Posted on 11/05/2008 7:26:34 PM PST by lasereye
When it comes to fundraising, organization and ground game, we Republicans got whipped.
Now, Republicans may criticize Sen. Barack Obama for breaking his promise to accept public funding and play by the established rules, but that doesn't take us too far. We shouldn't kid ourselves: Democrats breaking this precedent had nothing to do with their campaign-finance principles, and everything to do with the fact they could afford to. Mr. McCain could never have competed this fall without the federal funds and, in the end, Mr. Obama simply smothered McCain, outspending him in battleground states by three-to-one, with plenty left over to compete in even Republican-leaning areas.
For years, Republicans outworked Democrats at the polls. Democrats would have opulent fund-raisers with celebrities and would bask in the glow of a lapdog media. Republicans would go out on Election Day and beat them on the ground game. Their guys wrote checks; our guys wrote letters to the editor. They knocked our values; we knocked on doors. They spoke for the people; we actually got out and spoke with the people. Conservative organizations outside the official party apparatus understood their role in a large coalition: organize, energize, and mobilize. And then we won.
Victory is always the hardest thing for a successful political coalition. Economic, social and foreign-policy conservatives unite easily when brought together in opposition to tax-and-spend, pro-abortion, dovish liberals in power. After more than a decade in control of Congress and eight years in the White House, the coalition has worn thin. Conservatives of each of these stripes will always have some complaint to make against the Republican Party. But as odd as it sounds, we need not let our past victories continue to divide us.
Meanwhile, liberals of every sort are in a frenzy to get back into power, and especially to wrest the White House back from President Bush, who liberals have tried to peg as an illegitimate president all along. Democrats have not missed this golden opportunity to unite.
Liberalism's new and impressive network of organizations -- especially fund-raising, grassroots mobilization, and communications -- has left in the dust anything conservatives have ever put together. Organizations like America Votes and ACORN are so closely tied to Democrat politics that they might as well be arms of the party apparatus. The George Soros-funded Shadow Party of organizations run by former Clinton administration officials and liberal leaders -- the Center for American Progress, the Thunder Road Group, MoveOn.org, Media Matters, etc. -- has created a second left-leaning party free from restrictions imposed by official regulations -- including McCain-Feingold.
This liberal infrastructure, which now dwarfs conservatism's in size, scope, and sophistication, will be setting and helping to impose the national agenda for the coming years. The time has come for conservatives to wake up and smell the 21st century.
American politics as we know it ended the day Mr. Obama refused public funds for his presidential bid and unleashed a billion-dollar political giant. National campaigns will now operate not as individual operations designed to elect a single man, but as a cohesive, all-encompassing movement, well funded and certainly prepared for a political coup. In 2012, Mr. Obama -- whether as an incumbent or a seasoned veteran challenger -- will no doubt raise more than $1 billion for his campaign conglomerate. And that's not wrong. It's impressive -- and intimidating.
Between now and then, Republicans must come to terms with their organizational shortcomings and finally become again the kind of dynamic political party that won stirring victories in 1994 and 2000. Our party must expand its organization to include our coalition groups in the ways Democrats have with theirs. The Coalition for a Conservative Majority, an organization I helped start in 2006, is trying to pull conservative organizations back together after too many years of internecine squabbling. Only under conservative government will groups like the National Rifle Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Right to Life Committee receive a fair hearing of their views; it's time they started working together.
Conservatism's leading donors must look beyond contributing only to traditional channels like the RNC or campaign committees, and open up to also funding outside organizations that can do what the Democrats' Shadow Party is already doing. New resources must be tapped, and just as importantly, coordinated.
And our leaders -- in Congress and in the states -- must develop and communicate a strong, conservative agenda of reform around which conservatives of all stripes can rally with a well-organized political communication strategy.
Luckily, we are still a center-right nation. We still favor conservative approaches to taxes, spending, regulation, foreign policy and traditional values. Americans have never lost their faith in conservatism. We need now a new, 21st-century political coalition to remind them of that fact, and to restore its faith in actual conservatives.
Former Rep. Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, served as House majority leader.
Let’s not forget that many loyal Republicans decided to quit donating to the GOP when the idiots(including McCain) tried to shove amnesty down our throats.
Many people soured on McLame then, and vowed not to give him a dime.
The GOP had a contract promise to introduce an advocacy de-funding bill back in 1994.
Too bad they were just pandering.
We wont have to. Reality will do it for us. A couple of years into an Obama administration when they are still paying for their gas and mortgages, worse paying a higher price for both, it'll come to them.
I agree money does matter. But there is one other thing:
the economy and what happened in wall street due to the
subprime loan scams and Fannie Mae and Fredic Mac.
When the economy goes down like that people tend to put the blame on the sitting House: in this case (unfairly) to Pres. Bush. Another example: Ronald Reagan had no problem winning after the economy left behind by Pres. Carter.
They had better go after it with full force if they ever get another opportunity to do it.
“They are getting whipped because they were NOT conservatives.”
They are getting whipped because they are preceived as ultra conservative by the ultra stupid.
