Why the Republicans Could Still Lose in November
As such, the seemingly constant effort by the official GOP leadership to drive the party toward the center doesn’t really work to bring these voters on board. This is due to the simple fact that this supposed centrism isn’t usually going to be a shared framework of understanding. I firmly believe that what “moderates” respond to more than anything else is competency and leadership. If you display these traits, they will vote for you. If you are wishy-washy, won’t take a stand for anything, and give the appearance of weakness, they will abandon you.
This is why the GOP has done so poorly in recent years, despite the efforts to move toward the center and to be “conciliatory” and “bipartisan.” Conversely, Ronald Reagan won the middle in 1980 and 1984, and the Gingrich-led GOP won it in 1994 (as evidenced by their lopsided victories), by demonstrating forthrightness and leadership while remaining quite conservative. You knew where they stood, and you knew what they stood for. They weren’t leading a divided party with seemingly more mavericks and loose cannons than people who were on task.
Speaking of a lack of coherency, this leads me to my second point, which is that the GOP is entering into this campaign season with little to nothing in the way of a consistent, articulate set of beliefs and plans. The base of the party and its conservative elected officials want the GOP to present a strong, internally consistent message of smaller government, greater liberty, and support for traditional values. The RINOs who infest too many positions of influence in the party are dead set on confusing and stifling that message.
Combined with this is the fact that too many Republicans have adopted the “tea party” approach to electoral politics. The tea parties are great, and I firmly believe that the conservative silent majority within the GOP needs to work with the tea partiers toward the common goal of conservative victory. However, the tea parties are limited in the scope of their message by the fact that they are, first and foremost, reactive in nature. They exist because people are angry about what has already been done. The tea parties can easily tell us what they are against, but when it comes to telling us what they are for, they are hard-pressed to move beyond bland generalities. Because they are not a political party and are not running candidates for office, they can get away with this. The Republican Party, however, cannot.
The GOP needs to do more than merely oppose Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. The other day, Obama criticized Republicans for being the “just-say-no crowd.” While his reasoning and purpose for doing so were ignorant, his simple statement, in and of itself, was not so far off the beam. In 1994, Republican candidates for office were largely united around the conservative manifesto and platform represented in the Contract for America. That contract clearly articulated what they, and the party they represented, stood for. It was a positive statement outlining what Republicans believed in and what they were planning on doing once they got into office. The voters liked it and voted for those who supported it.
This time around, we have nothing like that to provide either political or ideological unity. Indeed, aside from grousing about Democratic policies that are already in the works, the party seems incapable of telling voters clearly and boldly what it stands for. Conservative Republicans need to get together; unite around a common program of positive steps that they would take to reform, shrink, and tame our government; and present this message to the voters in an unambiguous and forthright way.
This brings me to my third and final point: The Republicans are doing an absolutely horrible job of getting their message out and counteracting the continuous propaganda against them that is put out by the mainstream media. This is an artifact of the squish instinct discussed above. Unlike the estimable governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, most Republicans, even conservative ones, are loathe to be painted by the MSM as “confrontational.” They don’t want to be cast as “mean-spirited.” But despite their best efforts at keeping themselves from being depicted this way, they still end up being defined by the media, because the media’s voices are the only ones that are heard.
Look at it this way: These guys are politicians. Politicians normally love television cameras. So why aren’t they tripping over themselves to get in front of a few and tell the American people what they really stand for, instead of allowing the caricature to continue?
The problem with conservatives shying away from the cameras is two-fold. Not only do they not get their message out, but the RINOs end up being the “voice of the Republican Party.” When people see a Republican on television, that politician is quite often criticizing his or her own party, apologizing for the racism and ignorance of the party, or promising to reach across the aisle to help the Democrats with the next piece of liberty-stealing legislation.
When that goes on long enough, people start to get the idea that the Republicans are just about like the Democrats and not a worthwhile alternative to the current crew controlling Washington. This dispirits the conservative base. It drives off independents who are looking for real change and the restoration of responsible, limited government. It makes all Republicans appear to be compromisers who support big government. It allows the media to paint the few vocal conservatives as extremists and wackos who are out of the mainstream even within their own party.
So what can be done about these problems with the Republican Party? The effort to take the party back for the conservative grassroots currently underway is a good start. Replacing the current crop of insiders and hacks with a leadership cadre who is on the same page as the conservative base is a must. But again, it takes more than just seizing back the reins of power. Conservatives need to communicate our values and policies to a generation who has forgotten Reagan and the Contract for America. We need to recruit candidates who will stand firmly for our conservative values. Conservative Republican candidates for office need to be on the same page and know that they have the support of a dedicated, conservative grassroots and party apparatus behind them.
Further, conservative elected officials need to be willing to get confrontational, to turn leading questions back onto the media shills who ask them, and to challenge the prevailing assumptions on camera every opportunity they can get. Rather than shying away from controversy, conservatives need to court it. We need to force the American people to start thinking about the issues, by forcing the news media to report on them.
