Has the GOP Learned Anything from Recent Electoral Debacles?
The Republican Party wants me back, they say, believing that I will see them as the natural soul mate I should want to drink tea with. After all, they still say, we are not them. My tolerance for political mediocrity has greatly declined of late, I reply, but you have learned nothing from the electoral disasters of the past few years and, unfortunately, in many ways you are still you. And I remain uninterested.
By now even the most oblivious of the Republican leadership must be aware how unwelcome they are at tea party events. Some may have even recognized the particular animus most of these rallies have toward anyone deemed a “rank and file” GOP official. The reaction from GOP leadership has been all too familiar: silence, confusion, and reluctance to engage. As before, the majority of them seem content to ride what they see as the coming wave, a wave they sadly had little part in creating and which, as a consequence, may well drown many of them. What had been the GOP’s natural base is turning into adamantly independent voters more interested in voting them out than retaining them. The right and center grow ever more fearful and angry while the GOP is reluctant as ever to commit to a path, much less to effectively pursue an alternative vision.
This is the party they want us to come back to? Why? Like children who disappoint hopeful parents one too many times, much of their base has simply given up on them and will never risk being disappointed again. To the inattentive independent voters they appear as a tired, old, and outdated group of reluctant warriors. Hardly inspirational. The GOP may win elections and even prevail for a time, but as before it will not stand without a backbone and committed followers.
So what to do? Trust so thoroughly compromised is impossible to regain and the fix is very painful. The party itself has to decide just how much it wants to get in the game as a political force or if it would prefer to protect the old ways and continue to wander. The disease comes from within and it is there where things must start. Three suggestions:
First, and by far most painful, the entire roster of senior GOP congressional and party officeholders must step out of leadership positions. They don’t need to resign their office — that should be up to the voters in their state or district and there are many good men and women worthy of retention. The senior members, however, must no longer hold the leadership positions in Congress or the reins of internal functions of the party. If the party wants a chance to regain the allegiance of conservative voters they must come to grips with the fact that completely new leadership is absolutely required. The tea party movement exists because of their shortcomings and they are not invited to the table.
It would be a mistake to single out an individual or two to replace when it is the senior party apparatus in total that lacks resolve and leadership. Witness the inability to come to grips with an ineffective and counterproductive party chairman, a purely internal party matter. Why no action? Could it be because he is black and, as usual, we don’t want to appear racist? Very possible. These guys are like the moles in a whack-a-mole game except that you don’t need to whack them when they come up to speak; merely looking at them sternly makes them scurry back down the hole. What they need to understand and accept, however, is that precious few will ever believe that next time they will keep their heads up and take a hit or two when that is required.
The GOP needs a whole new face and personality. Younger, more aggressive, and more willing political combatants are needed to stand and fight unapologetically for a set of principles. There are many new entrants that have the potential to energize the base and attract new voters across all demographic lines. For years we have been teased with the up-and-coming leaders of tomorrow, but they must wait their turn in the nose–to-tail path of party progression. No more. New people need to take over — completely and immediately — because there is no faith in the party leadership and almost none in the rest of the incumbents.
The second step the GOP needs to do to win people like me back is to find, proclaim, and unite behind a clear sense of purpose. The American Heritage Dictionary defines purpose as “the object toward which one strives or for which something exists.” To be a purpose, it must be clear and unbending so that everyone knows it to be what determines one’s actions. It is basic and does not change unless the goal is achieved.
My My My….A well written, thought out, well reasoned and constructively critical analysis of Republican Leadership.
Bravo, this strategy is what wins elections.
Keep dreaming. John McCain should be listed with the likes of Graham and Snowe. But will he ever get voted out of office? No! Although he richly deserves it as punishment for his past sins against conservatism. DC Republicans are not capable of what you want. They get elected and then – the desire to fight just drains out of them and they resort to “reaching across the aisle” and “just getting along”.
They’ll take the piecemeal, incrementalist approach, all the time.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I remain a registered Libertarian — despite that party’s descent into madness 20-odd years ago — for many of these reasons.
Oh, yes — and also because I’ll send a particular candidate $20 and then get $30 of acknowledgements, fake surveys, beg letters, scare stories, and party-building invites in the mail. Nobody seems to think that if I send $20 for a specific candidate, I might just want that particular candidate to win that particular contest — and, clearly, I wouldn’t contribute to any of the idiots who are responsible for the expensive deluge of paper so that they can continue their wasteful and pointless exercise.
Coming from the original libertarian (small-L) viewpoint, I’m hoping that the government’s role in people’s lives would be reduced to that which is so clearly necessary as being unworthy of debate — and the role of the parties thereby diminished. I don’t want to merely replace the current Democratic graft and patronage with Republican graft and patronage. I don’t want to get into a “consumer-friendly”/”business-friendly” debate over the departments of Energy, Education, Agriculture, and Labor — I’d prefer to have their essentially Federal parts subsumed into the Department of Commerce, spin off any parts that would make good trade associations or charities, and eliminate the rest.
Republicans need to remember that politicians are just as respected as cesspool workers — the most competent go to DC, unclog things so that things work just well enough, and come out smelling a little off; the least competent go in and get it all over themselves. Just because the Democrats splashed Obamacare all over doesn’t mean Republicans smell like roses.
