To Win without Boasting to Lose without Whining

As a kid in 4H club we had a motto of “to win without boasting and to lose without whining.” Doing a Google search on that phrase is difficult but you can find some references to it in relation to 4H and else where particularly in the south. I don’t find it in modern 4H statements, which is too bad. But it was common in 1929 and a few year following, at fairs [link]  no I’m not that old but apparently the sentiment was alive when I was a kid. It came from a book A Organizations of 4-H Club Work: A Guide for Local Leaders.

Whatever the origin, it is a good statement. It came to mind after to listening to post election comments by Romney, what was his name? Oh, Mitt, how soon we forget. From his less than gracious concession speech to his latest complaints about President Obama winning by giving free stuff to his homeboys, liberal people, and brown people who are just lazy. Romney is no 4-H ethicist. It seems the consensus of liberals and conservatives alike Romney is now officially politically dead in the water.

I lament this. I am pleased that Obama won the election, but to me, with some exceptions, he seems to reflect the position of conservatives/Republicans of my youth. Though I have a party preference, I believe in a two party system, and the traditional values, of fiscal conservatism, and moderation in progressive forward movement are needed in our society that Republicans stood for. The current Republican Party has morphed into something unrecognizable and unhelpful in our society, or to use the technical jargon, they’ve become whacko.

In a recent article from Salon.com, “10 reason Republicans think their party’s dysfunctional: It’s too right wing! It’s not conservative enough! The only thing for sure is that everyone hates Karl Rove, (thanks dmarks). Here is just a list of their reasons; you can read it for yourself here.

1.            Bobby Jindal: G.O.P. = “the stupid party”. 2. Lindsey Graham “We’re in a big hole,” and Romney keeps digging. 3. Bill Kristol: “We have a huge middle class problem. 4. Newt Gingrich: Romney “insult[ed] all Americans. 5. Paul Labrador: Republicans are defending big business, which love big government. 6. Peggy Noon: A kinder, gentler Tea Party needed. 7. Ralph Benko: GOP’s “Bush Mandrians” ran from Reagan agenda. 8. Mike Murphy: Demographics add up to “an existential crisis for the Republican Party.” 9. Karl Rove: The ground game sucked, and consultants made too much money. (Srsly.) 10. Meghan McCain (John McCain’s daughter, another Republican who became total irrelevant and embarrassing in his comments after is loss): Karl Rove sucks. See footnote for her recent video transcript.

I had real hope that Obama would reach out to Romney following the election and offer to have him work in getting both parties together to work on closing tax loopholes and other tax reforms that would be for the common good. Romney’s whining has pretty well put the kibosh on that.

Obama may have won but he still has the same old issues to deal with. With 68% of the voters favoring getting rid of tax cuts for the wealthy, the Republicans seem oblivious to this and maintain the same old crap about the economy. How can we get the congress to listen to their constituency? I recently wrote to the Speaker of the House, Boehner, and the president of the Senate, Joe Biden (it went to the President) with a simple question. If folk running for congress can email mail me from all parts of the country asking more my dollars to support their campaign, why can I not in turn email all these same people to express my concerns on issues? They only read and accept email from members of their own voting district. So, like others I keep signing petitions and wonder if they have any impact at all.

Here’s hoping for more congressional cooperation, but I’m not counting on it.

Transcript of Meghan McCain’s video, part of her “Stark Raving Meghan” series.

So, Republicans, we lost again. I have voted three times in my life, and I have never voted for a winning candidate. I’m sick of this friction’ track record. Everyone knows I’m Republican; I worked very hard trying to get Mitt Romney elected, defending him on television hundreds and hundreds of times. And Republicans, we lost because we were talking about rape and abortion and we can’t get behind our gay friends getting married…I don’t want everyone to break out the ice cream and Nora Ephron movies, because in all failure, there is opportunity. I am many things, but I am no freakin’ pessimist. I think we have a chance to rebuild right now, and I think it can be awesome, and we have another four years. People just have to stop listening to frickin’ right-wing lunatics like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity — ’cause see where it’s gotten us? I think losing — a lot. And losing early.

I frickin’ hate it when election nights are called early. I always think it’s gonna last all night and then it’s called at, like, 11.

I hate Karl Rove. I have hated Karl Rove before anybody else hated Karl Rove. I hated Karl Rove when I was, like, 14 years old. I hate — hate — Karl Rove. I think he’s an idiot, a pretentious blowhard, and I think he was ruined a lot of things for the Republican Party during the Bush administration. All these millionaires that keep giving him $400 million for him to not win one election — maybe it’s not working! Maybe it’s not working.

Give me five freakin’ dollars — I’ll tell you for free what we gotta do. You can’t keep going and trying to get white men, because they’re dying off; it’s not a demographic anymore. We need the single women. But you don’t care. Seriously, I hate Karl Rove. Karl Rove needs to go away and retire, and just crawl back to the hole he emerged from…Everybody hates Karl Rove; he’s like a Bond villain.