Posted on 11/19/2012 4:49:40 AM PST by LD Jackson
I am sure many of you can and will relate to what I am about to write. After the election, I was in a bad mood. I still wonder why we were not able to get out our vote and carry the day on November 6. I am finding it amusing to watch the professional pundits as they toss around ideas about how and where the Republican Party needs to change. Bill Kristol seems to believe we have to concede the ground on taxes and allow them to be raised on millionaires.
The main theme of change seems to be centered around Hispanics. The going opinion seems to be that the Republicans lost because they need to change their position on immigration. Marco Rubio was in Iowa over the weekend and rumors are already surfacing that he will run for President in 2016. While that may be true and can be supported or opposed in good time, I think it's a little early to be casting that net. If you look around, you'll not have far to go before you see supporters of Sarah Palin declaring she should be the candidate we put forward to defeat the liberals in four years. Again, that can be supported or opposed at a later date, but it is still early for that kind of speculation.
To be sure, there are things about the Republican Party that needs to change, assuming the party continues to be relevant in our political system. A lot of the change that needs to happen has to do with how we frame the narrative. We need to explain our positions better and we certainly do not need to run candidates who are going to run off at the mouth and destroy our chances of winning seats we should win. At the same time, we should consider changes of our position on immigration and other issues of importance and concern. But to change the entire focus of our party, changing it to go specifically after the Hispanic vote? Is that a smart thing to do?
For that matter, is it smart for us to go after any particular group, promising them the world, just to get their vote? If we start doing that, whether it be the Hispanics, women, young people, etc., at what point do we start robbing points from one group to give to another? How far do we go to appease one group of voters, without alienating another group? Do we not need all of them in our corner? I just believe it is a little ridiculous for the Republican Party to start tweaking its positions and its core beliefs, if they have any, just to be able to appeal to specific groups of voters.
Why not try a different kind of change? I know it isn't likely to happen, but why not remove John Boehner from his leadership position and elect someone who will actually stand their ground, even when they are trying to find compromise. And yes, I believe we can find a compromise that is workable for everyone, if the liberals are willing. I'm just not sure Boehner is the one to find that compromise. Other changes would include allowing the more conservative members of the Republican Party to hold positions of leadership in Congress. The Tea Party won big in 2010 and they were promptly cut off at the pass by Boehner and company, for one simple reason. The current GOP leadership are more concerned with retaining their power and that requires them to maintain the status quo. Allowing strong conservatives into leadership positions doesn't work for them.
You'll have to forgive me for the rambling of this post. It seems my thoughts are scattered in the wind. If you glean anything from what I have written, let it be this. The Republican Party does need to change, but I am not convinced the changes we see on the horizon are the changes that need to be made. We can start shifting our positions on this or that issue, but at what point does the Republican Party become just a slightly more conservative version of the Democratic Party. At what point will the GOP become completely useless as a political party?
Yes, the Republican Party needs to change, but not so much that it is completely unrecognizable to conservatives.
About twelve years ago by my reckoning.
Get involved with state party conventions where national committeemen are selected. At that level a few hundred votes make all the difference and new party policy makers can be placed on the national committee.
That's why it lost and will keep losing until it finally implodes if it does not get back to its Conservative base.
These are the exact same things people said after 1976. The rockefeller republicans had so swamped the party it did not seem as if we could ever win again....and then Ronald Reagan and his great advisors (e.g. Lyn Nofziger) came along. Proud to be who they were. Not afraid to take on the issues.
But then many on this board condemn Reagan as well....
Bill Kristol is a driveling idiot!
I canceled my subscription to the Weekley Standard in 1999 when the Neocons were kissing Bill Clinton’s posterior as he bombed Serbian Christians for the benefit of Bosnian Muslims!
You are on the money. The Republican guiding philosophy today seems to be “Taking you to Socialism a little more slowly than the Democrats.” How do you make a compelling case for someone to vote for you when all you have to offer is “a little less of the same”? The current so-called “leadership” is composed of people who are there to make careers.
They have no cohesive, well thought out philosophy of politics and government that differs from the liberals in any way other than degree, so they are easily put on the defensive when they are challenged. They have to search their memories for the talking points that fit the notion of being a Republican, rather than simply arguing from the strength of their conviction. They are frauds. They don’t believe it, so why should anyone?
Until real, unashamed conservatives who can argue the philosophy and refute socialist garbage show up, we are stuck with the one party rule that the combination of Republicans and Democrats has become. We have to laugh in the face of their stupid questions, call them liars instead of using gentle terms like “misleading”, and call them stupid when they take stupid positions.
For our part as voters, we have to stop “letting the perfect be the enemy of the good”, and understand that we have move the ball in our direction. This means we will “hold our nose” and vote for people we don’t agree with on every issue. But that can get us moving. We then have to continue to hold our candidates feet to the fire and demand results. We also have to understand that, as conservatives, we still have much that we disagree about among ourselves, but the things we agree on are so much broader — we have to stop letting liberals splinter us by turning us into single issue voters.
Single issue voter coalitions can work for liberals, because they ultimately agree on the basic liberal premise: that the United States is evil and must be fundamentally changed. They intimidate people by anointing themselves as “cool”, and claim to be the smartest people on earth. So if you are insecure, don’t have a strong opinion, but want to be accepted as smart and cool, you better be with them. Nothing scares a person who isn’t “cool” more than to be called out on it, or a stupid person to be shown to be stupid.