I resent your denigration of cesspool workers.
Mr. Pope: Every thing you say maybe true but in the short term I will take almost anyone (save Snowe& Collins)over any democrat. We are at a critical point in our history. I don’t want to become the Argentina of the 21st century.
Pedro,
Any R over any dim will simply get you more of the same. We had R’s in charge for 6 years and what did they do? Well, if I remember rightly, they spent money and lets see, yeah I remember, they spent money and passed some really bogus legislation, all aided by bush.
If we don’t get these loosers out, the dims will retake it next time around because we have the same ole, same ole leadership, the pointless kind, the ones with no backbone. Would surely hate to share a fox hole with any of them.
I hope that the Republican Party learned something from the Didi Scarzafava debacle in New York State. To Tea Party members, principle is everything. Better to lose an election than to support a Republican who really is nothing more than a Democrat. Then, you say, that will simply allow more Democrats to be elected? Possibly, but maybe that’s what this country needs. Maybe this country needs to get its belly full of the far left, the liberals, and both the Democratic AND Republican progressives before real change can take place in Washington? You get what you vote for, and if the American public is dumb enough to vote back into office Obama and his henchmen, then the American public gets what they deserve. Does everybody suffer because of that? Sure they do and I don’t like it one bit. But unless the American people “get it,” unless they really see that true Conservatism is the answer, then nothing will change, especially in Washington.
There are decent Republicans out there who are true conservatives and are willing to take up the challenge of reforming government. People like Bobby Jindal, Jim DeMint, Marco Rubio, and Allen West. If voters do not elect people like Rubio or West, it is their loss and then they will have absolutely NO RIGHT to bitch and moan when the liberals in Washington continue to take even more rights away from Americans and continue destroying this economy of ours. The time to act is now. But does the American voter have the courage for some real change?
But does the American voter have the courage for some real change?
If taking a bath or shower, then putting the same undies you were wearing back on means yes; then the answer is no.
Libertyship46
“There are decent Republicans out there who are true conservatives and are willing to take up the challenge of reforming government. People like Bobby Jindal, Jim DeMint, Marco Rubio, and Allen West. If voters do not elect people like Rubio or West…”
At best, the names you name are all from inside the circle, or apprentices hoping to be welcomed into the circle, where the “ruling class” lives. That accomplishment to them would be another rung on the ladder to absolute power, where they hope to find and drink the nectar that all professional politicians seek all their miserable lives, for the most part, where they become ego inflated zombies.
Is it not possible that there is one adult American from outside the class of professional politicians, the legal community or the halls of Harvard or Yale that could be identified and supported by the “country class”? Someone who has never been in the House, Senate or in a Governor’s mansion? Someone of whom we could all be proud to say, what you see is what you get, without enduring the preening and false promises to which we have become so accustomed with so many actors auditioning for parts in this political charade?
Someone who could take the case to the people over a two year period for rolling back oppressive government and restoring our constitution to its rightful place as the bedrock of a decent nation where the rule of law and supremecy of the will of the people matter? We need a true leader with a rallying cry he or she would carry all accross the land without ceasing from
now until the presidential election in 2012.
It is not single individuals such as you name who are going to defeat the criminal element that has taken over the federal government. Your prescription calls for American Taxpayers taking more of the same medicine that has failed to cure the 50 year malignancy from which this nation suffers and that is about to finally kill it, stone cold dead.
It’s not that specific individuals need to be elected, it’s that only specific individuals who truly believe in and are dedicated to freedmon for the people under the terms written in the constitution need to elected.
And those who are elected deserve to have a leader who posesses the ability to carry the freedom message diorectly to the people as did Ronald Reagan those many years ago.
For starters, the new breed should be comitted to rolling back federal spending to the level it stood at the end of the Clinton era. The nation debt should be paid down and from that point forward, pledge to never vote to spend a single penny more that the federal government takes in in any given year. Let the states become states in a Republic once again rather than lackeys with a hand out reaching toward the federal government coffers.
The collusion, corruption and incestual relationships between politicians, lobbyists, the main stream media, much of big business and organized charities, and many of the also corrupt movers and shakers at the United Nations together with their subsidiary agencies such as the World Bank, all a part of the “ruling class” must be broken.
No more Clintons, Bushs or anyone selected because of gender or skin color should ever be President of the United States again. 2012 will tell the tale with regard to the future course of this nation. We are one wrong election result, or the death, disibility or resignation of a single Supreme Court Justice away from total disaster.
I suggest that Dr. Victor Davis Hanson should be drafted to run for the Presidency and supported by the combined forces of those who truly wish to see American redeemed and put back into the place in the world where she rightly deserves to be and can once again be seen as a “shining city on a hill.”
Where legal immigrants are welcome, illegal ones are deported, Americans have real jobs that provide income sufficient to support a traditional family, and nation building is left to the suckers in the U.N., with only very limited financial support from the taxpayers of America.
The template that got us here needs to be destroyed and a newly designed one put in its place. Then a brighter future for Americans to follow us might be seen emerging over the horizon.
Dr. Victor Davis Hanson for President in 2012. “He will command no ship of fools.” Nor will not don the accoutraments of the “ruling class”. He understands who and what real Americans are and he would have the ability to inspire them to do their very best for their nation, self, and all those who are to follow.
