Posted on 05/10/2009 9:23:54 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Two major debates face conservative Republicans about the future of the party. The first, rekindled by Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party, is whether the GOP should move furtherfurther leftward. The second is whether conservatives should tone down their advocacy on social issues. History is on the side of outspoken conservatives in both debates.
To learn where to position themselves, some big-government GOP loyalists are going on so-called listening tours. The trouble is, skulking around the country on pandering tours isn't leadership. Politicians, lobbyists and campaign consultants who caused the problem cannot fix it. You can also rebrand damaged goods all you want, but they're still damaged goods, which is why GOP establishment leaders are incapable of understanding the problem -- it's them.
The ascendancy of conservatives to power was done by boat-rockers, not establishment politicians. Barry Goldwater laid the foundation of reducing government to conform to the Constitution. Ronald Reagan demonstrated that the conservative vision of smaller government is one of prosperity. The Gingrich revolution started making congressional leaders the servants of the people, not vice versa.
In each case, the message was reforming the Washington establishment. President Obama's campaign used a variation of that theme. His message of change, while obfuscated, clearly resonated with the grass roots. He remains popular, although polls show his version of change is substantially less so.
The current GOP leadership has no message or vision that appeals to the grass roots. We never hear from them the boat-rocking message of successful conservatives.
...
Democrats have nothing to fear from today's Republican Party leaders. That's why Democrats have taken to targeting Rush Limbaugh and others who aren't in formal leadership positions in the GOP but who forcefully articulate a conservative vision.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Sorry, Roger Staubach would be 71 years old if he took office in 2013. It’s not going to happen. I really hate to put it this bluntly, but the GOP has to, simply has to shake it’s image as being the party of rich geezers.
“But of course the leftists do the same thing. They just have a different moral code.”
We need to have the original moral code of this nation, which is freedom. If the GOP were to put forward the case for freedom from a bloated federal gov’t and freedom from the nanny state control of everything in our lives, that would appeal to alot of people.
But the religious conservatives are the same as the left-wingers. They both want to control people, they just have different rules to impose. The religious conservatives don’t want to let go of the reins just as the left-wingers don’t. That’s why freedom would be such a winning message.
You ageist! Come on, that would make him a few months older than Reagan was and also keep in mind that Staubach was a professional athlete who is still in great physical shape.
Staubach does not now nor would he ever come across as "some rich geezer". He very well could be just the shot in the arm the GOP needs and could very easily tap into that wild fire that Sarah Palin started. He is the very picture of what Conservatism is all about, hard work and a commitment to God, Country and family values.
Plus he's a Dallas Cowboy making him the one person we absolutely know will go to Washington,D.C and kick some ass.
A couple of years older than Reagan, but Reagan was an anomaly. Sorry, but 71 years old is just too old to run to run for President. IMHO, that was part of McCain's problem. He is a good man, but he was just too old to connect with today's electorate.
Plus he's a Dallas Cowboy making him the one person we absolutely know will go to Washington,D.C and kick some ass.
I don't even know how to respond to that. Being a football player in no way qualifies anyone to do anything but throw, kick or run a funny shaped ball. I don't even begin think I know how to reply to the assumption that it qualifies one to lead the country except to say that it does not. As far as him being a Dallas Cowboy (as opposed to a football player in general), it's just another ball team. But, even though I live in DFW, I'm not a fan so I guess I don't get the worship of ball players.
Lieutenant Colonel Allen West in 2012./Just Asking - seoul62......
A couple of years older than Reagan, but Reagan was an anomaly. Sorry, but 71 years old is just too old to run to run for President. IMHO, that was part of McCain's problem. He is a good man, but he was just too old to connect with today's electorate.
Reagan was about 2 weeks short of his 70th birthday, but no matter. However, McCain's age was the very least of his problems, he didn't connect with today's electorate because he was wrong on too many issues and because he spent more time alienating his party than trying to win support from us. Keep in mind, 0bama won because people believed his "tax cut" promise, a core Republican platform that Republicans lost credibility with because of their inability to stick to party principles
Being a football player in no way qualifies anyone to do anything but throw, kick or run a funny shaped ball. I don't even begin think I know how to reply to the assumption that it qualifies one to lead the country except to say that it does not.
