Add . American Voters Declare Independence, Again Posted by Bruce Donnelly on November 9, 2014 at 9:34am Send Message View Blog . Thank God for t he principled leadership and vision of the American Foundeers, whose brilliant Constitution made it possible for voters to rein in and change their government without having to fight another Revolution against it. As the actual facts about the 2014 election start to emerge, one thing is already clear. American voters were not inclined to simply do as they were told by liberal media talking heads, politicians, party leaders, pollsters, and political consultants or commentators. They took their future as Americans seriously, and voted for many changes, as in 2010. Before going into a more detailed analysis of the results here in Illinois, here are a few highlights you wont find in the traditional media or the self-serving commentaries of candidates, party leaders, and media observers. ◾Dick Durbin should have lost. His vote totals were terrible, but still good enough to win. ◾Obama is delusional as he talks about listening to the 2/.3 of people who dont vote - and dont exist, either. ◾Bruce Rauner didnt win a convincing mandate. Pat Quinn lost the support of Democrats. ◾Conservative Republican candidates were abandoned by party leaders and moderate candidates. ◾Conservative voters held their noses and voted for many candidates they didnt really like, again. ◾Many incumbents nationally struggled to win 50% support in their primaries. ◾Unpopular long-term incumbents in both parties struggled to win their elections. ◾Republicans were rejected less by voters. They didnt inspire much support. It was a Hobsons choice again. ◾Billions were spent by both parties as donor money was largely wasted In record amounts. As we prepare for 2016, we need to do our own homework and organize the voters who are clearly still fed up with business as usual in Illinois politics, as they demonstrated in the Tea Party rebellion of the 2010 election.. Contrary to the efforts by the liberal media and party leaders to declare that the rebels were defeated in the primary and are no longer relevant, the 2014 election results show the opposite. Incumbents in both parties were put on notice again that the electorate is not happy with their performance, and is in a mood to retire many career politicians ASAP. For now, they just had to keep accepting the lesser of evils by putting Republicans back in power in the Senate in order to stop the destructive Obama policies and abuses of executive powers through disrespect for our Constitutional rights. Its not enough that our politicians waste billions in government through the power to tax and spend recklessly. Now they are becoming expert at pitting American donors and voters against each other, fleecing them all to advance their own agendas. Sooner or later, donors are going to wake up and realize that they are enabling these destructive power addicts and their cronies who seek favors from government. They need to get back to support of founding principles about temporary public service and limited government, rather than being ruled by an unaccountable political technocracy of self-serving governing elites. In short, we need to get major donors on the side of the rebel voters and grassroots conservative activists who are trying to restore America to an exceptional and prosperous nation again. As in Reagans time, we need to unite Americans before we face the thousand years of darkness Reagan warned about, or the legacy of our children someday learning in history books (if they are accurate) about what life in America was like when Americans were free, and government was limited. For now, both parties are the problem, not the solution. Luckily, despite abuses of power like the IRS scandal, American voters are still not intimidated or willing to give up their liberty, nor are they fooled as easily into demonizing successful people and growing government. First, lets knock out the easy target, Obama. His assertion that he listens to the 2/3 of voters who didnt vote this week was a real jaw-dropper. Even the liberal media supporters had a hard time swallowing that spin, which is patently absurd and factually wrong. Unless you count all the children and non-citizen residents in America, half of the legal voters made their choice clear to anyone who isnt as delusional as Obama, and that voter turnout level is not significantly different than any prior midterm election. By the same logic, Republicans could challenge the legitimacy of the Democratic victory in 2006, which the voters have now demonstrably reversed by throwing many Democrats at all levels of government out of power. Obama is, to some degree, just one of the last left-wing radicals left standing as his party has become marginalized by extremism on the hard left. There are virtually no blue dog or moderate, Reagan Democrats left in Congress today. Since they all voted with their radical progressive leaders in DC, rather than to truly represent their voters back home, they all lost. For those who have forgotten, Illinois was a red state from the founding of the Republican Party with Lincoln before the Civil War until the 1920s rise of the progressive movement. During that period, Illinois grew to prosperity. It became a red state again from 1952 to 1988, but it has been on a downhill slide ever since. The state has lost so much growth relative to other states that it has declined from 27 Congressional districts in the early 1900s to only 18 today. By contrast, Illinois grew rapidly from 9 to 27 Congressional districts from Lincolns time until the rise of the progressive movement, which has stifled real economic progress and grown government relentlessly ever since.. Heres a useful independent summary of that history. 