Unlike the media and his supporters, I always knew that Romney was going to lose
Last edited Mon Nov 12, 2012, 07:43 PM - Edit history (3)
I recognized early on, especially after every incident and statement in which the Romney camp exposed their own incompentence, arrogance and utter lack of self-awareness, that they didn't have a clue about how they came off to people. The likability deficit that Romney created was a huge clue and they completely ignored it. So did much of the national media, as I had very well classified their unabshed cheer leading for Romney in the same way that a prostitute would have sex with anyone who gives them money.
Most of all, I think that best explanation for Romney, his voters and the national media's unrealistic assumption that he was going to win is defined in The Dunning-Kruger effect. It was clear to me that the Romney campaign was utterly incompetent and, had he been elected, would run the country in much the same incompetent fashion. Dunning-Kruger is quite explicit about how the ability to overrate ones own competence correlates with identifying with other incompent people and completely disregarding true competence in others.
To these people, they can create fantastic rationalizations in order to believe that the President should be kicked out of office and a complete charlatan like Romney should replace him. Forget about the auto bailout, the economic recovery and the killing of Bin Laden ordered by this president, none of that was supposed to matter in comparison to every absurd fantasy that they created to condemn him... THOSE fantasies were good enough reason to elect Romney instead.
I mentioned before that this phenomena is nothing more than magical thinking.
Now, although I say that I didn't have any doubts about President Obama's reelection, I understand that concerns over GOP voter suppression, election tampering and fraud were all valid concerns. That would have been the only way that Romney could have gotten elected, given the way that he came off to the people who weren't living in a hell on Earth under the rule of a Scary Negro.
It's quite clear from the Right's post-traumatic reaction that the fear and anger that they've been expressing for the past four years is not going away, at least not easily anyway.
That anger is quite comfortable and all too familiar to them. They are complete ill-equipped the function outside of that skewed frame of reference. They will resist coping with reality as long as they have a support group of other completely incompent, utterly unrealistic, prevaricating and wholly clueless sub-cultural assholes to pander to them.
These people are exercising the absolute right of a free society to engage in magical thinking. They are offended that anyone, an authority figure who was reelected, a truthful and competent press or a majority of winning voters would attempt to dissuade them from their God-given right to create their own self-sealing, highly resistant to reality misinformation bubble.
To them, such any attempts would be "unAmerican". This, of course, explains their penchant for assigning outsider status to everyone that they hate. To me, their cultishly tribalized behavior is as American as cherry pie. Ask anyone who stands outside of the culturally defined norm of this country and they'll tell you the same.
What was clear to me was that, by operating sheerly on that tribalism alone, Romney could not get elected. But most of all, that tribalism that he espoused would create the very conditions for his downfall. It wasn't because he was a better candidate, he was by far the worst candidate that I've seen in my fifty-one years on this planet. The tribalism itself created very good reasons to vote against Romney, as well as the defiance created in the outrage against GOP voter suppression efforts. Democracy was at stake here and the American people responded valiantly by stepping up to the plate.
We have a president, in Barack Obama, that shows that he puts his faith in the American people. To him, that was the only sure thing about this election. He didn't have to create a phony self or fabricate a Mitt Romney that didn't exist. All he had to do was both tell the truth and allow the Romney camp to continue demonstrating their utter contempt for the political process and ordinary Americans.
In the end one side knows what America is all about, while the other side is dealing with the pain of confronting an America that doesn't comport while their narrow and unrealistic vision.
Gawd... It must really suck to be them.
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A well thought out OP.
I was pretty much with you in your optimism. Even after the first debate when everybody here at DU was seemingly melting down, I never thought the president would lose.
My optimism was based not on wish fulfillment, but on the data at anybody's fingertips who cared enough to look. Yes, it was a bit scary when Mitt's numbers improved after that first debate. But, when one took in all the data, I saw that Mitt's attempt would likely fail.
Most importantly, I had faith in the Obama campaign staff. And when Joe Biden openly laughed in Paul Ryan's face throughout the VEEP debate, I knew that Mitt was toast. No campaign comes back from that.
But these were just signals. The most important part of my conviction that Mitt would lose was the chasm between the policies put forth by the two campaigns. I couldn't see a majority of citizens falling for Mitt's game. Thankfully they didn't.
Thanks for your thoughts.
on edit: by the time I got this typed in, two more had kicked. 
iPhone typing isn't fast. Alas.
If we osterize them we're as bad as they are. 
We must compromise and not gloat.
Yeah, right.
I like my schadenfreude on artisan bread with Camembert and speck and a nice white Burgundy.
Great piece MrScorpio!