“Our party must expand its organization to include our coalition groups...is trying to pull conservative organizations back together...groups like the National Rifle Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Right to Life Committee...it’s time they started working together.”
OK. Fine. But everyone must be in agreement on one thing: sticking to the letter of the law.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t agree with the letter of the law. They don’t understand the work, “illegal”, when it comes to illegal aliens. There is no such thing as an illegal immigrant. Your are an immigrant here legally with documentation, or you are an illegal alien, period.
I'd like to know if The One is truly eligible to the office of President of the United States.
Funny the vaunted "investigative" reporters were not the least bit interested in "investigating" that little issue.
Makes me want to hurl ... yesterday stuff came hurling out alright, just not at the *that* end of my digestive tract.
Frankly we lost because we deserved to lose. Most of us knew that McCain was a lame candidate going into this election. We were stunned and dismayed when he walked away with the nomination.
We got a minor boost with Palin and she did bring some of the magic back to the race, but mostly we had nothing but a mess to show for the eight years we had the Presidency and the six years we had a majority in all three branches of government.
Frankly speaking, we stunk. Bush never did have the nads to fight the liberals in congress. Hell, he didn't even have the nads to clean house in the federal government and get rid of all the Clinton appointees that he by rights should have sent packing the very first week in office.
Sheesh...
There's nothing for it now except to take our medicine — as bitter as it is — knuckle down and get back to basics.
The only teeny-tiny sliver of silver lining that I can see in this balls-to-the-wall charlie-foxtrot is the Dems didn't manage to get their super majority WHICH (providing our elected gasbags in the legislatures don't go completely belly-up — means we MIGHT be able to keep the Dems from completely trashing the constitution and recover from this debacle.
I think it IS that simple. If conservatives had their act together, they would be united, follow conservative principles, EXPLAIN WHY CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES WORK EFFECTIVELY to the general public and .... they would (this is important) be the font of new ideas using those principles to solve specific problems.
“because he is Not White”
Hispanic culture doesn’t work that way. They voted for Obama because it was a contest between two candidates offering goodies. The one offering more won. The color of the candidate was irrelevant.
Everyone needs to read this piece. It is exactly on target. I have watched Delay this week as he expressed these same thoughts. The Republicans lost because they were beaten on the ground.
It bodes ill for the future. There will always be more nonvoters to scrape up and transform to voters in the cities than in the country. Now that they have learned how, it will be Tammany Hall all over the blue zone. It will not be able to be broken.
For the foreseeable future I tend to agree unless you have a bad economy or some kind of crisis.
One possible way it could start to turn around is if some of those billionaires that love Democrats start to get turned off by Obama’s policies. If you had a few Republican Soros’s out there pumping money into conservative organizations. Most people don’t understand Wall Street is mainly Democrat today. So is the high tech sector. But it would probably only happen after some sustained period of declining or stagnating profits and share prices.
Tom DeLay leery of a President McCain
PolitickerCA by by James B. Gerber
October 4, 2008 - 8:25pm
Former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay thinks conservative Republicans will have their work cut out for them f John McCain is elected president in November. “If McCain wins the election, we’ve got just as much work to do as if Obama won,” DeLay, the former House majority leader from Texas, told PolitickerCA.com. “I’ve known McCain for 23 years, and McCain’s hard to swallow.” DeLay, who supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the primaries, disagrees with the Republican nominee on a number of issues, though he still plans to vote for him.
“His stance on global warming, immigration, campaign finance, affirmative action,” DeLay said, “it’s just a whole list of things that is not going to appeal to conservative Republicans. And if he becomes president, teaming up with the Democrats, we’re going to have a lot of work to do to stop them.” DeLay made sure to emphasize that Barack Obama would be far worse. “Obama’s awful,” DeLay said. “He’s as far left as anyone who’s ever run for president in this country. The former House Majority Leader thought McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate saved his campaign. “I think Sarah Palin was an absolutely brilliant move,” DeLay said, citing her support from Republican women. “She has such a strong world view that appeals to these Republican women. [McCain] had no organization. Nobody had accepted him, made the phone calls or knocked the doors. With Republican women, he automatically got an organization.”
DeLay was unconcerned by Palin’s lack of experience. “Her experience is not an issue,” argued DeLay. “She has the foundation from which she makes decisions. That’s what you want. No one’s experienced to be President.” DeLay was encouraged by signs that the Republican presidential nominee would be more aggressive over the final month of the campaign. “He still hasn’t defined Obama,” DeLay said. “He’s got to get a lot more aggressive.” DeLay also argued that the McCain campaign was misusing it’s most valuable resource.”He’s got to turn Palin loose,” he said. “Let her get out there and get to work. Quit handling her. Let her be Palin. She needs to be out there talking to people, especially dealing with the local media, and get away from the national media.”
The former party leader was in California Saturday night headlining the Riverside County Republican Party’s Liberty Dinner, the party’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Turnout was significantly less than years before, however, which DeLay attributed to competition from a few other Southern California fundraisers, including a Palin reception in Orange County.
TAB
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