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Republican Party Needs to Master the Message by Thomas Sowell
Real Clear Politics ^ | FEb 20, 2014 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 02/21/2014 8:05:27 AM PST by Innovative

"The Republican establishment has more than a tactical deficiency, however. They seem to have no principle that they offer or follow with any consistency. Their lack of articulation may be just a reflection of that lack of principle. It is hard to get to the point when you have no point to get to.

Ted Cruz filled a void. But the Republican establishment created the void."

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2014elections; boehner; conservatives; cruz; gopagenda; obama; sowell; tedcruz; thomassowell; turncoatsowell
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To: Innovative
Hope you are happy that you are enabling Obama.

Quoth Ronald Reagan: "There you go again."

81 posted on 02/21/2014 11:42:13 AM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: Albion Wilde
Further, I have been speaking about what conservatives must do now that the conservative side is down for the count, while many of you keep bringing up the past. The past is over; since our nation has never, ever been in our current situation before, examples from the past cannot foretell all that must be done now.

If that is the case, why would I listen to a strategy that has failed almost universally, that of voting for the lessor of two evils?

Why would I listen to that suggestion when all it has ever gotten us is to move the party further and further to the left?

Do you really think we (conservatives) are that stupid or gullible to keep falling for this GOP-E trick?
82 posted on 02/21/2014 11:44:29 AM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: Innovative
You're not getting what I'm saying. I'm not talking about electing more Democrats or "abandoning" the Republican Party like so many around here do.

There's only ONE political hope for America: CHANGE the GOP from the inside out, top to bottom and get rid of all those who resist immediate and lasting cuts in government and taxes.

83 posted on 02/21/2014 11:47:03 AM PST by PapaNew
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To: Innovative

Otherwise, you’re just rearranging chairs on the Titanic.


84 posted on 02/21/2014 11:48:45 AM PST by PapaNew
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To: Innovative

Well if we actually had two parties that represented two different political views he might have a point. What we have in fact is two parties wholly owned by crony corporate elites. So reelecting them really will not change things in DC. Cruz, Lee, Paul and a few others are the opposition to our ruling class. Attacking them lessens our chances of restoring the Republic.


85 posted on 02/21/2014 11:58:53 AM PST by jpsb (Believe nothing until it has been officially denied)
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To: Innovative
Let's say Romney had won. Had he won, EVERY logical indication is that he would have instigated his own government-run intrusive micro-managing health care (see RomneyCare), he would have nominated DEMOCRAT activist judges at a two-to-one ratio to Republican judges; he would have totally supported punishing Americans who peacefully, civilly rejected open homosexual "outreach" in their kids' schools and youth groups, or at adoption agencies, or in the military, etc.; he would have been on the side of gun control advocates; he would be against the overturn of Roe v Wade and would have been FOR mandatory inclusion of abortion in his own nationalized health care "solution" of micromanaging personal and employer relationships with doctors and health insurance; AND he would have sided WITH tyrannical environmentalism and their global warming ruse. I DID MY DUE DILIGENCE. This is why I know that these are the things he would be doing right now, under the auspices of "Republican."

If Romney had won, what would matter right now -- what we voted "against" or what we voted FOR?

If he was in office right now, Innovative, would YOU be willing to be responsible for the consequences of your actions, YOU having voted FOR him?

Two things are wholly imaginary: circular firing squads, and purists.

They are illusions, completely pretend. Very REAL and concrete, on the other hand, are angry people like you who accuse others of being purists or part of a circular firing squad.

You base your vote and political strategery on a lot of imaginary, pretend things. I used to be right there next to you, so I understand pretty well your feelings. I once shared them, including your anger.

However, time wised me up: when you depend on imaginary things to achieve an outcome, the outcome forever remains elusive.

You did make a very intelligent statement: that you wished people would start taking responsibility for the consequences of their own actions.

I DID take responsibility for the consequences of my voting approach, said consequence being the Republican party driven so far to the left that we ended up with literally a functional statist Democrat as a Republican presidential candidate. I took responsibility, because I realized it was a consequence of how I had voted for decades.

When are YOU going to practice what you preach?

86 posted on 02/21/2014 12:00:09 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: Innovative
Your moderate Romney was 'unelectable' in the general election.

/johnny

87 posted on 02/21/2014 12:49:15 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: SoConPubbie; xzins
why would I listen to a strategy that has failed almost universally, that of voting for the lessor of two evils?

Because I am not recommending it as a strategy or a classic approach or anything at all except as an example of how one particular and critically important election -- the last presidential one -- could have gone differently if it weren't for those who thought with the best intentions that the enemy was still outside the gates. Indignant conservatives were wrong about that, and wrong to sit out the election as you can now see, if you have the eyes to.

Going forward, you appear to be looking for a simple solution to a highly complex problem. How I wish I could give you one. When the conservative side is on the verge of extinction and persecution, conservatives cannot afford to rule out a "lesser of two evils" choice if it presents itself at the ballot box, when the rubber has already hit the road, the shots have already been called, and it's that or nothing. Retreating at that point can't be called "principled," just as you couldn't if you believe killing is a sin but you have a house full of children and an armed intruder breaks in and starts shooting.

You have a nation to defend. Don't be above the horror of war.

88 posted on 02/21/2014 1:13:41 PM PST by Albion Wilde (The less a man knows, the more certain he is that he knows it all.)
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To: Albion Wilde
A bunch of you liberal GOP types of FR sure are pushing to try to convince conservatives to vote for liberal Republicans.

It's not going to work. If you run liberals, you will lose.