This is an outline of what needs to be done, but it will only get done when we conservatives get serious about making it happen. As long as we refuse to hold the present Republican “leadership” accountable, it will continue with business as usual. If conservatives continue to sink into apathy and despair, not being involved in the political process at all, or splintering ourselves into a plethora of third parties because of our emotional reaction to the Republican Party’s unworthiness, then we will continue to see the GOP drift, and the Democrats will continue to win and continue to foist their agenda onto us. We will win if we get active, connect with our candidates, and take back our party. It’s not too late for this to happen in 2010, but if we dilly-dally, it soon will be.
There is only one word that should be our slogan until 2012: “Greece is bankrupt.” (Okay three words, but considering the attention span of the average voter, you should promise to keep it as short as possible.) This should be our rallying cry. The Greeks and large portions of Europe have socialized themselves into a low-to-now growth economic death spiral that they may never fully recover from. (I’ve made the same joke before, but please, insert any video of a Greek warrior shouting “This was Sparta” before crawling to Brussels for “le Tarp” bailout money.)
It is the message we need to hammer home in 2010. In 2012, bring in the “Titanic in search of an iceberg” foreign policy, but for now, it’s all about the Greeks.
In that same vein, some newsreel footage of “Socialism on the March” type rallies from the early part of the 20th century in Europe through to more recent times will hit home the fact that none of the problems afflicting Greece and Europe more broadly happened overnight. It was years and decades of incremental stupidity (and trading short-term wealth redistribution for long-term wealth creation) that brought them to their final collapse.
One of the ultimate ironies of politics is that the Left likes to fancy itself a bunch of long-term thinkers when nothing could be further from the truth.
You are certainly right. It represents a collective postponement of a bill for European “tax a lot, spend even more” policies that is now starting to come due. No one explained to the European electorate that their vaunted social state was a one shot canon. It was and is not sustainable, but it was much easier to bribe one’s way into office by promising more spending, early retirements, professional unemployment, and even paid holidays for those on welfare. Unfortunately, this entitlement mentality has been so driven into the European worldview that it will be extremely difficult to divorce themselves from Eutopia and marry her homelier but more stable sister reality.
This should be all we talk about until November.
We’ll be just fine and dandy, as long as the GOP/its candidates
get it through their thick skulls to kneecap
all Democrat efforts to portray themselves as
* “anti-Washington”,
* “anti-Obama/Pelosi/Reid”,
* “reformers”,
* “limited government sorts”
and call each and every one of them out for the
* Socialists
* Fellow Travellers
* Useful Idiots
they are.
Repeating something like
” Trust a Democrat who talks about “limiting government in your life” as much as one who talks about “hope and change”. “
would work well.
**************
(Oh, one other thing: DUMP STEELE NOW.)
**************
I believe even the squishes are begining to realize that the gig is up if we continue on this path. The GOP has to gain control of The House,if not,let the first chapter of the Second American Revolution begin!
Thing is, and i find myself repeating myself—even if GOP wins ALL the seats up for election in NOV, they can’t stop the Leftist menace and its agenda. Once more, the reasons are no more complex than first-grade arithmetic:
(1) Ain’t enough seats to give GOP a VETO-PROOF majority in congress.
So they can’t roll back the damage Obama/Congress has unleashed in past 18 months.
(2) If GOP does get the weaker majority—the most they can expect in NOV—so that they can defeat further damaging legislation, Obama will do things by executive order and/or by rules promulgated by existing agencies under the executive branch. He has alread shown what he can accomplish there in at least three cases. (a) EPA CO2 ruling and consequences. (b) FCC sidestepping appeals court ruling to implement “net neutrality” (that’s a euphemism for “web control by FCC” with no aid of any legislation. Not to mention that congress has already given Obama the direct power to take over the internet ‘in case of emergency’. (c) FTC (federal trade commission) already has power to take over internet (and many things more) under a relatively unknown provision of the “Finance Reform” bill which is just an inch from becoming a law.
Add to that the fact that there are some 1300 federal agencies (although small number of those are under legislative and judicial branch), and that Obama NEVER gives up on his agenda and accomplishes it by hook or by crook, against the will of majority population, and you can imagine what damage he can do. Even without a congressional majority of his party.
The most important point is—what election?? The way things are shaping up in the world and in the U.S., and dems deliberately ignoring it, even flaunting their crimes, we must ask ourselves—do these people look like someone who is least bit worried about NOV?
And if not, why not? With sweeping anti-obama and anti-Leftist primaries, and other election last nov, there is absolutely no sign from the criminals that they fear retribution from the electorate—why not?
