Posted on 12/27/2012 1:20:29 PM PST by IbJensen
Here's a New Year's wish I would love to see come true. However it is defined or however many people are part of it, it is time to send the giant never-ending "GOP Establishment" made up of some professional politicians, some moneyed nouveaux riche who -- by virtue of their contributions and the faux friendships it buys with politicians -- consider themselves political landed gentry and the endless scam artist consultants they support packing.
As previously stated, I thought Mitt Romney to be a better candidate than did many observers. That said, the recent revelations in news articles that claim to chronicle the Romney campaign reinforce the idea that the "silk underwear" branch of the GOP just doesn't get it.
The emerging story of a candidate who really didn't want to run in the first place and consultants who never listened to pleas from his own family to humanize the man so that everyday people could "feel like he understands them" just makes conservatives and the GOP faithful sick. They once again spent their hard-earned money and endless time backing another Republican nominee who had no prayer of connecting with the average voter. Never mind that he was, at closer examination, a young man of privilege who outgrew his silver spoon to create his own hard-earned fortune, his case was never properly made.
And why is that? The answer is the current class of Republican "experts" and "consultants" who constantly blow into somewhere outside of their self-indulgent D.C. bubble and believe that they really do understand the "average American" in the 21st century. They do not.
Same for the well-entrenched elected officials, many of whom have gone from scrappy challengers of the status quo to fat and happy potentates. The so-called "experts" just sell any sort of snake oil a candidate or elected official and his loyal leeches will swallow. Hence, terrible focus-group-driven commercials, poor strategy in message and a "get out the vote" effort about as technologically advanced as the telegraph and with all the planning for contingencies as the Hurricane Katrina emergency efforts.
Until Republicans get rid of the inherent haughtiness of their operations, nothing will change. I've always described the GOP Establishment as a bunch who will hold a fundraiser, say, with an incumbent Republican president (don't hold your breath for that again anytime soon) or a nominee, or a governor's inauguration -- you name it -- with one unmentioned thing in mind: themselves. They inevitably make the event like one of those toys with endless boxes within boxes, each smaller than the one before it. That's how they do their big "fundraisers." There's the massive box, holding the masses -- where from the distance of a football field one might catch a fleeting glimpse or hear a bit of a speech or event.
From there on, the boxes get smaller and smaller -- and more elaborate. One huge amount gets you into a private reception; the next more expensive one warrants a 10 second photograph with the political star; then there's the price-busting one that gets you a 30 person private audience -- in which every dupe there fails to note that the leader of the free world or the top person in their state listens, speaks, leaves and likely forgets the whole thing five minutes later.
Oh, and then there is that last box. It's reserved for the same snooty creatures who have run everything in their subdivision of the GOP forever. They often are there because they helped take everyone else's money! But regardless, they are there, in the most private of rooms with the highest of public leaders, just hanging out. They are a small, cozy group -- the elite of the elite. Sort of like today's Republican Party -- a small, cozy group.
If I have to read one more story about some Republican official's great golf handicap or how much they all enjoy the private company of one another, I think I'll be sick.
Republicans need to retool their image and their mindset. Just shed all the king's trappings and some of the king's men. Keep the hardworking and in-touch ones, bring in fresh faces, understand the mindset of the next generation, but more than anything articulate what they stand for and, damn it, stand for it.
A little fire in the belly and purpose for being elected and holding office in the first place could at least start to get the GOP turned around before it really is too late.
Now you add 'dunderhead' to your sales pitch. Typical GOP, double down and just can't stop digging and realize that you are losing votes with the liberal candidates, and your sad, sad sales pitch. Browbeating and namecalling doesn't make the sale. Presenting conservative candidates does.
/johnny
I'm very tired of listening to GOP cheerleaders..pointing/looking to a new way.
Well, listen I've been hearing that for years and it's not happened yet...We continue to slide down the Socialist @%^* hole...with the GOP-E in charge.
I'm done. And I know ten's of folks like me....And I know they know more folks like me!
I think the Senate and presidency are losers until after we have strong control of the House and can frame the national discussions.
Though an exceptionally good conservative politician may do well, in general the national media has it’s way in those elections now.
And, yes, that’s because of the 17th amendment.
Amen. And every time, the GOP does the same thing, lean left and lose.
If I'm going to lose anyway, I'll lose with a conservative candidate from another party, instead of a liberal from the GOP.
/johnny
So, let me get this straight. Your idea of politically "relevant" is being an electoral spoiler and making sure a Democrat gets elected? Oooookay. Politically that is about all Ross Perot ever managed to do.
I'm done. And I know ten's of folks like me....And I know they know more folks like me!
