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So What's Next -- Why We Lost & What To Do About It!!!
Vanity ^ | 11-04-08 | cww

Posted on 11/04/2008 7:55:15 PM PST by CWW

I have been a Freeper fo over 10 years, and here are my 2 cents for what it's worth.

--WHY REPUBLICANS LOST –

1. Weak Candidate – C’mon, be serious. If it weren’t for Palin, it would have been a worse bloodbath than it is.

2. Poorly Run Campaign – McCain offered no alternative plan and chose the gentleman’s course by unilaterally disarming on the most important issues, e.g., Rev. Wright, Obama’s radical abortion position, immigration, Cap and Trade/Global Warming, Campaign Finance, etc.

3. Spendthrift Congressional Republicans -- squandered their capital by spending like drunken sailors and by supporting President Bush on liberal spending programs like No-Child Left Behind, Prescription Drugs, Immigration, etc. They also alienated conservatives by compromising on judicial appointments.

4. Unilateral Disarmament -- by voting for McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform, which Bush signed. McCain Was Hoisted On His Own Petard!! 5. Failure of President Bush to Use Bully Pulpit to Sell War and Explain It’s Relevancy to Peace & Stability.

6. Economic Collapse on Republican Party’s Watch -- the signs were there, but the public was kept in the dark. Blame at the 11th hour on Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, et al. was too little, too late.

7. To Much Compromise on Important Issues to Support President Bush – Campaign Finance Reform, Immigration, Prescription Drug Boondoggle, No-Child Left Behind, etc.

8. Infighting Among Conservatives-- Evangelicals split there vote in the primary between Romney and Huckaby. With all of his faults, Romney would have run circles around Obama on economic policy – the very issue that decided the election.

9. Biased Media – Unbelievably bias, and this will not change – EVER.

Some of these factors were not within the party’s control. But many were, e.g., controlling spending, and running an aggressive campaign with a positive theme, etc.

The fight for the control of the Republican Party is over. The moderate Gerald Ford-Country Club Wing has lost. They could not convince Reagan Democrats to cross over despite the groveling and “reaching across the isle”.

HOW TO WIN NEXT TIME:

1. Stand for Something Besides Your Personal Re-Election, Dammit!!

2. Don’t be afraid to take unpopular positions if they are the right positions. People will follow a leader. 3. Create a conservative platform and require candidates to take the pledge to earn party support.

4. Recruit conservative candidates who have lived in the real world and held real jobs. No more party insiders. Recruit more conservative women!!

5. Use every opportunity possible to hold democrats accountable for every vote, every failed policy and every tidbit of bad news.

6. Shun liberal Republicans and liberal candidates.

7. Revitalize the grass roots conservative base by opposing liberal democrat policies at every turn.

8. Adopt a “No More Pork” Pledge. 9. Oppose ALL spending increases except for Defense.

10. Introduce tax cut bills for small businesses over and over and over.

11. Oppose income redistribution to people who don’t pay income taxes. 12. Stand firm on immigration and securing our borders.

13. Oppose policies that weaken the family -- gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, etc.

14. Develop more alternative forms of media to deliver the conservative message - -More Blogs, more Webinars, More College Republican Clubs, More Rubber-Chicken Dinners to Spread the word, etc. 15. Replace the ENTIRE Republican leadership in the House and Senate. They lost; they should be gone. Period.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections; republicans
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To: All

A wise man once told me...

“Its good that America elects a Democrat President every once in a while, so they can remember how bad it is.”


101 posted on 11/04/2008 8:56:29 PM PST by speedracerx (Where have all the true conservative Republicans gone?)
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To: HighlyOpinionated

Thoughts:
1. Sign up for the surviving socialist ping list on Freerepublic.
2. Set up a Freeper job board, so we can find work and projects with like minded folks.
3. Merge some home schooling groups into our own private schools.


102 posted on 11/04/2008 8:57:42 PM PST by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell" - on amazon.com)
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To: Donkey-Konger

9. Biased Media – Unbelievably bias, and this will not change – EVER.

And this election will embolden them even more as they know how successful they were. Next time it will be worse.

We are fu##ed.


103 posted on 11/04/2008 8:58:43 PM PST by speedracerx (Where have all the true conservative Republicans gone?)
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To: CWW

here’s an idea....someone shoud get on their hands and knees and beg Newt Gingrich to take over the party...


104 posted on 11/04/2008 9:00:13 PM PST by God luvs America (When the silent majority speaks the earth trembles!)
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To: 1-Eagle

“The Democrats have been left holding the bag. Its all them now. Whatever happens, they will have to take 100% of the blame.”

BINGO!!!!

If there is a silver lining to all of this, and “for the first time in my adult life, I am really disappointed in my country...”

But on the flip side have full faith and confidence in the fact that the dems don’t like to make “tough decisions,” and now, they can’t pawn it off on anyone else — they now own this completely - lock, stock, and barrel, they have an economic crisis to deal with, they have an energy crisis to deal with, a way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Russia is re-emerging, North Korea, and Iran...”I trust that they are going to totally “F” this up.”


105 posted on 11/04/2008 9:00:56 PM PST by areukiddingme1 (areukiddingme1 is a synonym for a Retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer and tired of liberal BS.)
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To: 1-Eagle

The clearest impression I got from the exit polls was that this election was not a referendum on McCain or on conservatism. It was emotional, and more a referendum on Bush than on anything else. Even in that, I think it was only in very narrow ways:

- fatigue with the Iraq war. Not, repeat not, a referendum on whether it’s worthwhile to fight terrorists, but just general fatigue. Once again, it was an emotional decision rather than a logical one.

- an emotional reaction to the general economic situation — the banking crash, gas prices (yes, I know they’re low now, but you have to shut your logical thinking off a bit to understand this), and just general *fatigue* with doom and gloom.

