How to fix the Republican Party

Everywhere you go, people are in a bad mood.  It cuts across party lines and classes.  I think I must be somewhat the exception, but it is born of the fact that I think I know what is wrong, at least in the politics.  Democrats got exactly what they asked for under Obama and are horrified at how reality has bitten them.  Republicans can’t understand why they didn’t win in 2012 and didn’t seem to connect with voters. 

And so the R’s have given some really stupid answers to why we didn’t win.  We didn’t appeal to Hispanics.  But do the math.  If Mitt would have gotten 70% of Hispanics rather than 30%, it would have increased him by 3 million votes and he lost 65 million to 60.  He would have still lost.  Yes we need more Hispanic support but that’s not  the reason he lost.  Others say we didn’t turn out the Republicans.  True.  But Romney got a million more votes than McCain and Obama got 4 million less than in 2008.  Still Romney lost. 

So what is the answer?  They ran a very good campaign against a Republican mess.  Obama’s campaign outstrategized, outorganized, outworked and outclassed the R’s.  Not only did Obama win, the Dems picked up two seats in the Senate and 7 in the House. 

And it will happen again if the R’s don’t get their act together in the mid-terms.

Problem one with the Republicans is that they have no resounding message.  That’s the way they have been going along for years, ever since FDR beat them badly. (The empty strategy of bitching is okay for a minority party.)  And then out of the blue came Ronald Reagan with a simple message—get the government off the people’s backs and stand up strong against USSR.  It resonated with America.  After losing dozens of countries to communism over the years and laboring under restraints imposed by Uncle Sam, people responded to Reagan.  He pitched the American Dream, the shining city on a hill, morning in America.  I wish we had someone that could do that in plain-spoken English again.  And then RR proceeded to vanquish the critics by making it happen.  Then the R’s lapsed back into Bush 41 and “not too good at the vision thing.” 

Again in 1994, Gingerich laid down a legislative vision in the form of Contract with America.  10 bills that had 70% approval in polls that the R’s vowed to bring up. All the critics howled about how stupid this was.  The R’s picked up 52 house seats and won the Senate. The Message resonated.  (I always wanted to go on Meet the Press after that election as Dave the Carpenter and ask why all you ding dong Dems thought the Republicans would lose?)

By 1880, the Republican party was known as the Grand Old Party.  Think about that.  The party was barely 25 years old and they called it “Grand Old”?  The reason for the name was that the party had a vision, a message that was the embodiment of the grand old ideals that had founded the republic. 

We need a Message today and I suggest we become the Party of the American Dream.  Talk about what we are going to do to bring back jobs and opportunity, how we will fix the schools and provide more choice, how we will guarantee the Constitution gets followed, the debt relieved, and Obamacare repealed. 

But instead of a grand vision, so many advisors and pundits are telling candidates not to promise anything, just attack the opponent.  Romney attacked Obama and couldn’t seem to articulate the dream.  The campaign was all negative, about fear, blaming Obama, and technical tweaks of the economy.  No imagination. Obama counterpunched with caricatures of Romney as a mean Wall-Streeter who lashed his poor dog to the roof, hated minorities, and promoted racist policies.  The Dem base lapped it up and showed up when they were prompted by Tweets.  (And by the way, we need more tech saavy in our party)

Second problem is money alone.  To win a state Senate job costs about $100,000 and each district has almost 100,000 people.  You have to appear in person before a large number of the voters to let them see what kind of a guy you are.  But US Congressmen and State-wide races don’t have that personal touch.  So Republicans have the habit of raising a lot of money and just buying TV, radio, newspaper ads as well as direct mailers, etc.  There is no army of supporters, which a state Rep. or Senator can use.  Not so with the Dems.  They always advise using a lot of NEA teachers in the summer to go door to door and union slave labor in the fall.  Republicans need to develop grassroots, especially out of the seniors and tea partiers.  The Republican establishment guys are utter fools for not seeing this.  A piece of junk mail on a candidate rarely sways a vote.  It averages 17 seconds before it hits the trash (this is the average time studies show it gets looked at).  But a humble person at your front door saying they believe so much in this guy that they have volunteered time to walk the streets (or call on the phone), has a 30% likelihood of changing a vote.   

But the political advisors and media types discourage this kind of campaigning.  They make their enormous fees be encouraging TV and splashy appearances, and various forms of advertizing.  Romney raised almost a billion and PACs raised another $1.2  billion—half a billion more than Obama—and he still lost.

Income inequality.  Once again, Obama is trying to hone a message that the R’s are the party of privilege.  If the R’s don’t counter that, they will get beat.  On the state wide level, I find an irony.  I agree 100% with the goals of the State Chamber of Commerce.  They speak about leaving business less regulated and free to do business.  But it’s weird.  The Chamber sometimes lobbies the legislature for all sorts of “projects” that benefit Chamber members.  That corporate welfare is directly counter to their stated goals.  The Republican candidates need to favor dynamic entrepreneurialism over corporate cronyism in no uncertain terms.  And if we neglect the needs and concerns of the middle class, we are sunk.  The Grand Old Party became just that by appealing to the wants of the vast middle of the American electorate.  Hence R’s are classified as a middle class party. Not so the Dems.  They are a coalition party—a party that puts together various minorities and groups trying to achieve a majority.  And so the Democrat pundits on MSNBC heckle the Republicans about needing to get more women or Hispanics.  That is how Dems do it, not R’s!

But there is an important nugget of truth in saying that Republicans need to broaden their base.  They need to stop using rhetoric that runs off their supporters.  Romney made a phenomenal gaffe when he said that 47% pay no taxes and would vote against him.  So what’s wrong with a person who lives on social security alone or gets welfare payments voting Republican?  I walk the streets of my old neighborhood campaigning in the poor side of town, and am constantly pleased with how many R’s there are to be found.  They are poor people with rich ideals.  That’s why Reagan roused the Reagan Democrats.  He spoke their language.  When an old sailor wrote him a letter protesting RR’s analogy of gov’t spending like a drunken sailor, Reagan issued a charming apology saying, “You’re right. No sailor, no matter how drunk, ever spent money like the federal government.” If I would have advised Romney, I would have told him to find a plumber working, climb down in the hole and start handing him wrenches while talking.  Contrast to Joe the Plumber and Obama.

Republicans also have to pick our fights better.  90% of people were horrified by the Gosnell case.  60% of people say they are pro-life, but when you ask the question other ways the answers often come out more like 50-50.  If you ask if abortion could be used in some circumstances, people say YES by 78%.  They are thinking about “life of the mother at risk” and other things.  What this says to me is we need to concentrate on late term abortion.  I believe life begins at conception, but that’s not where I would pick my fight.  Watch Texas governor’s race.  If it becomes about abortion in general, Wendy Davis has a chance.  If it is about her obstruction of late term "Gosnell" abortion restrictions, she’s toast. Likewise, argue Obama’s trashing of the first amendment religious expression by a flurry of facts.  He tells military chaplains how to preach, told Lutherans they weren’t free to choose their ministers, tells all manner of Christian groups and businesses they must fund abortifacient insurance.  It’s First Amendment, not just birth control—which is what Obama and Sandra Fluke want us to talk about.  Pick your fight!

Obama and the Senate Democrats have governed so badly they have handed the Party of the American Dream an opportunity, not just for a win but for a change in voter attitudes for years to come.  Let’s don’t screw it up.  Some of this stuff is just plain humorous.  When some guy said to me that Obamacare would allow people to stop working, spend more time with the family, pursue a hobby, I said, “Yeah, I think they told me that when I got laid off one time.”