Sorry you feel that way, good thing Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan didn't because all of them credit learning team work, leadership skills, patience, strategy and dealing with adversity among some of the many things playing football gave them.
As far as Staubach goes there is a lot more to him than being a football player and I'm surprised that someone who lives in the DFW area is not aware of that. His charities and other works are well know here as well as his accomplishments as a realtor, business owner, investor and board member on many fortune 500 companies including American Airlines, Cinemark, and Brinker to name a few.
The image of the Republican party hasn't suffered because of labels and lies placed on it by the MSM and the elitist Left but because the GOP has failed to defend itself against those attacks. We are not "the party of rich geezers" we are the party who allowed the Left to control the conversation. The solution is not to try to distance ourselves from those labels but to speak out against them. Running from the labels and trying to prove how "main stream" we are is what cost us Congress and the White House.
Our party lost its way because it failed to stick to its principals, when the GOP returns to its roots, lives by its message and stops trying to conform to appeal to the media and the Left it will win elections.
I agree! and that young urban conservative is Sarah Palin. Having been mayor of a city, she's as urban as they come.
You’re daft. Wassila has a population of less than 10,000 people. You can’t honestly call that urban. Hell, if you moved all of Alaska’s 684,000 people into a single city it would barely make the top of US cities. There is nothing urban about Alaska, period. Repeat after me: Alaska is a tiny (population wise) rural state.
Make that top 20 of U.S. cities. That’s right, the USA has 20 cities (5 of them are in Texas) that are larger than the entire state of Alaska.
The current inept and losing liberal infested Republican party seems to think that playing a game of musical chairs will fool the conservative base once again. No dice, many of us are not buying a repackaged RINO party. We all see what is going on. This social conservative hasn't seen any reason to throw out his core beliefs and sign back on to a sinking Republican ship.
Until the party pulls back away from the brink of oblivion and do a course correction back a good deal to the right of center I'll just keep supporting independent conservatives as I've been doing for a number of years now. Republican RINO's can keep on pounding sand.
Well, Calvin Coolidge came from Dixville Notch, Vt., which makes Wassila look like New York City, but he turned out to be a pretty good president.
Helloooooooooooooooo?!
Did the left move right after Kerry played the centrist in 2004?
Move the “center” back to the right ... and kick McCain to the curb a la Kerry.
That was then this is now. Our nation’s demographics no longer resemble that of 1922 when Coolidge ran for president. I’m speaking in the here and now. What the GOP needs is a young urban conservative. The party is failing to attract to young blood. That’s not good news.
Goldwater did win in 1980, in the form of Ronald Reagan.
The party is failing to attract to young blood.
Judging from the crowds showing up at her rallies and the support she has on websites such as FR--whose members mostly seem to be fairly young-- and support groups on social networking sites, Sarah Palin seems to have attracted quite a few youthful supporters. And at 45, she's fairly young herself.
You’re daft
If it wasn't for Sarah Palin and her "daft" supporters, McCain would have probably carried only two or three states.
By the way, Calvin Coolidge ran for president in 1924, not 1922, which was not a presidential election year.
McCain won his party’s nomination. Nuff said. And no, I don’t subscribe to the wrong-headed notion that he owes what success he had to Palin. Had he picked a stronger, less embarrassing running mate, he may well have won. Sorry, not a member of the Palin fan club.
As for Sarah’s support on FR, don’t get me wrong, I love FR, but I’m a realist. I’m fully aware that FR is in no way indicative of the general electorate. Keyes could probably pull a solid 20%-25% of FR voters, but in the real world his best showing was in the high two-percents in any primary.
Sorry about the Coolidge race year. It was 40 years before my birth and I pulled it from memory.
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