Only just two years ago, soon after Mitt Romney’s projected landslide victory became a rout by President Obama in his bid for re-election in November 2012, I believe I recall an column in the Herald that proclaimed the death of conservatism. It was a new age. Times had changed, the Herald said. Things were different, we were told. There had, indeed, been a fundamental change in American politics. The image of rich, white, middle-aged males running for national office was over. And it was all good. As I read the column, I thought I could hear Sting singing “Brand New Day.”
Well, things seem to have shaken out a little differently this past Election Day.
Say what you want. Color it with whatever hue you wish. Conservatism came roaring back, with a vengeance. Liberal candidates, whether incumbents or not, smelled it, felt it, and heard it coming. Most of them couldn’t run away fast enough from the very policies the president said were at issue – policies so toxic some refused to admit they voted for Obama.
On Wednesday morning, we saw more than just what the president himself described as a shellacking. We saw the election of Joni Ernst, a woman, and Tim Scott, an African-American male, respectively, to the Senate. We also saw Mia Love, an African-American woman – from Utah, of all places – elected to Congress. We saw the election of Shelly Capito to the Senate from West Virginia, as well as the re-election of Susana Martinez and Nikki Halley to the governorships of their respective states.
Here in Colorado, Cory Gardner, a Republican, easily defeated Mark Udall, the prodigy of a generations-long Democratic family with standing in three western states. And we saw that almost 45 percent of the Hispanics who voted nationwide, voted conservative. Conservatism is not dead. Its core values remain at the heart of the American fabric. We can debate its relevance, issue by issue, as well as its historic gender and color, but we can’t debate the impact of its message.
Tom Lorenzen
Durango
