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Now that a week has gone by since the election, I still feel a dull ache, as many of you do, when I think about the results. I’ll eventually accept what’s happened and move on. For now, I’m not sure what stage of grief I’m in (probably somewhere around denial), and I’m sure there’s a psychologist out there somewhere who could tell me how long I should expect it to take to fully recover, but I just think it may be a while.
Notwithstanding the disappointing result, there are reasons to be encouraged. We still have the greatest system in the world. We, as a nation, cast our ballots to pick the person we thought best suited to take the most powerful political position in the free world. How great is that? The people who wanted to vote voted, and Mitt was chosen by 48% of those people. With only a 2.5% spread between “winner” and “loser,” that means that if slightly over 1% of voters changed their mind (ignoring the electoral college for a moment), the result could have been different. If anyone thinks their vote doesn’t count, this election (like 2000 and 2004) again disproved that. In a way that’s very encouraging. We, as conservatives, are not that far off. We have work to do to widen the tent, but we’re not that far off.
I know that the authors here at MittRomneyCentral and the other blogs with which we’ve associated from time to time, including Evangelicals for Mitt and Article 6 Blog, did everything they could to persuade, cajole and convince readers that Mitt Romney was the man for the job. I remain convinced of that fact, especially as we head “Forward” toward the fiscal cliff and our president this weekend was once again on the golf course. I trust Mitt would have been hard at work. But again we did our best. Literally millions of visitors came to the site to read what we wrote. It wasn’t enough, but that’s okay. We made our arguments, and the people got to choose. There’s something sacred in that, regardless of result, even if we prayed it may turn out otherwise.
I also know Mitt and family did their best. I thought Ann Coulter got it right. Mitt was the best candidate possible.
There have been articles on our site post-election thanking Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and their families for the great sacrifices they made. I must also add my voice to those. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for being willing to serve, and not just willing, but for having the dogged determination to do your best to win an election that was so important, when there was literally nothing in it for you but your knowledge you were doing the right thing. Our nation owes the Romney and Ryan families a debt of gratitude it may never understand. Special thanks to Ann in particular, who, I know, felt the importance of this election personally, and with health difficulties that she carried gracefully, perhaps was more emotionally invested, and bore a greater cost, than was obvious to most people. Thank you.
As I look back, regardless of result I’ve loved every minute I’ve been involved with this effort. When you willingly make a sacrifice, it doesn’t feel like one. And this experience has been a life changer. It’s made me want to be involved in politics in some way going forward. If not us, then who?
While I may take some time to get back to full form, I will be back. At some point you’ll be able to find me tweeting at @ntsjohnson. I’d be encouraged if you followed me and listened in. I may even have something interesting to say from time to time. It may even be compelling from time to time, especially as we begin debating how we bring down this deficit.
But finally, thank you so much for reading. Thank you so much for your encouraging words. You also did your best knocking doors, making calls, soliciting donations and fighting the good fight. While we didn’t prevail this time, that’s okay. There’ll be another battle, and as you know there’s lots of error out there to correct. The principles of limited government and economic and religious freedom are the right ones. Those of us: you, me, the authors of MittRomneyCentral, who took up the effort are patriots. We fought for freedom. We may have lost the battle, but the war is not lost until we give up.
I’ll close out this long goodbye to MittRomneyCentral and its wonderful readers with Ronald Reagan’s classic quote: “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” With that in mind, and knowing how important it is we stay engaged, I’m sure I’ll see you in 2014, and again in 2016, and beyond. Until then!
Photos in this post are from my personal collection, taken at the GOP Convention in Tampa.
