Posted on 01/08/2010 4:34:30 AM PST by Kaslin
This is one of those rare moments when the conventional wisdom in Washington is right. The Democrats are poised to have a bad year; the only argument is over how bad it will be. And that question rests on whether or not the Republican Party crafts an agenda voters will support
So far the GOP has shrewdly been the "party of no." Since I disagree with so much of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda, I happen to think that "no" is the correct position on the merits. But that's not the point. Saying "no" has worked because that's what most Americans say, too.
The trick for the GOP is to figure out what it will say yes to. Republicans are a bit like the Democrats in 2006 and 2008. Americans were sick of Bush and the Republicans back then, so they threw their support behind the Democrats by default. The Democrats over-read this support as a sweeping mandate for their agenda.
This has given the GOP an opportunity many Republicans feared just a year ago might not come for a generation.
Now comes the hard part: seizing the opportunity. Fortunately, I'm not a political consultant. But if I were giving my two cents -- and whaddya know? I am! -- I'd tell the GOP to look not to Reagan in 1980 or Gingrich in 1994, as so many pundits suggest.
I'd look to Domino's in 2010.
You may have seen the commercials or the four-minute YouTube video touting the iconic pizza-delivery chain's reinvention. But if you haven't, Domino's new campaign can be summed up easily enough: "We blew it."
Focus groups and consumer surveys revealed something pretty much everyone outside of Domino's has known for years: Their pizza stinks. It tastes as if aliens tried to copy real pizza but just couldn't capture its essence.
In their four-minute video (search YouTube for "the Pizza Turnaround") executives, employees and chefs at the company confront their harshest reviews head-on. They talk about how much it hurts to hear that their product "tastes like cardboard" and is worse than microwave pizza. But they admit the truth and commit themselves to starting over with more flavor, better crusts, and cheese that doesn't taste like discount weather caulking. Domino's says that the American palate has improved, and they want to update their recipe to take account of that fact.
The appeal of the campaign should be obvious: honesty. Domino's admits they lost their way, and they want a second chance. They're confronting the criticism head-on rather than denying it.
Obviously, the analogy to the GOP isn't perfect. For example, last I checked, Domino's didn't get bogged down in an unpopular war.
But the GOP's troubles over the last decade have a lot to do with the fact that Americans didn't stop liking what the Republican Party is supposed to deliver. They stopped liking what the GOP actually delivered.
As a conservative who cares more about policies than partisan success, I would hate to see the GOP abandon conservative policies in order to be more popular. That would be like Domino's listening to critics and then deciding to get into the Chinese food business. Indeed, by my lights, that's what George W. Bush tried to do with his "compassionate conservatism." He surrendered to liberal arguments about the role, size and scope of government on too many fronts. In effect, he said you can have your pizza and Kung Pao chicken all in the same dish. That's not a good meal, it's a bad mess.
Moreover, abandoning conservatism would be silly. According to Gallup, Americans identify themselves as conservative over liberal by a margin of 2-1, the same proportion as just after 9/11.
So what would a GOP-turnaround recipe look like? That's a subject for any number of other columns. But for starters, I'd look to young political chefs like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). He's been the leader in attacking "crony capitalism" -- the corrupt merger of big business and big government, a hallmark of the Obama administration. For too long Republicans confused supporting big business with supporting free markets, when big business is often the biggest impediment to fair competition. Other fresh new ingredients would almost surely include pro-family tax policies and the de-linking of legal and illegal immigration as interchangeable terms.
But first, the GOP needs to admit it screwed up. That's what Democrats did with Bill Clinton, and it gave the "New Democratic Party" a new lease on life.
F. Scott Fitzgerald couldn't have been more wrong when he said there are "no second acts in American lives." More than any nation on earth, America is about second acts. We love contrition and redemption. We love it in pizza companies and politicians alike.
Oddly, the hapless GOP believes that the Clinton and Obama models are the prototypes to winning elections. They do understand the socialist tendencies of the American people and therefore ignore their own base of constitutionalists.
No we didn’t.
I don’t recall eating a Domino’s pizza but I swore off McDonald’s long ago. I always considered a Mac burger as something that would prevent starvation in a pinch but was only to be used in an emergency to stop that gnawing under the belt feeling.
I used to hear how the great success of McDonald’s was attributed to their perfect “quality control” and shake my head in wonder. I seem to remember that their coffee was alright though and their breakfast was reasonably good.
Step One: Get rid of Michael Steele now.
I think if the Republicans were smart they would revise the
immigration work permits policy and immigration after the 2010 elections to be a lot more reasonable. If they did this and sat on making the existing illegals legal these people would flow into the legal channels and defuse the illegal amnesty issue. Many of these people go home every year or they just come here to work. When they return to the U.S. they would choose to use a legal route if it made any sense and they might actually give the Republicans credit it.
“. Many of these people go home every year or they just come here to work.”
No, they come here, and STAY here for the 20,000+ per year(family of 4) welfare benefits. This is one of the reasons California is bankrupt. They not only stay, they bring their relatives over here, once they are settled in.
I suspected they did change their pizza, but my wife and I do not like the brushed garlic stuff they put on the edge of the crust. It soaks through and really detracts from the taste.
Of course the best pizza is the one my wife makes, IMO.
But we GOT 'em!
And now they are creating LEGAL US Citizens faster than the rest of us!
That is what I used to think, but I can tell you in the Carolinas when a large chunk of these people lost their jobs they went home according to official reports and
my unofficial observations. (I was a bit surprized by
this to be honest with you.)
Domino’s *is* bad pizza, but like McDonald’s, you get what you pay for. I think the best bang-for-the-buck pizzas are the fresh bake-yer-own pizzas.
It still sucks.
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I actually prefer a Digiorno’s cooked according to directions in a good oven over almost any chain pizza outlet in my area. Of course there is nothing here that approaches what was available in Chicago the last time I was there back in 1982.
We passed a law in Arizona that you must PROVE that you are eligable to work in the USA. In the past 18 months, we have lost almost half of our illegal immigrants. If the whole country did this, they would self deport. Neither party has the balls to do it.
“And now they are creating LEGAL US Citizens faster than the rest of us! “
Of course they are. The more kids, the more welfare money.
And YOU AND I are paying for it!
“That is what I used to think, but I can tell you in the Carolinas when a large chunk of these people lost their jobs they went home according to official reports and
my unofficial observations. “
Many just went to illegal immigrant friendly states, like California.
In the Carolinas if they don't have a job the young ones go home to live off their relatives like our kids would do here. Now if a guy is married with kids that might be a little different because they might be able to get government benefits. The young guys live with a bunch of their buddies. If they can't pay their way they are ousted from the nest pretty quick and they generally go home. With the drop in building and landscaping their ranks have really thinned out over the last coupe of years.
Bingo! Being "pro-business" has hurt the GOP for decades. They never learn. They need to be "pro-free enterprise" and tell people, if big business stops serving Americans well, they deserve to go out of business and be replaced by businesses that ARE producing and serving the American People.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
I know illegals swamped Charlotte in recent years due to the real estate construction boom, but that is over now.
I want to make the point that this article makes a great suggestion. Right now, the Democrats from Obama to Reid to Pelosi are the party of “We don’t listen to you, because WE know better.” The GOP should reform itself into the party of “We listen to you, we respect you.” Then go on to explain what their hearing and what they are going to do about it.
The best thing to deal with the immigration problem has been this incredibly cold winter so far. Their potential
job market must be falling faster than the temps.
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