The way things are shaping up in the world, the taxpaying citizens of the US
will have graphic examples on their TeeVees, in glorious living hexacolor,
(heavy on the blood red), from Europe, of exactly what their _near_ future
is if they do not force their CongressCritters to carry out reform, fiscal
and otherwise, starting now. This is why Paul Krugman is reassuring us that
the US is not Greece; We are supposed to accept his specious excuses as each
progressively larger European domino falls, until it is our turn and too late
to avoid our fall.
Obama can’t fund stuff without the consent of Congress. If he usurps such powers you describe by executive fiat, the Republicans shut down the government by refusing to pass ANY appropriations bills. The military will be funded by continuing resolution. They will grant the Treasury permission to pay for the military at 2010 levels and to pay interest on the debt. Everything else will be shut down unless and until Obama backs down. After that, Articles of Impeachment on the charge of Abuse of Power. If the GOP can’t or won’t stop this advance, then we make final preparations for war.
The Republcan leadership stinks. No kidding! Anybody who’s been following the absolute tyrannical goings on by the Obama administration can see the oppostion leaders are nothing but a bunch of cowards.
Getting new blood is what this movement is all about that includes bold new leadership that respects the rule of law and the Constitution.
All our candidates have to do is run on the repeal of Obamacare, stopping cap and trade, ousting the illegals, border control and the rule of law and they will win their individual races.
We’ll deal with Mitch McConnell, Michael Steele and the gang later.
Some good points here. Generally speaking, Republicans don’t waste an opportunity to lose, even when things are turning their direction as they are now, but that could change dramatically between now & November. Lack of a central, effective, unifying GOP leader is a big problem, but there are others. Instead of saying blacks can’t make it in the GOP, and talking about how the GOP hasn’t done a very good job of giving people, especially blacks, a reason to vote for them, Steele should be saying that there is a great deal of potential in the GOP for a black candidate or voter to make a positive difference, not only for themselves, but for the country. He seems focused on what the GOP is doing and has done badly, rather than on the positive potential and upside. He also needs to realize that speaking candidly about internal problems (which btw every political party has) to the media, who will do him absolutely zero favors, is usually a mistake. The media will make the minor problems the major story. There is also some splintering, which Steele should be working to resolve, partly by offering a unified message on which hard-core Rs, moderate Rs, tea partiers and independents can agree. Currently, that is not happening, but it had better, and in a big way, before November, if taking back Congress is a goal for him and the party. The rank and file Republicans will take care of the RINOs.
It appears that the same will hold true for this year as other off years. That is good news for Republicans as they will gain some seats for being “the out of power party”. However, they will have to run on what they are against as they have not supported anything and have not been able to accomplish anything. The problems only begin if they win, because they will have to support something. Most of the Republicans that have been successful after being elected are the ones that buck the Republican trend and support financial and health reforms so at least the new ones elected this year will have role models to look up to. Scott Brown and the Northeastern Republicans will of course solidify their control and position their wing as the “real change” within the ranks for the big one in a couple of years. Should be interesting.
One of these days, the liberals will come up with a new set of lies. Today apparently, will not be that day.
The Republicans had a health care plan. In fact they had several. The Democrats refused to allow a vote on them, even in committee.
The same is true for most of the other major issues facing the country over the last year and a half. The Republicans had a plan to create jobs. Never brought up for a vote. They wouldn’t even permit the Republicans to offer ammendments for the Democrats plan.
It all stems from the same common mistake among politicians. They believe that what is said in the media also reflects the opinion of voters. The reality is that what is said in the media only reflects extreme left wing voters. The fact that the field of journalism only attracts people with left wing views is completely lost on politicians. Understanding something this “complicated” requires a level of abstraction that the rock star personality of politicians simply don’t allow for. Politicians are people oriented, outward directed charmers like salespeople. They need their talking points wrapped up and ready for use. They are like children with ADD. They need constant prodding from outside influences like the Tea Party movement to stay on course. We sometimes gets fooled into believing that politicians have a deeper understanding of issues. Well they don’t. Like actors they have learned to appear this way. And if they don’t hear constant loud screaming from groups like the Tea Party movement, they will get their clues from the media instead.
I have been telling Republicans for months now that if they don’t produce another Contract With America they are not going to retake congress.
On the other hand, the 1994 contract wasn’t released until 6 weeks before election day.
I still believe the GOP has to actually say what they’d do if they were in power, but I guess thay still have time to figure it out.
Contract with America? Sorry, but we were sold a bill of goods with that one. Tell me one way in which my government got smaller as a result of the CwA? The problems we faced can’t be fixed by tinkering around the edges, which is what most politicians do in order to be seen as “doing something”.
The problems we face are structural and systemic. No amount of business as usual is going to fix them. That’s why professional edge tinkerers like Bob Bennett were tossed out on their ass.
Every item in the Contract was fullfilled. Is it Gingrich’s fault that many items were killed by fillibuster in the Senate or by veto?
