Posted on 11/08/2012 6:30:05 AM PST by Kaslin
Memorandum to the GOP: When running an election campaign it is often valuable to select a nominee who represents the rank and file of the Party. This is how other Parties do it. Perhaps you might get on board.
Who?
Well let’s start with who not to select.
There was George H.W. Bush, who, while a nice, honorable public servant, won primarily because of the record Reagan established. He lost because the rest of us thought that when he mouthed the words “Read my lips, go to Texas,” he meant “Read my lips, no new taxes.”
There was Bob Dole, a very honorable man too, but not exactly full of policies ideas. Or convictions. He’s the guy who thrilled us with the ringing cry: “I’ve never read the Republican platform.”
Then there was the other George Bush, W.
He also is a nice man; a man full of character, but he led the largest expansion of government power since Jimmy Carter and took us into a war that he stubbornly refused to win until he was all out of options. And while there remain good reasons to fight in Iraq, he also refused to tell the rest of the Party what they were. .
W squeaked out the election in 2000, with a Supreme Court ruling necessary to finally seal the deal. Then in 2004, he fought tooth and nail in a close election contest that in some respects the Party still pays for.
That brings us to McCain, who was decidedly not a nice guy. He was really grumpy. He was grumpy to everyone except his opponent. He was very grumpy to his VP choice, Sarah Palin. And did I tell you that he was really nice to his opponent? Because he was. Maybe that’s because many of his policy ideas fit better in the Democrat Party, than they did in the GOP.
Of course he went down to Barack Obama in 2008.
Which bring us to the next “next-guy-in-line,” Mitt Romney.
Mitt too represented the far left of the GOP. But at least he returned us to the tradition of making sure our guy was considered a “nice” guy.
In any election campaign, if you want to avoid it becoming just a popularity contest based simply on personality- note to Mitt, you wanted to avoid that- it’s very important to bring some real policy contrast to your campaign. For every Obama policy that was an equal or worse Romney policy. The animatronics that make up the Mitt Romney mechanism are good, but they aren’t gonna win too many popularity contests or act as a substitute for real conservative ideals.
Change needs to start happening at the state and local level where top-down party central committees have refused to create coalitions at the grass roots level.
Hence, in the ground game too the GOP is kind of old fashioned, missing critical components that allow the Party to drive the must win contests, like Allen West’s.
It’s great to the ride wave years, but you have to be able to win the close elections. The Democrats aren’t beating Republicans by virtue of ideology so much as mechanics and logistics.
There is a trend at the grassroots level with get-out-the-vote that demonstrates the Democrats’ ability to precisely micro target an additional 4-to-6 percent of the vote, some of which escapes the polling until late in the race.
Simply put, the models that the GOP relies upon, including those relied upon by myself, have failed to adequately account for this. Again, it makes no difference in a wave election, but we pay dearly for it in close contests.
The grassroots on the other side has spent ten years in community organizing, going door-to-door, creating coalitions of issues-driven, ideologically-funded third party groups that can do a lot of heavily lifting for GOTV. The GOP on the other hand has eschewed groups like the tea parties, seeing the grass roots as a hindrance to our chances at being the cool kids at school.
You saw it the results on Tuesday.
The progressive activists worked for it, while GOP worked their top-down magic and expected to ride the wave.
The results in too many cases have been disappointing.
As my friend Greg Graves once explained to me “You gotta win the ones you are supposed to win, and you have to pick off a few you weren’t supposed to.”
The GOP, as usual, picked off the one we were supposed to win.
Again.
“Mitt too represented the far left of the GOP. But at least he returned us to the tradition of making sure our guy was considered a “nice” guy.”
Not during the primaries, when he rang the bell on malicious and deceitful character assassinations. Otherwise the article is right on target.
It also underscores the timidity, decrepitude and closely held nature of the Geriatric Old Plotters as an institutional cadre. Living fossils, going extinct.
AMEN!!!!!
I say this article is BS. Walking through ghettos and knocking on doors does not make people go vote. If it did then why did obama get 9,000,000 votes less than in 2008?
Romney wasn’t what we wanted. But I’ll never believe conservatives stayed home. I do believe a lot of votes were “lost”. The democrats are better at the republicans at one thing - cheating! And where was the company from that counted the votes? Spain? And where were those poll watchers from...the U.N.? And there’s one other thing the democrats are better at than the republicans. They will actually get down and dirty and fight.
Mitt was a heck of a closer approximation to that than Barack is...
So true.
I’m not so sure the Crowd of Zombie Voters cared at all about binders and Big Bird, and very little about birth control (after all it’s dirt cheap to get on your own dime now — if Obamacare will do anything, it will be to drive the price UP).
A lot of the fearers and loathers of social conservatives have never actually listened directly to a social conservative. Instead they have bought the Democrat distortions of what social conservatives are. Even Rush Limbaugh, and my own sister in law views him as a horrible hater, doesn’t usually produce copy that anywhere near justifies the Democrat portraits of him.
Republicans really need to pull their heads out of their butts and read McLuhan’s “Understanding Media” for starters and then return to the Party of Lincoln for finishers. Then you old boy rural Americans need to generate a capacity for empathy. That social Darwinist “dot eat dog” crap is neanderthal.
