Meet Laura Hollis - Prof of Law Notre Dame on the election results

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS-----THEN WORK TO SEE IF WE CAN REVERSE THE ATTITUDE!!

November 8, 2012

Laura Hollis is:

Current: Associate Professional Specialist and Concurrent Associate Professor of Law at University of Notre Dame.

Past: Director at Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, AssociateDirector and Clinical Professor at University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign.

Education: University of Notre Dame Law School , University of Notre Dame.

Summary: She has 20+ years ' experience in curriculum and other program development and delivery.

#########################################

I am already reading so many pundits and other talking heads analyzing

the disaster that was this year ' s elections. I am adding my own ten

cents. Here goes:

1. We are outnumbered

We accurately foresaw the enthusiasm, the passion, the commitment, the

determination, and the turnout. Married women, men, independents,

Catholics, evangelicals - they all went for Romney in percentages as

high or higher than the groups which voted for McCain in 2008. It

wasn ' t enough. What we saw in the election on Tuesday was a tipping

point: we are now at a place where there are legitimately fewer

Americans who desire a free republic with a free people than there are

those who think the government should give them stuff. There are fewer

of us who believe in the value of free exchange and free enterprise.

There are fewer of us who do not wish to demonize successful people in

order to justify taking from them. We are outnumbered. For the moment.

It ' s just that simple.

2. It wasn ' t the candidate(s)

Some are already saying, "Romney was the wrong guy"; "He should have

picked Marco Rubio to get Florida/Rob Portman to get Ohio/Chris

Christie to get [someplace else]." With all due respect, these

assessments are incorrect. Romney ran a strategic and well-organized

campaign. Yes, he could have hit harder on Benghazi . But for those who

would have loved that, there are those who would have found it

distasteful. No matter what tactic you could point to that Romney

could have done better, it would have been spun in a way that was

detrimental to his chances. Romney would have been an excellent

president, and Ryan was an inspired choice. No matter who we ran this

year, they would have lost. See #1, above.

3. It ' s the culture, stupid!

We have been trying to fight this battle every four years at the

voting booth. It is long past time we admit that is not where the

battle really is. We abdicated control of the culture - starting back

in the 1960s. And now our largest primary social institutions -

education, the media, Hollywood (entertainment) have become really

nothing more than an assembly line for cranking out reliable little

Leftists. Furthermore, we have allowed the government to undermine the

institutions that instill good character - marriage, the family,

communities, schools, our churches. So, here we are, at least two full

generations later - we are reaping what we have sown. It took nearly

fifty years to get here; it will take another fifty years to get back.

But it starts with the determination to reclaim education, the media,

and the entertainment business. If we fail to do that, we can kiss

every election goodbye from here on out. And much more.

4. America has become a nation of adolescents

The real loser in this election was adulthood: Maturity.

Responsibility. The understanding that liberty must be accompanied by

self-restraint. Obama is a spoiled child, and the behavior and

language of his followers and their advertisements throughout the

campaign makes it clear how many of them are, as well. Romney is a

grown-up. Romney should have won. Those of us who expected him to win

assumed that voters would act like grownups. Because if we were a

nation of grownups, he would have won.

But what did win? Sex. Drugs. Bad language. Bad manners. Vulgarity.

Lies. Cheating. Name-calling. Finger-pointing. Blaming. And

irresponsible spending. This does not bode well. People grow up one of

two ways: either they choose to, or circumstances force them to. The

warnings are all there, whether it is the looming economic disaster,

or the inability of the government to respond to crises like Hurricane

Sandy , or the growing strength and brazenness of our enemies. American

voters stick their fingers in their ears and say, "Lalalalalala, I

can ' t hear you." It is unpleasant to think about the circumstances it

will take to force Americans to grow up. It is even more unpleasant to

think about Obama at the helm when those circumstances arrive.

5. Yes, there is apparently a Vagina Vote

It ' s the subject matter of another column in its entirety to point

out, one by one, all of the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the

Democrats this year. Suffice it to say that the only "war on women"

was the one waged by the Obama campaign, which sexualized and

objectified women, featuring them dressed up like vulvas at the

Democrat National Convention, appealing to their "lady parts,"

comparing voting to losing your virginity with Obama, trumpeting the

thrills of destroying our children in the womb (and using our

daughters in commercials to do so), and making Catholics pay for their

birth control. For a significant number of women, this was appealing.

It might call into question the wisdom of the Nineteenth Amendment,

but for the fact that large numbers of women (largely married) used

their "lady smarts" instead. Either way, Susan B. Anthony and

Elizabeth Cady Stanton are rolling over in their graves.

6. It ' s not about giving up on "social issues"

No Republican candidate should participate in a debate or go out on

the stump without thorough debate prep and a complete set of talking

points that they stick to. This should start with a good grounding in

biology and a reluctance to purport to know the will of God. (Thank

you, Todd and Richard.)

That said, we do not hold the values we do because they garner votes.

We hold the values we do because we believe that they are time-tested

principles without which a civilized, free and prosperous society is

not possible.

We defend the unborn because we understand that a society which views

some lives as expendable is capable of viewing all lives as

expendable.

