The political problem is clear
To succeed, Republican party must stop relying on defensive playbook
http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/28031
Derrick Skaug
The Daily Evergreen
Published: 03/06/2009
Despite what Rush Limbaugh may think, he is not the leader of the Republican party. There is no leader of the Republican party. The Republican party is in a catch-22.
It wasn’t just the last eight years that led the Republican Party to the brink of irrelevance. Since Nixon, Republicans have, for the most part, preferred to run on character attacks instead of the issues. Democrats have been accused of being unpatriotic, communists, socialists, terrorist sympathizers and rapist-loving pacifists.
When the New Deal ushered in an era of Democratic dominance – particularly in the “solid South” – Republicans developed a new strategy. A wedge is used to help split wood. Republicans used hot button issues as a wedge between the Democratic coalition that elected Franklin D. Roosevelt four times.
Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy’s dream – and predicted that he had signed the South over to the Republicans for at least a generation. Well a generation has passed, and Virginia and North Carolina going Democratic – to a black Democrat no less – proved LBJ’s words more true then he could ever have guessed.
Republicans have made some gains in the deep South. However, their stronghold in the South will not be enough to win the presidency or a majority in either chamber of Congress. For Republicans to win they must not return to their party’s politics, but to their party’s principles.
The conservative movement is about government doing only what it needs to do. Republicans have abandoned that principle time after time.
Republicans have supported the welfare of corporations but not the welfare of people. Republicans supported a bailout of the banking industry for nearly $2 trillion. Republicans, however, opposed President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan of tax cuts and infrastructure spending. These are not good election strategies. When ExxonMobil has been making record profits and is receiving millions in tax credits, it sends the message that conservatives care more about big businesses than the little guy.
In 2008, Republican Ron Paul was probably the closest thing to a truly conservative candidate. He supported small government across the board. That is what conservatives must come back to. Instead, the Republican message has been blatantly hypocritical. They argue for limited government in the economy but support government intervention in marriage rights, reproductive rights and international affairs. A more charismatic candidate with Paul’s message could go far in 2012.
The reason the Republicans are leaderless is none of the self proclaimed leaders actually support a conservative agenda. Right now Republicans are supporting the anti-Obama agenda.
For the good of the country, Republicans must move beyond saying no to everything the opposition wants to do and instead, say no to things that violate their parties principles, not their politics.
Aren't you a progressive? From some of your other blogs I got the impression that you were pretty much on the liberal side of the debate. I think it is appropriate for us conservatives to be the ones that set the agenda and direction for our party and we don't need a lot of help from liberals to get it done. We've lost a couple of elections recently but that is part of the natural ebb and flow of power in a two-party system. Democrats are going to over-reach and we'll be back.
As far as being the Party of "No" goes, practically everything that Obama is currently proposing (massive bailouts, stimulous and a tripling of the the deficit, cap and tax and the accompaning massive intrusion of government into the private sector, socialized medicine) falls in the category of things that violate our conservative principles and should be opposed by Republicans.
That said, I will agree that over the last 8 years, Republicans behaved a lot like "Democrats-lite" and violated many of their own principles. They lost their way. To the extent that they are saying "NO!" now, it means they are back on the right path.
And they are doing more than saying "no". For example they proposed a far more responsible budget then the Obama plan. It did not get much coverage from the liberal MSM except by the Wall Street Journal but it was there and it had far less red ink then the Obamanation of unending trillion dollar deficits that is shortly going to cause the Democrats to be thrown out of power.
More than anything Americans want responsible government for a change and that is not what the Democrats are offering and as bad as the Republicans were, even at their worst, they were about 3 times better. The worst Bush deficit was a third of the first Obama deficit.
I would like to add that it was the republicans in congress that passed the equal rights bill not the democrats. Other then that you have a good blog I like the end.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
And if you're seeing lines in my writing that you feel you need to read between, they aren't there. ~N. Ledger