/johnny

89 posted on 02/21/2014 1:24:21 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Albion Wilde; SoConPubbie

We’ve had plenty of these discussions since the last election, but here’s my take on it:

Romney lost because he was a lousy strategist. He thought he could turn to the left, pick up some moderate to liberal voters and still keep the social conservatives.

He failed in both areas. He lost the social conservatives.

The moderate to liberals went for the hard core liberal Barack Obama rather than the on-again/off-again liberal, Mitt Romney.

His loss is entirely on his own failed strategy.


90 posted on 02/21/2014 1:26:18 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: Albion Wilde; SoConPubbie; xzins

Albion, you talk about “if you have the eyes to see.” It’s so incredibly ironic.


91 posted on 02/21/2014 1:50:09 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: Innovative; All

Didn’t and won’t go into what Sowell sezs. Because he won’t offer this.

Once the GOPES (gop elite snobs) decide to take Obama to task when Mr Zero decided to use the “bully pulpit” to portray his black constituency as victims of racism. And admit that move was strictly designed to protect him from any impeachment hearing. But has resulted in murders of other races not just whiteys but hispanics and asians as well. Which he and the entire political opposition believe serve them otherwise they would distance themselves from it .

Or even hint that the political opposition known as the democrat (in name only) doesn’t believe in God let alone the 10 commanmdments.

We will know they’re serious.


92 posted on 02/21/2014 1:53:45 PM PST by mosesdapoet (Serious contribution pause.Please continue onto meaningless venting no one reads.)
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To: Albion Wilde; SoConPubbie; xzins
Going forward, you appear to be looking for a simple solution to a highly complex problem. How I wish I could give you one.

Reagan often said that conservatives have simple solutions to complex problems --not easy solutions, but simple ones. Reagan was right then, and he is right now.

You offer no solution; instead (though you have toned it down) you offer faintly insulting, condescending moralizing. Here is something very, very simple that points to a solution:

There is no voting "against." The only thing that counts is what you vote FOR. The "lesser evil" is a complicated illusion that you are still falling for, while some of us have finally seen through it.

What is less evil, Albion -- killing children via abortion, or killing children as newborns as sacrifices to the gods?

There is no "lesser" evil, just as there was no "lesser" evil in the contest between Obama and Romney. That you cannot see that ... is because you lack the eyes to see it.

93 posted on 02/21/2014 2:00:03 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: Finny; SoConPubbie; xzins

Sorry; you cannot accuse me of what you generalize to, when I was referring to one specific election. It is a sophistry and an abstraction to bring in ritual sacrifice when that was not an issue of the election in question.


94 posted on 02/21/2014 2:04:53 PM PST by Albion Wilde (The less a man knows, the more certain he is that he knows it all.)
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To: Finny
Albion, you talk about “if you have the eyes to see.” It’s so incredibly ironic.

You're whining. I must be over the target.

95 posted on 02/21/2014 2:17:23 PM PST by Albion Wilde (The less a man knows, the more certain he is that he knows it all.)
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To: xzins; Finny; JRandomFreeper; SoConPubbie; Innovative
I agree Romney was a terrible candidate and ran a terrible campaign. I've been accused by others on this thread of proposing no strategy. That is rich; somehow, I'm supposed to answer the collapse of our nation and the socialist coup we are now operating under in a few sentences on a discussion forum before the SHOUTERS on the thread will be content. For what it's worth, I did answer in post 61 what would be needed if, by some miracle, we are to survive the next election, assuming there will be a next election.

But back to Romney's campaign; it's hard to blame him alone when Soros spent "gazillions" several election cycles ago to manipulate elections and enable what amounts to election fraud. And that is only the tip of the iceberg of the long-term planning and in-depth strategies the left is so excellent at, while the so-called right sits in stunned silence wondering why people don't hear their thoughts or admire their good intentions.

I am not saying conservatives should adopt the left's strategies. But I am saying that conservatives have been using horrible strategies, or no strategies, wishful thinking, avoidance and naiveté, and now constitutional conservatism is inches from extinction. That, and given that the constitutionalists are so far gone that the media and the Democrat party has determined who will be the Republican presidential nominee in the past two elections, it's hardly fair to say the fault is Romney's "entirely", regardless of his manifold, lamentable failures.

I cannot even agree with whomever posted above that if a real conservative could run, he or she would get elected. Things have come down to a majority-rule by the corrupt and the low-info's. There is no hope but evangelization and a strategy for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, because the rot and the strategic change the left has already accompished by legalizing outlaws, selectively enforcing laws, ignoring other laws, and building a permanent Democrat majority is so deep our system now cannot recover, and the idealized "past" conservatives are hoping to return to is not only unknown to the majority of voting-age people in this country; it has already been identified as a positive evil, and they believe it. Even the Republicans are now Democrats; and the Democrats are Communists, and the Communists are anarchists. It's lost, people. There is now no hope but to rebuild from scratch for future generations.

96 posted on 02/21/2014 3:01:02 PM PST by Albion Wilde (The less a man knows, the more certain he is that he knows it all.)
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To: Albion Wilde
It's lost, people.

There's always a running car in a closed garage if you've really lost hope.

Don't ever expect to run a liberal republican and win again.

/johnny

97 posted on 02/21/2014 3:04:06 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper

A) I’m not a liberal in any sense of the word.

B) My hope is in Jesus. So no problem there.


98 posted on 02/21/2014 3:09:40 PM PST by Albion Wilde (The less a man knows, the more certain he is that he knows it all.)
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To: Albion Wilde
If you vote for liberal republicans, you are a liberal.

/johnny

99 posted on 02/21/2014 3:12:11 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Sweeping generalizations don’t hit targets.


100 posted on 02/21/2014 3:21:01 PM PST by Albion Wilde (The less a man knows, the more certain he is that he knows it all.)
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