With all due respect, the Contract With America was introduced, a very lame effort was put forth to implement it, and when nothing got done, the Republicans went on their merry way to become the RINOs that they are today. That’s why we have Obama, that’s why we’re forced to spending time purging the Congress of both RINOs and Liberals.
Some people are trying to mystify that contract.
The contract said that the Republicans in the House would force a vote on a number of issues. Every one of those issues was voted on. Most of them passed. Of those that passed, most died in the Senate, which was never a signatory to the contract.
Of those that passed the Senate, some were vetoed.
The issues that the House could control on it’s own, such as House rules, were passed.
There is a very clear, very positive message resonating throughout the nation. It is up to the GOP to pull their collective head out and take it to heart.
There is NO lack of “leadership” we the people are the leaders, we have a set of jobs to fill, the job descriptions are very clearly defined and contrary to socialist, revisionary history, not open to “interpretation” those job descriptions can be found in our employment manual. . . aka the Constitution of the United States of America.
As long as talking heads and pundits keep installing “leaders” we will continue in the downward spiral. A self perpetuating cycle of apathy and ignorance has allowed a “ruling elite” political cast to distance themselves so far from the people, the Constitution, and reality to the point of being truly dangerous.
How about a cup of T.E.A.?
“However, we should never underestimate the power of the Republican Party leadership to ruin a good thing.”
Oh, how true it is! The first thing that needs to be cleaned out is the rotten GOP leadership. If they blow this wonderful opportunity they deserve to be shoved into the dustbin of history.
The Republicans have never had the fire in their belly that the Democrats do. This is all due to leadership Republicans needing to be approved of by the mass media. See “No Instinct for the Jugular” at http://www.marstonchronicles.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=478&Itemid=1323 for a fuller explanation.
The Republicans are motivated by gain, tending to greed,
the Democrats are motivated by ideology, tending to fanaticism;
This has given the Democrats an advantage, as long as both parties
overspending could be tolerated by the People; The Party(s) are over,
the bill is due, and the The Republicans have a _slight_ advantage
of enlightened self interest versus blind commitment to Progressivism.
For the most part yes, no fire in the belly and too much country club. Maybe that is changing with some of the new GOPer’s coming up.
Republicans could lose in November?
This just in from Obamas home district where he received 72 percent of the vote for President.
I’m thinking that after two years of Obama,,
Republicans might even defeat the Prime Minster of England.
Djou only got 40% of the vote. The other 60% was split between two Democrats.
Five words: Obama is greecing the skids.
B-b-b-but, we have “leaders” like Howdy Doodie McConnel! Pretty boy Beaner! Bozo McCain!
It’s time the GOP grew a pair by replacing the whole bunch with clones of Joe the Plumber.
Meanwhile, O has all the union money, the Chinese money, the “stimulus” money, etc., etc., and thugs galore to make you vote their way early and often.
The Nelson Rockefeller Country Club Republican namby-pambies? Get serious for once!
The Republicans aren’t slated to win; the Democrats are slated to lose. Therein lies a huge difference.
Upcoming Republican gains (or should I say Democrat losses) in 2010 are a testament to the Democrats’ policies angering Americans rather than any growing sympathy toward the GOP. The GOP does indeed lack good leadership and a “message.” Until it finds both it is but a cork bobbing on libertarian waves like the tea parties. I see this going one of two ways:
1) wins in 2010 cement the wishy-washy attitudes and convince current leadership that it is a winning strategy. Republicans find themselves once again on the curb with their heads spinning after 2012
2) wins in 2010 cement the arguments of the strong, up-and-comers the article mentioned. They displace the old guard and are providing the leadership and message required to win in 2012 and 2014.
Which shall it be? Time will tell, but it mightn’t hurt to actually write to the GOP and tell them WHY you are voting for them (or voted for them, if writing after November). We need to help manufacture outcome #2.
The modern Republican Party is no more than late night infomercial pitchmen and unscrupulous telephone marketers selling stupid notions to the gullible. Their success is completely dependent on how many people they can sucker and scare. Nobody really smart and well-informed votes Republican these days and hasn’t for several years, and this is very unlikely to change come the fall. But then again, the smart and well-informed is not exactly whom late night pitchmen and telephone marketers target…..
Already got the “voters got duped” rhetoric primed and ready, I see. Man, that old warhorse has seen better days.
Very good of you to provide data for your assertions about “nobody smart and well-informed” voting GOP, too. Is that you, Pauline? I thought you were dead.
The republican party leadership are nothing more than equivocating worms. They need to be purged and replaced with people who believe in this country and are willing to call out the left for being left.
They need to state in no uncertain terms that Leftist ideology is fundamentally unamerican in nature and fundamentally anti american in intent.
The same goes for the adherents of leftist thinking.
Amen. That is why we must not give any money to the Party; only donate to candidates and PACs.