It’s time for those in the echo chamber to grow up, get real and find a Presidential candidate to rally around who is willing and able to accomplish the work of taking America back from the Marxist who stole it, right before our very eyes.
Allen West is “inside the circle?” I must have missed the ceremony that put him there. You might want to shoot him an email–I think he missed it, too.
libery you are so right. and the four you named are the ones who should be leading the party now,
We Reaganites look around and say, “Huh?”
1. We see illegals just a-strolling into our border towns, even using our health care w/o paying, and we say, “Huh?”
2. We wait 5 hrs in an emergency room and we see people w/o any health insurance being called ahead of us, even tho we have sacrificed in order to purchase our expensive health insurance and we say, “Huh?”
3. We see political candidates making $80k/yr somehow have an additional $3 million after 2 terms in congress and we say, “Huh?”
4. We see people with credit card debt and no savings purchase a house with no money down and we say, “Huh?”
5. We see gov’t workers (with education equal or below ours) make more money, get home HOURS before we do, and never work weekends and we say, “Huh?”
There are HUNDREDS more examples. And the GOP wonders why we want to clean house?????
Every time I get one of those “come back home” RNC mailers I’m going to print a copy of this article and send it back to them. If they read and pay attention to it there is far more value in this article than any check.
Also this article should be required reading for the industrial mid-western state voters that are now busy dumping the idealogical driven Tea Party movement in favor of electing centrists that are pragmatically more realistic.
There is a sucker born every minute, but now they’re coming from the heartland of America itself..? Have you people in the mid-west taken a good look at Byrd’s West Virginia in the last 30, 40 or 50 years?
Adult gentlemen’s clubs and yard sales are not exactly an enviable way of supporting farms and families!
You are right on target regarding the problem: Our party leadership has neither the stones to say and do what must be said and done. Nor do they want to for fear of reprisal from the MSM and the Dems (Rep. Wiener moment).
The RINOs of Snowe, Hatch, Collins, Grahamnesty, McLame, et al could all be Dems. Our leadership has been ineffective at getting out our brand and message for 50 years and Pres. Reagan did it all himself anyway. So much are they afraid of MSM criticism and recrimination that they would rather cower in a corner, get elected, and live the good life and to hell with what is good for the nation.
The emasculation of our side is so complete that when a pol on our side does take a principled stand Sen. Bunning, we throw him overboard. I am sick of our leadership. Our leadership I am sure holds down the Pence’s of our party. Look at how they are treating Kasich in Ohio… If someone could tell me otherwise, I think our party leadership is in bed with the Dems.
Agreed. The GOP leadership needs to understand that standing for “everything” means they stand for “nothing.” And if they don’t stand for the right things they need to stand aside!
I’m tired of all the “we’re not quiet as bad as the Democrats” crap, it doesn’t work in business and it no longer works here. The old meme about Perot voters putting Clinton in office is also crap, if the GOP gave us better candidates they would never, ever have to worry about independent runs or third parties.
Political parties are suppliers of a product, that product is their slate of candidates, it is not the consumers’ fault if their product is lacking.
Libetyship 46 hit the nail on the head. If we are going to be flushed down the toilet of socialism let it be a Democrat with his hand on the lever. To paraphrase Lincoln, ” I prefer my despotism pure. . . without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”
You opened up with both barrels then went on too long and closed with a wimper.
Well written and good thinking otherwise.
“Leaders” like Howdy Doodie McConnel and suntan Beaner and Bozo McCain need to be replaced with clones of Joe the Plumber.
Meanwhile, O has all the union money, the Chinese money, the “stimulus” money, etc., etc., and ballbat thugs galore to make you vote their way early and often.
Forget it. It’s over.
you are right about obummer having all of the crooked money and the crooked thuggs with ball bats but you dont have to vote for anyone just because they buy a bunch of advertising filled with lies. hell I listen to their lies and say to mysekf uhuh and I remember how damned sorry they have been and then I vote for the person I think best suited for the job. not what some slick advertising executive tells me I should do,so far as those thugs with ball bats they are by far not the only ones with ball bats and worse, and we really should get behind people like Sarah Palin Adam West. Bobby Jindal and Jim Demint. and actively support these people and encourage them,
SPOT ON! The GOP needs to clear its’ so-called leadership out of the way. I send them no money and won’t until people like Paul Ryan and the few others like him rise to the top. McConnell and Boehner need to go. Now.
Never has there been a better and easier time to differentiate our values versus those of the left and the Progressives. The problem with the GOP leadership outlining these values is their fervent desire to be members of the ruling class like the Democrats they are so envious of…
The question isn’t whether the GOP learned anything, but whether or not those who don’t want to give away their Constitution and freedom have learned anything. How many people have really learned that no matter how bad the Republican Congress was under Bush, allowing the democrats to be in the majority again was a disaster? How many are really going to admit that the democrat party is nothing other than the socialist party no matter what they say at election time instead of just going along to get along the next time there’s a democrat messiah with a good line of chit? How many are willing to go through what it would take to eliminate the socialist academic, non-profit, and other embedded illegal strongholds in order eliminate the threat of losing our Constitution? How many will demand investigations of the web of deceit the democrats have woven since the 2008 elections and let the chips fall where they may rather than trying to be “civil” and “not sink to their level”?
