Rebuild the party by defining a strong national platform — remind people of why being a Republican is different from “Democrat Lite”.
Focus on some key issues, and then tap the “rising stars” within the party to be advocates for those issues. For example, Governor Palin can lead the effort on promoting a sound, comprehensive energy policy.
Explain these policies in terms that connect with “everyday” folk — going back to the energy example, talk about how it will fend off future crises like we just went through (and may go through again if the ‘rats continue to stall on drilling) and redirect the money spent on foreign oil back to the U.S., creating jobs and increasing the tax base which will mean lower tax rates.
Roll out a national advertising campaign, discussing these issues and why the Republican point of view is the right point of view. Build up the Republican “brand”.
At the same time, some in-ranks purging needs to take place. Republicans are going to be held to higher ethical standards than Democrats anyway, so there’s no need to give them any additional ammunition. Create a code of conduct and demand that national Republicans follow it; failure to do so will mean withdrawal of all support, up to and including funding primary opponents.
This is all good stuff. The GOP needs to bang it out and decide what they are.
I’m convinced that this will lead us back to strong general conservative principles.
Some of the GOP Country Club set will want to take the easy way out and we shall know their names lol.
This process is part of losing and it will allow us to see who the conservatives are that will run in 2012.
2010 is first though and let’s see who campaigns for what should be a great midterm snapback for the Republicans and let’s see who puts a great organization together that has all 3 legs of conservatism: economic,social, national security.