Gee, sport, that article you linked to is from March of 2009. To some, perhaps, it might have seemed clever, snarky. But that was before the Dems’ “new ideas” turned out to be “more pork” and “more government” and “trust us to know what’s best for you.” All the old Dem self-congratulations from last year looks pretty foolish now. But I guess you didn’t notice.
What is it about modern liberals and this conceit that they are the only intelligent ones?
What is it about modern liberals being unable to present a logical and coherent argument, yet at the same time, convincing themselves of their mental superiority?
Fake intellectuals spend a great deal of time insulated from the world at large telling each other how smart they are. They need only convince and reinforce their claim of their superiority to each other. If everyone they know or permit themselves to know agrees with them, they needn’t present logical and coherent arguments that would support the claim.
In their minds, it then follows that the fact that the world at large not only doesn’t agree but actually considers them poorly educated dolts can only mean the world at large is stupid.
Kids say/do the same thing and react the same way though with different standards of superiority. Middle school cliques are a good example.
2008?
No one expects the Beltway GOP to lead, Tim. Without the Tea Party raising the torch they would have never got off their hands and stood up to any of Obama’s agenda. The Tea Party is not only about rallies. Some tea parties are either taking over or becoming the get out the vote machine at the local level. There are plenty of practical ideas coming from the Tea Party (you need to pay better attention). That’s why the Dems cling to the race scam, having no coherent arguments against Tea Party ideas. Watch where the money goes. The RNC will be getting it from fat cats who got suckered by Obama. True conservative candidates will be raising their own from outside the party machine. Sarah Palin is fostering a coalition of genuine conservative leaders who support each other and won’t sit down and shut up. Meanwhile the pretenders play games and lay low, eager to be the darlings of the Beltway Boys. Let them, the National Socialists and the Lamestream Media buy their own spin about November. We have plenty of reasons to feel confident that our efforts will pay off on election day.
Subtext–Why we should all just curl up and submit like the spine-less cowards we are because it’s all so hopeless.
Why didn’t you title this article How Republicans Can Win! Huh?
The GOP is fighting the Tea Party ideas. They should be adopting them, but they’re afraid of them. That’s the biggest reason the GOP “Establishment” is still fighting – or trying to ignore – Sarah Palin. It doesn’t matter what you think of Palin as a candidate. Look beyond it to what she represents to the powers that be. They see her as a threat to business as usual. She is. We need to identify other “threats” like her. Especially ones who can keep their religious beliefs to themselves.
Palin for GOP Chair!
Is divide and splinter the future policy of the Republican Party?
Republicans will self-destroy if they continue on this path.
And that is a problem why? When the Whigs refused to grow a spine, they were supplanted by the newly formed Republican Party. If the Republicans refuse to grow a spine, they will be supplanted by a new major party.
Yes, but only after the whigs’ spinelessness helped create a situation where civil war was imminent and unavoidable…hardly the best of situations.
If the GOP is going to reinvent itself and seize the “middle” (and rightly do so along tea party lines), they need to broadcast that they are fiscally conservative and economic and social libertarians. The GOP believes many of the lies that are perpetuated about itself, but the most damaging is that the evangelical social conservatives are its base.
First off, social conservatism (trying to use the government to regulate others’ behavior along the lines of one group’s moral code) is just another kind of statism. It doesn’t matter whether that moral code is “Christian morality,” “multiculturalism,” or “The Church of Global Warming.”
If the GOP says to the social conservatives, “we will secure your right to live as you choose, but with that comes the same right for the people with which you disagree,” there are a few that will undoubtedly refuse to vote for them, but they won’t be voting Democrat, either – not with abortion as an issue (objections can be raised to abortion based on secular constitutional arguments, and these are the only ones the GOP should be making). The point is, they won’t lose the votes they lose *to the Democrats*, and they will gain so many more votes in the process.
Adopting such a philosophy would really make the GOP the voice of the majority of Americans. Most of the tea-party sympathetic candidates seem to understand this, but the party leadership does not seem to grasp in the least.
Here’s what I see the real problem for the Republican party, more specifically the Conservative party. With few exceptions, politics doesn’t sway our most qualified to run for a government position. When you weight, “yeah we know we are right on the issues” vs. “yeah, and the scumbags will go after my own children” during the campaign, it makes it difficult to get enthused to run for any office.
With the climate today, best represented on this thread by the insufferably and predictable hack BC, why would anybody of sound mind subject themselves and their families to the constant bombardment of idiots with a medium to advertise?
For us to win and dominate, we must first destroy the real enemy in our midst than enables these progressive flimflams. And we do that by beating them at their own insidious game.
Don’t go after the lame politicians from the Left – that’s the easy part as it apparent Obama and the Left can’t find both butt cheeks with two hands. Go after their smear merchants. Personalize it against them with few restrictions and be willing to make it nasty and humiliate them when and where necessary. Think Sidney Blumenthal and William Arkin – and play for keeps.