270towin/states/Illinois Compare Illinoiss growth to other large states, such as Texas. It has grown steadily from 6 Congressional districts after the Civil War to 36 today. Note how the rapid growth of California after World War II with Republican leadership has flattened out under progressive Democrat control ever since Reagan. The population may still be growing with the influx of illegal aliens, but economic growth and prosperity are in relative decline as people and businesses flee tax and spend states for places where government imposes less of a burden on their aspirations to achieve the American dream. Americans are still rejecting the utopian social justice, fairness, class warfare, and redistribution of wealth policies of the radical left. Efforts to divide Americans by ethnicity, gender, or interest groups for political advantage are failing. If the politicians in blue states wont listen, Americans and businesses are voting with their feet by migrating to red states where hard work to achieve success is still valued and encouraged rather than demonized. The government social welfare programs of the Great Society have changed from a safety net to a plantation of subjugation to the whims of political masters who control handouts of other peoples money through government to their supporters and cronies. In summary, the spirit of the American Revolution and Founders lives on. We just fight now by elections, not civil war, thanks to the rights protected by our Constitution. We remain under relentless political attack today to undermine the remaining constraints on the scope, power, and spending of our government bureaucracy and elected officials...It is up to us to prepare, organize, plan, and work hard for the next victory in this long war to save America in 2016. In Illinois, the Census shows approximately 12.8 million residents, not all of whom are citizens or of voting age. For example. 23.5% of those are under age 18. About 13.8% (of all ages) are foreign born, many of whom may be illegal aliens or legal permanent residents who do not have the right of citizens to vote (even if they vote anyway, thanks to politically-motivated efforts to prevent effective Voter ID processes, thereby undermining the voting rights or citizens) For simplicity, that means perhaps 30% of the Illinois population is not entitled to vote at all. Heres the official history of voter registration and turnout in Illinois. elections.il.gov/Downloads/ElectionInformation/PDF/reg-p... It shows that about 7.8 million people in Illinois have followed the minimal legal requirements to register to vote (even if they are not really eligible to do so as citizens, or may no longer be alive or living in Illinois since the voter rolls are not purged very effectively as many Illinois residents have given up and simply left the state in recent years). Even if we assume that all 7.8 million are still alive and eligible to vote in Illinois, voter turnout in 2014 was not significantly less than 2010 or prior midterm elections. In the top race for Governor, there were roughly 3.7 million votes cast in both 2010 and 2014. Thats roughly 47% turnout among registered voters. Obama apparently claims to represent all our children and illegal aliens, since otherwise the facts show that there are not 2/3 of potential American voters who chose not to vote at all. If you do the math, 3.7 million voters out of a total Illinois population of 12.8 million may suggest that only 29% of the people in Illinois voted, the fact remains that 47% of those eligible to vote actually voted, and this was no different than a normal midterm election in Illinois. The spin out of the White House is just another lie to deflect attention from voter rejection of Obamas agenda. The pollsters, party leaders, and media talking heads are also trying to spin the election results to tell voters that their predictions were not false, and were not rejected by voters. Once again, facts are stubborn things, and American voters are not stupid or so easily deceived by self-serving people who want to tell them what to think and do. Dick Durbin may be celebrating his victory over conservative Jim Oberweis, but the facts suggest that both Democrats and Republicans strongly rejected Dick Durbin in 2014. He didnt lose enough support to lose the election, but his victory was largely thanks to the ineffectiveness of the Republican Party, which didnt try seriously to defeat him. The party leadership didnt even put forward a primary candidate to oppose him, so conservatives Doug Truax and Jim Oberweis stepped forward and tried to oppose Dick Durbin on behalf of the many voters who were unhappy with Dubrin, even if they couldnt count on the Republican Party organization in Illinois to do much to help them win. The focus of the party leadership was almost entirely on the Governor race. As in 2010 and 2012, the party made virtually no progress in other races, such as for the Illinois General Assembly or state offices. They just managed to keep their cronies (Tom Cross and Judy Baar Topinka) from losing as Treasurer and Comptroller as they fought for the Governor race, which controls many potentially rewarding political appointments and favors for future candidates. By contrast, a US Senator cant offer much to party officials and aspiring appointees or candidates. Jim Oberweis was therefore largely on his own in much of the state. Despite all the talk about the need for party unity whenever conservatives are urged to set aside their principles and vote for the moderate party nominee who can win, there was absolutely no evidence of such unity by moderate Republican voters. The conservatives voted once again for candidates who they had not favored in the primary, but the moderates abandoned conservative candidates like Jim Oberwieis and Paul Schimpf (who lost as Attorney General to Lisa Madigan). Here