In a speech at the National Press Club on Monday, March 18, establishment Republicans rolled out their \u201cDemocrat-lite\u201d strategy for making Republicanism a bit more attractive to Democrats \u2013 a strategy much favored by architects of defeat such as John McCain, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.<\/p>\n
In his speech, RNC chairman Reince Priebus described the GOP\u2019s 2012 campaign effort.\u00a0 He said, \u201cOur message was weak; our ground game was insufficient; we weren’t inclusive; we were behind in both data and digital; our primary and debate process needed improvement.\u201d\u00a0 Then, of the Romney loss to Obama, Priebus said, \u201cThere\u2019s no one solution. \u00a0There\u2019s a long list of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, I guess.\u00a0 If nothing else, Priebus is a master of understatement.<\/p>\n
The report, called the \u201cGrowth and Opportunity Project,\u201d<\/a> laid out an extensive plan which the authors believe will lead to future party victories.\u00a0 The plan includes an extensive outreach to women, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and gays. \u00a0Among the key parts of the plan, the RNC plans to spend at least $10 million hiring paid outreach staffers (more inexperienced inside-the-beltway political science majors?); backing \u201ccomprehensive\u201d immigration reform; shortening the presidential primary process; and moving the nominating convention up to June or July.\u00a0 The report could have been written by strategists at the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n Establishment Republicans just don\u2019t get it.\u00a0 They fail to understand that there\u2019s nothing wrong with the Republican message.\u00a0 All we have to do is communicate it in such a way that it appeals to mainstream Americans\u2026 as true conservatism always has\u2026 and to do that we simply have to stop listening to the advice of Republican moderates.\u00a0 Senator Marco Rubio had it right at CPAC when he noted that party moderates regularly insist on developing a \u201cnew idea\u201d for the party.\u00a0 He said, \u201cWe don\u2019t need a \u2018new idea.\u2019\u00a0 We already have a \u2018new idea.\u2019\u00a0 It\u2019s called \u2018America.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also called \u201cconservatism,\u201d and the only reason it is not the prevailing ideology in America today is that it is not properly articulated.\u00a0 For example, Senator Ted Cruz tells us, proudly, that his father came to America from Cuba in 1957 with $100 sewn into his underwear.\u00a0 He worked his way through the University of Texas by washing dishes for 50\u00a2 an hour, and now his son is a member of the United States Senate.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a wonderful story, but it loses impact because Republicans fail to understand how to make the most of such stories. \u00a0They tell only half the story, so it fails to reach those who need to hear it most: young whites, blacks, Hispanics, and the few open-minded progressives.<\/p>\n First, it\u2019s important to realize that most Republican leaders are completely tone-deaf when it comes to understanding the game they\u2019re in.\u00a0 In order to defeat Democrats it\u2019s necessary to first recognize that what Democrats do is to divide the population into sub-groups.\u00a0 They tell us what those sub-groups think\u2026 whether or not they actually think that way\u2026 and then they identify with those beliefs.\u00a0 It\u2019s Chapter One in the Democrat playbook and it\u2019s sheer political fakery.<\/p>\n No one in Republican Party leadership seems to understand how that game is played.\u00a0 So how does that failure apply to Senator Cruz\u2019s story?<\/p>\n The point that Republicans tend to ignore\u2026 in the mistaken belief that low-information voters already understands it\u2026 is that Senator Cruz\u2019s father didn\u2019t come to America with just $100 in his pocket because he was anxious to tap into an American welfare program.\u00a0 No, the senator\u2019s father came here because he found totalitarian socialism, the kind of government of which Barack Obama and most Democrats are so fond, to be totally destructive of the human spirit.\u00a0 And he came here not for a handout, but for economic opportunity\u2026 for a chance to make a better life for himself.<\/p>\n But when\u2019s the last time you heard a Republican leader explain that simple truism to the average Obama voter?\u00a0 Democrats, on the other hand, wrap their arms around illegal immigrants by supporting such cockeyed ideas as amnesty and the Dream Act, and by running ads in Mexico telling prospective illegals how to sign up for food stamps and other benefits once they arrive here.\u00a0 They make it sound as if our Hispanic citizens agree with the idea of amnesty for illegals.\u00a0 They don\u2019t.\u00a0 But Republicans blithely ignore their share of the Hispanic vote.<\/p>\n On the subject of gun control, congressional Republicans are willing to go only part way out on the limb.\u00a0 When questioned about their opposition to the Obama-Biden-Feinstein gun control effort, they go only so far as to say, \u201cIf the Democrats have their way, only felons and street criminals will have guns.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s it; that\u2019s all they say.