Sooner or later, you have to bloody a bully’s nose. And we still haven’t learned how to punch. Now is the time.
Fred Thompson interviewed Alphonse D’Amato on his radio show last week. D’Amato thinks it would be a good thing for the Republicans to pick up seats but NOT regain control of either house. I agree. Obambi and his Administration are still blaming Bush for all of the nation’s problems. If the Republicans gain control of the House and/or Senate, then the Dems will blame them for anything and everything in 2012. Let Obambi and the Dems own the mess they’ve created over the past few years, and let them pay the electoral price in 2012.
Anneke9, you are assuming, subtly so, that it will be politics as usual after Nov. 2010. You have no idea how terribly wrong you are. The Tea Party movement will not go away after one election cycle. We will be around for at least a generation, perhaps longer. The standard cyclical crap you’re referring to about what the Rs are labeled as and what the Ds are labeled as have already been pitched into the dustbin. Get ready for a whole new set of standards.
Yes: The Cycles are over, Tax and Spend is dead,
and Tomorrow will be different; Do not be one of
the Rubes who still believes there will be more of
the same next time around; There will be no next time.
No, I don’t assume it will be politics as usual. 2010 will be the set-up for great change, but not the ultimate change. I live in California. Too many people here still think Obama is the Messiah and the Dems are finally creating the utopia they’ve always dreamed of. These folks won’t be convinced otherwise in only six months. Give them 2 more years and a bit more painful reality.
I agree — don’t live in Cali but human nature seems to be that folks don’t wake up to reality until things get really miserable. Kinda like an addict waking up in his own vomit in the gutter…
Two things: One, the GOP has to learn how to capture the high ground. Too often, the Democrats get to define the debate. They have “Health Care Reform”. Who’s against Health Care Reform? They have “Choice?” Who’s against Choice? If the GOP had somehow got it into the public’s mind first, that Health Care Reform as implemented by the Democrats, meant Socialism/Marxism and Corrupt Government bureaucrats taking over 1/6 of the economy, I don’t think the “reform” would have turned out the way it did. Two, the GOP needs to be a real opposition party. Not the go-along-to-get-along party. The GOP needs to convince the public that they are the ones that are standing up for the Constitution, and that the Democrats are tearing it down. That the principles set forth in forth in the Constitution, when implemented by them, will ultimately bring prosperity to more Americans, than the Democrats way.
The GOP leaders are simply unable to understand that America has no time left for “politics as usual”.
They don’t understand that this administration is applying standard subversive strategy to change America forever and that this strategy must be confronted without any form of timidity.
Free-market economy, Freedom, the Constitution are in immediate danger and this is not the right time for playing “politics”.
The GOP leaders WANT to believe that the extremists are people speaking like me.
They must understand that the only extremists in America today are in the present administration: marxists, radicals, pro-jihadists.
Failure to understand that would not be a “political” mistake, it would be a MORAL failure.
For too long the party has been controled by the Dem lite country club RINO wing. The never have the numbers but the do have the money and family connections.
We need a new generation of leadership. Now a group of women are moving to the front to actually work for the cause instead of posturing and playing the same old boys club games.
It’s simple really; the Republicans need a message that will unify those already inclined to support them and simultaneously divide those on the other side. Effectively, you have to give the people something to vote for , not just vote against if you want your movement to grow and have any staying power.
Given the current mood of the county in light of the excesses of democratic “leadership”, I think a such a message could be achieved by arguing for: 1) Constitutional amendment to limit the legislative authority and judicial interpretation of the Interstate Commerce Clause; 2) Purge the death grip that social conservative have over the national party, and; 3) Work to dismantle much of the US shadow government– the administrative state. This type of platform would perfectly capture the current mood of the country and would seek to split away some of those limited government types from the middle and democratic party who could not bring themselves to vote Republican because of problems stemming from abortion, gay marriage, etc. This is not to say that we purge social conservatives from the party writ large, we just need to limit their influence to the state republican parties where their views are more closely akin to those within the state wherein they operate. Further bonus, we could sell this as our support for state’s rights, etc etc.
I firmly believe that the only think keeping conservative democrats and independents from abandoning the democrat party in droves is their trepidation that, once given power, the republicans will abuse it to grow government in other directions. After eight years of Bush(who never met a Congressional budget too bloated to veto) and a corrupt Repiglican Congress, can they really be blamed for such fear?
Also…Michael Steele has GOT TO GO!!!
Death grip? Christians won’t vote for people who refuse to defend life and liberty, and the Republicans can’t win without them! If abortion is more important to you than freedom, you deserve to be ruled by tyrants!
DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO THE RNC OR THE NRCC OR NRSC.
GIVE TO THE INDIVIDUAL CONSERVATIVE/LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATES.
DEFUND THE GOP AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL.
