The Only Clear Road Back for Republicans

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The Drive-By Pundit @ American Thinker:

To better comprehend why Democrats will be holding wild who’s-your-daddy raves in Washington, D.C. while Republicans shed tears in their beers over the next few years, it’s useful to consider the key difference between the parties.

Democrats can never deliver the bevy of freebies they have promised in perpetuity to all their unwitting supporters.  Try as they will, the federal gravy train will eventually derail.  It’s inevitable.  However, that unassailable fact doesn’t give Democrats the least bit of pause as they gleefully up the ante of giveaways election after election.  If politics is ultimately about winning, then you have to give them credit for that.

It’s axiomatic — at least to me — that Republicans can easily build a winning majority by boldly espousing and adopting policies in line with the principles the party has always claimed to represent — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  America has survived for more than 230 years because of those principles, but for some reason, Republicans consistently decline to loudly and proudly proclaim them come election time — and then, when it’s applicable, follow through on them once in power.

That’s why Barack Obama was re-elected despite the unprecedented economic headwinds he faced and why Mitt Romney was sent packing home to Massachusetts or wherever he lives (strange, but that was never made clear).  Obama and his team fought passionately for their beliefs — unsustainable though they are.  Romney and his boys went cutesy, foregoing a more advantageous ideological battle for one focused on banal niceties.  Turns out nice guys really do finish last.

Our opponents on the left live in a world of political fantasy.  Five million green jobs that can’t be exported overseas.  Government can miraculously cure recessions by borrowing and taxing trillions out of the private sector and reinserting the money where it deems fit.  Bureaucrats can create a vast number of new jobs by drastically increasing what employers have to pay workers.

Those of us on the right live in a world of economic reality: you cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.  Cutting taxes and reducing government spending and regulation always boost the economy.  Government isn’t the solution to our problems; government is the problem.

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I believe that every American, born within the borders, or who has immigrated here, has a right to pursue their own path to happiness. Has the liberty to define what that happiness ultimately constitutes. And a duty to fight for their lives and the lives of others, in that pursuit of happiness.

To have that right, people also have the right to opportunities within our country. Not given to them “free of charge”, mind you, but the right to start down whatever path they wish to choose to attain their happiness.

This is what freedom and liberty mean to me.

To liberal/progressives, freedom and liberty mean that power is given to government to ensure, not that the opportunities are available to all, but that the destination for all is “fair”. In other words, they give government the power to define what path people can, and sometimes must, take to attain what they view as happiness. Not what you might define it as, but what their viewpoint of it is.

That is not freedom and liberty.

What we don’t have is a communications channel to the people. It won’t matter how badly the Democrats ruin the economy, the Republicans will never get their message out. It will be twisted and spun and the people will only hear the critique of that message by Democrat pundits. “Romney wants to ban tampons.” is what people will hear. We need to somehow get a messaging channel to the people of this country so that the message can be delivered directly.

But here’s another and what I feel more important thing for people to understand after this election: the press has been playing this off as if it was some HUGE Democrat victory. It really wasn’t. It was very emotion for us because of the economic and geopolitical stakes, but it you turn off the media hype and look objectively at what happened, this really wasn’t so bad. Consider:

1. Look at how Republicans stand nationally after the 2012 elections vs. where we were after 2006 and 2008. We have many more state legislatures, more governors, more seats in Congress. We are poised quite well for 2014. Some states have a Republican legislature for the first time in over 130 years such as Arkansas and Alabama. People have been calling them “red” states because they voted for Republican Presidential candidates but their state governments have been run by Democrats since the 1880’s. Only now can we begin to reverse the damage done in health and education in those states with Republican policies. West Virginia is still “blue” in its state government but we are now within striking range there, as well, having picked up 11 seats in the state legislature and needing only 5 more seats in 2014 to “flip” it.

2. There are a lot of “takeable” Senate seats up in 2014 if we can run good candidates. Places like Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Montana, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Dakota, New Hampshire, and Colorado all have Senate seats coming up in 2014. We need to focus are efforts in local elections between now and 2016. We often ignore these little elections to school boards, planning commissions, city councils, judge seats, and mayors. These elections often see very light turnout. We should engage in a person-to-person “whisper” campaign under the radar to get people to the polls. We can beat them in turnout in these small elections and start taking back our local areas which DOES have an impact higher up.

