The problem with Republicans

American Thinker ^ | April 25, 2009 | Howard Underwood

[neverdem]

This past election showed that Republicans in America are in trouble.  The culprit may simply be the public's fatigue with an eight year Republican administration (not to mention the fact that McCain ran a singularly inept campaign).  President Obama's startling ascendency, though, a career trajectory that took place despite the absence of any meaningful resume and the presence of some very eyebrow-raising associates, indicates that the Republican Party's problems run deeper than fatigue and campaign ineptitude.

So let's start with a question:  When was the last time America had more registered Republicans than registered Democrats?  1955?  1928?  I don't know the answer, but I doubt it's within most of our lifetimes.  The truth is we are a minority party and have been for many years.  We have only managed to compete at all because we vote in greater percentages than the Democrats do.

Even worse, all of the demographics are against us.  Immigration policy is being relaxed and most immigrants (perhaps because of identity politics rather than because of political and social values) register as Democrats.  The number of people dependent on the government is growing rapidly and those dependent on the state are more often Democrats.  The teachers and administrators in our school systems also hew Left, and they pass those values on to the students under their tutelage. 

In short, the numbers show that, as a general matter, Republicans are selling a message that America isn't buying.  Our task, therefore, is both to re-frame the conservative message without sacrificing our principles and to find a better way to market that clarified message.  One thing is certain:  We cannot out-Democrat the Democrats.  We cannot compete with their vision of the Government as the solution to all of our problems.  We must provide America with our own vision. 

We must be bold.  We must redefine Republicanism in America.  We must challenge America to be great again.

Our change must begin internally.  One unfortunate by-product of our perpetual minority status is that we have become defensive.  We are ashamed to be called Republicans.   We are constantly explaining that we aren't really captains of industry interested only in profits and wealth.  We are constantly defending ourselves.  So, the first change we must make is to ourselves.  We must regain our pride in being Republicans. 

Marketing Republicans

Although there's always some tension in the big Republican tent over certain issues (was the DHS report an insult or not?), the fact remains that Republicans can articulate certain core principles, most of which revolve around a smaller, federal government, and greater individual freedom.  Not only are these core Republican principles, they also represent common-sense, core American values. 

The problem for Republicans appears to be conveying those principles to the American people.  Part of the problem seems to be that, because the members of the news and entertainment media are overwhelmingly Democratic, they use their outsized soap boxes to paint Republicans as mean-spirited, racist, and greedy.  In a media saturated world, these messages are both overt and subliminal, and they taint the Republican brand.

By focusing on name-calling and character slurs, Democrats can avoid the issues.  Indeed, as many of us on the Right have already noticed, if you can get individual Americans to drill down on issues without dragging in labels, Americans still tend to be conservative in their belief systems. 

The Obama campaign certainly noticed that innate conservativism.  While Obama's policies periodically, and embarrassingly, leaked out before November 4 (only to burst into full flower after his inauguration), during the campaign itself he actually tried to hide most of those policies.  Instead, he won with the American people using empty slogans: "Hope."  "Change."  "Hope and Change."  "We are the Change."  Obama successfully abandoned substance and won convincingly with a content-free message.

One of the lessons, therefore, that Republicans need to take away from the last campaign is the necessity, in the modern era, of making people feel good and hopeful about being affiliated with Republicans.   A good way to start -- and start now -- is with a series of one-minute ads.  Each ad would feature a real life Republican success story. 

For example, you could have an ad focusing on the black man who escaped the slums, went to school, started his own business and is now a successful (and Republican) businessman.  Another ad would focus on the Hispanic woman who came to America as an illegal immigrant, eventually became legal and now is a successful (and Republican) worker.  Other ads might highlight the Republican social worker who, inspired by her religion, has done wonderful things to make her community better, or who has found homes for hundreds of orphans; the Republican farmer who runs the same family farm his father before him ran, who meets a payroll of workers and who has to be an expert in everything from equal opportunity laws to crop rotations; and the Republican fellow who was handy with a wrench, went to work fixing cars and now has a shop of his own with seven employees and a thriving customer base.  Given American vitality, and the true diversity of the Republican party, the possibilities are endless. 