There's ALWAYS folks like you. That's my point. Other than perhaps playing spoiler, the 3rd party temper tantrums amount to nothing. Heck, in 1980 the "moderate" Republicans had themselves a "not going to take it anymore" moment and 5.7 million of them voted for RINO John Anderson. They made no difference at all - and that was nearly 6 million people!
We hear this EVERY election cycle. It's nothing new. It will amount to squat.
I understand your anger. It's well founded, but mostly misplaced. Is the GOP weak and poorly led? Sure, at the moment that is largely true. But the problem is much bigger than that. The problem is that demographics are changing rapidly and the public is shifting left (most especially on social issues). This change with the American public is magnifying our party's internal problems - but at heart the simple fact is the people aren't with us. Just shouting that we need to be more conservative isn't going to get it done. Lots of very conservative Tea Party Senate candidates who bucked the "establishment" in 2010 and 2012 got their butts kicked. In fact, our movement conservative and Tea Party folks are doing especially poorly at the statewide level. Boehner and the "establishment" (such that it exists) is only a small part of the problem we face going forward. Stomping your feet and refusing to participate if you don't get your way will accomplish precisely nothing.
You can rant and rave...I'm just an "ALWAY"S like folk....and just having a "temper" tandrum. But the bad thing for the GOP-E is...I've never FELT LIKE THIS BEFORE.
Take a bite of that and taste it. And I'm NOT alone.
You keep promoting liberalism, even when your establishment proves over and over to be a disaster.
The republican gains of the last 18 years have been because of a surge of conservatives, from 1994, to 2012, the conservatives have been winning state races while the establishment keeps losing ground and costing us not only elections, but America.
Like I said, every election cycle there are people that feel this way, and every cycle they make themselves irrelevant to the process. Refusing to participate doesn't help advance your agenda, it just makes you a cry baby.
Our ideology is losing out to a bunch of secular, socialist drivel that's doomed to fail (just as it always has) and it's infuriating. I get it, I'm depressed and disappointed as well. Personally, I think this nation is in for a world of hurt. But you know what, I'm not going to throw in the towel and have a temper tantrum. We live in a 2 party system and stomping off to vote for some dopey vanity 3rd party candidate isn't going to prove or solve anything.
This was my suggestion the day after the election:
This post was written in anger and frustration.
Angry that we continue to follow the Republican Party’s elite ignorance. A party that continues to pull defeat from the jaws of victory characterized by pompous fools who fulfill the sterotype built by the left.
Frustrated that the reality of politics is this: There will be no third party capable of competing with the coalition constructed by the dems. As a result, true conservatives MUST take steps to eradicate the ignorance of the Republican Party while still adhering to the core values of our forefathers (beliefs that I discovered are considered extreme by over half of my countrymen on election night, BTW).
I have no solve for exactly how to accomplish this. Only advice based on a long military career in several foreign lands for how to defeat the dems once this is accomplished.
This thought process is based on the concept of irregular warfare with twists thrown in here and there for good measure.
With that, I provide the following advice for the good of the order.
LEADERSHIP: The old crew has proven either incompetent or outdated. McConnell and Boehner must go. They represent a failed plan to defend and resist without clearly explaining their position. They’ve shown they are content with looking like the bad guys and willing to face public scorn when they don’t realize how important it is to manipulate a clearly left leaning MSM. They represent the failure of the last four years to our own and obstructionists to the opposition.
We’ve got to show a new face to the nation. That is the genesis of rebuilding this movement. Ryan or Cantor in the House, Rubio, Sessions, or Demint in the Senate. Fresh leadership shows a clear change to the narrative that the MSM and the democrats have built against the RNC.
If the old guard go willingly and for the good of the country, so be it.
If not, then those I’ve mentioned must wrestle and negotiate and convince and do what it takes for these men to step down.
I’m not talking about the old guard leaving their seats. McConnell can die in place for all I care. I’m talking about the current leadership – who have proven to be a caving, dismal failure – to step aside and become followers to a new approach to this 21st century political fight.
To stand and fight, We MUST HAVE a standard bearer to show the face of the party to the country and rally ALL fragments of conservatism around.
I see no one on the horizon with as much rock star potential and substance as Rubio. These next four years must put him on the center stage with a unified and consolidated message. It also needs to protect him from the attacks from the left that are guaranteed to come.
Everything the Obamites used to deny, deflect, and defuse will be used against them....including the race card. THAT is what will make Rubio a teflon candidate. If you don’t buy this, I’m open to suggestion. Rubio’s ethnicity in and of itself builds credibility and identity with Hispanics across the nation and opens more of that demographic to the conservative message from jump.
