It is time to reinvent the Republican brand. You can keep on doing what you have been for the past 3 decades and continue to lose elections. You can be a troll like my neighbor who has had a bumper sticker on his car since 1996 that reads, "Yo, Hillary, Get Me a Beer" or you can get serious about what this party needs to become relevant again. The choice is yours to make.
It took 40 years of Democratic control of Congress before they became corrupt enough for Gingrich to engineer his revolution. It has taken the Republicans only 12 years since then to exceed the Democrats’ high water mark with greed, corruption, abuse of power and sex scandals beyond count.
I don’t give a gnat’s fart about Sam/Joe the plumber. I don’t care about abortion, except there ought to be less of it. I don’t care about illegal immigration because I understand the value these hard working people bring as employees; agriculture and the food service industry would fall apart without them—they deserve a path to citizenship. I do care about the 2nd amendment but I do not care about the NRA because frankly there are too many guns in this country and they are too damn easy to obtain; a little bit of restraint would not be a bad thing here (hint: end the gun show exceptions to licensing and waiting periods). I don’t care about the neocons, we have no damn business trying to force our values on any sovereign nation, no matter how vile its leadership. I don’t care what two (or more) consenting people of any gender do in the privacy of their bedroom, except that the government has no damn business being in there with them.
I have nothing but disdain for Sarah Palin. She represents everything that is wrong with this party. Anti-intellectualism has no place in our political system. I understand that the base may be somewhat lacking in the IQ department, but don’t we want smart people to run the government? Where is the party that used to celebrate intelligent conservatism? Where is the party of Buckley and Safire? Where is the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the trustbuster?
Republicans are only against things, they don’t stand for anything anymore.
Stop pandering to the pro-lifers, zygotes can’t vote and even Goldwater’s daughter and three of his granddaughters had abortions. Abortion will never be outlawed in this country and you know it. There is no political will for it which is why you are trying to pack the Supreme Court to legislate it for you. Admit it and move on. We have to fund programs that prevent pregnancy so we can reduce the number of abortions around the world, it’s common sense. Just ask Bristol Palin about birth control, I’ll wager she has several ideas about it.
This socialist name-calling is a pointless exercise. We are a quasi-socialist nation and you know it. Denying it is disingenuous at best and self-delusional at worst. All forms of insurance are a kind of socialism. Social Security is socialism. Bailing out Wall Street is socialism. Subsidies are socialism (can you hear me, ethanol producers and oil companies?). Price supports are socialism. Corporate welfare is socialism. The majority of tax dollars in this country are paid by the Blue states and they get redistributed to Red states, and that is socialism of the worst kind. Should we see what happens to Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alaska, et al if we take away their socialist government handouts? Hurling the word socialist as an epithet against the Democrats will fail when the poor people you represent realize you are trying to take away their entitlements.
I am a business owner. I am the capital in capitalism. A long time ago the Republican party represented my interests. It no longer does. I have always been registered Independent. This past Spring I changed my registration to Democrat so I could vote in the primaries. On November 4th I cast my vote for Barack Obama. Prior to the election I gave him some of my capital, and unless you come up with something substantially better than the national nightmare of the past 8 years, I will do so again.
If you want to save the Republican Party, I am the demographic you have to bring back to the fold.
Here’s what you have to do:
• Move to the center on social issues, the NRA and the neocons and the theocons and the socialcons will move with you because they have nowhere else to go. They may sit out a cycle or two but they will return. The centrists will return pretty quickly.
• Embrace fiscal conservatism once again as the center pole of our tent. This last 8 years of drunken spending without taxation is madness.
• Pare down the military. Our current military is built to fight the Cold War. It is ill-suited to the asymmetrical warfare that we face in fighting terrorists. A nimble defense is better than a lumbering one. Also, stop funding the 3 branches equally, it’s ridiculous and wasteful.
• Break your addiction to tax cuts. It made sense when Reagan was president and the top marginal rate was 70%. It is no longer valid now that the top marginal rate has been halved. We have saddled future generations with the massive debts of Iraq and this ill-conceived Wall Street bailout. It is time to stop buying off voters with tax cuts, it is time to act like adults and pay down our debts (you know, after we spend our way out of this recession).
• End the partisan nastiness of Rovian politics. People are sick of it. Tell Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, et al to step off, they aren’t helping anybody. The politics of fear mongering is the first refuge of scoundrels and crooks. Win on the merits of your ideas and the virtue of your character, not on electoral dirty tricks and slander.
• Stop delaying the fixing of problems like energy and global warming because you think the solutions will be too expensive or you are too deep in somebody’s pocket. Stupidity and greed are always costlier in the long term.
• Read the polls. The majority of the people in this country want the government to help make their lives better, accede to their wishes.
• Partner with the Democrats to make this new presidency successful for the people of this great nation. Be the intelligent, fiscally conservative counterbalance to the Democrats’ proposals. We need honest intellectual engagement on the issues that stand before this country. We need compromise and partnership instead of partisan dogma that hurts our citizenry. Watch the movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington if you need some inspiration.
• Be the vigorous voice of conservatism once again. Ask us Americans to sacrifice something for our country instead of just imploring us to spend more money on crap we don’t need that is made in China anyway.
In the meantime, Republicans, if you want me, I’ll be right here in the middle, with the Kossacks and Obama and my fellow citizens who want to do the right things by this great nation.