A heck of a lot of people who raise hell about RINOs and the GOP are really pissed off because those RINOs are a perfect mirror image of themselves. People who won’t commit to long term self-governance end up governed by those who do commit long term, and the leftists in this country have been consistently working for decades while Republicans and Independents spent those same decades arguing over how pure someone has to be in order to be better than a rabid socialist democrat. Democrats have always put keeping their party in power ahead of whether their favorite democrat was running or whether that democrat was superior to the Republican alternative. Non-democrats, though, can’t seem to decide whether going to hell on a slow train to buy some time in hopes of averting disaster is better than taking the express train to hell. As it stands now, we’re on the express to hell and if the people of this country haven’t learned that their only hope is to elect Republicans, and replace Republicans with Republicans so as to turn the Republican Party into the Constitutionalist Party then whether or not the GOP has learned anything doesn’t really matter.
Unfortunately, it may already be too late to recover from allowing the democrat party to regain the majority again. Biden may not have been thinking about the coming elections when he said things weren’t all that bad for democrats, he may have been thinking about the vote tallies they already know they can substitute for whatever really happens in November.
Same observation here, Rash. Watching the proud and haughty seniors on Cspan pat themselves on the back for their destructive accomplishments should convince all that they intend to use more of the same dirty tricks in November. Election theft is as old as Lyndon.
I don’t know if the fat lady will sing in November but she is definitely is doing warm up La la la la la la laaaaaahs at tea parties. Whatever the case may be Patrick Henry’s words still stand for many second amendment supporters. Looks gloomy. They just affirmed Kagan’s nomination.
We have had 3 Bush terms since Reagan and you blame the GOP? Elitists and moderates have pushed conservatives out of the GOP. The fault is with the conservatives for doing nothing and producing no one. Conservatives have done nothing as the entitlement pimps like Karl Rove took over the party. Did conservatives stop the new ag subsidies or drug subsidies? No.
It is our fault we have not been listened to. It is our fault.
I am skeptical of sweeping, impractical solutions, which would include sweeping ALL Republican leaders in Congress out of their leadership roles.
For example, I have seen no logical argument to push out Rep. Mike Pence, Republican Conference Chairman.
Frustration should not make us rash and stupid. We can and should flush out the guilty only.
I agree, and the sweeping, impractical condemnations I’m seeing in this essay don’t enlighten much either. I will say this, though: as a group, Republicans suck at communication. Surely there has never been an affinity group that lost so many of its natural adherents to its opponents. Black Americans and Latino immigrants are Exhibits A and B. Jewish Americans a possible C.
In what passes for the real world, to win, either side needs to EXPAND its tent. Rove got the Repubs a fair number of centrists and the Dem-despisers, but it inevitably produced a centrist government, (as the lefties are now grumbling about Obama.) A “pure” party is simply not going to win; that’s the catch-22 here. The trick is to sound principled to your base and safe to the center, and when the wind is blowing your way, you have a decent shot.
This is the fly in the ointment. At this time, virtually no one believes that a third party could command a winning tally for an important office. Thus, to vote against the Democrat is to vote for the Republican. This implicitly endorses the party as it stands and reinforces the behavior of its leadership and incumbents.
GOP kingmakers and incumbents are aware of this, just as we are — and they count it as the reason they can ignore us and continue on with business-as-usual. It cannot be fixed unless one of two things happens:
1. Republican incumbents are voted out in equal percentages to Democrat incumbents;
2. Infusions of “base activism” at candidate-selection time results in GOP candidates who are trustworthy conservatives.
Actually, a third development would also fix the GOP’s wagon, and the Democrats’ as well: the institution of strong “None Of The Above Is Acceptable” rules for all federal elective offices. But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that.
So Whatcha going to do Mr. Pope? Sit on your hands in November because the GOP ain’t perfect? Great strategy Einstein. lets give the Democrats another 2 years of undiluted power to complete Americas destruction. You say the young leaders of tomorrow are being told to wait in line? Funny, I do not see Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Scott Brown, Bobby Jindal, Nickie Haley, Sarah Palin, Peter Roskam, Rand Paul or Sharon Angle waiting for permission from Boehner or McConnell to speak up.
Your just a whiney Libertarian. A Right Wing RINO.
For the moment, I am happy with the GOP being the party of ‘Not Them’ (it worked for the Democrats in 2006-Oh how soon we forget). Did it ever occur to you that the Republican leadership is keeping a low profile because of the old axiom: NEVER INTERFERE WHEN YOUR ENEMY IS IN THE PROCESS OF DESTROYING ITSELF? You can only properly rebuild from a position of strength. So for Republicans let November 2nd 2010 be, to quote Winston Churchill, “…..not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but perhaps the end of the beginning”. I will take longer than one election cycle to send the Democratic-Socialist party to the dustbin of history.
Mitch McConnell has got to go. Can you imagine this pile of playdough reaping the benefits of all our hard fought efforts only to b*tch slap us when we give him power.
Boehner not as bad but he MUST go too. They think that we are going to go away like in 1994 and say “yeah we won”. Well I got news for you creeps, even if we win the House and Senate, we still have along, long way to go when it comes to cleaning house.