<\/p>\n What they leave unsaid is that the vast majority of those who commit street crimes and drive-by shootings are either registered Democrats, or Democrats-in-training.\u00a0 Take guns away from law-abiding citizens and only Obama supporters will have guns.<\/p>\n So what if Democrats feign outrage at that statement, calling it \u201cracist?\u201d\u00a0 When Democrats play the race card, the Republican response should be, \u201cMy Democrat colleague has just implied that all of the criminals and felons in the country are black.\u00a0 That\u2019s outrageous!\u201d<\/p>\n In the battle over tax increases vs. spending cuts, congressional Republicans continue to give the American people far too much credit.\u00a0 They apparently assume people will remember that, in the recent battle over the \u201cfiscal cliff,\u201d it came down to a question of either raising tax rates on the rich\u2026 those making over $250,000 per year\u2026 which Obama and the Democrats favored, OR, ending corporate subsidies, closing tax loopholes, and flattening tax rates, which conservatives and Republicans favored.\u00a0 There was never a suggestion that we could or should do both.<\/p>\n In that debate, Republicans finally relented and agreed to increase tax rates on those earning in excess of $400,000 per year, a move that increased federal revenues by some $650 billion per year.\u00a0 But now, just three months later, Obama and congressional Democrats never mention the tax increases of December because they know that few Americans remember what was done to avoid the \u201cfiscal cliff.\u201d\u00a0 Instead, they now come back with proposals for even more tax increases, insisting upon ending corporate subsidies and closing tax loopholes.<\/p>\n Speaker Boehner occasionally mentions that tax increases are no longer on the table, but he fails to explain why.\u00a0 When he appears before the TV cameras he makes a brief two or three minute statement before abruptly turning and walking away\u2026 as if whatever it is he has to do in his office is more important than creating understanding of the Republican side of the issue.<\/p>\n In her recent barn-burner speech at the annual CPAC conference, Sarah Palin took a thinly veiled, but well-deserved, shot at Bush strategist Karl Rove.\u00a0 She said, \u201cIf these experts who keep losing elections and keep getting rehired and getting millions \u2013 if they feel that strong about who gets to run in this party, then they should buck-up or stay in the truck\u2026 Buck up or run. \u00a0The Architects can head on back to the great Lone Star State and put their name on some ballot \u2013 though for their sakes, I hope they give themselves a discount on their consulting services.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Rove is due much criticism for his failures during George W. Bush\u2019s White House years, and for his continued support of the Republican \u201cestablishment,\u201d he is to be commended for his efforts to screen out lame-brained numbskulls such as U.S. Senate candidates Todd Akin, of Missouri, who found it necessary to create a new category of sexual assault called \u201clegitimate rape,\u201d and Richard Mourdock, of Indiana, who explained that, in the case of a pregnancy resulting from a rape, \u201c\u2026 it is something that God intended to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n In both instances, their insensitivity lost Senate seats that were shoo-ins for Republicans.\u00a0 They literally gave the Democrats two critical seats in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n What we do not need is a \u201crebranding\u201d of the Republican Party.\u00a0 According to a January 2012 Gallup poll, 40% of Americans continue to describe themselves as conservative, 35% describe themselves as moderates, and only 21% are willing to call themselves liberals or progressives.\u00a0 What this tells us is that the idea of Republican \u201crebranding\u201d is sheer nonsense.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need to \u201crebrand\u201d the Republican Party; what we need to do is to throw John McCain, Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, and all the other RINOs to the ground, hog-tie them, and \u201crebrand\u2019 them as conservatives.<\/p>\n In Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, we have the four most evil people in American political history.\u00a0 As a group, they compare well with the most vicious political despots of the 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Just imagine what would happen if we allowed them to breed.\u00a0 We would have the most poisonous pit of vipers ever known to man.<\/p>\n So who do Republicans hire to confront that unspeakable evil?\u00a0 Mr. Nice Guy, Mitt Romney; The Kentucky Gentleman, Mitch McConnell; The Man of Few Words, Speaker John Boehner; and the Invisible Man from Virginia, Eric Cantor\u2026 individually and collectively, the least articulate communicators in party history.<\/p>\n Conservatives seized control of the party in 1964 and again in 1980.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to do it all over again, but this time let\u2019s do it for keeps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a speech at the National Press Club on Monday, March 18, establishment Republicans rolled out their \u201cDemocrat-lite\u201d strategy for making Republicanism a bit more attractive to Democrats \u2013 a strategy much favored by architects of defeat such as John … Continue reading