The only thing necessary to tie each ad together would be the ending tag line:  "I'm [insert name here].  And I'm proud to be a Republican."

Along with this advertising program, the Republican National Committee should distribute "Proud to be a Republican" buttons, banners  and bumper stickers and create a "Proud to be a Republican" website on which Republicans can come together to, among other things, share their stories and their ideas for local Republican events.

Those events will be critically important.  Local Republicans must become active in their communities through scheduled events.  Republicans must act as Republicans: to clean up a run-down park; set up a station in the library to help folks with their taxes; sponsor a concert at a retirement home; do a fund-raiser to save an after school chess program; or any other activity that would be visible and would benefit the local community.  At each of these very public events, let it be known that the event is sponsored by local Republicans and make sure everyone wears "Proud to be a Republican" buttons.  Aside from that, the activities should be completely non-partisan. Don't recruit or talk about Republicanism unless asked about it.  The goal is that, when people think of Republicans, they won't think of a greedy businessman but, instead, will think of the gal down the street who helped clean up the community or established an after-school day care program.

Refining the conservative message

Those are practical things.  We also have to work to reignite public pride in our strengths, not our weaknesses.  Democrats appeal to the worst that is in us -- greed, victim-hood, dependency.  Republicans appeal to the best that is in us -- personal responsibility, hard work, accomplishment.  This is both our curse (because it is very hard to convince people not to take the easy way out by blaming others and becoming dependent on others) and our greatest strength.  The key, again, is pride.  One can be happy blaming others for ones own failures and can be happy in the cradle to grave care of the welfare state.  But one cannot be proud when one has never done anything to be proud of.  One cannot be proud to be a ward of the state. 

Assuming Americans aren't so far gone as to be beyond pride (in which case our task is hopeless anyway), we can turn this to our advantage.  We probably can't say what we really need to say -- "Grow Up America" -- because it would be very hard to sell, but we can say "Wake Up America (or "Stand Up America") -- And Take Back Your Country"  We can challenge Americans to re-earn respect for themselves and for their nation.  Democrats, with their socialist, collectivist, agenda, encourage Americans to become dependent children, wards of the state.  Republicans should challenge Americans to accept responsibility and become independent adults. 

This challenge will find expression in many specific positions.  But in general terms, Republicans must challenge Americans and America to act with pride and maturity.  America's history is one of rugged independence; Americans built this country by taking responsibility for their own actions.  Americans were doers, actors, who stood or fell on their own merits.  People flocked to America, the land of opportunity, for the opportunity to make their own futures, not for the opportunity to have the government take care of them. 

It is hard to find ways to express this, because it represents a dramatic shift in the way people look at themselves.  Large numbers of Americans have bought into the Democrat vision of identity politics.  Under the Democrat vision, we are first and foremost our race, our gender, our age, our economic status, our religion, our occupation, our heritage, our whatever.  In the alternative Republican vision, we are first and foremost individuals.  Each of us is a member of many groups, but we are not defined by that membership.  We are defined by what we do as individuals.  We can do anything!  We can achieve anything!   We are not limited by our identities.  We are limited only by our personal abilities, our imaginations, and our hard work.

We are members of one distinct group.  We are Americans.  Here, too, pride plays a key role.  Democrats are ashamed to be Americans.  When Michelle Obama said she was proud of her country for the first time in her life, she was telling the truth.  Nearly Obama's first act in office was to apologize for America, a performance he's now taking around the world. 

Republicans are proud of America.  We are proud of what our country has accomplished, what our country stands for and what our country even today means to the world.  We are still the land of opportunity.  Just ask 10,000,000 illegal immigrants.  We admit our country is far from perfect, but it is still the last best hope for freedom in the world.