3. Stop voting for third party candidates until we can eject these Democrats. We lost some elections due to “Libertarian” candidates that I believe are often crypto-Democrats splitting the Republican vote in order to get Democrats elected. The most frustration was Mia Love’s loss in UT04 where Mia Love’s final margin of loss (under 400 votes) was only 1/10 the number of votes cast for the Libertarian candidate (over 5000 votes) out of 0ver 200,000 votes cast. Voting for these third party candidates simply elects Democrats. We need to look at this as a matter of priority and deal with the greater threat first. We need to eject the Democrats and THEN we can work on straightening out the GOP if that is what you want.

4. I see a lot of people who have never in their life really engaged in their local GOP committee, who simply register Republican and sit on the couch complaining about “the GOP” suddenly having no problem getting active with other organizations such as Tea Party groups, property rights groups, taxpayer associations, etc. So they sit and complain about an organization in which they have never taken a moment to engage with yet get all active in organizations that pop up out of the blue in their local area. Here’s an idea: Find your local GOP committee. Sign up. Because a dues paying member even if at the lowest level ($35 in my area. I can’t take my family to the movies for that) and actually attend functions. Don’t go off all tin-foil hat, but listen, make your feelings known but in a calm, well thought out way. Also, vote on local party issues and party officers. Have an influence on your local GOP. Help make it what you want it to be. It’s really easy to sit and complain about it while doing nothing really to change it. Simply registering to vote isn’t enough. TALK to people.

By this time next year I believe the people are going to be quite fed up with Democrats and their economic policies. When April 15, 2014 hits, they are going to see the impact of things like Obamacare and the Democrats tax policies at the federal and state levels. We are not sitting in too bad a shape for 2014.

But most of all, we need a way to communicate with the people. We need to explain that we aren’t the party that wants to “take away” their benefits, we are the party that wants to make a country where their kids won’t NEED the benefits. We need to talk to Detroit and Chicago and Philadelphia and Cleveland and ask them to look around over the past decade or two in their neighborhood and ask how Democrat rule has actually allowed them to move up and out of welfare. It hasn’t. We need to point out that the Democrats trap them in these programs by creating benefit cliffs where a person can’t take a raise or a better job because if they taken a $4K/yr raise, maybe they lose a $10K/yr housing subsidy so the programs actually keep them down. Explain that we want to provide a path up and out, not a path of dependence from generation to generation. Ask them how many of them have male friends or family members with children who are in jail. How many of those children of those men are on welfare with their mother? Why won’t their local city allow that mother to send those kids to a better school so they don’t end up in the same situation? Will their daughters just repeat the cycle? How many of them know mothers today whose mothers were in the exact same situation? The Democrats provide a “lotion” to allow those conditions to be lived with and tolerated. The Republicans offer a path out so that it doesn’t need to be repeated from generation to generation.

Provide examples of success. Look at Louisiana. Since Republicans have taken over there after Katrina, corruption is down, school scores of elementary schools are up, dropout rates from high school are down, graduation rates from high school after 4 years (no grades repeated) are up. People are staying in the state after graduation and not fleeing. Businesses are finding an improved climate with a reduction in things like bribery, kick-backs, nepotism, and other corrupt practices that made it expensive to do business there.

We lost a lot of seats in “blue” states in 2012 due to redistricting. This was NOT a change in the political attitudes of the people in one election cycle, this was a change over a decade that is only reflected at 10 year intervals. The pendulum will swing back. But most importantly, we must start from the BOTTOM UP. Pay attention to the little local elections. Towns such as LA, Redondo Beach, Carson, Gardenia and other communities have elections this coming March 5. We need to get out and vote. Don’t vote for fringe candidates who have no chance of winning. Vote to REMOVE the Democrats who are ruining our country by voting a candidate who actually has a chance to win. Even in my county of California, we succeeded in removing another Democrat from our city council and from two school boards in the county.

@crosspatch:

But most of all, we need a way to communicate with the people. We need to explain that we aren’t the party that wants to “take away” their benefits, we are the party that wants to make a country where their kids won’t NEED the benefits.

Great summation, but therein lies the problem. Let’s take the least controversial issue I can think of right now, the minimum wage. Conservatives believe entry level jobs are just that…entry level. It’s a starting point, a place to get your foot in the door and show what you can do. Raising the minimum wage reduces the number of entry level jobs a company is willing to provide. But the liberals see minimum wage jobs as careers and people need a higher minimum wage to survive.
Republicans lose voters on this issue all the time. By the time the media puts their spin on it, it looks like conservatives just want people to remain poor.