are t he facts about the Dubrin versus Oberweis race which you will not find in the news media or the post-election spin out of party leaders, who will claim once again that the election of candidates like Rauner, Cross, and Topinka prove that only moderate candidates can win statewide in Illinois. If that is true at all, it is because the moderate Republicans stubbornly refuse to support conservative nominees of the party. If conservative candidates are ever going to win in Illinois again, as Reagan did, they must organize voters outside of the party structure. Durbin got more votes than Obama in 2008. He had 3,615,844 votes (67.84%) versus Obamas record 3,419,348 (61.92%)/ This reinforced the defeatist belief of many Republican leaders in Illinois and the NRSC that Durbin simply could not be beaten in 2016, and that it was therefore futile to even try to run a strong campaign against him. Instead, in 2014, Durbin to only 1,873,692 votes according to the latest unofficial results. That is only slightly more than the 1,796,018 votes for Bruce Rauner as Governor, or the 2010 midterm total of 1,778,698 for Senator Mark Kirk. In other words, support for Dick Durbin had declined from 3.6 to less than 1.9 million from 2006 to 2014 as voters saw the impact on their lives of the Obama agenda championed by Durbin in the Senate. That is nearly a 50% decline in voter support for Durbin. Part of that is explained by the usual lower turnout in a midterm election, but comparison to other candidates in 2014 shows that the picture is even worse, not better. Dick Durbin got roughly 200,000 fewer votes than Lisa Madigan down the ballot. He also got roughly 440,000 fewer votes than Secretary of State Jesse White. The only bright spot for Durbin is that he did better than Governor Pat Quinn, whose 2010 total of 1,745,219 dropped to adismal 1,632,373 in 2014. When you look at the details by county, Quinn lost over 90,000 Democratic votes in Chicago and suburban Cook County out of 112,000 lost statewide by comparison to his 2010 victory. That decline is why Bruce Rauner won even though he really did about the same in 2014 with 1,796,018 votes as Bill Brady 1,71,3385 in 2010. Despite all his campaign spending, his greatere focus on Chicago and Cook County, and his more moderate message than Brady, Rauner only got about 83,000 more votes in 2014 than Brady in 2010. The main difference is that Cook County support for Pat Quinn collapsed as voters there realized what others knew in 2010. Voters rejected Quinn after seeing his performance, which has been a disaster for many Illinois businesses and individuals. Voters didnt enthusiastically support Rauner, nor did a moderate like Rauner do significantly better than conservative Brady in 2010. Both should have won against Quinn if the Republican party leadership was better. Voters and political donors have all paid a steep price for that party failure as Quinns policies have hurt Illinois in many ways.. Voters may not have been attracted to support the Oberweis campaign, but Durbin got lucky because voters were clearly voting against him in 2014. A more serious effort by the Republican party to support Jim Oberweis or another candidate could have defeated Dick Durbin. Instead, Illinois voters are stuck with him for another six years. Attorney General Lisa Madigan got 2,086,047 votes in 2014, down somewhat from 2,397,723 in 2012 and the record high of 2,521,113 in the Democratic wave election of 2006 which led to the rise of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. Thus, she continues to lose voter support, even in a presidential year like 2012 when Obama won again, when she got fewer votes in a presidential year than in the 2006 midterm. Now, in 2014, she got about 435,000 fewer votes than in the 2006 midterm. Thats a huge decline in voter support, but nowhere near as large as Durbins losses. For example, Durbin got 2,103,766 (60.33%)in his 2002 race, when voter turnout was only 3,651,808 rather than.3,704,473 in 2010 or roughly 3,519,420 votes case to Senate candidates in 2014 Many of the 2014 voters chose not to vote for either Senate candidate. Once again, note that there were 3519420 ballots cast in the Senate race in 2014, down from 3704473 in 2010, and nearly xxx votes below the 3661434 votes cast in the Governor race in 2014 By contrast, in 2010 there were only about 25,000 more votes cast in the Governor race than the US Senate race, so the level of undervoting in the Durbin vs Oberweis race is remarkable. Voters were clearly not thrilled with the choice, and far more votes went to the Libretarian candidate for Governor in 2014 than in 2010. If the Libertarians had supported Rauner, we would have defeated Quinn in a landslide. Instead, as the Libertarians abandoned Rauner in a protest vote, the Republican moderates abandoned Oberweis, and many Chicago and Cook County rebelled against Pat Quinn and Dick Durbin without voting for the Republicans...The Democrats were also less enthusiastic about Lisa Madigan than in the past, but she still won easily against conservative Paul Schimpf, who the Republican leaders and moderates also neglected. nearly 100,000 votes when to the Libertarian candidate in that race, so Lisa Madigan was vulnerable. Despite all the talk by Republican party leaders about the harm which the Madigan family has caused to Illinois, they did little to actually defeat Lisa Madigan. For that matter, the Republican Party also made virtually no progress in the General Assembly, either in the Senate or House races, and didnt achieve significant gains in Congress either. Bob Dold managed to swing the 10th Congressional District back to his side, but otherwise there were few competitive races.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 23:20:18 +0000
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