Posted on 11/11/2012 1:18:43 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The new conventional wisdom in the aftermath of the 2012 elections is that Republicans face two challenges: first, that the United States is no longer a center-right nation, but a center-left one; second, that the country’s demographic shift away from whites will make it tougher for Republicans to win votes. The proposed solution is that Republicans must compromise on the party’s core policies, from immigration to taxation to social issues. The conventional wisdom is wrong.
I once worked in South Africa for a centrist party, the Democratic Alliance, which faced the same challenges as Republicans do, only far more extreme. Though it had opposed apartheid, its leadership was predominantly white, in a country that is nearly 80% black. Moreover, it supported free-market economic policies in a country whose political culture is dominated by socialist and nationalist ideologies.
The party had worked its way up from receiving less than 2% of the vote in 1994 to just over 12% in 2004. It had become the leading opposition party, but seemed to have hit a ceiling. If it could not grow, it would die. How could it broaden its appeal to black voters without losing its core constituency of white voters? And how could it advocate for the free market when large portions of the electorate demanded massive redistribution?
I joined the team that helped elect Helen Zille mayor of Cape Town in 2006 (she is now the premier, or governor, of the whole Western Cape province). It was the first time an opposition party unseated the dominant African National Congress, and the first time a white politician was chosen by a predominantly black electorate in post-apartheid South Africa.
Our success could offer lessons for the Republican Party as it seeks to refocus.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Excellent post, good ideas.
Yes, very good ideas that don’t sell out conservatism.
Here are the main points which the author covers:
Do not compromise basic principles; instead, show how they are relevant to all.
Take the fight to the opposition’s turf.
Highlight candidates from minority groups.
Don’t forget core white voters.
Develop clear policy alternatives.
Use coalition politics to cobble together a winning team.
Pursue incremental changes, not sweeping ones.
Create flagships of policy success.
Organize by drilling activists in the basics.
Prepare for the politics of the long haul.
First, let’s get rid of the blatant massive vote fraud that seemingly is ignored by “authorities”.
Good advice, BUT:
“first, that the United States is no longer a center-right nation, but a center-left one;”
Wrong conclusion. Poll after poll, including exit polls, indicate Americans want a smaller, less intrusive government - not the reverse, that they oppose abortion on principle and that they support Constitutional Rights - all of them.
Romney was a poor candidate who made major mistakes and THAT is the reason he lost. Obama succeeded in making the race about Romney and his background and actions and NOT about Obama’s performance and flawed principles.
Besides, the GOP leadership, morally bankrupt from a political philosophy perspective, is incapable of following the advice offered here which is wise advice.
We need either a new political party or to dismantle all the GOP leadership - a party purge starting with that gutless imbecile John Boehner.
With a billion dollar ad campaign calling her a whore the Rats could convince the majority in this country that *Mother Teresa* was Satan's evil twin.
Actually, it was the false caricature of Romney sold to the sheeple by their allies in the media. Until we discredit the American media and stop allowing them to control the message by getting so many voters to respond to their lies like trained seals in an aquarium show, it will matter less who we run than who is most capable of reaching the sheeple through their smokescreen.
Romney was a good and decent man, generous with his own time and money. More charitable on his worst day than BO or Biden will ever be on their best day. Yet the media sold the sheeple the exact opposite image and the masses bought the lies wholesale.
Romney's political views were too liberal for me, but from a personal point of view, he was decent, generous, kind and good and overshadowed Obama in all of these qualities plus competence as well. We offered them exactly the moderate, centrist type of candidate they recommended we should offer and they demonized him just as much as they would have demonized a more conservative candidate.
Requirement #1 for future standard bearers should be the ability to talk over the media smokescreen.
The replacement generations are not as large and all things being equal, both Democrat and Republican voting populations should decline ~ and, lo and behold, they just did .
The Republicans need do nothing but aggressive registration and get out the Republican vote campaigns and they can virtually destroy the left in this country ~ including the Democrats.
That probably oughta' happened this year while the Democrats had their weakest candidate in a couple of centuries, but somebody decided a guy who usually commands a rousing 20% of the Republican electorate needed to face him.
I've never understood by we need to be polite to the opposition in an election for the future of the nation.
. . . and rule 0: Nominate a candidate for POTUS for whom all of the above is second nature.
- Do not compromise basic principles; instead, show how they are relevant to all.
- Take the fight to the opposition’s turf.
- Highlight candidates from minority groups.
- Don’t forget core white voters.
- Develop clear policy alternatives.
- Use coalition politics to cobble together a winning team.
- Pursue incremental changes, not sweeping ones.
- Create flagships of policy success.
- Organize by drilling activists in the basics.
- Prepare for the politics of the long haul.
If you can’t do that, at least spare us the insult of running someone who holds core voters in contempt, like John McCain, or who opposed Reagan, like Romney.
I am always dumbfounded and surprised when people just regurgitate MSM talking points back to me. I mean, I’ve learned to just tune the nonsense out or not even listen to it at all, but it’s jarring to me how many people just take it at face value. Quite disturbing, actually.
Bookmark and bump, for an excellent article.
The Democratic Alliance logo (picture at link) looks almost exactly like BO’s logo.
Everything you said about Romney was true.
But he made some serious mistakes.
His comments about the 47% of Americans who are economic parasites, and his statement about liking to fire people.
Also, his choice of Paul Ryan, another good decent intelligent man, was a poor one, given the circumstances. He should have selected Marco Rubio and if the GOP is smart (it isn’t) they will run Rubio in 2016 and start building up his image now.
The whole point of my post is that the problem was NOT with our political philosophy. Its with our lack of political finesse in dealing with a massive biased media and really effective political machine.
EXCELLENT.
I would add one thing: develop a communications sttrategy to work around the main stream media. The main stream media has become a full-blown propaganda complex for the DemonRAT Party. The coordination of talking points, placing of damaging questions, gotchas, setups in the debates, Podesta’s Center for American Progress, Media Matters, and George Soros are killing us.
Indeed, we know that every time we let Lindsay Graham tell us to accept amnesty and shut the gate, the dims will up the ante with “no shutting the gate”. It’s always like that with homosexualist policies: one political rock of promise leads to domino effect to the next. The result is tolerance of radicals and Hitlers like Obama. It’s only going to get worse if we do not keep the faith in conservatism. And liberals will have to grow up and not say “unthinkable” or “death wish” when it comes to abortion and drug issues.
Stunning, isn’t it? I have a tech vendor that is a great guy and pretty smart. My jaw hit the ground when he told me he didn’t vote for Romney “ because of what Ryan said about rape.” WTH?
Only if that smaller government includes state bloc grants, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and unemployment insurance. People can claim they're for smaller government, while still desiring all the benefits of big government, and voting against anyone who they see as threatening those benefits. Just look at those reddest-of-red plains states who vitriolically attack anyone who brings up cutting farm subsidies.
The only poll that matters was the one we had last Tuesday and those results were decidedly different.
Very good ideas, especially from someone who has been in the precarious position we are now...and was able to create a win.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.