McConnell, Graham, Snowe, Brown, Collins and many others either need to go in the primaries or be marginalized. Shame on Arizona. For all the good things that you are doing, how dare you put John McCain on the Republican ticket.
Again, we are not going away. We’ll get you.
No more Newts (I don’t care what this sellout is selling), Romney’s, Huckabee’s, Pawlenty’s, Daniels’s, McConnell’s, Boehner’s or God forbid another Bush elitist pontificating on how we should think. No, I don’t want a woman either.
I’d rather go to war.
Steve-how about Chris Christie or McDonnell of Virginia? Christie, especially, is showing some real guts. hes standing up to the unions and saying ENOUGH!
It is all good and well to vent but we all know what we have to do. Fight the RINOs in the primaries. Fight the outright Marxists (Democrats) in the general elections. Then, next election cycle, do it all over again. And so on. It took a hundred years to ruin this country and it will take at least as long to truly put it right. We’ll all be dead. But we have to do our part now.
This column is so depressing. I was prepared to hate it, because the title suggested a predictable rehashing of pointless crap. But it stated the thing straight. Still depressing, but I didn’t hate it.
I’m glad the RIPs (republican important people) have figured out the Tea Party isn’t going to let them take over. The RIPs to sit down, shut up and hang on. They’re not in charge any more.
Yes, the republican party is the only vehicle in which to drive to war right now, so that’s the one we’ll fire up. But as soon as the war is over, they can be parked for all I care until we format what to do next.
We’ll kick out all the democrats to save the country, and then we’ll kick out all the republicans who’ve held more than 1 term. And then they can decide if they want to start being Americans FIRST and ONLY.
The Republican party could do themselves a big favor by first grabbing a set.
I get so tired of the mealy-mouthed approach to debate, I find myself screaming at the TV “learn to fight back you bunch of collective cowards.”
#19:
Emma, THANKS! And I am absolutely with you…
Indeed. This is the stuff that wins people over, and by extension, elections. A clearly articulated message, based on sound and ethical principles will resonate better than the promise of gifts and goodies.
I blame the nation’s current troubles in DC on the GOP leadership losing its moral compass over the last decade. Old-guard Republicans in Congress should step down from leadership, when and if they regain control. There is nothing this world needs less of than another self-serving, arrogant, power-hungry politician. We need more people of high morality and the courage of conviction.
Damn the McCains and McConnells, we need more Rubios and Palins.
GOP leadership, are you listening? This article makes so much sense, it will likely be ignored. Republicans have for far too long let the so-called ‘progressives’ control the debate, and generally he who controls the debate wins.
The GOP needs a whole new face and personality. Younger, more aggressive, and more willing political combatants are needed to stand and fight unapologetically for a set of principles.
Again, this is so spot on, it will be ignored. Republicans like McConnell and Boehner, while probably very intelligent, don’t appeal much to younger, Ipod-listening, Iphone-using, wired-up and ready voters. McConnell, Boehner & Gingrich are about as exciting as a new pair of socks. And while I personally like Steele, his PR gaffes are approaching that of Biden; the problem is that Biden gets a pass in the media (“Oh, that’s just Joe”); Steele doesn’t.
GOP leadership: pay attention or the November celebration won’t be as glorious as you might think now.
I’m starting to hear even more how Republicans are evil a**holes and Democrats are spineless pussies. I’m not sure this thinking has reached consensus level yet, but….both parties are behaving *exactly* as though the swing vote in November is going to be composed mostly of morons easily swayed by talking points, random bits of video, and over the top ads that throw common sense, fairness, and basic honesty out the window.
How does that old saying go again….”Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle merite.”
Good thinking.
Take a look at the letter published August 1, 2010 in Big Government from Sergeant John F. Baker, retired, MEDAL OF HONOUR winner. His response to Democratic Representative Phil Hare of Illinois who is recorded in saying “we in the Congress do not care about the Constitution”. Compare his comment with those of this extraordinary / ordinary Sergeant Baker. Ask yourself which of these types of character you want representing you in the governance of your nation and your life. Whether you believe it important that the “representatives of the People” should adhere to the principles in that magnificent document, one of the marvels of the modern age, the Constitution of the USA?
That Constitution dismissed and sneered at by the “elites” of 20th and early 21st century America. EVEN the present Chief Executive of the USA, now presiding over ” his 57 States” in the USA (shades of John Kerry spouse of the heiress of the Heinz empire,)putative constitutional scholar from one of the most “elite” universities in the nation, deemed that document as “defective” and “flawed” consistent with Rep. Hare’s comment. AND where was the public OUTRAGE from ANY of the “Republican” leaders or members of that Party in and out of Congress?
“Republican” is loosely defined at best. We need to stop the intra-party bickering and realize that there can be a lot of us that generally agree on broad concepts, but don’t necessarily agree in lock-step on everything.
It’s like the people who continually use the term RINO. Who’s to say that who you define as a RINO, wouldn’t turn around and brand you as a RINO- with a lot of support from others within the party who agree with them? Really, such existential questions are irrelevant if we’re concerned with getting a majority, and fulfilling our common broadly agreed upon goals.
