Posted on 11/04/2020 7:15:18 AM PST by Kaslin
As I write this, millions of Americans are still voting. There is no way to predict what the outcome will be election eve, or if Americans will know the outcome of the election days or even weeks from now. It did not have to be this way. The GOP should have won in a blowout, and that they are almost certain not to is a clear sign the Grand Old Party is in desperate need of a Grand Old Rebuild.
The lack of leadership and coordination by the Republican Party’s leadership on Capitol Hill and in “red” States across the country has placed the burden of party messaging squarely on Trump’s shoulders; it is both a benefit and a burden he has borne.
Trump’s strength as President, and indeed what has made him so effective in his first term, is getting things done. Trump is a businessman and political outsider, not a philosopher or erudite pundit; so, expecting that he, and he alone, should be responsible for the incredibly important task of articulating clear and consistent messaging to voters was at best shortsighted. It also explains why the GOP turned what should have been a blowout victory against a weak and extremist candidate into a down-to-the-wire nail-biter.
GOP leaders did a far better job heading into 2020 with messaging about Democrats than about Republicans. Whether voters agreed with Democrats’ radicalism or not, there was no question as to where they stood on the environment, healthcare, gun control, illegal immigration, criminal justice, and more. These positions were repeatedly reinforced not just from the Biden campaign, but with symbolic legislation passed in the House over the last biennium. Democrats knew the bills had no chance in the Senate, but each failed attempt, like their Green New Deal, became a rallying cry for voters and donors alike about the need to retake control in November. No such concerted or articulated effort was taken by Republicans in either the House or Senate (with the important exception of supporting the need for conservative federal judicial nominees submitted by Trump).
Regardless of the election’s outcome, the GOP must come to grips with these deep deficiencies, if it expects to remain a viable national party in a post-Trump world, whether that comes in a few months or a few years. The philosophical underpinning that once clearly defined the Republican Party – individual and economic freedom – still is an easy sell to the American public if they undertake the effort. Over the next four years, Republicans must do the following:
Restore Fiscal Discipline: Rather than offsetting the soaring costs of the President’s key initiatives (like the border wall) with spending cuts elsewhere, congressional Republicans now do just as Democrats have always done -- “spend now, pay later.” On a fiscal record, Republicans are now virtually indistinguishable from Democrats.
Reaffirm Gun Rights: Republicans have all but forgotten the true essence of the Second Amendment as a natural right. As a result, they have left it vulnerable to being chipped away, even from within their own party. They must learn again how to properly defend the Second Amendment and do so with more gusto than their limp-wristed approach of late.
Reduce Government Size & Power: Remember when eliminating needless federal departments like the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency were once mainstays of the GOP? Now, Republicans are just as much inclined to increase the size and power of government as Democrats, just for different reasons and different agencies. Trump’s leadership on deregulation – a true mainstay of his first term – is rarely touted by GOP leaders as a leading issue.
Talk Traditional Values: Now more than ever in this soulless environment where social media has replaced true human relationships and where the value of life is marginalized, Republicans must speak to our innate human instinct for family and social bonds. They must remind us of the value of the nuclear family, faith, and human decency with policies and personal conduct that exemplifies these concepts.
If Republicans truly focus on these key areas consistently and uniformly, 2024 may turn into the landslide victory this year should have been. History tells us, however, that is a big “if.
At least in terms of presidential elections we are done. It is going to be hard to ever get that enthusiasm again, when you know your vote won’t matter. No matter how bad the economy is trashed in 2024, no matter how unsafe your city is, no matter how corrupt the government is, Texas will be blue and there will be no paths available at all.
Stupid. Old school BS.
Nothing is over til it’s over. This may help:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.
If we voted for Trump, we did our part. We all now this was an election between Trump and MAGA and “Not Trump and a return to 2008”. Change is always harder, more painful, and takes longer than we’d prefer.
We heard very little about protecting the Second Amendment in the last 6 weeks and absolutely nothing about it during the debates. We should have made Beto the face of gun confiscation and PDJT should have inserted it during the debates. If this had been done maybe AZ and MI wouldn't be in play right now.
Thanks for letting me know.
Going to work now before one embarrasses oneself again...
Anyway it is all rather moot. Partisan politics is all of a sudden passe.
There will be only a few red states in ten years...
No I agree to an extent. But the only thing that can start the process is either a world wide great depression or a major war. People are going to have to feel a lot of ‘pain’ in order to change. I think we are all lucky to have lived in America when it was great (especially pre 90s). As they say “you can’t take that away from me”.
Someone ought to tell Bob Barr that the Republican Party is dead. I'll give you two simple points to consider:
1. The ObamaCare debacle pretty much sealed the deal for a lot of us. After promising for years to repeal that abomination, and repeatedly passing bills to repeal it when they knew these bills would be vetoed by Obama, the GOP found itself in a position to get the job done in 2017. It never happened -- which was clear and compelling evidence that their years-long opposition was a fraud.