Liberals practice the methods of cults, welcoming people regardless of any weakness and telling them they are OK, and that their particular weakness is really a strength. It is the classic serpent’s argument. We ask for people to be strong, to accept that you have to do things themselves instead of having it done for you, but the rewards of freedom and liberty are great. We demand strength, liberals welcome weakness. It’s a tough choice for people to make (especially non-Christians, as Christians are already familiar with this sort of choice). We demand people to work, liberals tell people that work and responsibility is slavery, so they will make someone else do it.
It’s going to be a long road. The damage done has been great, and they won’t stop.
Everyone thinks a third party is a bad thing for elections. I agree, but I don’t know how we would ever wrestle power away from the RINO Republican Establishment without forming a new party.
It seems like we are stuck in a DO LOOP and can never break away from these progressives RINOs in DC without forming another party. It would be bitter medicine to form a third party for a couple of election cycles, but I don’t know how else we get rid of these spineless idiots like Boehner and Rove?
I don’t want to vote for another Bush in 2016. I held my nose twice in 2008 and 2012 listening to their line of BS to save America - and this next time 2016 I won’t - I REFUSE and I won’t get on board with the Romney-McCain-Bush merry go-round ever again! Conservative or bust!
After the election, I was in a bad mood.
After the election I was in a bad mood too. Now that news of fraud has come out I got mad.. When West proved it I got pissed.
The GOP allowed their hands to be tied.
There is no saving this defective party.
The GOP is seen by the public as old rich white men. To change that you are going to have to sell the message not the party. We need to sell conservative values like family, working hard for a living, keeping the people working, securing our future / retirement, moral values, equality, capitalism (enjoying the fruits of your own labor and having the opportunity to do so, fair taxation, smaller government...etc.
If you do this then you will bring people of all races into the old and flip the liberal Democrats on their backs and how them to be the vile and morally bankrupt group that they really are
The GOP is seen by the public as old rich white men. To change that you are going to have to sell the message not the party. We need to sell conservative values like family, working hard for a living, keeping the people working, securing our future / retirement, moral values, equality, capitalism (enjoying the fruits of your own labor and having the opportunity to do so), fair taxation, smaller government, UNITY...etc.
If you do this then you will bring people of all races into the fold and flip the liberal Democrats on their backs and show them to be the vile and morally bankrupt group that they really are
I am no PR person, but it seems to me that a PR campaign could be launched with video of plain old folks who are Republicans, saying, I am the Republican Party, perhaps showing them dropping off kids at school, voting, paying taxes, etc. Certainly the 45% who voted GOP in the presidential election and the 50+% who re-elected GOP Congress members are not ALL rich, by definition.
Right now I a vote of “no confidence” in the GOP, especially when I learned that some years ago the GOP agreed to never investigate DEM vote fraud in part because they were caught doing it, so I say America needs a new party, if anything just for conservative values.
And this will offend some, no vote rigging or cheating allowed. Enough with it, it is destroying America.
LOL I’m certainly not rich.
The GOP is seen by the public as old rich white men.
I disagree. We won in 2010 by being conservative. In 2012, the idiots of the party put up the most liberal Republican possible. He stunk from day one and I knew he would lose. If we stick to the principles, we win. If we sell out, we lose. Pretty easy. Heck the Democrats after 2004 thought they were doomed. It is all pendelum swings and having a decent candidate. Both parties need to chose wiser in Presidential candidates. I mean Democrats picked Kerry and Gore....who didn’t see that big loss coming. Sure Gore came close to winning but if he was so good, he would have won with a decent amount. Republicans put up the likes of Dole, McCain, and liberal Romney and expect to win......LOLOLOLOLOLOL! Idiots!!!!! It did not take a crystal ball to see Romney was going to lose. People do not trust a flip flopper and he flapped quite a bit.
I agree entirely with your second sentence above, but I also believe that it is crucial to stop letting the left tell the electorate what we believe. This is very difficult, given that the left controls the MSM, and much of pop culture. It is not, however, impossible. If I were the RNC I'd be looking into getting high-level marketing people involved, and not rely on the usual ‘campaign manager’ types.
Get active on the ground (all of us), evangelize with primary conservative beliefs (know them well), make it personal (first name communications), stop badmouthing the other side (show a higher calling), stop repeating misinformation (like “you didn’t build that”), use today’s communication forms (text, tweet), and WE choose the candidate.
Democrat policies have not fully taken their course.
This was by design. Most of the legislation passed (Obamacare) does not get fully implemented until Obama’s mid 2nd term.
I suppose that into the middle of next year, voters who once again pulled the lever for the communist will be screaming for the right to take their votes back... but their screams will fall on deaf ears.
They will have to lay in the bed they have made for themselves.
For some good news, the Republican party is changing, and in the right direction, by the right method. That this change isn’t happening fast enough is a burden we have to bear; likewise, we need to create a mechanism to sustain the change as it happens.
Every Tea Party conservative who is elected is like powerful grit in the gears of the ‘progressive’ machine and the Republican liberals who support it. As more and more of them move into office, their ability to make real change has increased considerably.
If we keep this up, we will eventually win, and begin to dismantle a hundred years of federal excess and intrusion.
However, conservatism does need a “think tank college” to train future Tea Party conservatives both how to run for office, avoiding the terrible pitfalls on that path, and how to accomplish change once elected.
Membership in this “think tank college” would have to be very exclusive, as liberal Republicans and Beltway Bandits would love nothing better than to subvert and co-opt such an institution for their own ends.
Problem is. The GOPe is no longer about what you speak of. The leadership moves to stop those that support what you suggest.
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