One thing is for certain… the polls indicate that the current Zeitgeist is concerned primarily with Debt, Economic Growth, Job Growth, Immigration and Border Security, and Elimination of Obamacare.
The Republican party is best served by focusing their agenda on these issues. If we continue to waste our time trying to push the traditional Republican conservative social agenda, we will be wasting our opportunities to exploit the current zeitgeist, and we will ruin all opportunities to push those traditional conservative agenda issues in the future.
Now is the time for UNION within the party, not name-calling, and certainly not hollow accusations of ideological purity…
Mr. Pope: You wrote it just as Ive been thinking it. You are absolutely correct sir. I had the misfortune of being at the District GOP meeting of Dec 2008-the local party operatives (Professional Politicians) were trying to figure out how to be like the Dems in every way-they are still lost-they showed that they had no actual soul-no real committment to anything -it was do what you need to do to get elected-and keep their jobs-and just like John McCain now is trying to be a Conservative (this should last until Nov 4 or so) they all have to at least step down-or the Party will cease to exist as a functioning entity. One thing to say about Obama and his gang of Socialists/Communists is that they appear to be committed to their cause. Im still looking for anyone with a real committment to the Constitution to step forward in the Republican ranks. You see the real problem is-IF THEY WONT FACE THE OBAMA CONSTITUTIONAL INELIGIBILITY ISSUE-WHICH THEY ALL COVERED UP-THEY SHOULD ALL SUBMIT THEIR RESIGNATIONS-THERE IS NO COMING BACK FROM THIS-THEIR BREACH OF THEIR OATH OF OFFICE CANNOT BE GLOSSED OVER.
He who seeks perfection in large, farflung, loose organization, doomed to madness.
“There is a saying: When the trumpeter blows an uncertain note the troops are slow to follow. The GOP lacks both notes and trumpeters and therefore no one is following.”
This was a very good statement of the general malaise affecting the Republican Party — lack of principles, lack of purpose, lack of identity, lack of convictions.
“Leading with purpose means a whole new approach. Instead of saying “vote for us because we oppose ObamaCare!” what should be said is: “We are the party dedicated to individual freedom and ObamaCare is an assault on that freedom. Vote for us because we will do all in our power to defeat it.” Not a small difference. Instead, when the issue of repealing ObamaCare comes up, the GOP’s message is, as usual, muddled and uncertain.”
Much more could be said. This could be said more strongly: If they don’t want to continue being the party of “me, too, but too late”, and led down the crimson path into the slaughterhouse of the Left, the Republican Party needs to reject the philosophies of pragmatism and altruism — a thousand points of neo-conservatism bleeding us to death with pinpricks of selfless sacrifice.
The Republicans need to focus on one thing and one thing only if they want to survive as a useful opposition to the Statists on the Left (and the Statists on the Right): they must be the defenders of individual rights and the principle that the only proper function of government is the defense of individual rights. That is the definition of “limited” government. That must be the rallying cry. Jettison every other agenda that dilutes it or corrupts that message.
Republican candidates should focus on various forms of only one answer to every question put to them: “I am the candidate defending the rights of the individual. I am the candidate who will act to limit government to this one function.”
Forget the “social” issues. Forget the non-essential issues like “immigration” or “gay marriage”. Focus only on promoting policies that protect **individual rights** (see http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand_man_rights for what this really means, as opposed to what some would like you to think it means) — and oppose all policies that threaten them. All else will resolve itself.
Mr Pope, your goals seem noble,but for now the GOP needs to be taken over by the Tea party. Just like George Soros and his “shadow party” did with the far left fringe becoming the mainstream demonrat party. The Tea party right now cannot overcome both the far left and the RINO left. The Tea Party is making progress, but these things take time. Weve already thrown out at least 3 RINO senators. We stopped Dede Scuzy, even if Hoffman did lose. I suspect he will win when its one on one. We won the “kennedy seat” in Taxachusetts, of all places, won in New Jersey with a powerful conservative message(and now governing as a conservative) from Chris Christie. Even Soros took 2-3 election cycles to infiltrate the demonrats, with the slimestink media in his corner. It will take 2010 and likely 2012 to brin gthe balance back, providing Dumbama doesnt try something stupid like martial law. Then all bets are off and we own the guns.
The GOP will win you back the same way it always does – by scaring the ever loving bejeesus out of you because minorities want to take your job, blacks want to take your money via welfare, Muslims want to blow you up, and Communists are lurking around every corner. If you actually expect them to adopt some kind of policy change to win your vote back, you better find a comfortable seat, a nice book and a good snack, because buddy, you’re gonna be waiting a loooong time. That is, unless you are among that sacred 1% of very very wealthy Americans. In that case, congratulations – the GOP will do absolutely anything you say. Just keep sending them checks, lavishing them with gifts, throwing them fundraisers and giving them cushy private sector jobs upon retirement from office. They’re like putty in your well-heeled hands.