The person is not the issue, the STANDARD BEARER IS.
Change is necessary at the head of the RNC as well. Prebius represents failure and “aw shucks” attitude. A new way to fight requires a true fighter. I don’t see that in him.
I read a headline a few weeks ago that said “100s of Retired Generals Throw Their Support Behind Romney”...It’s time for them to serve again, this time within the RNC.
These men can quickly and efficiently change the organization of a party that seems confused as to what the next step is and what to do now.
Pete Schoomaker, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and long time special operator (commanded a Delta Force Squadron during his career )would be a suggestion. He understands how to translate the concepts I’m talking about into a living, breathing organization prepared to execute this type of operation on a nation-wide scale.
These men represent a change in a party that has been beaten soundly in the last two elections by a charlatan and his traveling circus. A fresh choice in leadership represents change you can TRULY beleive in from every angle. It marks a clear start from inside and outside when we actually started taking this enemy seriously.
GROUND GAME: It is IMPERATIVE to develop and foster an intricate ground game. It requires a MICRO-ANALYSIS of every county, every city, and every early and absentee ballot by demographic to find how how, why, and with what method they voted. The dems have built quite the coalition but it’s a house of cards; it’s a fractured coalition of single issue voters held together by a media-invested hollyweird worshipping demagogue. They can be piecemealed away bit by bit without sacrificing principle.
Give it to the dems on their “community organizing” machine. We don’t need to reinvent that model. We MUST develop our own. One that will INSTILL our principles in a language tailored to the audience. They’ve tailored theirs on the community organizer, we can create ours around the military special operator. This is the winning of hearts and minds in our own third world backyard dem strongholds.
It isn’t as difficult as it sounds. It requires a patient and immediate effort that starts with the post election analysis looking not for what we WANT to find, but for the GROUND TRUTH. GROUND TRUTH is REAL INTELLIGENCE not Rovian number-crunching wishful thinking.
It will require an insurgent effort at the ground level. An infiltration into dem areas that we identify are weak or vulnerable to start cutting in to the blue.
The COIN (insurgeny/counterinsurgency)effort would include the identification of these areas, the infiltration of the areas through churches and charitable organizations AND PARTICULARLY THROUGH EDUCATION.
There ARE like thinkers in these communities. How do we find them? Ask Jesse L. Peterson. Ask JC Watts and Herman Cain. They KNOW how to splinter these vulnerable areas off the blue.
The hispanic issue is RIPE for moving into the red. Catholic, family oriented cultures who believe in being left alone and naturally distrust the government. And they voted Obama? This is the epitome of the single issue voter. the RNC needs to go toe to toe, issue to issue with La Raza, the Marxist mouthpiece in that community, and counter it with a conservative alternative, in that language, at THAT LEVEL.
Think it can’t be done? SOF has been doing it since the end of World War II. It CAN be done.
WE must get deep into the education system to promote the ideals and values of conservatism that should be selling themselves. I’m not talking about traditional public schools and universities. They are ROTTED with liberals. They also aren’t the keys to education in the 21st century.
I’m talking about the new way to educate - the online universities, the trade schools and night schools. Corporate allies need to invest and educate with the ideals of economic and fiscal conservatism.
The RNC needs to lead and develop this effort. A novice like me can see that there is a disconnect between the voting habits of catholic-dominated hispanics and pockets of baptist blacks and their actual stated values. That disconnect can be exploited if it is done slowly, deliberately, and effectively.
INFORMATION WARFARE: We are ATROCIOUS AT THIS. Dems get a simple message out early and often. They poison the well and we are left to change minds rather than get the initial impression right from jump. We constantly play defense and think we are sooooo clever when dems (as they ALWAYS do) do something stupid or illegal and shocked when the media all but ignores it. We must take the offensive in getting up in every Candy Crowley, every George Stepenopolis’ face and call them what they are: democratic hacks posing as the “objective media”.
WE’VE GOT TO STOP SMILING AND PRETENDING THESE IGNORANT DEM TALKING POINTS DON’T MATTER. THEY DO. Not to us but, for the ignorant who just go with the flow and believe the trash talk talking points the dems customize for the Nintendo generation.
We ABSOLUTELY MUST be proactive. We must attack and COUNTERATTACK at EVERY OPPORTUNITY then add each fail of the dems to a trend and theme. These themes must be simple, tailored, and repetitively broadcast to each target demographic.
We must look out beyond the 5 and 10 meter targets. We’ve got to effectively interpret what the dem message is on the horizon and confront it at all levels - from the national MSM level filtering directly down to the target group level. Even I can see what the talking points of the upcoming week are by watching the Sunday talking head programs. Defense is unacceptable. We can’t pretend that the most outrageous comment won’t gain traction then act surprised when weeks later, that theme picks up steam. ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK and don’t give the dems a minute’s relief to reset the media battlefield OR the political discourse.