Americans must become proud of America again, not with false, unearned pride, but with the just pride of a nation whose values and actions fully warrant pride.  If we have anything to apologize for, it is that we have lost our way, forgotten those things that made us great, become too collectivist and dependent, lost our energy and our determination. 

True national pride sounds jingoistic to Democrat ears, and it will sound foreign to most Americans' ears, because we haven't heard it much lately.  But we cannot expect the rest of the world to respect us until we again learn to respect ourselves.

Republicans envision an America of responsible adults.  An America that acts as a responsible adult in the international community.  To take just one example, one that many Republican politicians seem to have forgotten, Republicans balance their personal budgets.  Why?  Because they would not think of living beyond their means and passing the bill on to their children.  Similarly, Republican politicians should promise to balance the federal and state budgets - and then stand by those promises.  We envision an America that pays its own way, one that we will be proud to hand over to our children.  If that means we sacrifice in the here and now, so be it.  We are adults and we will act like adults, making whatever sacrifices are needed.  We will take personal responsibility for ourselves and our country.

This view of Americans as independent, responsible adults informs all Republican solutions to problems and all Republican policy positions.  However, Republicans must reject completely all litmus tests.  Even balancing the budget and paying off of the national debt, which I believe should be so fundamental to Republicanism as to be beyond discussion, should not be viewed as a litmus test.  All Americans who accept the basic vision of Americans and America as responsible adults are welcome, no matter their disagreements on specific issues.  One can be pro-abortion or anti-abortion and be a Republican.  One can be a Creationist or an atheist and be a Republican.  One can be pro-UN or anti-UN and be a Republican.  

Most importantly, as responsible adults, we must accept each other's points of view, argue the merits of each other's positions calmly and rationally, and realize that we can support the party and its candidates without supporting every position the party takes.

With that understanding, the Republicans should have an off-year Republican convention to identify and agree on major policy positions.  This would be much like the normal nominating conventions, except that the agenda would center on issue and ideas, not on people.  This convention would move the party platform, often in the background in nominating conventions, front and center.  Republicans would announce their alternative vision for America, and define the road to that vision.

In the end, Republicans will succeed by offering American a new vision for America.  At core, Republicans believe in human beings.  Republicans believe that the best way to ensure individual success is to hold individuals responsible for their actions.  Republicans believe that the best way to ensure group success is to hold groups, from businesses to religions to nations, responsible for their actions.  Republicans believe it is time for America to grow up.  Americans are not victims.  Americans are doers, achievers, people of unparalleled accomplishment.  Americans are proud of what America has been, of what it is, and of what it can be.  Republican values made America great.  They can again.  That is the vision we offer America. 

Howard Underwood, an attorney, is a lifelong conservative - and proud of that fact.

[Gator113]

I’d put then my vehicles, but they would have to be held on with magnets so that I could remove them when my vehicles are unattended.

Heck, the I would be on the hunt for Obama stickers just so I could get in front of them at a stoplight... ;>)

[TheThinker]

The main thing right now is for Republicans and conservatives to be visible more engaged in the community and grass roots politics. And part of that is protests. There's plenty to protest about.

The article states that Republicans need to get their pride back. It goes deeper than that. America needs to get its values back.

The Left is highjacking American values. They've been very successful at it.

Individualism, exceptionalism through competition, independence from government, patriotism, freedom and liberty have to be revered once again.

States' rights need to be respected and fought for through the courts and the legislatures and the media.

[gwilhelm56]

**The problem with Republicans
...is that they’re not republicans.**

And they will stay that way until they are totally TROUNCED at the polls. Last election, Republican voters fell into three categories...Vote straight line GOP, Hated McCain - Hated OBAMA MORE, or Palin is the coming saviour of the GOP.

If the both of the other camps stayed home, the straightliners could not create a victory, and I believe would have taught the GOP the needed Lesson.... Without the CONSERVATIVE BASE, The GOP nominees should all be named ... “MONDALE”!!

[proud_yank]

Liberals aren’t winning.

