Posted on 03/08/2013 12:23:59 PM PST by neverdem
Most of the activists, insiders, and lobbyists I talked to during the recent California Republican Party convention in Sacramento expressed optimism about their party despite blistering election losses and falling voter registration levels that will soon—I’m only half-joking here—have the party competing with the Greens and the Peace and Freedom folks.
Their optimism came from the election of former lawmaker Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga as party chairman. “California Republicans have chosen a former state lawmaker known for his fundraising work to lead the party back from the brink of irrelevance in a state that once was a GOP stronghold,” according to the Associated Press report.
Given Brulte’s financial connections and vast Capitol experience, he was able to unite the conservative and moderate wings of the party. Unite might be too strong of a word. The GOP has its back against the wall, is deeply in debt, has no blueprint for regaining momentum and is thoroughly lost ideologically. It was more of a “If you want it, you can have it” situation.
Also good news, the party event featured less of that internal bickering that has plagued past California GOP events (although it did have a couple of scandals, including yet another one that involved some party member talking about rape). The old saying about academic battles being so vicious because the stakes are so small should be refined. The stakes are so miniscule for the state GOP now that it’s not even fun to fight with each other anymore.
Convention cynics joked that the theme was, “Republicans love Latinos.” Almost every public event was designed to highlight the party’s embrace of the state’s burgeoning Latino community. The party finally has recognized that it can’t win without deep support from a group that doesn’t vote for Republicans in large percentages, that it is now paying the price for its past approach to immigration issues, and that its outreach efforts are a joke.
Sending GOP emissaries into Latino neighborhoods to convince them to vote for the GOP worked as well as if left-wing Latino activists sent emissaries to Newport Beach to sign them up for the Democrats. The new efforts are designed to “grow” candidates and send them through the Republican pipeline. Unfortunately, it’s hard to launch this effort without it smacking of pandering. I’d feel better, also, if the new candidates were more about principles, less about ethnicity and values.
If I were giving the convention a theme, I’d borrow the name of the 2009 movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You.” California’s voters just don’t care about the party. Ginning up fund-raising by nominating a deal-cutting former lobbyist makes sense from a party-structure standpoint. But where are the GOP leaders who engage in the battle of ideas? And do they even know what ideas to engage in?
The Saturday luncheon featured Karl Rove, who blasted the Obama administration for increasing the federal government’s debt and failing to deal with the crushing entitlement burden from Social Security and Medicare. But as former President George W. Bush’s top adviser, Rove led policies that doubled the national debt and worsened the entitlements situation under the faulty idea that voters would embrace the GOP if the party handed out goodies. Delegates in attendance should have at least walked out of the room or booed loudly.
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine spoke at a lunch event. He is a solid conservative, but one who fled the state for Austin. He makes great points about Texas policy, but California Republicans will take away a different lesson: How do I find a good job in Dallas?
Some of the politicians were even championing their newfound willingness to reach across party lines. That sound(s) nice, but the Democratic Party is committed to expanding regulation, increasing taxes, blocking reform to union entitlements and creating new government programs and agencies. Once in a while, an occasional “point of light” will emerge—i.e., a growing consensus for reforming the project-halting California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). But the Dems don’t need Republican support for that or anything else.
What’s an irrelevant party to do? Its new approach will take many years to change the state’s political climate at best, and California is in desperate straits now.
Instead of worrying about process, the party needs to build ideas that resonate with the public. Republicans will never compete with Democrats in the game of government give-away. They need to boisterously rebuild that old “Leave Us Alone” coalition and point out why government is the main obstacle to every Californian’s freedom and prosperity, although I’m not sure how many of the party’s leaders or activists believe that.
Look at how Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul single-handedly rammed the issue of the Obama administration’s police-state policies on drone attacks into the forefront of the national discussion. Likewise, courageous and visionary California Republicans—OK, that’s probably an oxymoron—must engage Californians about how the union-controlled democratic majority is turning our state into North Korea with palm trees.
