Selfish vote won over philosophical vote, again

Nov. 9, 2012

Katy Grimes: After every election one party has to retreat and lick its wounds while the other party revels in the mandate.  But elections are changing. Voters are changing. America is changing, and California is leading that change.

In this election, the Democratic Party asked its voters to vote identity politics. Students, women, blacks, Hispanics, gays, illegal immigrants, retired pensioners, union members, pro-choice, entitlement reliant, and green energy supporters voted overwhelmingly because of their identity issues.

The Republican Party asked its voters to vote because they are American citizens who supposedly support limited government, personal responsibility. And Republicans  lost.

10 million fewer Democrats voted for President Obama than did in the 2008 elections, and 3 million fewer Republicans voted for Mitt Romney than voted for John McCain in 2008. Given these numbers, Republicans shot themselves in the foot. They couldn’t even turn out the voters, which is the most basic rule in elections.

Since the Great Depression, politicians have chipped away at limited government, and personal responsibility. Have we finally reached the point where the 47 percent who receive some type of government entitlement or benefit voted to maintain these?

The federal government is printing money every day. At some point, everyone will stop buying America’s debt. California is nearly there.

As California reaches the point where the state cannot pay its bills, state vendors will be the first to be cut off. Small businesses tied to state government will be hit and will close.

On Wednesday the stock market tanked. McDonald’s even reported a drop in sales for the first time in years.

Some of the politicians know and understand this. Most don’t seem to care. Politics is too big of a business now, and too many people are making money off of campaigns, government and connections to special interests.

It will take a crisis of untold proportions before anything changes.

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” – Thomas Jefferson