The GOP is surrendering.

I think those are both good points. Most people I've known who were on the anti-Bush bandwagon, when I asked them what they didn't like, it was generally liberal traits/characteristics they opposed (though they'd never actually admit that).

The GOP has put forward no new ideas, and seems to adopt the PC garbage when it comes to confronting liberals.

I'd like to see a Republican candidate run for office, who has conservative values/ideology (conservatism being an idea, the Republican party should be the vehicle to deliver it). I want to hear them simply state where they think the government interferes most in my life and in my work, where it hits my wallet, where govt is too bloated and the steps they are going to take to remove those road-blocks and keep them out of my way.

[EternalVigilance]

Until Christians refuse to offer an ounce of support to any politician who empowers the daily killing of thousands of unborn American babies, this republic cannot be saved.

"If my people who are called by My Name..."

[gwilhelm56]

McLAME professed to be pro life .. that didn’t help. IF that is first issue, boxers call that ... “LEADING with your CHIN”
Security, Economic, Social ... a real juggling act, that I can’t drop any of them... but at the same time, leading one about the others, makes greater the chance that the other two be dropped.
where to go from there, I don’t know...time to teach, time to testify... in political speak, in todays nasty time, Teach first... there’s time to testify later

Oh, am I going to get in trouble for this!!

[qwertypie]

Democrats changed the culture during the decades that they took control over the educational, charity, and communications sectors. They also spent the time, energy, and money to establish self-perpetuating structural advantages and lobbying institutions.

Republicans, in the meantime, sat on their hands, convinced that Americans would naturally conservative. Well, guess what, after decades of conditioning, they’re just like Euros.

[Uncle Meat]

The way things are going,John McCain's snot nosed brat daughter will head the party soon making it the Democrat party's Siamese twin.

[broken_arrow1]

A lot of nice ringey words. Like Michael Steele, Arlen Specter, and John (way back when) McCain - it’s pathetic.

Here is my recommendation and plan for Republicans to follow:

“Embrace the CONSTITUTION!” you stupid B@stards.

[PubliusMM]

Ping for later

[all the best]