We defend family - mothers, fathers, marriage, children - because

history makes it quite clear that societies without intact families

quickly descend into anarchy and barbarism, and we have plenty of

proof of that in our inner cities where marriage is infrequent and

unwed motherhood approaches 80 percent. When Roe v. Wade was decided

in 1973, many thought that the abortion cause was lost. Forty years

later, ultrasound technology has demonstrated the inevitable

connection between science and morality. More Americans than ever

define themselves as "pro-life." What is tragic is that tens of

millions of children have lost their lives while Americans figure out

what should have been obvious before. There is no "giving up" on

social issues. There is only the realization that we have to fight the

battle on other fronts. The truth will win out in the end.

7. Obama does not have a mandate. And he does not need one.

I have to laugh - bitterly - when I read conservative pundits trying

to assure us that Obama "has to know" that he does not have a mandate,

and so he will have to govern from the middle. I don ' t know what

they ' re smoking. Obama does not care that he does not have a mandate.

He does not view himself as being elected (much less re-elected) to

represent individuals. He views himself as having been re-elected to

complete the "fundamental transformation" of America , the basic

structure of which he despises. Expect much more of the same - largely

the complete disregard of the will of half the American public, his

willingness to rule by executive order, and the utter inability of

another divided Congress to rein him in. Stanley Kurtz has it all laid

out here.

8. The Corrupt Media is the enemy

Too strong? I don ' t think so. I have been watching the media try to

throw elections since at least the early 1990s. In 2008 and again this

year, we saw the media cravenly cover up for the incompetence and

deceit of this President, while demonizing a good, honorable and

decent man with lies and smears. This is on top of the daily barrage

of insults that conservatives (and by that I mean the electorate, not

the politicians) must endure at the hands of this arrogant bunch of

elitist snobs. Bias is one thing. What we observed with Benghazi was

professional malpractice and fraud. They need to go. Republicans,

Libertarians and other conservatives need

to be prepared to play hardball with the Pravda press from here on

out. And while we are at it, to defend those journalists of whatever

political stripe (Jake Tapper, Sharyl Atkisson, Eli Lake ) who actually

do their jobs. As well as Fox News and talk radio. Because you can

fully expect a re-elected Obama to try to reinstate the Fairness

Doctrine in term 2.

9. Small business and entrepreneurs will be hurt the worst

For all the blather about "Wall Street versus Main Street ," Obama ' s

statist agenda will unquestionably benefit the biggest corporations

which - as with the public sector unions - are in the best position to

make campaign donations, hire lobbyists, and get special exemptions

carved out from Obama ' s health care laws, his environmental

regulations, his labor laws. It will be the small business, the

entrepreneur, and the first-time innovators who will be crushed by

their inability to compete on a level playing field.

10. America is more polarized than ever; and this time it ' s personal

I ' ve been following politics for a long time, and it feels different

this time. Not just for me. I ' ve received messages from other

conservatives who are saying the same thing: there is little to no

tolerance left out there for those who are bringing this country to

its knees - even when they have been our friends. It isn ' t just about

"my guy" versus "your guy." It is my view of America versus your view

of America - a crippled, hemorrhaging, debt-laden, weakened and

dependent America that I want no part of and resent being foisted on

me. I no longer have any patience for stupidity, blindness, or

vulgarity, so with each dumb "tweet" or FB post by one of my happily

lefty comrades, another one bites the dust, for me. Delete. What does

this portend for a divided Congress? I expect that Republicans will be

demoralized and chastened for a short time. But I see them in a bad

position. Americans in general want Congress to work together. But

many do not want Obama ' s policies, and so Republicans who support them

will be toast. Good luck, guys.

11. It ' s possible that America just has to hit rock bottom

I truly believe that most Americans who voted for Obama have no idea

what they are in for. Most simply believe him when he says that all he

really wants is for the rich to pay "a little bit more." So

reasonable! Who could argue with that except a greedy racist?

America is on a horrific bender. Has been for some time now. The

warning signs of our fiscal profligacy and culture of lack of personal

responsibility are everywhere - too many to mention. We need only look

at other countries which have gone the route we are walking now to see

what is in store.

For the past four years - but certainly within the past campaign

season - we have tried to warn Americans. Too many refuse to listen,

even when all of the events that have transpired during Obama ' s

presidency - unemployment, economic stagnation, skyrocketing prices,

the depression of the dollar, the collapse of foreign policy,

Benghazi , hopelessly inept responses to natural disasters - can be

tied directly to Obama ' s statist philosophies, and his decisions.

What that means, I fear, is that they will not see what is coming

until the whole thing collapses. That is what makes me so sad today. I

see the country I love headed toward its own "rock bottom," and I

cannot seem to reach those who are taking it there.

#############################################

If we cannot regain control of those critical institutions ("that

instill good character - marriage, the family, communities, schools,

our churches"), that Ms. Hollis enumerated, and rekindle the rational,

sane and conservative values they once represented,.....WE ARE DOOMED

TO CONTINUE THIS SLIDE INTO A LEFTIST, PROGRESSIVE, LIBERAL LED DECAY

and ULTIMATE COLLAPSE.

Please share this with as many as you can!!