2. If that's not enough to convince you, just look at the list of prominent Republicans who endorsed Joe Biden this year. These include the former head of the Republican National Committee, for heaven's sake. Nobody with an IQ over 40 should ever trust this bunch of duplicitous misfits again.
I suspect a whole lot of folks are going to be just like me, and detach ourselves from U.S. politics completely.
Michigan could* fall to Biden because of fraud in Detroit. What good messaging could overcome that, Congressman?
*Not saying it will; Trump’s lawyers may be able to get some of the hinky ballots thrown out.
That ought to do two things: (1) attract a lot of losers from other states, and (2) thin the herd out considerably.
I thought that Washington and/or Oregon could be pickups for Trump because of cities full of potential Biden voters being put under siege, but the results prove one thing:
YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!
GOP needs to die.
Losing strategy. The other side controls the education system, Internet, etc. Do you think the Communists would have lost if Voice of Europe was silent? If there were no partners for freedom covertly supplying the heroes with encrypted radios?
Support candidates like Trump. Trump’s children will no doubt be running next.
“It is a sure sign that the corruption in American government has reached critical mass. How sad, that freedom has died in America not by an invasion, but by treason.”
It is the corruption of the people. The tentacles of the Federal government have intruded economically into the lives of most individuals. Seniors depend on Social Security and Medicare. The youth depend on government student loans and desire loan forgiveness and will vote for politicians who say they will give it. One of the legacies of the 1960’s is multiple generations of people who are dependent on the welfare system (subsidized housing, SNAP food benefits, free cell phones, free medical care - Medicaid) which is given to immigrants pouring into the country. Businesses lobby government for tax breaks and incentives (corporate welfare) and over the past 15 years Wall Street investment firms have been completely backstopped by the Federal Reserve and Treasury). Public employees number in the tens of millions and they consistently vote as a block for more benefits.
We have reached the tipping point where over 50% of the electorate receives financial benefits from the government and they vote in block for the one party (Democrats) that represent their interests. Going forward, we will see big government increasingly take from the producer class to feed the increasing desires of the dependent class. If the producers revolt, they will be crushed. History shows the producers will leave (as our forefathers left Europe) or will simply stop producing. As output decreases, the pie will shrink and become too small to provide the promised benefits. Those controlling the government will then become totalitarians and crush the dependents as well. We’ve seen this story play out through history - Rome, Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Castro’s Cuba, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, and more recently Venezuela.
Demographics is destiny. Whether Trump pulls it out this time or not, the future is clear. The national popular vote is already Democrat majority, only the Electoral College provides resistance to the dependency vote in national elections but that wall will be overwhelmed in this cycle or the next. Democrats are fleeing the northeast for southern states. They will vote for benefits and completely swing Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina by 2024 or 2026. Californians have already shifted Oregon, Colorado and Washington into leftist welfare states. Arizona and Nevada are falling. Idaho, Texas and Montana are now experiencing the mass immigration of Californians escaping the mess they created. Illegal immigrants will receive amnesty during the next Democrat administration, and will join the Democrat bloc vote.
I live outside a mid-sized North Carolina city. Over the past 30 years I’ve seen its middle class manufacturing jobs outsourced to China and replaced primarily by lower paid service jobs. At the same time I’ve seen the city use tax incentives to attract industry and “jobs”. There is never an accounting to see if the jobs were “created” but over 20 years I’ve seen those new companies lay off employees and even move out of the area chasing tax abatement in other communities. Meanwhile the city government has been taken over by Democrats who continue to grow the size of the government bureaucracy and number of social programs. This cycle is occurring throughout the once conservative southeast. Once a population becomes conditioned to government largess, the people will not vote against their “beneficiaries”. Recently we had a situation where voters rejected a referendum for a “temporary” sales tax increase to fund a new courthouse (not needed). The county commissioners promptly increased the property tax rate to fund the court house. The next off cycle election they put the sales tax increase back on the ballot, used the social justice warriors to turn out the dependency vote, and were successful in achieving their goal. Rinse and repeat - the tipping point has been reached and will continue. Yes the county went for Biden this year but Trump squeaked through in my precinct. New housing developments in this section of the county will be filled with millennial and generation Z youth so by 2022 I anticipate my precinct will vote for the Democrat who will almost certainly replace retiring Republican Senator Burr.
I don’t see this changing. Once people are sucking on the government teat they don’t voluntarily leave.
hard to argue with that picture
The voters who find the Second Amendment critically important don't trust the politicians who promise to protect it.
It's over.
Even if Trump pulls this out, the damage is done.
BTW - I actually saw when Trump went ahead for a couple of minutes in the electoral count last night.
The Ministry of Truth (al-Reuters division) took care of that little problem immediately...
I believe you meant “benefactors” in Paragraph 4, rather than “beneficiaries”, but other than that, I can’t argue. It takes actual WORK to wean yourself from dependency, and I guess that most dependent people aren’t up to that task.
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