That might not make the GOP lobbyists and consultants happy, but the party needs ideological leadership now even more than political leadership.
It’s really dumb ignorant comments like yours which have caused me to visit and post here much less.
Please, carry on....
Problem with California was we allowed infestation and indoctrination to destroy this state.
Unions just poured money into city councils and other races to get the politicians that will give the unions more power, pay and less responsibility. Government connected unions are a Democrat party money laundering device for campaign funds.
#2 schools indoctrinate all the kids with stupid thinking and we now have generations of adults who know NO SHAME, believe what we know as socialism and communism is OK and figures God was wrong about that “Thou shall not covet” commandment and wish to take all the money from people who do real well.
We are fast moving toward becoming Detroit.
We allow tons of people to also live off of our social safety nets who are not tax payers, or maybe not even citizens or legal residents.
Legal residents are supposed to support themselves, so if that isn’t happening, why are they not sent home?
Anyway, we are doomed. We have a vast majority of lazy takers and government union goons who know NO SHAME and IMO could care less if they destroy the state or economy as long as they get some tax money.
We are being abused by the criminal, the stupid, the lazy and the government unions. Outside of a crash that says NO MORE, what could be said or done to get people to change when they are currently given hands full of cash and benefits?
Here is a hand full of cash vs: responsibility, working yourself hard and not being a taker. Very tough sale in this state at this point in time.
The cancer is everywhere, it is deep and we have to crash HARD before people will listen.
They are going to double our property tax, they are going to add a mileage tax, and do a lot more damage to keep this going before you see the bottom.
They are going to strip everything from everybody before they are unable to buy the vote anymore here in CA.
It sucks folks to be us.
I agree.
I keep hinting to wifey about moving to Hawaii or Alaska or
Nevada.. the poodles could care less where we go.. too bad the state ‘brainiacs’ in gubamint don’t either.
I was here during the 60s and on.
We did always have a lot of social liberals in this state.
The turning point in or destruction was Brown the first time around allowing state employees to unionize.
Unions belong at most in the private sector, never in government or into politics.
Unions and the almost trillion dollar unfunded retirements have already IMO destroyed us, but libs and the common resident of CA don’t even know it yet. The unions own the elections through all the money they give from the over-payments with give them through their pay.
We fund millions of people from the south who have no government social safety net in their country, so they move to ours and suck our tax money to themselves and their families back home. I think money sent home is in the top two highest sources of income for Mexico (as an example.
All of what is going on through government would be a massive crime were it to occur in the private sector and until that bottom and beyond crashes, nothing will change.
Until there is nothing left to take, nothing will change and IMO there isn’t one remarkable soul in politics in CA who would have the force of personality required to shift a change for CA the way we need it to be for our survival.
Good luck to us!
Nothing wrong with grass roots organizing and growth.
Where we screwed up was in not preventing indoctrination when we had the state.
Unions dogma used the cover of a supposedly innocent and well meaning teachers (treated like saints) to push what some might expect to come from an anti-Christ.
Not to get religious, but the shoe to me kind of fits.
The devil (communist liberals who don’t even know that is what they are) indoctrinating cancerous thinking until the masses forget what and what we are and what previous great generations died for.
Shameful IMO!
It is trolls that go around posting nothing but personal insults out of the blue with no other content that drives away reasonable people.
Maybe a deal could be made - we leave - and Dems there agree that all illegals in the US can be deported to California. In ten years the State will be a 3rd world hellhole and we can give it to Mexico... it's a win win win for everyone...
Hawaii is politically worse. There is no one willing to work there it seems who didn’t fly in. Big dole state that survives due to the massive tourism dollars. Without that they would be a bigger Detroit than Detroit.
Alaska from my travels there is glorious. Unless you like the cold weather, I don’t know how you could want to live there. I am going there again by a cruise again though. Breath-taking place. Better by far than anything I’ve seen in Europe, Africa or in the Caribbean.
