Posted on 05/15/2008 8:24:51 AM PDT by bilhosty
Things are so ugly for the members of the GOP right now, it’s worth pondering their political mortality: Put bluntly, can this party be saved?
We talked to some of the smartest minds in Republican politics, and their prognosis is pretty grim. They think it will take pretty big changes — and possibly many, many years — to repair a Republican brand sullied by excessive spending, an unpopular war and an even more unpopular president.
Republicans are deeply divided over how dramatic changes should be and how precisely to change things. But there appears to be an emerging consensus on six steps they must take — and soon. What follows are the composite views of key Republicans we interviewed.
1. Get a clue: Republicans desperately need to cook up some new ideas and craft an attractive agenda to have any chance of success. Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney says it should be a modern edition of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America.”
LMAO! I choked on my M&M.
I agree that the name of the Falcon Party lacks seriousness. Besides, our national symbol is the eagle, not the falcon.
“All of these partial solutions avoid the main point: if we want to be energy independent, we’re going to have to drill for our own oil! That’s “realistic thinking”...”
Could it be that someone, somewhere, or maybe a group of people have made the decision that this country will have the last oil reserves on the planet?
I remember when AT&T was broken up. One very wise economist said, “If AT&T did not want to get broken up they would not have been broken up.”
Conversely, it is my opinion that if the oil companies wanted to drill here, offshore, ANWR, etc, they would already be drilling.
The GOP needs to do all of the 6 basics in the article. In addition, the party needs to position itself back to the right away from the middle and the liberal fringes (for example, global warming is a hoax and the GOP should be as far away from taking positions on offering a single penny from the federal government).
The GOP can save itself by being consistent in its return to a conservative approach. This means that the following principles are not just used to get somebody elected but are the platform for the party:
Smaller, limited government;
lower taxes;
preservation of life;
strong national security;
defense of the borders;
high moral standards and ethics;
support of judges at all levels responsible to the constitution and existing laws and not interested in “making laws”;
politicians working for the people, not themselves.
Remember that government is rarely the right answer when you are looking for a solution to a problem.
“The GOP started out tolerating, then supporting and finally taking marching orders from Christian Conservatives and Creationists driving out all the Socially Moderate/Liberal/Fiscally Conservative out of the party.”
There they go again, saying Republicans need to appeal to moderates.
Its superior stand on moral issues is one of the main ways the Republican Party is different from the Democrats.
I doubt it. If that were the case, why would we be maintaining a Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
Moreover, known reserves of petroleum are probably good for hundreds of years. And, over time, other reserves will doubtless be discovered.
The question isn't about how much oil is left, it's how much will it cost to exploit those reserves?
If we were to save our oil until it was the only oil on the planet a.) it would be a long, long wait and b.) alternative energies will almost certainly have obsoleted crude oil by that time.
SUPREME DISAPPOINTMENT SUPREME DISAPPOINTMENT SUPREME DISAPPOINTMENT
The GOP can be either a regional party or a National Party.
I think they need it spelled out for them in greater detail as they appear to be slow learners and we can’t afford any further misunderstanding.
LOWER TAXES
DECREASED SPENDING
INCREASED SECURITY
Silly me. You are right. I should have been more specific...
Well, it looks like they are going with suggestion #6.
The Republican party left me a long time ago.
You're suggesting the GOP divorce itself from its only remaining stronghold - thats like a doctor blaming a diseased lung on the healthy one.
Sounds more like your theory is based on your own personal biases than anything rooted in fact.
That’s more than six.
The GOP started out tolerating, then supporting and finally taking marching orders from Christian Conservatives and Creationists driving out all the Socially Moderate/Liberal/Fiscally Conservative out of the party.
The GOP has to decide if they want to be the party of small government, individual liberty and pro-business or if they want to be the party of busybodies.
You simply could not be more wrong.
It is the "Socially Moderate/Liberal" Republicans who have crippled and possibly doomed the Party.
The GOP has abandoned conservatism and embraced "Socially Moderate/Liberal" policies. That has proven to be suicide.
“We talked to some of the smartest minds in Republican politics,....”
And that is the problem. They quit talking to the ‘people’.
“If you want to know whats wrong with the GOP you need look no further than this kind of elitist drivel.”
politics is cultural when you overidentify with one part of the country you lose strength in the others.Just look at what happened when the Dem’s overidentified with the coastel elites in the mid 90’s. we can do the same and we have. We need the Soputh (I live in Georgia) but we also need to speak northern and western too.
you do not divorce yourself from the one region but you still have to have more to win. Politics is cultural and like it or not you have to put together a coalition and have someone who can keep them all together.
The Republican party is much the same way. For reasons I can't understand, they stopped being Republicans and tried instead to be populists and demonrats. That not only did not win them friends in the MSM and on the other side of the political aisle, it lost those who once identified with the values Reagan had reminded Republicans they embraced and stood for.
Republicans could become fiscally responsible guardians of the Constitution and conservative principles and ideals. Such a move would win back those that left after Reagan's last term, but Republicans would have to truly live it and love it, not just pretend during election season like they do now. In the mean time, we conservatives (and the rest of the country) are thoroughly screwed.
Falcon=
F ealty to
A merica,
L iberty,
C onservatism,
O ptimism,
N obility
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