James, you poor misguided Troll. The parasites (both Black AND WHITE, Illegal and LEGAL) ARE quite content with leaching off the productive class and crowding out the truly needy and helpless. Radical Muslims ARE trying to kill us (does Maj. Hassan, the Christmas Day and Times Square bombers ring a bell?) And we ARE under attack by Neo-Marxists (heck, we just elected one president recently) who are using class envy to create a dictatorship of the proletariat so as to control every aspect of our life. As for the Republican party sucking up to the top 1% of the income earners and doing their bidding, brother you have to stop reading newspapers from the 1960′s. George Soros, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg, Jeffery Katzenberg, David Geffen Tim Geitner, John Kerry-Heinz, Jon Corzine etc, etc, etc etc etc are all leftists or fellow travelers. It is time to stop the idiotic meme that Republicans are still the party of the rich. Please go back to lollipop land and leave this conversation to the adults
Good analysis of the problems facing the Republican Party …a Party of timid, tired talkers who have forgotten why they were elected. I have little to no hope for a positive change as more voter know the names of the cast of “Jersey Shore’ than know that our country is slowly but surely being dismantled by judicial activism, political correctness, career politicians and an uneducated electorate.
The Republicans under the Bushes have betrayed the party rank and file for too long and don’t deserve our support. It’s time that a Constitutional Party be formed. Third parties don’t work? How about one that promoted candidates in the Republican primary to knock out the party hacks where they can’t get runoff elections. Promoted runoff elections in all 50 states so they can get elected and basically take over from the new Whigs (Republican) party.
If you want some kick a– leadership, steal the governor from NJ and make him president, he does not take prisoners
I really like the US and Americans and what the USA used to stand for. I have relatives down there. I’m embarrassed at how the USA has been taken over by crazy people so excuse these somewhat intrusive comments.
In his American Spectator essay, Professor Codevilla estimates that “.. some two thirds of Americans – a few Democrat voters, most Republican voters, and all independents – lack a vehicle in electoral politics.” I guess Mr Pope has plenty of company.
Like a lot of Americans, I’m not really interested in the health and vigour of juvenile lefty organizations. I am interested in adult, small c conservative outfits that keep the juveniles corralled. A third party in US national elections is just a self indulgent day-dream because big trouble has walked through the door and farted in the kitchen. It’s better that people first vote for the sad-sack GOP and then proceed to eat the thing up. If you don’t eat your chicken, how can you have any meat? Devour the chicken GOP and turn it into steak.
Do not get side-tracked into goofy social or ideological extremism. Make the GOP a party of balanced adults who know how to fly solo, are liberal in the original sense (ie not illiberal) and are working together. Follow the advice of that old Codevilla guy. First “..capture the Congress, the presidency and most statehouses.” Then use legislation to return to self governance, to reintroduce into American life ways and habits that have been cast aside.
It will take time and take place during a miserable period for the country, but it must be done or it’s tits-up for the USA.
What “normal” — i.e., non-political — people don’t understand is that both parties constitute huge institutions that have their own mainly institutional goals. In other words, they’re interested in what corporations and government are also interested in — self-perpetuation, aggrandizement, security, etc. What neither party is particularly interested in is what’s good for the country. They’re interested in what’s good for them — for the politicians who represent them, the party activists who act as foot soldiers, the special interests who underwrite the political enterprise, the “spin doctors” who manipulate the media, the lawyers and officials who game election laws, etc.
And they exist not only to help themselves but to hurt their enemies. Want a lesson in vindictiveness? Talk to almost any political operative. These nasty people have long memories and are perfectly willing to do vicious things that most of us wouldn’t dream of in order to advance personal and party interests. That’s why most of us aren’t involved in politics; our minds don’t work that way. And our failure to engage is what allows the scum to rise to the top. Who wants to deal with political animals? No normal person. That’s why we’re watching our country break down right in front of our eyes — we’ve allowed them to take over for our own perfectly understandable reasons, but the result is an unfolding disaster.
What can we do about any of this? The Republican Party needs to be replaced with the American Constitutional Party, or something along those lines, and the Democrats need to be opposed with a party philosophy centered on helping the nation succeed — helping our progeny and future generations prosper and stay free under the aegis of the Constitution — rather than helping itself. I’m sure most of us would rather have Mitch McConnell in charge of the Senate than Harry Reid, or Boehner rather than the Red Queen Pelosi in the House. But while those changes would represent huge turns for the better, they wouldn’t provide what we, as conservative independents, really seek: A politics that doesn’t play out for itself but for the good of the nation. It’s no accident that George Washington dreaded the inception of “factions” (parties) that was already well advanced by the time he left office.
Whether or not it’s the “tea party,” we need to form a party or movement that takes us back to the foundational American ideas, as set forth in the Declaration and the Constitution, and that follows Washington’s example by receding from the scene once the job is done. Would a new self-interested party then crop up to take over? Inevitably; people who want power over the rest of us are legion. But at least we would have moved the battle lines much further back from the abyss we’re facing now.
#36 Constitutionalist wrote: “And they exist not only to help themselves but to hurt their enemies. Want a lesson in vindictiveness? Talk to almost any political operative. These nasty people have long memories and are perfectly willing to do vicious things that most of us wouldn’t dream of in order to advance personal and party interests. That’s why most of us aren’t involved in politics; our minds don’t work that way.”
Ansolutely true, but don’t forget that the Constitution itself was hammered out by just such people. Yes, we need some template to hold up to our contemplated actions and the Constitution works for that purpose, but it itself is the product of Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Burr, Hamilton, Washington etc. whose names are (mostly) in our Pantheon of heroes…now, but were known to be scum-sucking villains by their rivals (ie. each other.)