If you can live without a job for a while or live on a low wage job, Nevada could be good. Homes in Vegas are very nice for little money. School are questionable, but if you are middle aged with grown kids Nevada could be great.
If what you do for a living can be done anywhere, Nevada would be ideal. If you are retired it could be great.
Go IMO Green Valley near Henderson or Summerlin...
If I were not here for so long and were elsewhere deciding where to move to, California at this point would be an absolute mistake IMO. They are preceding by two years what Obama is trying to do nationally and the place is a wreck. Many parts are looking more and more like Mexico.
Part of the blandness, the rinoism of the California GOP, is that they seem terrified of having to mix with working men, women, blacks and Hispanics, Evangelical Christians.
The California GOP is mostly made up of bloodless drones and timid nerds who prefer hanging out with each other.
We just had a 16% turn out in Los Angeles voting.
Tells me if conservatives bothered to vote there could have been some damage in some place for the better.
Then again, if a perceived conservative star comes out in California right now, the leftist government unions will fund millions against them for the Democrat opposition to put forth lies and the press here would swear the lies are true for the duration of any election cycle.
This place in some ways is the worst...
The GOP here are being destroyed by the massive amounts of legal people and illegals on great society programs. They are also being deluged money wise by billions in the money government unions can funnel to the Democrats in this state.
They have NOTHING to compete with. Democrats totally bribe or outspend all else here. This is the problem CA has.
That is what they created themselves because they were weak, indifferent, moderate and libertarian, no one imposed California on them, they created this California that you see.
I can attest to the truth in this statement. My parents are CA Republicans and think they are staunch conservatives. But they thought Romney was a great conservative candidate, don't give a crap about abortion, have no problem with the Patriot Act, NDAA, the auto bailout, the bank bailout, and are retired state government mid-level employees who make six figures on their pensions and have permanent solid gold healthcare benefits.
There was never a time in my life when California was not known as a libertarian type place, no matter who the governor was, you can see it in old books, movies and TV shows, California was known as moderate and tolerant, open minded, and all the other words for not being social conservative, a place that had no standards, no identity except for play and leisure, no deep religious core, a place like that will be devoured by the left since it is made of of weak bloodless people
Social liberals are either already democrats, or are rino republicans, they are not conservative warriors.
If you got out of California once in a while and spent some time in actual conservative areas, you'd find that ansel12 is mostly correct.
Far too many CA "conservatives" aren't. They just think that since they aren't moonbat lefties like the Democrats out there, they must be hardcore conservatives and nothing could be further from the truth.
The thing to do is to run for local elections, by preference in a place where things stink.
Then put in conservative policies, and demonstrate how they make things better.
Gun rights: Local authorities can issue CCW permits, and watch crime decrease.
Illegals: Local police fingerprint suspects and hand them over to border patrol. Repeat offenders are not handed over to border patrol, rather are denied bail. Watch crime go down.
Schools: Local school board issues vouchers. Test scores increase.
Lower taxes: Offer tax payback for businesses that locate in your area. Watch economy grow.
Health Insurance: Start local fund whereby anyone who wants to pay for another’s health care can contribute. If the fund is empty, then noone wants insurance. If the fund is full, then health care is paid. Doctors would prefer to be paid, rather than be forced to provide pro bono services, and would be more likely to move to your area.
After success, then your corps of successful miracle workers move to another level. If you lose, then you have at least done some good.
WAS IT ROVE’S INCOMPETENCE ...OR IS HE A JUDAS GOAT ?
To borrow from Rush Limbaugh for those living Riolinda a Judas goat is used to lead US sheeples to the slaughter pen . The Republicans were given a chance to use a wedge issue to split up the democratic party and blew it.
Besides being unable to equate Obama’s socialist schemes particularly his energy policy running up the costs on everything and still is thus forcing those with limited incomes to go on the dole. BTW the angle here is to blame the system not the folks using it. Because they have to. But it’s a signature of Rove’s past performances when with Bush. The demo-coms used it because it fell into “heartless Republicans”.