TAKE BACK THE GOP PRECINCTS WITH CONSERVATIVES AT THE COUNTY AND STATE LEVEL AND REPLACE ANY MODS/RINOS WITH REAL CONSERVATIVES.
AND, TAKE BACK THE SCHOOL BOARDS. WITHOUT IMPROVEMENT IN THE MAKEUP OF THOSE, WE WILL NEVER STOP THE INDOCTRINATION OF OUR CHILDREN.
“TAKE BACK THE SCHOOL BOARDS. WITHOUT IMPROVEMENT IN THE MAKEUP OF THOSE, WE WILL NEVER STOP THE INDOCTRINATION OF OUR CHILDREN.”
Very true. The left didn’t find itself in control simply by winning elections…They spent generations re-educating the American public and taking control of the national discourse. It wasn’t the leftist protesters that did that, because people don’t listen to protesters with which they disagree. There’s a lesson there for tea partiers – they may be effective dealing with elected officials (sometimes), but not with their neighbors (especially since they are not in control of how they are portrayed in the media their neighbors see).
The leftists did it by getting into classrooms (colleges first, then using them to breed generations of primary and secondary teachers) where they had a captive (and impressionable) audience.
Nothing but the same method will bring about long term change and save the republic.
Republicans could still lose because they, nor the Dems, realiz America is tired of the “same old same old (hold) of politics. So, someone comes along with a new phrases and we think this is our way out..look at Scott Brown. They say one thing, get elected, then screw us in favor of a bike ride with another senator…
My fellows, as Dante said; Abandon all hope. Abandon the modern Israelis that are today the republicans, the conservatives, the christians who are building and pledging their faith to the Wall Street bull figure god thus abandoning the real God while Moses is trying to negotiate a good deal for them with God on the mountain. Just like the ancient Israelis who didn’t even saw the promise land, so our conservative, tea parties, etc. will not see the Heavens, let alone enter it.
Abandon the capitalist society who stands for concentration of wealth and power off the hands of the many in to the hands of the very few like Gates, Soros, Buffet, etc. Abandon the democrats who posture to be on your side but they are no more so than the republicans, one scaring you with big government and socialism while the other is scaring you with the big corporate companies too big to fail or go to jail thus both playing the both ends of the rope against the middle.
We need to start doing our own talking and standing, drop Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin who are just getting rich of our back. We need to remember that the capitalist society is doomed to get old and ineffective if is not there already. We need a new society where the Constitution is our Bible in every respect, ethical standards are so as well, where we root out corruption and greed of every kind and we start been the moral people we should have been long ago. We need to be once again the free, individualistic people not letting anyone else, nobody, tell us what we can do and what we can not do.
Did that make sense to anybody out there?
Nope. Inane, insane ramblings.
Michael Steele needs the boot. Replace him with Sarah Palin. Leadership is the issue and its in the toilet. Get moving RNC!
The Republicans need to realize that not being Democrat is not enough. They need to articulate a plan To govern complyin with the Constitution ans a way to cut off spending and pay down the debt.
To govern Constitutionally large swathes of the federal government would need to be defunded. the Departments of Energy (which never produced so much as a watt of power); the Department of Education (which never educated a child); any number of commisions, bureaus and boards, and last but not least the right of private enforcement of laws like the Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act have to be removed from the interest groupos that enforce them in private actions and at taxpayer expense. Further the Congress has to accept that it has a right to challenge opinions of liberal courts and remove their jurisdiction when they go to far.
Paying down the debt will be painful and time consuming. Middle class benefits will have to go and entitlements will have to be severly limited.
Please forgive me if I’m repeating the themes of the comments above. But nevertheless—
The theme of most modern day Republicans has been—give us liberty or buy ME off. And many of them haven’t really fought against the slide to the Nanny state. They have seen their duty as being an orderly retreat, merely delaying its coming, never really making a stand against it or throwing it back. After all they really wouldn’t want to be shunned by their Democratic buddies at their exclusive country clubs. Heaven forbid.
Down with the political class. Vote all incumbents out of office, investigate all what they did in office, and if anything they did while in office fits within the criminal statutes give them the maximum fine and the longest jail sentences which those laws allow.
Americans just want to be free. As long as the current scumbags are in office we can’t be. They richly deserve to be placed in the dustbin of history.
We need to get Palin, Christie, Bowman, and Jindal together and put them in a room with the GOP leadership. The RINOs will come out with sore hineys, and maybe some of them will get the picture.
I shudder to think what’s gonna happen in the ghetto when the welfare checks start to bounce. There will be blood in the streets similar to what’s going on in Greece right now. Does anyone here think our class of welfare animals will be any less violent?