We need to teach this en mass through RNC training programs down to the local level, national and regional teams of propogandists crafting the message and providing instant support to local leaders to advance that message and counter message. EVERY conservative and republican mouthpiece MUST BE SPEAKING IN UNISON.
Alinsky tactics must be turned against their masters. There is GREAT power in ridicule and scorn. They make it too easy to use. It needs to be culturally tailored and consistent. Dennis Miller needs his own show on FNC AND a late night show on Fox. Let him source and promote culturally diverse conservative comedians that vulnerable areas can relate to and remember. Bold Fresh tours aren’t enough.
This is only part of an overall information operation plan that is constant in a simple party message and what it means to each target group.
WE DON’T DO THAT WELL. WHY NOT?
I find it unbelievable that Obama has hijacked the reputation and imagery of the Party of Lincoln. This party represents the core values that ANY LIVING PERSON will relate to if they are challenged and messaged properly.
COIN operations involve a very in depth understanding of cultural idiosyncrasies and how best to exploit them to our advantage. It’s not a “wool-over-the-eyes” approach or a “free shit” approach like the dems sell. THAT ALWAYS COMES UP SHORT.
It’s a sell based on how it affects each target group and what it means to them. If it’s done right, I am CONFIDENT that the tenets of conservatism sell themselves.
In Civil Military Operations, assistance in areas that seem unrelated builds trust in the agency. Granted, there’s a fine line between assistance and the giving of free shit but, the special operations forces walk that line well. It can be done. Community outreach in areas that we identify, in ways that we haven’t before can build a larger tent without sacrificing our beliefs.
The military has been doing this in third world countries for years. We’ve been more successful in some areas, less successful in others. In the United States third world strongholds of the Democratic Party,I am confident that it can be done.
Here’s the kicker: There are countless retired special operations planners and operators working overseas as contractors RIGHT NOW. It’s too easy; the RNC needs to hire them as contractors over here.
This is, by far, not the only avenue we’ve got to pursue in order to turn the tide. We must confront and use the power of law, media, technology and the corporate world to form a UNITED MOVEMENT.
WE ARE AT WAR. the RNC must look to the military to rediscover and reorganize. The number-crunching beancounters have their place in the organization but, on their best days, they can only identify who will and won’t vote Republican.
This is a “Hearts and Minds” effort.
It requires a new way to think about the political battlefield.
Rangers Lead the Way.
Amazing, we are only weeks past your last disaster as you lost the presidency to Jimmy Carter the II, with your liberalism, and already you are fighting to make sure that the candidate four years from now will be another liberal.
The tea party is the best thing to happen to the GOP in years, leading to historic gains, and then you and Romney create yet another disastrous election and manage to pull out a loss that we all thought was impossible at one time.
Your agenda is a mystery, unless it consists of merely losing elections to the democrats, forever.
Problem is that we have decades of school indoctrination of our people by the Democrat teacher's union.
Also many are getting all that free stuff they are very used to expectation; therefore the ideology is doomed, but we are all going to be forced to ride this disaster down despite our knowledge due to the takers in society.
You’re talking to the wrong people. You need to be talking to those who voted for Obama. The problem is with those who voted for Obama.
And replace them with.........................? You have to be able to win an election.
How do you plan to win an election?
What are you babbling about? Romney was most certainly not my candidate. Our field of options was pretty weak, but even so I supported Perry and Newt and basically anyone but Ron Paul over Willard.
I voted for Romney because he won the nomination. That's the only reason. Wasting my vote on a 3rd party would have been silly.
I am extremely pessimistic as this country has taken a great big lurch to the left. Those Obama voters are not interested in limited government--to them, the bigger the better. It is impossible to expect to win an election by making our party smaller.
So you admit that the GOP is slowly whittling away it's base and becoming irrelevant to politics.
100,000 here, 200,000 there, and soon you are talking lost elections as far as the eye can see.
Good luck with that.
Hang onto your stuffed elephant. In the future, it will sell well on E-bay as a curiosity, like the Whig propoganda does today.
/johnny
Certainly not with the GOP. They've proved that over and over.
/johnny
So you wasted your vote for the GOP liberal that didn't win.
That's pretty silly.
/johnny
Once upon a time, they could free slaves, stand up for what was right, and run conservatives. They did well when they did that.
As I said before, the brand is tainted. It's somewhere between Tylenol and Edsel, quickly sliding toward that third headlight.
/johnny
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