GOP Must Re-Learn Campaign Techniques [Neither insiders nor grassroots know how to win]

Republican insiders don’t actually know how to run successful political campaigns. But conservatives don’t know how to run campaigns effectively, either. The two sides need to stop accusing each other, and start (re)learning how to win elections.

As a result, Republican elites want to tell us which candidates are “electable.” But they have no idea. They don’t know. A greater proportion of establishment-backed candidates lose contested general elections than do conservatives, particularly if you subtract the factor of insiders sabotaging conservatives. Elites cannot make valid predictions because they have forgotten how political campaigns actually work.

One cause is that decades ago the GOP abandoned proven campaign techniques for the more ‘modern’ concept of an ‘air war,’ in which money buys TV ads. The ridiculous idea that you can win an election without leaving your desk was born. Consultants who make money from commissions on advertising buys convinced gullible Republican insiders that tons of money could win without doing any hard work. The experiment was a catastrophe. The GOP’s infrastructure in the grassroots fell into disrepair. The Party forgot how to run real campaigns.

Now even Ann Coulter has gone full RINO, blinded by the desperation of wanting to win elections without knowing how or why. She wants Mitt Romney to run again for President in 2016. Ann Coulter commanded conservatives -- thou shalt not run any challenger against any incumbent Republican. Coulter channeled Karl Rove on The Sean Hannity Show on Fox News on February 19, 2014.

Ann Coulter smeared tea party organizations as fraudulent. She condemned “anyone who claims to be going after establishment Republicans….” as a con-artist. Coulter joins the lynch mob trashing Joe Miller (who has stellar credentials), Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, etc.

Yet Ann’s beloved Mitt Romney got only 40% of the vote in Delaware for President in 2012. Christine O’Donnell took exactly the same 40% of the vote in Delaware for U.S. Senate in 2010. So, Ann wants “40% Mitt” to be the great hope of Republicans in 2016 for President. But Ann blames “40% Christine” for all the ills of the world. Have we mis-diagnosed the situation, when both candidates each got precisely the same 40% in Delaware?

A GOP civil war is being fueled by both sides blaming the other for losing. The goal is to win, yet like ancient superstitions, each side condemns the other for angering the gods through violating obscure and dubious taboos. But the offenses that set each side to shrieking have little to do with winning elections. What seems most important to those hurling accusations is really not that important at all. The finger-pointing involves the sacred cows of both sides that do not actually contribute to success.

People will elect a candidate who stands for something they care about. But even a strong conservative candidate can lose if voters don’t actually get to hear their message. A candidate can fail if he or she doesn’t know how to combat the inevitable lies and smears by Democrats. Conservatives still harbor the quaint belief that making the best case will get votes. Democrats aggressively pursue a strategy that the most skillful liar will win the election.

I helped a tea party candidate for Congress in Ohio. He won over every crowd he spoke to. But he lost the primary because there were far more voters who never had the chance to hear him speak. The establishment swamped the district with the RINO message by radio and mailed post cards. The tea party candidate won the votes of those who heard him. He lost the votes of those who only heard the message of the well-funded RINO. There were too many voters to talk to them all without the financial resources arranged by the establishment. We have things to learn on the conservative side.

On the establishment side, it is self-evident that we should not run any more tea party candidates because Christine O’Donnell lost by 16.6% in 2010. Yet Delaware’s 2012 nominee lost by 37.4%, taking only 29%. A successful businessman with no baggage and no controversy, Delaware’s 2012 nominee should have been Ann’s kind of candidate. Christine actually lost by the third smallest margin since 1990. (See Footnote.)

#4 - Once the primaries are decided, national GOPers need to STFU about fellow Repubs. When dems attack, attack back with a vengeance.

#5 - Read, study and deploy the tenets of Alinsky. Use them against the enemy on the dark side, and press 24/7.

If only Republicans would follow these two rules. We're so damn self-righteous, giving elections away because the candidate didn't agree on one issue, as if any are going to 100% agree. And acting like we're too good to use Alinsky's rules against the enemy even though they've proven effective.

Well it's all on the line this time, you can bet your smartphone on that one. Let's hope enough of us wake up to pull our country out of this dive.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.