(Newmajority).....Since November, and peaking yesterday and today, many liberals and Democrats have declared the Republican Party dead — and one could find reasons to agree with them. I, however, have great hope for Republicans. As Ed Feulner, The Heritage Foundation’s president, said when I was an intern at Heritage, “…there are no permanent victories in Washington.” Below is what I see as at least part of the path back to power for the Republican Party.
1) We need a leader-- not necessarily a hard right-wing conservative, but a qualified, successful leader who is at least moderately conservative in the traditional fashion of small government, low-spending, low-tax, strong national defense conservatives (two examples are Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani). Few Republicans agree completely with either man, but Romney is amazingly successful in politics and business, and Giuliani did a good job as associate attorney general, as mayor and in business.
This part will happen eventually- I just hope sooner rather than later.
2) We need to stay away from gay marriage. If asked, we should be honest about our opinions, but most of the moderates and independents that we must attract disagree with us on this issue, and many young people (including myself) who are against it believe it's the 50th or 100th important issue facing the country. Why should we concentrate on a losing issue that's not going to solve the greatest problems facing the nation, especially when it's nearly impossible to say, "I'm against gay marriage, but still think a gay person is no less of a valuable person than I am." It's how most conservatives feel, but it's incredibly difficult to get that across effectively to a public that is increasingly in favor of, or neutral towards, gay marriage.
3) We need to change our rhetoric. In particular we need to stop saying "small government." Though the current economic crisis was caused largely by government intervention — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, low interest rates, government housing programs, high government spending, mark-to-market accounting regulations, Democratic refusals to reign in Freddie and Fannie, etc.— the general population feels like Republicans caused it. Whatever we conservatives may think actually happened, we have to think about how the populace views us. We need to change the rhetoric to "effective government" and show how we can use government more effectively than liberals and Democrats.
Read more here
1 comment:
We will not be able to steer clear of the gay marriage issue. Like the abortion issue used to be, there are many who will force it.
What we need to do is quit defining gays as a minority, as though they have no choice. They are no more definable as a minority than a drug addict, a gambling addict, or a shopaholic.
We slumbered while the media parsed the minority/equality terminology. We must start with the basics. Unless we quit pretending those with same gender attraction are somehow forced to live out their fantasies or die, we do not have a case.
Post a Comment