- In the RINO areas like where I live, a general feeling sorry for people who don’t have health insurance and a wrongheaded thinking that national health care will solve problems like high healthcare costs. I see it as inch-deep logic, that is, not thinking it completely through, but thats the way I see it.

Notice that I did NOT talk about the Left, but only about the RINO’s and the mushy middle. We probably understand the Left the best — they want (1) their Obama Checks, their (2) Black President, (3) the ability to poke their finger in the eye of those “greedy Republicans” (even though in a lot of cases we’re the hand that feeds them, which they will likely learn to their sorrow very shortly), (4) Change(tm), etc. There is no reasoning with the Left. They could begin murdering each other’s mothers in a blood-soaked pagan orgy and somehow they would rationalize it as OUR fault. There is no saving them. That said, tonight was not a victory for the Left — it was what they vowed to do 18 months ago in that Dem meeting — appeal to people’s emotions.

We should starve the beast, but we should do so without allowing the Left to blame us for it. The Left chose to punish the hand that feeds them, and OUR line is not, “punish us, we punish you back”, but rather “punish us, you’re punishing yourselves”. The Left will never understand that, but the mushy middle can.


106 posted on 11/04/2008 9:04:09 PM PST by Windcatcher (Obama is a COMMUNIST and the MSM is his armband-wearing propaganda arm.)
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To: speedracerx

Once the poor, stupid, and lazy discover that they can vote to have the government take money from other people and give it to them, it is over. We are there. What incentive will there be to work hard and succeed when the government will confiscate it and give it to others. Obama’s spread the wealth around made me ill. I was shocked though to hear co-workers say that they were voting for him because he was going to take from the rich and give it to them.


107 posted on 11/04/2008 9:09:09 PM PST by bytheBook (Disappointed in our once great country)
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To: Sgt_Schultze
It’s too late for that. BO and the dems will push to naturalize the current population of illegals. We know McCain also wants to do this so he will assist by reaching out to Barry. The new “Americans” and their 20+ million family members who will follow them into citizenship will relegate Republicans to permanent minority status. Unfortunately for the democrats, they too will be overrun by the newest citizens clamoring for their share of the pie.

There is no more pie right now. There is only imaginary pie. The promises cannot be kept. Republicans will have to get busy, and busy on more than disliking Obama.
108 posted on 11/04/2008 9:09:22 PM PST by Arkinsaw
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To: God luvs America
here’s an idea....someone shoud get on their hands and knees and beg Newt Gingrich to take over the party...

Newt came up with the plan....but he didn't have anyone behind him who REALLY wanted it implemented.
109 posted on 11/04/2008 9:11:15 PM PST by Arkinsaw
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To: Arkinsaw

I feel like a stranger in my own country. I don’t recognize this place anymore.


110 posted on 11/04/2008 9:12:51 PM PST by bytheBook (Disappointed in our once great country)
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To: bytheBook
I feel like a stranger in my own country. I don’t recognize this place anymore.

Right now there are 46,000,000 votes cast for a moderate Republican who almost left the party a couple of years ago. We re-elected a President four years ago who was not at all beloved.

If the Republican Party returns to the vision of Ronald Reagan then they will pick up the few million votes it takes to win.

Republicans are going to have to put aside the CEO's and come back to the people. Our Republican politicians have placed us back in the deep, cold, dark wilderness. We will have to get back ourselves.

Back to Reaganism.
111 posted on 11/04/2008 9:35:00 PM PST by Arkinsaw
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To: CWW
Starve the Beast Ping List. I'm dead serious. We didn't do that in the Clinton years and millions of people have the false impression that liberal policies created prosperity rather than entrepreneurship. If they had been Carter years, we wouldn't be in this situation today.

1. Americans have become lazy and greedy and need to be put on a diet.

2. Americans need a Carter every single generation to teach the new generation of the destructiveness of liberalism and to remind the forgetful of it.

3. Americans need it burned into their psyches that biting the hand that feeds them hurts them, too. Hurt the earners, hurt the job-creators, and they are hurting themselves.

Starve the Beast Ping List. We should have done it to the Clintons. We should not neglect to do so today -- not only for our own survival of confiscatory tax policies, but also for the reasons outlined above.
112 posted on 11/04/2008 9:35:53 PM PST by Windcatcher (Obama is a COMMUNIST and the MSM is his armband-wearing propaganda arm.)
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To: CWW
In the future, if our candidate cannot explain our positions as well as a Sean Hannity or a Rush Limbaugh, FORGET him/her.
113 posted on 11/04/2008 9:42:11 PM PST by Yaelle (Back to the drawing board.)
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To: Chatlee
We did not grid our lions on his behalf.

Remind me again why we did grid our lions?

114 posted on 11/04/2008 9:50:09 PM PST by Yaelle (Back to the drawing board.)
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To: Yaelle

Makes gizelles easier to find ... a9 to b8, c6 to d 7, etc.


115 posted on 11/04/2008 9:51:37 PM PST by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: MHGinTN

ROFL!


116 posted on 11/04/2008 10:24:10 PM PST by Yaelle (Back to the drawing board.)
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To: Yaelle

Because we support Columbia University. (of course)


117 posted on 11/05/2008 6:25:48 AM PST by Chatlee
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To: Arkinsaw
From Post #84
1) The RINO moderates got the candidate they wanted who the media loved. But the love stopped after the primary. Courting the media is USELESS. So stop it...
10) Inspire.

Adding to your excellent list:
11) No more legislators for GOP presidential nominee. Since Ford they have not won.

118 posted on 11/05/2008 7:18:57 AM PST by UpInArms (no failure, no success, only slavery)
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no more grandpa nominees.


119 posted on 11/05/2008 7:20:49 AM PST by isom35
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