I used to think that the Republican Party was the party of principal and the Democrats had none. I now realize that it is the opposite The Dems have priciples albeit evil and all the Republicans have to offer is “were not quite as bad(yet)”.
The Republican Party spends most of its effort promoting the Democrats and their agenda. Yes, it sounds crazy and it is true. Republicans in Congress (and others) effectively, if unwittingly, advance the Democrat’s leftist agenda. No matter who is in power, the federal government, its power and expenditures, continue to grow with little chance of reversal.
The Democrats propose a “generous” increase in the minimum wage. The Republicans either oppose an increase and opt for staying at the current level or counter with a more modest increase. The Democrats say that we need to increase the school lunch program by x million dollars. The Republicans answer by offering an increase of one third x. Democrats say that the government needs to spend a lot more subsidizing housing and Republicans say that the current level is adequate. Democrats say that more people should be made eligible and Republicans defend the status quo.
So the predictable dynamic is that the Democrats fight for an increase in spending for some government program and the Republicans either oppose any increase or counter with a proposal for more modest growth. What impression of the Republican Party does this give? What is the one principle that people are able to discern from Republicans’ policies as stated above? That the Republicans are cheap and uncaring. Some may manage to construe it as fiscal responsibility but what it comes down to is withholding funds from worthwhile programs. Thus ultimately withholding help from those who need it.
If the Republicans agree to spend two billion dollars on a program they are inherently saying that it is good and just and worthwhile. Why else would they agree to spend such a massive amount of money on it? If people who position themselves as fiscally responsible spend that kind of money, it has to be for something good. Something right. Something necessary. And here they cede the moral high ground to Democrats, liberals, leftists by validating their policies, programs and agenda. It’s Democrats who are fighting for all of these good and righteous schemes and the Republicans who are dragging their feet.
Every time Republicans say yes but not so much. They are saying that the Democrats are right and they, the Republicans, are cheap. The Democrats are looking out for the needy and the Republicans are looking out for the cheap and stingy. We are cheap! Hardly an inspiring philosophy. Hardly a winning strategy.
We all know that the best defense is a good offense. The GOP has turned that truism on its head. Their only offense is a pathetic defense. And no matter how good your defense if you have no offense you will eventually lose. It’s inevitable. After the 1994 elections swept the Republicans t control of Congress, many anticipated the extinction of a few federal agencies. Many even a department or two. Dare to dream. Then we were told that Rome was not built in a day so don’t expect it to be dismantled in a day. Well we are still waiting for those first few bricks to be knocked loose.
Sure the left has moved us to a gargantuan and ever-growing welfare state on step at a time, or make that one billion a time. That is the only way it could have happened. Anyone who one hundred years ago tried to propose what we have now would have been run out of town. Any American town. As per the above it may be impossible to move in the opposite direction by increments. When you propose to spend less than the left wants the only principle that you are standing on and promoting is cheapness. Not a very compelling platform. Rather a recipe for long term defeat.
Being second-rate Democrats has been a disaster. Even when Republicans win elections. Agreeing to spend a fortune on Democrat social programs and wealth transfer schemes only validates those schemes. And makes conservatives-or what passes for conservatives these days-look bad. So virtually everything the Republicans do validates Democrats and make themselves look bad. A guaranteed formula for disaster.
So what’s the alternative? How about taking a stand. How about acting on principle? A principle other than cheapness. Will it be easy? The question is what are your principles and what do you want to achieve. If you want to be liked by the establishment intelligentsia then you definitely need to keep up with leftists. Just keep in mind that you will have to go further and further year after year. They keep raising the bar, moving the goal line. What “moderates’ are advocating and supporting now would have been radical a few decades ago. Trying to keep up will always mean that you will always be second-rate and always fall short.
The only was to go, which makes it the easy way, is to stand on principle. Without compromise.

[zwerni]

bump for later

[sonic109]

They’re for all intents and purposes - useless.
I’m with you my friend. I wrote to the GOP and told them take me off the list and I’ll contact them if and when they ever get some balls and decide to represent conservatives.

[sonic109]

You hit it on the head my friend. The average American these days are morons. They need TV mentality messages to get the message.

[T-Bird45]

“Embrace the CONSTITUTION!” you stupid B@stards.

Thread over, you won!!

[weezel]

WRONG.................The problem is they havent been CONSERVATIVE. Damn a Republican, if they arent CONSERVATIVE!

[EternalVigilance]

True republicanism, small “r”, defines conservatism.

[gitmo]

Although there's always some tension in the big Republican tent over certain issues (was the DHS report an insult or not?), the fact remains that Republicans can articulate certain core principles, most of which revolve around a smaller, federal government, and greater individual freedom. Not only are these core Republican principles, they also represent common-sense, core American values.

Since when are these core Republican principles? If that were true, what the heck happened when the party finally gained control of the legislature and the executive branches?

What good are core principles if they don't drive actions? Show me your faith and I'll show you my works.

[gitmo]

It states the obvious well. It underlines the fact that to be a true Republican, one must be a conservative at heart. ... . As a Reagan Republican, I say that we can resume control of our party.

I wonder if that's possible without another Reagan to lead the party. And his influence waned after he left the White House.

If you give money to the party, it will end up in the hands of Libs in Elephant Garb (LEGs). The only solution I see is to form a group outside the party that supports true Conservatives regardless of party. Not that any exist in the democRat party. But this group would need to analyze candidates, report their findings, and support Conservative candidates with advertising and funding.

We need some people to take on this endeavor. Maybe FR is the place to start.

[gitmo]

The Republicans need three pillars to stay up, social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and defense conservatives

Rush and Levin say there are not three separate groups. A social conservative is not a conservative. If the principles of conservatism are isolated to one part of someone's life, then they are not core principles but merely principles of convenience.