Posted on 11/15/2012 10:48:44 AM PST by Bratch
But this is the “party of stupid” we’re talking about, so I won’t hold my breath.
In the wake of the disastrous 2012 election results, there has been a lot of discussion on the right regarding the GOP’s apparent “message” problem. Much of the conversations has focused on immigration issues as a way to bring in new voters. Recently, Charles Krauthammer wrote:
I’ve always been of the “enforcement first” school, with the subsequent promise of legalization. I still think it’s the better policy. But many Hispanics fear that there will be nothing beyond enforcement. So, promise amnesty right up front. Secure the border with guaranteed legalization to follow on the day the four border-state governors affirm that illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle.
Imagine Marco Rubio advancing such a policy on the road to 2016. It would transform the landscape. He’d win the Hispanic vote. Yes, win it. A problem fixable with a single policy initiative is not structural. It is solvable.
It’s going to take much more than that to solve the current issues the GOP has with voters. You can’t pander to one racial demographic and think that will solve all of your problems. The predicament that they find themselves in goes much deeper than a single issue, and it’s based primarily on trust. According to an election night survey released by Breitbart News, Judicial Watch, and Public Opinion Strategies:
Voters’ responses suggest that the American public agrees with conservative policies–but does not trust the Republican Party to implement them.
For example, voters dislike big government, with 71% agreeing (and 49% strongly agreeing) that: “The larger the size of government the more opportunities it creates for possible corruption.” In addition, 85% of voters said they were concerned about corruption in Washington, and 53% described themselves as “very concerned.”
Yet voters do not trust Republicans more than Democrats to deal with corruption. Only 34% said Republicans would do a better job of cleaning up corruption; 37% said Democrats would. That is an indictment of the permanent political class, regardless of party. And despite the President’s talk of cleaning up Washington, his party is not viewed as better able to do so.
So, the Democrats share much of the same issue with voters regarding corruption, but they’re able to squeak enough votes each cycle because they have more credibility on other matters. Here’s a thought. How about for starters, the GOP stop selling out their principles and try to gain some trust back with that 71% who dislike big government? And how does either party address the 85% of voters who are concerned about corruption in Washington, when both of them are compromised in that area? Considering all of the money wasted in Washington on cronies and corruption, these concerns by the vast majority are extremely legitimate.
As I watched the debate go back and forth on the GOP’s message problem after the election, an article written by Anand Giridharadas back in 2011 titled “Some of Sarah Palin’s Ideas Cross the Political Divide” came to mind. In it, he wrote:
[S]omething curious happened when Ms. Palin strode onto the stage last weekend at a Tea Party event in Indianola, Iowa…
She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a “permanent political class,” drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called “corporate crony capitalism.” Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private).
In supporting her first point, about the permanent political class, she attacked both parties’ tendency to talk of spending cuts while spending more and more; to stoke public anxiety about a credit downgrade, but take a vacation anyway; to arrive in Washington of modest means and then somehow ride the gravy train to fabulous wealth. She observed that 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the United States happen to be suburbs of the nation’s capital.
Her second point, about money in politics, helped to explain the first. The permanent class stays in power because it positions itself between two deep troughs: the money spent by the government and the money spent by big companies to secure decisions from government that help them make more money.
“Do you want to know why nothing ever really gets done?” she said, referring to politicians. “It’s because there’s nothing in it for them. They’ve got a lot of mouths to feed — a lot of corporate lobbyists and a lot of special interests that are counting on them to keep the good times and the money rolling along.”
Because her party has agitated for the wholesale deregulation of money in politics and the unshackling of lobbyists, these will be heard in some quarters as sacrilegious words.
Ms. Palin’s third point was more striking still: in contrast to the sweeping paeans to capitalism and the free market delivered by the Republican presidential candidates whose ranks she has yet to join, she sought to make a distinction between good capitalists and bad ones. The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks
and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs...“This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk,” she said of the crony variety. She added: “It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners — the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America.”
Keep in mind that Sarah Palin was told to “leave the room” by none other than Charles Krauthammer, back in 2009. Yet now he tells the Republican Party that in order for it to save it’s hide, they must reward lawbreakers and anoint a man as leader who has engaged in illegally soliciting foreign donations, just as President Obama has also done.
That is not the answer. The answer for the GOP is to clean up its own act and address the real concerns of the majority of Americans, regardless of political affiliation. They can start by not shunning the members of their own party who have the credibility to speak on such matters. Reform in Washington is a winning message and has the potential to bring in voters from nearly every racial, gender, and economic demographic in the country. It isn’t too late for the Republican Party to jump on board, but time is ticking. American voters need a true opposition party to the big-government, tax and spend, corruption plagued Democrats. The GOP establishment would do themselves and the country a favor by allowing people into the room who can credibly push for reform, and by ceasing their own practices of big-government corruption.
Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
She can raise money, draw big crowds, and get the base fired up. Palin for chair of the RNC!! That is where
the changes need to be made, within the Republican Party
organization itself.
“But many Hispanics fear that there will be nothing beyond enforcement.”
Funny - Americans fear that there will be nothing beyond amnesty.
she QUIT her job as governor to become a TV celebrity.....
enough said......
The idea that once the GOP goes along with what everyone knows the Democrats have wanted all along, Hispanics will vote Republican out of gratitude is idiotic.
Hispanics on average, as demonstrated by the politics in their home countries, have leftist politics to start with. Layer on the welfare in various forms that the majority receive, generation after generation, as well as affirmative-action preferences as far as the eye can see, and you’ve got Democrats by the tens of millions.
Palin is running against history - Only one losing VP candidate has been elected President and that was FDR (NB - Nixon was not a losing VP, he was 2-0 in VP races) and her negaives are still high.
BTW...
Apologies To Sarah Palin
In light of the revelation that Romney-Ryan received fewer votes than McCain-Palin, despite running against an incumbent president with the worst record in our nation’s history, I think it’s time to lay the theory that Sarah Palin cost McCain the election to rest.
In fact, I would argue that McCain would have lost by a much bigger margin without her on the ticket. He is no more loved by the base than Romney is.
Apologies can be sent here:
The Office of Sarah Palin
P.O. Box 871235
Wasilla, AK 99687
What in the world makes anybody think Palin wants back in the “GOP room”? Illegal immigrants, wolves and gay clergy are treated better than the Palin family by the GOP.
Get a clue, PDS'er.
This populist argument may sound good, but it isn't true. Lots of stuff gets done, it just isn't stuff we like. Obamacare just got done - something the left has worked at since FDR was in office. The government took over the entire Student Loan program, another big ticket item the liberals wanted and succeeded at. A blizzard of new EPA regulations have been put in to effect which will begin putting the coal industry out of business. I mean, the list goes on and on here. It just isn't true that "nothing gets done". The problem is the left is winning and only their stuff is getting done.
Had we taken the Senate in 2010 or 2012, maybe we could have pushed some bills to Obama's desk and perhaps gotten a few things we want signed into law. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. We ran a bunch of crummy Senate candidates like O'Donnell, Angle, Akin, Mourdock, McMahon, etc, and they all lost.
Ha-ha, this source C4P assured readers that Palin was running for POTUS last year, not run, but she was ALREADY running.
One need only ask some basic questions to determine Mrs. Palin’s intentions
...
2 – For what reason would Mrs. Palin take her entire family on a “bus tour” of historic sites around the United States? The key here is the BUS. If she wanted to tour these sites, she could easily do it in her family vehicle. Why stir up all the attendant media coverage?
Six Clues Palin Is Running For President(C4P Posted on June 30 2011)
Great clues LOL.
Simply “letting her back in the room” solves nothing, anyway. The establishment wants to marginalize/ignore her or co-opt her. (And anyone else like her, this isn’t a Palin-specific thing.)
What they won’t do, under any circumstances, is actually turn over control to her. Without control, it’s just a means to co-opt and perpetuate the establishment machine.
(insert picture of me rolling eyes here)
And yet other TEA Party candidates won. On the whole, the TEA Party was far more successful in changing the makeup of Congress than anyone would have given them a chance in 2009, but then when they weren't perfect in all races, they get vilified by the same folks who brought us a House minority and filibuster-proof Senate minority.
The GOPe does not want conservatives, Tea Party or Gov Palin. In their opinion, Gov Palin is what is wrong with the GOP in that she is so conservative.
I don’t know how to put this. This is the party that reelected John Boehner as Speaker.
They are not me.
Who? Who cares what he thinks. Doesnt he work for FNC?
Palin’s job with FNC meant that she was not running nor considering it contrary to about 100 C4P posts claiming she was campaigning for POTUS last year, This has got to be the biggest hoax website in history.
Enough said? Only if you are an idiot.
Palin’s choice: continue to fight endless, coordinated, partisan waves of frivolous lawsuits as governor that Alaska law allows BUT Alaskan government does NOT provide funds to defend, thus eventually bankrupting her family, jeopardizing their solvency, and leaving her kids facing an uncertain future.
OR
Quit while she still had money in the bank and the possibility to make more, thus providing for and protecting her family’s future.
Sarah chose her family. Apparently Vinomori would say, “piss on my family!”
NOW, enough said.
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