We also have to fix the broken primary process-—how can we ensure that ONLY repubs vote in the primaries this time?? that is how we got McLame in the first place...if we even think about running someone like Sarah and haven’t remedied that situation, we can forget it...
Good point. With Obama, we're almost sure to have a reverse "Operation Chaos" process.
Yes, the glaring fault this year was that there was no enthusiasm until Governor Palin came on the scene.
Contributions and volounteers need to come out early for an effective ground game. They don't come from non-Republican voters.
That overrides any advantage from letting Dems and Independents vote.
No. That’s not how we got McCain. Quite simply, the primary was too divisive between too many candidates, and McCain was the one left standing. By the time the Romney, Huck and Thompson camps were done savaging each other, only McCain was left. IMHO, the bitter infighting between those 3 is what gave McCain the nod.
That said, McCain is a good guy who had nothing but the best interest of the nation in mind. It sickens me to see him called a traiter and worse here on FR. Irony of irony, most of it seems to be coming from supports of his own VP pick these days. Disgusting.
Priority, IMO, is exposing the illegal campaign contributions used by the Messiah and the voter fraud that stole battleground states. Next, 2010 is the next target. Vote everyone up for re-election OUT! Two years to find conservative candidates and to expose the corruption in DC; name names and provide the proof.
Under controlling US Supreme Court precedents, the GOP could close its primaries if it wished to do so. There would be political and court fights over doing so, but it could be done by the various state and national party executive committees.
We are all way too focused on the presidency. For example, Reagan won the cold war but lost out on fiscal and social conservatism because we has saddled with a Democratic Congress. We forget about the balance of power and federalism all too fast.
Congress (oh, and governorships) is what should matter most to us and Congress is winnable for conservatives because running for Congress is local. Each of us can make a bigger difference there. Congress initiates all legislation/laws, spending and controls judicial appointments and treaties.
Conservatism doesn’t have to adjust conservatism but the message needs to be adjusted. Americans need to be given a vision beyond Iraq and Afghanistan and Iraq must be pressured to take over its own governing affairs asap.
Jobs must be created. States do this best. Witness Mitch Daniels successes in Indiana, so not only Congress, but States must individually do their part to shore up the GOP.
Free trade needs to be evaluated. 3 million manufacturing jobs lost under Bush...we need not to oppose freer trade but also not to chant an absolutist free-trade mantra that puts trade under supra-national outfits like WTO.
Unfortunetaly we cannot probably end corporate income taxes but corporate welfare needs to go away.
Faith-based initiatives must go away BUT government must stop being hostile toward religion. The IRS should be forbidden from ending tax-exempt status for preachers who preach on politics. College alumni (many who are professed conservatives) need to stop giving money to schools with professors who issue ad hominem attacks on religion.
Reduce government spending and taxes and religious people will take up the job that is best done by religious institutions: running schools, hospitals and charities. Americans will give generously as they always have.
Drugs must be fought but not by the federal government. Let that return to the states. Let state penalties for trafficking become lethal.
Some of this may sound libertarian but it isn’t because I want matters being handled by D.C. to simply return to the States (50 independent nations, remember?) and for the 10th Amendment to be respected.
An lastly, I heard McCain mention none of these ideas or policies. But do the above and the GOP becomes a GOP I can support, and perhaps a few million others which, after all, is all we needed to put an awful candiadate like McCain in office.
He, the Bushies and their ilk simply need to go away.
Too many GOP sderide the Constitution but the Constitution isn’t obsolete because the Constitution deals with human nature, which doesn’t change from age to age.