Posted on 11/04/2008 7:55:15 PM PST by CWW
I have been a Freeper fo over 10 years, and here are my 2 cents for what it's worth.
--WHY REPUBLICANS LOST –
1. Weak Candidate – C’mon, be serious. If it weren’t for Palin, it would have been a worse bloodbath than it is.
2. Poorly Run Campaign – McCain offered no alternative plan and chose the gentleman’s course by unilaterally disarming on the most important issues, e.g., Rev. Wright, Obama’s radical abortion position, immigration, Cap and Trade/Global Warming, Campaign Finance, etc.
3. Spendthrift Congressional Republicans -- squandered their capital by spending like drunken sailors and by supporting President Bush on liberal spending programs like No-Child Left Behind, Prescription Drugs, Immigration, etc. They also alienated conservatives by compromising on judicial appointments.
4. Unilateral Disarmament -- by voting for McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform, which Bush signed. McCain Was Hoisted On His Own Petard!! 5. Failure of President Bush to Use Bully Pulpit to Sell War and Explain It’s Relevancy to Peace & Stability.
6. Economic Collapse on Republican Party’s Watch -- the signs were there, but the public was kept in the dark. Blame at the 11th hour on Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, et al. was too little, too late.
7. To Much Compromise on Important Issues to Support President Bush – Campaign Finance Reform, Immigration, Prescription Drug Boondoggle, No-Child Left Behind, etc.
8. Infighting Among Conservatives-- Evangelicals split there vote in the primary between Romney and Huckaby. With all of his faults, Romney would have run circles around Obama on economic policy – the very issue that decided the election.
9. Biased Media – Unbelievably bias, and this will not change – EVER.
Some of these factors were not within the party’s control. But many were, e.g., controlling spending, and running an aggressive campaign with a positive theme, etc.
The fight for the control of the Republican Party is over. The moderate Gerald Ford-Country Club Wing has lost. They could not convince Reagan Democrats to cross over despite the groveling and “reaching across the isle”.
HOW TO WIN NEXT TIME:
1. Stand for Something Besides Your Personal Re-Election, Dammit!!
2. Don’t be afraid to take unpopular positions if they are the right positions. People will follow a leader. 3. Create a conservative platform and require candidates to take the pledge to earn party support.
4. Recruit conservative candidates who have lived in the real world and held real jobs. No more party insiders. Recruit more conservative women!!
5. Use every opportunity possible to hold democrats accountable for every vote, every failed policy and every tidbit of bad news.
6. Shun liberal Republicans and liberal candidates.
7. Revitalize the grass roots conservative base by opposing liberal democrat policies at every turn.
8. Adopt a “No More Pork” Pledge. 9. Oppose ALL spending increases except for Defense.
10. Introduce tax cut bills for small businesses over and over and over.
11. Oppose income redistribution to people who don’t pay income taxes. 12. Stand firm on immigration and securing our borders.
13. Oppose policies that weaken the family -- gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, etc.
14. Develop more alternative forms of media to deliver the conservative message - -More Blogs, more Webinars, More College Republican Clubs, More Rubber-Chicken Dinners to Spread the word, etc. 15. Replace the ENTIRE Republican leadership in the House and Senate. They lost; they should be gone. Period.
However, I have serious doubts that the Republican party can, or will, stand up to the Dems.
They've consistently been the "go along to get along party" for so long that I don't see them changing.
My thoughts are more along the lines of forming a new party or joining an already existing one.
www.falconparty.com
I think it was Jonah Goldberg who wrote a good article on why third parties never fly in this country. I think we'd do better reforming the Republican Party rather than building a whole new one from scratch and waiting who knows how long before we get back in power.
On another note, Fox is about to make me puke. I'm looking at Jesse Jackson with tears running down his face. Karl Rove was telling us we should celebrate the night.
“McCain did not lose because he’s a RINO. He lost because moral conservatives are out numbered in this country. And because the have nots have come together to take from the haves.”
You are exactly right — how do you sell principle and morals and values to someone when the other guy is offering “free pie,” “other peoples pie,” no less...
I think while obie took a jab at McCain/Palin for, “making a virtue out of being selfish,” the obie supporters are going to make a living out of being greedy,” and taking what isn’t theirs — “is that virtue.”
November 4th, 2008 — America took the “left turn” into towards being a Socialist Republic...”free pie for everyone.”
When the Romans didn’t know what to do with their Soldiers in between wars they would give away food and have live events all day long in the coliseums to entertain the masses, and they were called “bread and circus,” today more commonly know as “welfare and oprah.”
Unfortunately we conservatives are headed back into the wilderness for probably another ten or fifteen years.
John McCain was the worst candidate the GOP could have nominated and we all knew it.
The GOP will squander the chance to purge the RINO’s again, as usual (McConnell is weak IMO), and think the way back to power is being Dem-lite. Thus you get Sunnunu, Dole and probably later Gordon in OR (exception: Lamar! yuck) losing because you might as well vote for a real liberal instead of a “bi-partisan” yapping GOP moron.
Their biggest problem is that after 1994 and conservatives took over they quickly got lazy and power hungry just like the Democrats. The good guys left after 4-6 years in the House like Kasich and Watts. Newt blew it big time because of his ego.
It isn’t going to change if Obama and the Dems tear this country apart. The majority of people are idiots.
It’s Bread and Circuses time. Buy gold, guns and ammo. Find a safe place to live. Expect the worst and hope for the best.
Atlas is Shrugging.