Crosspatch: Biggest problem we have is that the msm lies, distorts, and slanders conservatives. Current meme is that if you are a Republican, you are a racist. This has recently been implied even in the august editorial page of the Washington Post about Bill O’Reilly….the Post was once a pretty good newspaper. It’s a dirty little secret that if Bangahzi had happened on a Republican watch it would be a media-supported scandal of epic scope. There’d be demands on NBC that congress create a Watergate type committee to get to the bottom of the four deaths. Because it’s an Obama scandal…the position of the media is…”nothing to see here, move on.” And that’s just the way it is.

It’s all propaganda now…and the left has the much better machine. Check out msm personalities…they are mostly deeply, personally connected with members of the Democratic Party. Much intermarriage, job-hopping back and forth between the fourth estate and the DNC. We sorta have Fox…but the left has somewhat successfully positioned that network as “radical”. I meet people who claim that if you watch Fox, it’s because you are a racist. I’m not kidding. We have our media and they have theirs….the difference is theirs are ABCBSNBCNNPBSNPR.

Anybody else remember the ABC Republican candidate debate last spring? George Stepawhatshisface and Diane Sawyer peppered the GOP candidates with questions about birth control and abortion….I mean these were the number one issues asked. Nobody could figure out what was going on…and later in the summer the Democrats came up with the “GOP War on Women”….some coincidence. Clearly the ABC “reporters” were carrying water for the White House…..and nobody said boo.

The msm are still the default means of receiving information by low information voters; and that’s most of them. Talk to your neighbors…so many choose a presidential candidate based on what they picked up on Letterman. Sad but true.

Until our candidates begin to call out members of the press for their lying questions, based on false assumptions, this is going to go on. Gingrich did some of this last summer. Romney did none of it….and he allowed Candy Crowley to define him as a liar in the second debate. Until our candidates fight back this will continue.

There is no doubt the MSM is in the tank for the dems and that they are a major obstacle in getting the truth out. That did not prevent Reagan from winning two landslide victories, both Bush’s from winning the WH one of whom was re-elected, and from taking control of both houses of Congress in 1994 for 12 years. While impressive gains have been made at the state level, at the national level the Republicans proved themselves incapable of beating a failed a president and probably more importantly, taking control of the Senate which should have been easy. At the national level, we have a choice between a neo-socialist party that believes the Constitution is a hindrance to “progress” and another which couldn’t run a kiddie part at MacDonaldland. Combine that with a populace that is a combination of apathetic, has lower standards, and that cares more about what the country can do for them in the form of free handouts as opposed to what they can do for our country and it paints a rather bleak picture for our future.

THE MEDIA propaganda has brought a poison to the young, not aware of the bullshit fed to them from OBAMA and down TO THE LOWEST LEVEL OF THE ONE WHO SUPPOSE TO TEACH NOT INCITE, THE KIDS TO HATE THOSE WHO EXPOSE THE FAILED DECISIONS OF OBAMA,
those kids are not learning to be able to make a judgement of their own ever, they are being bullied into a nefarious system to make them believe anything they want them to believe,
is in it what was written about the DEVIL’S ATTRIBUTES? all of them, and all of the
” THOU SHALL NOT”???

@ilovebeeswarzone: It’s called indoctrination. I can’t help but notice “announcements” that are on the radio as of late promoting some aspect of the “agenda”. The latest is “green jobs”. It’s like we are being propagandized since the election.

On a happier note, a good Thanksgiving to all!

another vet
yes you are right on the dot, and how easy they succeed , but how long does it take to debrief the young ,once they swallow that indoctrination, they sadly need more than four years and time enough to vote for the same .
HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE THANKSGIVING AND TO YOUR FAMILY ALSO
AND TO ALL OUR NICE AND SMART AS YOU ARE, GROUP OF FLOPPING ACES

DON’T DISCARD THE TURKEY LEFT OVER
so many goodies can be made with it,
a pie, a pot pie, the two are different and as good.
a turkey a la king, mmm,sanwitches with mayonaise, good
a turkey thick soup add some veggies to it,
a mash turkey in blender mix with mash potatoes salt pepper onions dip in beaten egg and then on flour
make patties and cook in olive oil my favorite, hot or cold,
who has more?
okay, a humble macaroni with cheese and turkey