Archconservatives: anger, denial but no acceptance of Obama’s victory

Step by step, die-hard conservatives are confronting their grief over President Barack Obama’s re-election.

But judging from blog posts and other public pronouncements, many remain stuck somewhere between denial and anger, very far from acceptance.

So far this week, prolific blogger Judson Phillips on Tea Party Nation has called for boycotting the Electoral College to prevent validating the election result and lamented the triumph of liberalism in destroying national unity and therefore America’s greatness.

Over at RedState.com, a more sophisticated political analysis echoes calls by Republican leaders to better communicate conservative principles instead of softening or dropping them.

Founder and CNN contributor Erick Erickson, who rejected any talk of electoral fraud or an unfair Obama victory, wrote Tuesday that “there’ll be no hand-wringing here and there sure as hell won’t be any apologies for fighting for what we believe in.”

“Republicans are not successful when they run campaigns as the rich patrician out to make government more efficient so it can be more helpful,” said another Erickson post Tuesday. “Republicans win with conservative populists who run as men who pulled themselves up in life fighting big government and its cronies.”

Some acceptance has been necessary. On Tuesday, tea party favorite Rep. Allen West of Florida conceded in his race for re-election after initially alleging electoral fraud.

Little of the discussion focuses on the changing demographics of the country, identified by exit polls and many analysts as a major factor in both Obama’s 2008 victory to become the nation’s first African-American president and his re-election on November 6.

In particular, Obama received overwhelming support from the nation’s fastest-growing demographic – Hispanic Americans – to cause some high-profile conservatives including Fox radio and television host Sean Hannity to soften their stance on immigration reform.

Overall, though, hard-core conservatives continue to reject that they are a minority in a country built on the core principle of liberty that they embrace.

Instead, the initial reactions and subsequent attempts to explain what happened sought scapegoats, such as what right-wing critics describe as a deficient Republican challenger in Mitt Romney, electoral theft or a liberal-dominated media industry that is part of a broader Marxist effort dating back decades to undermine the nation.

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On November 10, Phillips alleged that more votes than registered voters in several Florida precincts were part of Democratic efforts to “steal the election” against West.

There was no immediate posting Tuesday in response to West’s concession.

Six days later, Phillips took aim at Romney, calling the former Massachusetts governor a “flip-flopping liberal who ran a content-free campaign.”

In a response to Phillips’ post, one writer ranted about what he alleged were “the sexual perversions and drug use of the Obamas,” the president’s “forged birth certificate” and “voter fraud of biblical proportions.”

“Why are we talking secession instead of removing the New York Times and supporting citizens’ Grand Jury indicments against this unbelievable treason, felonies and usurpations raining down on us on a daily basis?” said the post attributed to Royce Latham of Penngrove, California.

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On Sunday, Phillips proposed an action plan – getting Electoral College voters in states won by Romney to boycott the validation of the election result by the December 17 deadline.

“The 12th Amendment specifies the quorum or the necessary number of states for the College to act, is 2/3,” Phillips wrote. “In other words, if 17 states refuse to participate, the Electoral College does not have a quorum.”

Without a quorum to decide the presidency, he continued, the Republican-led U.S. House will decide and presumably choose Romney. Phillips acknowledged such a move would set a “dangerous precedent,” but added that “the situation is so grim we really have no other choice.”

“Does anyone really believe America can survive four more years of Barack Obama?” he wrote, saying the president will seek to “transform America from that shining city on a hill into a third world shantytown, with massive unemployment and a corrupt government.”

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The next day, Phillips sounded more resigned, lamenting what he called “the triumph of liberalism in America” that he said was “destroying our national unity and by extension destroying the freedom.”

“In America, until now we have always identified ourselves as Americans,” he wrote. “The balkanization that has been pushed by the hard left has one goal in mind. That is the end of America as a great nation. They are perilously close to succeeding.”

Tuesday brought his attack on a carbon tax being discussed by some on both sides in Congress as a step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contributed to climate change.

While challenging “the mythical man-made global warming,” Phillips also said a carbon tax would create a “massive new tax stream” for liberals bent on growing government.

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The focus on a single issue certain to generate legislative and public debate signaled some change in the response to the election.

To Phillips and other conservatives, any increase in revenue goes against their goal of shrinking the federal government by cutting spending.

“It is time for conservative activists to make the case to the American people that we have far more government than we can afford, or than we want, no matter what our politicians may think, or what deals they may be willing to cut with each other to keep spending other people’s money until we are all bankrupt,” said a Tuesday post on Tea Party Nation by Bruce Donnelly of Fox River Grove, Illinois.

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Donnelly called for “organizing voters to rein in the politicians, rather than let them keep playing the game by their rules with our money.”

“It’s worth your effort to organize voters in your community and apply real political pressure for change, because if we just keep playing the game by their rules, your own financial situation will keep getting worse, rather than better,” he continued.

“The politicians keep offering free stuff with other people’s money, playing us all for fools. It’s time to wake up the voters in every corner of America to the fact that they have been conned by these snake oil salesmen and their well-rehearsed lies and false promises,” Donnelly said.

In the end, a reviled Democrat in the White House may mean more followers of conservative websites such as Tea Party Nation and RedState.com. No one seems happy about the better business prospects, at least for now.