Posted on 03/23/2013 10:34:37 AM PDT by Dysart
...First, and most important, is focusing on the economic concerns of working-and middle-class Americans, many of whom now regard the Republican Party as beholden to “millionaires and billionaires” and as wholly out of touch with ordinary Americans. This is a durable impression—witness Bill Clinton’s effective deployment of it more than 20 years ago and its continued resonance during the 2012 campaign when Team Obama portrayed Mitt Romney as a plutocrat who delighted in shutting down factories and moving jobs overseas. Sure enough, in November exit polls, 81 percent of voters said that Barack Obama “cared for people like me”; a mere 18 percent said the same of Romney. They also showed that a majority of Americans (53 percent) said Governor Romney’s policies would generally favor the rich, versus only 34 percent who said he would favor the middle class.
In developing a response to these perceptions, Republicans should not downplay their traditional strengths. Given the feeble path of economic growth, reasonable tax rates and a rational tax code are prerequisites for future job creation at sufficient levels. Given the unsustainable path of health-oriented entitlement spending—which threatens to crowd out every other form of federal spending—some party must rise to responsibility. And given the vast potential economic advantage of newly discovered energy sources—both natural gas and shale oil—Republicans should stand for their responsible exploitation...
America’s five largest banks hold assets equal to 60 percent of our economy, a highly dangerous concentration and source of undue political power. These mega-banks—both “too big to fail” and “too complex to manage”—are the unnatural result of government subsidies, not market forces. By supporting the breakup of the big banks, Republicans would encourage competition and create a decentralized system more likely to survive future economic earthquakes...
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
Agreed.
I meant no disrespect. The article is definitely a worthwhile read and has a lot of thought-inspiring analysis.
It is some of the conclusions and prescriptions that I disagree with.
Thanks for posting this.
FRegards,
LH
Not to be contrary but that is exactly what Obama predicted would happen to the GOP.
What is wrong with this picture?
I have given up on the GOP. I am even disgusted with my “conservative” representative Marsha Blackburn..... who started out on fire, and has now settled into a nice comfortable GOPe type of behavior. At the age of 61 I have never voted for a democrat, but now I have a new party, self created, that I am going to follow.
It is called the Anti-incumbent party. I may not be able to change the GOP, but at the least, perhaps a bunch of us can keep those scum sucking politicians cycling enough that they won’t get firmly established and comfy up in DC..
> The questions is: Is the Republican Party worth saving.
>
> So far my answer is no.
I’m afraid I have to say AMEN to that, too, my brother.
There are people like Ted Cruz, and one or two others, but for the most part, the GOP just ain’t what it was.
In the end, I didn’t leave the GOP.
The GOP left me.
Risky!
The old guard needs to be retired.
Shouldn't they be flogged first?
Yep -- and do you know where that opportunity may well be?
Americans have as much righteous contempt of what they stereotype as "Republican" as they have for liberals in general -- and if you read general comments at general MSM sites, you see that the overwhelming majority of folks hold liberals and liberalism (not necessarily the Dem party) in contempt. Democrats, Republicans -- a lot of Americans are disillusioned with both of them, for wrong and right reasons. A lot of Democrats are pro 2nd amendment and pro freedom to discriminate peacefully against lifestyles and morality, to not have the government force them to cooperate in facilitating something they'd just as soon go somewhere else. A lot of Democrats don't like liberals.
The opportunity is in the party that says, "to hell with both parties." The party that says get a handle on vote fraud. The party that says reclaim this nation. The party that says put the Federal government back in its cage and let good, moral, smart Americans go about the business of producing goods, energy, and food in their pursuit of happiness.
The opportunity is for a fresh unity of Americans sick of both of parties and sick of boa constrictor government that worms its way in through every avenue to dampen initiative and creativity. Worse, that government, on pretence of everything from anti-discrimination to environmental scare tactics is criminalizing Americans more and more who dare to produce food, produce energy, produce goods, produce prosperity. It's all phony "green jobs" and rip-offs at the Smog Check stations. Totally phony.
The GOP has been playing the playbook for so long they can't even conceive how phony it really is, or how simply, fundamentally PRINCIPLED the solution is. No, they'd rather pander to special interest groups, missing the point entirely. *shakes head*
Hapless party.
First determine if there is anything there worth saving.......anything.
The first step is to identify the many problems. Yes, for some time the Left has been winning the big elections and the culture war handily. As planned they are obliterating traditions, values, morality (don't judge anybody or anything!)... and in this way after destroying a society they can then begin to impose their own according to their twisted and destructive ideology. They have cemented their position and advanced their vision through major institutions such as education, news/advertising/entertainment media, unions, big corporate culture. And the Republicans just have not been very smart in repelling them, or at other times appeasing their political opponents to mitigate ridicule and shaming; and, yes, more and more they have been in cahoots with leftist desired outcomes.
I think the Democrats will hand the GOP an opportunity to reform itself and to regain relevance during the coming financial and societal upheaval due in no small part to the revolt in disgust with the Orwellian Obamacare behemoth and unsustainable entitlements more generally. This calamity will be pinned on Democrats-- they cannot escape it. But when the time comes the GOP has to be canny and resolute. Old standard-bearers and CINOs will have to be shunned and replaced in 2014. This will provide the opportunity to repeal some of the overreaching statist legislation, with OCA foremost among them.
There's an article coming out Monday by John Kyl in the WSJ on Obama's big plans unilaterally disarm our nuclear arsenal and degrade our missile defense just as China rises and the ME is exploding and threatens to export terror anew-- next time maybe with the aid of Iran's nuclear capabilities. We can't afford to either surrender or lose any more elections.
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