Blaming Obama and explaining that policy in terms those proverbial LIV’s could understand wasn’t even considered. Refusing to attack Obama was based on MSM polling showing his popularity suggesting an intellectual inability by Rove and the GOPES to rejoin any racial charge.
....Does anybody remember what the Democrats did at their 2012 convention ??? First they eliminated any mention of the word GOD...and when they thought twice about doing that they reintroduced the resolution what happened ? They booed God..thrice..That resolution was rammed through just like the Affordable Health Care Act ...That’s a wedge issue within the democrat party.which was not exploited by Roves RINOS and GOPES and the Republicans generally to this day. To properly describe that episode .Its the marriage of the radical and democrat into the hyphenated Demo-Com union.
Was that fact used in any of the material Rove’s RINOS spewed forth during the 2012 Romney or US senate races his group of GOPES (Government Ofthe People Elite Snobs) used on their hit list ? I like using that acronym because it rhymes with dopes.
Noooo ! They could have used that episode to point out how far to the left the democrat party has hyphenated into; Demo-Coms ...Instead well we don’t like Aikin ...He said what ? OMG OMG he’s unqualified ...If there was a chance he would have been burned at the stake by Rove’s RINOS and the so called “conservative “ talkies spouting Rove’s tripe.
The Aikin or O’Donnells response to a set up phoney issue had nothing to do with any thing that would ever occur in any legislation that would pass their respective desks had they been elected.
THE RESPONSE YOU DIDN’T HEAR WAS THIS “”While at their convention the Democrats were busy denying God . Aikin believes in something like the ten commandments. Including Thou shalt not steal and doesn’t believe that getting elected to office gives you a license to do steal ... Which his opponent seems to have done rather well since being in office. The same thing with Mourdock,O’Donnnell, etc,etc, etc.
That presentation could have been expanded to Reid, Pelosi, and the slew of Demo-Com pigs at the trough. Expanding their personal wealth at the expense of the US taxpayers.
Now his bunch seems to be saying if you hold a religious view don’t run for office... We’re gonna save the Republican party ....to be finished off by Obama and the hypenated democrats..
Roves RINOS wrong for America and wrong for the Republican party...
When the democrats decided to remove God or any reference to Our Creator at their 2012 convention. They also demonstrated they are no longer the democratic party of your father’s father. They have become a hyphenated radical unit and should be known as Demo-Coms dedicated to the establishment of a collective idealism using the device of PCP to modify behavior and shed beliefs that they believe would impede remaking their concept of the perfect utopian state. That is hardly democratic because the word democrat idealizes the individual voice.
But Rove, GOPES (GOP Elite Snobs) and RINOS lack the capacity or the understanding or the courage to point to the historic radicalization that occured at that moment and use it politically. Worse yet they are unable to forthrightly defend what the demo-coms have set out to destroy and some are even comming up with their own version of PCP . Anyone preaching PCP is going down the poisonous road to oblivion . Following a policy of PCP. Politically Correct Politics which the hyphenated democrat party, the Demo-Coms,is using is flat out wrong.Worse yet moral questions such as marriage, sexual practices, family constituency and particularly beliefs those of containing Judeo Christian tenets are being assulted and not defended. That offers a majority of voters no choice in the direction this country is to take.
PCP when used by the Demo-Coms such terms as: Afro-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, White-American, Rich-American ,Gay-American, are more than simply nouns but vehicles used to separate US from each other. Beside separating US from our money the Demo-Coms demand we become adhearents to a system without the constituional constraints on government. Thus surrendering our protections from governmental abuses and excessive bureacracy to the will of a bureaucratic collective which is no longer answerable to the average citizen.
Sadly for the Republicans God remains in Limbo as well as the next winning election
“What’s an irrelevant party to do?”
Start by attending your local village council or schoolboard meeting. You might discover that they’re infested with leftists.
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