You’re right, Dwight, but with one big exception: while some of the founders may well have cordially hated or mistrusted each other, they weren’t beavering away in Philadelphia specifically to further the institutional interests of parties. But that’s what they mainly do in Washington now. It’s the institutional interest of the Republican Party to keep getting elected; hence the repeated sellouts by Maine’s Collins and Snowe. They, and the Maine Republican Party, are afraid that if they don’t play footsies with the Democrats in mostly blue New England, they’ll lose viability. Another example: the Republican Party in New York, which has almost succeeded in wiping itself out by becoming a clone of the Democrats in a pathetic attempt to avoid annihilation through “protective coloration.” We need a party (or a movement acting through a party) that stands for something other than self-preservation, if that’s possible.
We look back at the Founders through this rosy glow, but things were probably much crazier then. The incredible finagling that it took to bring New Englanders and Virginians together: the idea of a National Bank, Jefferson’s incredible genius and congenital duplicity. I know, let’s trade a national bank for having the capitol in Virginia, and throw in the 3/5ths rule for good measure.
I suppose that we (like any generation) are permitted to think that our times are the most challenging of all, but frankly, I don’t think that whether we have a GWB an Obama, a McCain, or a Reagan makes THAT much of a difference in our lives. We can and do dramatically posture otherwise, because life is always frustrating, and society is never as we would like it to be, but I think that we blunder our way through our cycles to the right, then our cycles to the left..and life goes on. And we don’t even have to worry about yellow fever killing a quarter of the population of Philadelphia. Thank the Lord for our bountiful blessings, eh?
I agree with Robb. The left has an ideology, a metaphysics of post-modernism; an epistemology, pragmatism; a morality, sacrifice (altruism); and a political philosophy, collectivism. What do the republicans have? They share the epistemology of pragmatism and the ethics of sacrifice. This makes them scared to death of defending capitalism since it is not based on altruism or pragmatism. It causes them to try and defend capitalism only with practical arguments surrendering the moral arguments to the left. To defend capitalism properly Republicans need the metaphysics of an absolute reality, the epistemology of reason, the ethics of rational self-interest and the political philosophy of laissez-faire capitalism. Notice that politics comes last. Philosophy has to change before politics does.
This does not mean that we shouldn’t focus on politics at all now. In today’s context, it is important that we vote for as many Repubs as we can, not because we’re crazy about Republicans–I’m surely not–but to deny the Dems the majority power they now have.
I also agree with Robb that Republican candidates must champion individual rights, not human rights or minority rights but individual rights, and must keep their statements confined to a single idea: “I am the only candidate standing for individual rights. I am the only candidate for limiting the government to the protection of those rights.”
I drove passed a building the other day which had a sign reading “Spine Center”. I thought there ought to be another sign below it reading “Republican Party leadership welcome.” But you know, upon further thinking, I recalled the modern day saying “Build it and they will come” and realized that if the Republican Party were to build a spine around individual rights, the followers would come-and in large numbers.
Say or write what you want, Mr. Pope. The truth is the following: vote with the Republicans, or the liberal Democrats will win, period.
There is and will be no third choice.
The Tea Party is not and will not be a “party” in the structural or institutional sense that Republicans are, i.e., as a tool with which to win elections, and then influence the behavior of the government and make policy for us all.
The question is not what it will take to lure you back into the Republican Party. The question is, whose side are you going to pick? You must choose. You have a dog in this fight, even if you aren’t in love with either critter.
If you and others like you don’t pick sides, the side you least agree will most likely win, i.e, the same people who are sticking it to us all at this very moment. Look at the consequences of the 2006 and 2008 elections during which many of the independents, libertarians, independents, Tea party-antecedents, etc. like you sat out. Now we have ObamaCare, a debt our grandchildren will be paying off when they’re old, a newly resurgent Islamist horde, two more extreme liberal Supreme Court justices with lifetime appointments, and Lord knows what else the lefties can do to us before we finally force their cold, cruel fingers off the controls of America’s government.
We need to model ourselves just like most of our Founding Fathers (i.e., the REAL tea partiers). They accepted the many fundamental differences in politics, culture, religion, and tactics across the colonies in order to join hands. The diversity amongst the thirteen colonies had to be overcome in order to throw off the yolk of King George III and the rapacious British Parliament. They agreed to set aside their differences in the interests of defeating the real bad guys, and we’ve been dealing with the differences amongst us ever since, to varying degrees of satisfaction … even if those differences amongst us today concern very different subjects than those that consumed the patriots of the late 18th century.
If you want to call yourself a Tea Partier, then act like the real tea partiers did , and get behind the one institution, the one hope that you have of ever sending Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid to the back bench. To paraphrase the great Mr. Ben Franklin, “we can hang together, or we can hang separately.”
The ONLY reason there are truly two parties is numbers in seats and fear, oh, yeah, and money! For the people, by the people? People are tired and want change, not to be told how its going to be done! Remember The Constitution? Most politicians don’t or they use it for their own advancement not the advancement of our nation! There can as many parties as there are spaces, or names, on the ballot!
WOW, I don’t consider myself a Republican, but….. I think someone would get more votes and stronger support if they stood up and actually meant what they said and worked toward it!