Wait until Cap-and-Trade, CIR and more are the key planks.
Posted on 07/12/2008 9:54:12 AM PDT by FocusNexus
"Welcome to the most grassroots-driven platform development effort in the history of American politics!
The Republican Party is seeking your input as we develop the policies and principles upon which we should stand for the next four years. On this website, you can share your thoughts, participate in polls, and communicate directly with the policymakers who will be shaping the party's agenda. All comments and feedback will be reviewed and taken into full consideration as we prepare for our convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
We hope that this process will guarantee the greatest amount of public input into any platform in American history!"
I predict after a few days of being bludgeoned by disenfranchised/disillusioned Republicans, furious over no border control, profligate spending, ham-fisted bureaucracies like the TSA and representatives who have completely sold out their constituency, that the site will become heavily moderated, and finally quietly withdrawn for ‘re-engineering’ or some such gobbledy-gook.
Wait until Cap-and-Trade, CIR and more are the key planks.
LOL!
Thanks for the link to the earlier thread — I searched, it didn’t come up.
But it never hurts to give it more exposure.
I think instead of just complaining, people have a place to submit constructive suggestions.
“I think instead of just complaining, people have a place to submit constructive suggestions.”
Do you really think that anyone in the RNC hierarchy is going to read any of the suggestions? Even if they do, they will come to the stunningly incorrect conclusion that the base is ticked off because the party is too far to the right.
Face it after 8 years of Bush and 6 with a Republican Congress we have crap like "Click-it-or-ticket" being shoved down our throats by the federal government.
Dose "Click-it-or-ticket" being forced upon states, in exchange for highway funds, show respect for the Constitutional separation of powers, or not? Going around the clear intention of the Constitution, with back door trickery, is not showing respect, it is showing contempt. It is on par with Clinton claiming his tryst with Monica was not "sex". Devious and clever schemes to get around the Constitution, practiced by the GOP are disgusting.
These guys truly do not understand nor do they want to understand the concept of smaller, less government. The proof is in their actual results.
I'll hold my nose and vote for McCain, but to actually think these guys want our opinion? Give me a break.
The GOP now wants us to drink the Global Warming Kool-aid. Just listen to the McCain spots.
Ok, I feel better now after venting a bit.
Put those ideas into the GOP platform and you've got a winner.
I signed up and asked them to find their “spines”. I also asked them to come up with the phrase of “outsourcing our energy”. I wonder if they’ll listen.
They should outsource Congress ;)
There is a better way, and it's really very simple.
The Goofy Old Party (GOP) should have a ten point survey with only Yes / No answer options. If you can't decide which option to choose, you're too stupid too vote anyhow.
Examples:
Do you support building a wall on our Southern border to prevent the influx of illegals coming into America?
- Yes
- No
Should the Federal Government enforce immigration laws?
-Yes
- No
Should President Bush's tax cuts be allowed to sunset in 2010 and thereby increase your taxes?
-Yes
-No
Do you believe in socialized medicine which has proved to be a medical and economic disaster in Canada, the UK, and Italy?
-Yes
-No
Do you believe in school vouchers since our Federally subsidized public school system is a failure?
- Yes
-No
Do you believe that terrorists should be given the same legal rights as Americans?
-Yes
-No
Excellent points. Did you submit them?
I think they need a 10-12 point plan/commitment, as Newt did, and it won back Congress for us. If Republicans would run on clear, concise platfom, they could win — because in most of these issues most Americans actually agree with the GOP. That’s the way to beat Obama’s vague “I’ll bring you change” slogan, where everyone imagines he will bring them the change they want and won’t find out what that change really is, until it’s too late.
The best thng the Republican party can do to regain its grassroots support is to dig out their old copies of the CONTRACT WITH AMERICA. Read it, learn it, live it. Then, we’ll talk. As long as they persist in trying to be Democrat-Lites, their base will continue to look elsewhere for leadership. RETURN TO BASIC CONSERVATIVE, CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES or be replaced by those of us who understand this necessity and will restore the Republican platform of Conservative values and small government.
No. This new program is a smokescreen. No one in the GOP give's a crap what the voters think.
I think they need a 10-12 point plan/commitment, as Newt did, and it won back Congress for us. If Republicans would run on clear, concise platfom, they could win...
I agree. That was the point of my post.
“The best thng the Republican party can do to regain its grassroots support is to dig out their old copies of the CONTRACT WITH AMERICA.”
I had the same thought. That would be a winner for the GOP.
http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html
REPUBLICAN CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives.
That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.
This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.
Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.
On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:
FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.
Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.
1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses. (Bill Text) (Description)
2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT: An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in- sentencing, “good faith” exclusionary rule exemptions, effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social spending from this summer’s “crime” bill to fund prison construction and additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools. (Bill Text) (Description)
3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. (Bill Text) (Description)
4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT: Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children’s education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society. (Bill Text) (Description)
5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief. (Bill Text) (Description)
6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT: No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world. (Bill Text) (Description)
7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT: Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years. (Bill Text) (Description)
8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. (Bill Text) (Description)
9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT: “Loser pays” laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation. (Bill Text) (Description)
10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Description)
Further, we will instruct the House Budget Committee to report to the floor and we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation described above, to ensure that the Federal budget deficit will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills.
Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.
Is there the tinies bit of evidence that any of our national candidates have ever read the platform?
2) Uphold the law, especially with respect to immigration.
3) Be optimistic about America and Americans.
Some candidates have formulated their own contracts
. Check out allenwestforcongress.com for example!
The best and ONLY advice I can give the GOP is to stop distancing themselves from Conservatives and President Bush.
While Bush may not be the most conservative president ever, distancing themselves from him shows undecideds and independents that there is no loyalty in the GOP and they feel they have been mistaken over the last 8 years.
It plays right into the Democrats claims of they are the ones who know what is best.
Standing behind McCain while distancing themselves from Bush is just pure folly, in my not so humble opinion.
Conservatism is what won past elections. RINO’s just allow the Dems to take control of America.
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