So one of the big memes coming from the opposition lately is how "you can't win an election against Santa Claus" and similar pithy, reality-divorced sentiments. This is something I honestly don't understand. What exactly did Obama and the Democrats promise to their legions of slavering ne'er-do-wells on their side of the blood-scribbled unholy pact of 2012? As far as I can tell, you've got: Make student loans less suprise-sexy when you graduate and LOL JOBS FOR EVERYONE HOORAY oh wat that's not what has been happening for oh three years or so Admit that Latinos may actually be people as well, and that undocumented immigrants are not in fact in league with Ba'al the Unmerciful, by opening a dialogue on immigration reform with nebulous goals Allow single women to buy uterus pills without standing in the town square with signs around their necks declaring their sinful intentions to all and sundry uh, something something trial lawyers? Snark aside, I honestly don't see the dramatic expansion of the welfare state we're standing at the brink of, and I pay way too much attention to U.S. politics. I mean, I get that the red-faced spittling is thanks to the noise machine, but is there a kernel of fact somewhere buried under this churning mass of that frothy mixture that I'm overlooking?
Obamacare. Also, the meme is utterly divorced from reality, as I'm sure you will be shocked to learn.
OBAMA PHONES, FREE ABORTION PILLS!!1!!eleven! Ahem. But seriously: I think you may have answered your own question. To the extent you're looking for a narrative that paints the phenomenon in the best possible light, I would suggest perhaps an understandable physchological urge on the part of the red team to explain why their guy lost while preserving their own sense of cultural, moral and intellectual superiority.
The complaint is unhinged, as it assumes the role of government is NOT to help the people, and thus helping the majority of the population = BUYING VOTES. It also helps if you think everyone would totally have your back if it wasn't for these bribes (hint: nope.jpg) It only makes sense if you consider government to already be an obviously failed experiment. It also only makes sense if you think the smarter people espousing it are just complaining that the people they help out (the rich) aren't worth as many votes.