Then you need to discover the real reasons why the media is 90% liberal. They didn’t get that percentage by being stupid or obsolete. Conservatives have got to learn that “culture” does not mean the ballet and opera. In the electronic age (McLuhan is your bible here) warfare means psyops not set piece territory warfare. There is no “territory” in an electronic environment, there are “points of view”. All media is psyops all the time.
Then you need to understand the term “oligarchy” and understand that our support for oligarchs in the 3rd World destroyed America’s reputation as a fountainhead of democracy. That’s what “republican” means- ANTI-oligarchy, anti-aristocracy. That’s who this nation launched a war against in 1776 and that is who our true enemy is.
Then you need to understand the difference between “capitalism” and “monopolism” and stop rubber stamping everything that the monopolist oligarchy stuffs down our throat in the guise of “conservatism”, such as the Federal Reserve System and Wall St. as an engine of progress. Wall St. is a GAMBLING ARCADE. Read Carrol Quigley’s “Tragedy and Hope” today, not tomorrow, today. Then you gotta stop worshiping money as a measurement of wealth. Get this and get this straight- the wealth of a nation is the MIND OF ITS CITIZENS.
Here’s a little tip for you venture types- brick and mortar education is dead. Start developing Internet delivered education from grammar school through undergraduate. We either get smarter faster or become extinct.
OH! Stop running RINO’s, losing, and then concluding that the RINO lost because he wasn’t liberal enough. Good. Lesson learned.
Jeb Bush for 2016.
Snort.
OH! Stop running RINO’s, losing, and then concluding that the RINO lost because he wasn’t liberal enough. Good. Lesson learned.
Jeb Bush for 2016.
Snort.
I heard Rush today reading what various reporters claimed Rush said yesterday about the election. They made up words that Rush never used. It’s just crazy.
I just never realized that once we take God out of our lives, we can’t recognize the truth or logic anymore. I’m so glad I believe in God.
The Democrat victory came because the Democrats drummed up more voters. “Some” of those might have been fraud cases, and policing fraud matters, but there aren’t any GOP Acorn’s... why? There ought to be.
Have you ever considered how many foreign companies are in the US doing work?
Have you ever considered that American companies are hiring foreigners because Americans are unskilled in the engineering fields?
My husband’s company looked for a year for an experienced and qualified engineer, eventually had to look over seas and hired a German scientist.
Same thing for a materials scientist, they hired a Japanese materials scientist.
A lot of what you say rings true to me.
The loss of Andrew Breitbart cannot be understated.
I had two relatively conservative co-workers (both Southern Baptists) who proudly proclaimed they voted for Obama because “Romney didn’t believe in Jesus” and “Republicans just pretend to be pro-life.”
I was stunned. Granted, I live in Missouri and Romney did very well state-wide.
That is so funny........The only fear came from self proclaimed conservatives who were panicked and hysterical that only Romney was the guy who could beat obama.
Well, guess what he lost and you are still hysterical and panicked.
The job of a candidate is to communicate these things and be able to get people to see what the problems are and why America needs to elect him. Romney was incapable of that. He was incapable of communicating the mess America are in and that he would make it better. He allowed the Democrats and the MSM to say he threw people out of jobs and even killed people.
Very true. I believe the Dems' intensive and superior "ground game" was by far the most important factor in Obama's slim victory.
I and others posted on that topic on this thread: Dems' winning strategy: Early voting + bribes = Obama victory
Traditional family values, sense of community and conservative self-reliance have nothing to do with the “dog eat dog” mentality. Go to Democrat strongholds like NYC, Chicago, Detroit etc and you will see plenty of “dog eat dog”. Go to small towns, suburban communities and church groups and you will see neighbors helping neighbors and people who care about one another.
The MSM are 99% Democrat propaganda operatives for the simple reason that anyone who doesn't say what they are told to say will lose their job. The MSM companies are losing money and readers and viewers. They are also losing jobs. The media people are extremely insecure about their jobs and know that not straying from the government/Democrat orthodoxy is the only way to keep getting a paycheck.
Oligarchy is a vague term usually used by people who are either dishonest or unaware. They third world is full of brutal dictatorships and government by thievery.
Wall Street firms were big supporters of Obama in 2008 and Democrats in general. Wall Street bankers don't like conservatives or free markets. Goldman Sacks was known as “government sacks” Where do you think Tim Geitner and the Obama people came from. Many Democrats had consulting deals with Enron. Democrats place huge burdens on small and medium sized businesses but often buy out corrupt big business types. Look where Chelsea Clinton got her first job. Look who got rich off Solyndra and left taxpayers holding the bag.
You don't have children or don't pay property taxes if you think “brick and mortar education is dead”.
Every year millions of children attend and and billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on “brick and mortar.”
I agree with you more than Yollo, but the truth is, "brick and mortar education" (if we're talking about public schools) should be dead.
Every year millions of children attend and and billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on “brick and mortar.”
Yes and we need to stop doing that! I.e. throwing way too much taxpayer money at public schools teachers' unions, for way too little educational result (although the $ are great for the unions, and for the Democrat candidates to whom your taxpayer $ subsequently flow).
My last child got his high school education online. I homeschooled him through junior high school. If it had dawned on me earlier how terrible public education had become, I would've homeschooled all my children.
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