The problem is that GWB/Rove killed all the conservatives in leadership positions and replaced them with ptogressive collectivists. Cornyn and Steel are examples of the liberal liars running the GOP thanks to the lefties GWB/Rove. And precisely why the GOP has been crushed the last 2 elections,
Voters who both care and can think know that the GOP has not been conservative for 10 years. Therw no longer is much difference between the 2 major parties to matter. And what is worse the GOP makes a mess out of far left government as recessions btought on by 2 collectivists named Bush prove to those who care.Left us bad – but GOP left is worse than bad!
Suggested nationwide polling question -
Do you feel safer now that Barack Obama is President?
As of comment #36 I have read several people saying (paraphrasing here) “We need to end the country club mentality of the current GOP”.
One of the people who has been held up (not in this thread, but in several I’ve read) as an example of the new wave in Republican politics is Rand Paul.
Where did Rand Paul give his victory speech after the primary? You’ve got it, in a country club.
I’m not a Republican (I’m not even an American) but what I think the Republican Party needs to do before election day is to tell people some of the positive policies they would like to enact once they retake power.
I know that for some people “We support the Constitution, we hate taxes, we love families” is enough to get elected. It isn’t. I do agree that “Vote for us because we’re not the Democrats” will lead to gains, but I don’t think it’s a strong enough message to win control of the house all by itself.
You can’t fix a budgetary deficit by cutting taxes (No, you can’t. It’s never worked before and it won’t work now). You can’t fix healthcare by repealing Obamacare and enacting tort reform. You can’t make the world safer by invading every country on Earth. and you can’t keep illegal aliens out by building great big walls (not even the Great Wall of China worked at that).
So, my humble prediction is if the Republicans introduce ideas that might have a chance at working the people will elect them. If the Republicans run on opposition they are liable to stay in opposition.
1. Tax cuts don’t cause deficits — excessive spending does http://www.heritage.org/Research/Commentary/2010/05/The-Tax-Cuts-Didnt-Cause-the-Budget-Deficit
2. Fix health insurance through making health insurance affordable for individuals via true competition http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2008/pdf/bg2128.pdf
3. Reduce illegal immigration by actually enforcing the current immigration laws including building a fence
Ohhh, giving a speech in a country club proves that you are a country club Republican.
With logic like that, it’s hard to see why anyone would continue to read your post.
As to tax cuts reducing deficits, Reagan’s tax cuts resulted in increased revenue. Bush’s were pretty close to revenue neutral.
This article is dead on. The Republican Party is being driven by Conservatives, who have no clear leader at this time. The TEA Party movement is doing their thing, and a bunch of Conservatives in leadership positions are doing their thing, but there is no one person moving everyone forward. It appears that the Conservatives have abandoned being led by anyone and have decided to regroup at the local levels where they can get things done without interference from RINOs in the GOP leadership.
Whether this is good or bad still remains to be seen. I for one, would like to see a strong Conservative leader stand up and lead against the Democrats’ corruption, spending, economic mismanagement, mismanagement of the wars, foreign affairs disasters, environmental negligence, and open borders policy.
You wish, Timmy.
All the Repubs have to do is communicate alternatives, even though the usual suspects are as willing to hear those alternatives as vampires want to be around crosses, stakes and garlic.
Conservatives are too willing to count their electoral victories before they’ve occurred. And the media is quite happy to raise expectations to a level that makes dismissing anything less than knockout gains as routine off-year politics.
To win, Republicans need to get specific. Spare me the generalities of “no new taxes.” No new taxes and a $1.5 trillion deficit doesn’t work. Someone needs to have the courage to put out a balanced budget . . . . near term, not in 2025.
The Republican party is one giant joke us liberals will keep laughing at. You guys can scurry and put all your nuts together to show you have a full batch, but you still got a full batch of nuts, and that will not be enough for November. We Dems are fired up and ready to hand your asses to you via real policies and positive thinking. The whole small government mantra conservatives follow is going to be their downfall. There is no turning back to a smaller government, not in an age of cybercrime and BP oil spills. Oh and let’s not forget that my people (hispanics) are quickly losing interest in the party for white people, the GOP. You Republicans are truly in a state of denial. Liberalism and progressivism is the only direction we’ve ever been headed in, it’s time some of you embrace your future.
Well, this may have something to do with 2 facts your post doesn’t mention:
1) Not everyone who disapproves of the ACA does so for the same reasons you do. A plurality of those polled have said they think it does too much, but a smaller – but still significant – number don’t like it because it does too little. You think those people want to see it entirely repealed just because it isn’t Liberal enough? Group those people with those who approve the healthcare bill and you actually have a MINORITY of Americans who don’t like this bill for the reasons that you and other Cons do.
This first reason ties in with the second:
2) Certain parts of the Affordable Care Act have already kicked in and are already helping millions of people around the country. There may be some real numbskulls in the GOP, but most of them are smart eonough to realize that repealing things that are already benefitting people (especially when they’ve been widely publicised) is not look so good for them.
Hope this clears things things up a little.