It’s too late for that. BO and the dems will push to naturalize the current population of illegals. We know McCain also wants to do this so he will assist by reaching out to Barry. The new “Americans” and their 20+ million family members who will follow them into citizenship will relegate Republicans to permanent minority status. Unfortunately for the democrats, they too will be overrun by the newest citizens clamoring for their share of the pie.
Even if this prediction holds, we need to do more come back in 2 years after the dems bungle everything.
It’s the demographics folks. The Pauls outnumber the Peters now and it’s only going to get worse. Say goodbye to the America we once knew.
It's going to be up to people like you and me to take the steps necessary to save our Republic, or to see it cease to exist.
I agree with the thrust of your post.
The truth of the matter is Barack Obama under his administration is going to flood the country with so many more immigrants than even George Bush, that by 2012 or 2016 the demographics will be such that it may be very difficult for Conservatism to win a President election.
The main thing is, John McCain brought nothing to the table. He did not give people any single great motivating reason to vote for him except to keep the racist marxist out of the White House. Immigration was the perfect issue for him but he sold us out and wrote a bill with Teddy Kennedy.
The demographic he was representing was middle class White people. He didn’t do his job, he offering full citizenship to twenty-million people who jumped over a fence to get here. Offering them the right to vote in our elections and become a force in America. The people who he wanted to give amnesty would have voted for his opponent had they been able to vote.
We have situation in America where an old White man or woman can lose their house and go into bankruptcy to pay some medical bills, lose every single thing they’ve ever worked for in a flash at the age of 60 or 70. But a person who jumped across the border to get here and who calls us Gringos can walk right into the emergency room and get everything absolutely free.
That’s what we’re facing. Right now.
The demographic Obama was representing was young White people and minorities. Obama played to his base. He offered fluff and style to young Whites and he offered welfare checks to minorities. They turned out for him.
McCain didn’t play to his base.
McCain played to Obama’s base, and predictably failed.
If McCain had played to us, he MIGHT have won. If Romney had played to us he CERTAINLY would have won.
To better candidates, cheers.
Your ideas are good... But, first and foremost we must win the coming battle for control of the Republican party. It is going to get bloody.
Wonderful post. But I am concerned that we have let our country slip into such a deep hole that it will be difficult to dig it out. I mean, a Marxist president??!! And on top of that, we have not protected the voting process and have allowed a surge of ineligible people to vote for things that benefit them and not the country.
Can you imagine all his radical friends having access to the White House and state secrets? I fear that we have lost the America we once knew.
It might be to late. Demographics are not on our side.
Whites soon won’t be the majority and Latinos and Blacks will never vote Republican.
Look how corrupt and depressed the cities they live in are and yet they still vote for the most left wing liberal Rats
Rush Limbaugh was exactly right, having said many times after the 1994 mid terms: the Liberals in this country thrive on power and they never want to be without it again. Ever. They lost it in 1994 because We The People still had the opportunity to have our voices heard at the ballot box. We’re in a far different landscape now, and we can’t trust that the ballot box is the place we can redress grievances legitimately. We’re living in the age of ACORN, of illegal immagrants that wish to be come the new Liberal Wards of the State, and now that Liberals control the government they have almost an unbridled ability to ensure that they never lose the power they covet again by making sure ACORN keeps up its handiwork and the illegals keep voting for their handouts. We live in the age when Republican elected officials, the few that remain, insist on being seen as “bipartisan’ with Democrats who want their heads on a stick. It’s led us today to the election of an Arab Muslim president who thinks the US Constitution is nothing more than a “charter of negative liberties”. He views the constitution as an impediemnt to government (which it is) instead of a charter of freedom for its citizens.
As of right now, McCain’s total will like be something over the 40 million vote mark. Which is far less than the over 60 million Bush ended up with in 2004. So it seems like there weren’t all that many of us that truly believed in McCain after all.
GREAT LIST! Thank you!
Historically, the country has been controlled by the left for decades. It has only been the advent of Reagan on a stage set by Goldwater that set in motion a serious conservative movement to interrupt an otherwise hundred years "progressive socialist" movement. Struggles along the way to dominance should be expected because the conservative movement in a historic sense, is relatively new.
How quickly Americans have forgotten the Carter years of "malaise" and double-digit inflation and unemployment. We let them forget.
First, I think we need to take a serious look at how we select our nominees. I like John McCain, and I wish he had won, but he was not a popular choice. We didn't want a "maverick" we wanted a "conservative like Reagan." We have allowed the states to change their primary dates so that the liberal states mainly vote first. Ironically, some of the states that put McCain in the lead for the GOP nomination, are also the states that now have voted against him. Am I the only one who considers that stupid? How can liberal states select the GOP nominee? We need a new process or system, whether it is reducing by half the number of delegates a state can send to the convention (if they don't vote GOP in the last election) or hold our own primary via registered Republicans voting online, etc., so the process can be controlled and let all states participate. This year the South was almost completely ignored, but just look where all the red is on the election map tonight. Something needs to be done to make a more logical nominating process. It might result in a better choice next time around.
The Democrats have been left holding the bag. Its all them now. Whatever happens, they will have to take 100% of the blame. Considering the policies they intend to install, I don't think we have to worry about them taking much credit. The damage will be enormous. Jimmy Carter's economy will look good compared to the way things are going to be in 2012.
What are the odds that the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party sucked in enough Republican votes to give the Electoral college to Obama?
Thus the “minor” parties gave us a Socialist, which is the last thing ANY of the parties (except the Socialists) wanted.
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