, and in public life there is an expectation that defeated candidates will take the high road. The ability to gracefully accept defeat and pledge support for the best interests of the people is the high mark of good character and the ultimate expression of statesmanship in American politics.  Evidently this option is not available to Neoconservatives, who went all in on this election, convinced beyond reason that they would win the White House and the Senate.  The shock of the loss has them reeling.

The Republican Party cannot
reconcile a loss of this magnitude.
Romney went from Golden Child
to persona non grata overnight.
In an attempt to not shoulder the
entire burden of defeat, Mitt blamed
his loss on poor people and their
love of entitlements, a losing strategy
that Republicans have tied to their
ongoing economic rhetoric. 

Mitt Romney tried to do the right thing.  His concession speech was conciliatory and correct in bipartisan sentiments.  But a wounded RNC, having lost the most expensive political effort in history needed someone to blame, and the easiest target was the Romney campaign. Granted, it was a bizarre affair start to finish, but it was not conducted without input from every influential source in the Party.  In negating Mitt the Republicans negate the sentiments of his concession speech, leaving us all to wonder where and how the needed change that everyone is talking about will occur.

Marco Rubio has already been to Iowa,
and is positioning himself to be the candidate
of inclusion in the Republican Party.  For many
hispanics and latinos he is to them what Sarah
Palin was to feminists; the right look, but wrong
philosophy.

Many centrist Republicans are now performing a group mea culpa on Sunday talk shows lamenting their own shortsightedness in regard to exclusionary conservative policy.  Some of these people are sincere, others are lining up for a 2016 bid.  Most decry the hateful rhetoric still coming from the conservative propaganda machine, although many of the same people lined up to promote their own campaigns on Rush Limbaugh's show and were often featured in Fox News political commentary.  Still, these folks are talking about inclusion, a positive step. But in these early days they do not seem to recognize that their policies need to change, not just their image.

White on Rice
The first example of Republican born again
sensitivity in Washington is the all-out
conservative media blitz against Susan Rice.
The party desperately needs a political win,
and they sense that Benghazi is it.  Despite
the fact that Ambassador Rice was not in
the chain of command for decisions made,
she is a soft preemptive target against
future Obama appointments, and the sub-
liminal factors of race and gender provide
some appeasement of loss for angry
 while male voters.

While some Republican leaders are seriously
talking change, others continue with the same
philosophy that got them elected.  You can be
sure that Mitch and others like him will continue
conservative politics 'Gangnam Style'.

The new conservative strategy is best illustrated by Marco Rubio, who now refuses to comment on controversial issues, including how old the earth is, stating that it is "one of the great mysteries".  Well, it is not a mystery to modern science. Marco's new found sensitivity does not mean that while in office he will not legislate according to his religious beliefs, it just means that we no longer have to be affronted with them publicly. Image over substance is not change for the Republican Party.

A breath of fresh air.
While trying to figure out
if it is even possible to clean up
The House, Republicans are
 trying to mask the awful
smell in the base-ment.

Working for the American people does not
include working with a President whom the right
wing has characterized as 'the problem'.  Chris
Christie has been ostracized for doing his job
and providing crisis resources for the State of
New Jersey.  His crime was saying thank you.

Centrist conservatives are struggling to regain their voice in a Party where ultra conservatives are still well funded and motivated to regain power and legislate their agendas.  The Republican Party has met this impasse before, and the result has been the formation of new conservative parties.  This happened with the New WHIGs in the 1830s, the Republican-Democrats in the 1860s, and Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912.  Perhaps it is time for the Republican Party to experience another philosophical shift.  The 2012 election was a mandate for cooperation and a more centrist approach. This mandate may exclude ultra conservative politicians, forcing them to find a new place to go.  The fiscal cliff is looming ahead, and only time will tell where conservative commitment                                                                                                                  lies.  The proof is in the voting.

From Bull Moose to Bull Goose Looney.  Teddy Roosevelt broke with the
ultra conservatives of his day because they felt he was not conservative enough to
be President.  Today's far right feels the same way about centrist candidates.
Perhaps its their turn to create a new political party.  Imagine the same line up
of Republican Presidential Primary candidates standing up in 2016 under the
 Bull Goose Looney banner.  It is a proud image for a now beleaguered minority.  

The WHIG Party still
exists.  They could be-
come The White Homo-
phobic Ignorant Guys
Party.  Everyone should
have fair representation.

Ultra conservative rhetoric is going back in the closet.
Current Republican thinking is that the lack of a compelling
narrative must have been the deciding factor in the 2012
election.  Get ready for a new less scary bedtime story.