Stand up and identify yourselves as the pond scum that you truly are. You are politicians, we expect that. I know it sounds absurd and too novel or unique to gamble on, but have you investigated this thing called TRUTH. Shock us. Go ahead and announce that your campaign promises are a result of polling and that you have absolutely zero intentions of honoring ANY of them unless it somehow suits your needs. Look the voters straight in the eyes (or camera lens) and admit that you intend to whore yourself out to billionaires, corporations, special interest groups... who ever carries the deepest purse. Stand in a crowd of women and announce that each on is the most beautiful woman ever to walk the earth. Say that you are totally against abortion but you can't get elected while opposing it, so you'll perform them yourself if necessary. Go on record as saying that you oppose same sex marriages but will keep an open mind based upon campain contributions and backing. say you DO think gays and lesbians are snappy dressers. take a chance and shock the nation. stand firmly behind our troops but mention that tyhe VA is overspending it's budget and you hope that more soldiers will integrate into industry and use their company provided insurance. Come right out and state that old people should expect to be sick and dieing isn't so bad, really. You may just find that this 'truth' thing could catch on in a starnge way.
Stand for Something
A conservative strategist argues that the GOP governs too much like Democrats, and needs to give voters a distinct alternative agenda.
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Republican soul-searching about their spectacular decline has been largely focused on the wrong questions. Are social conservatives alienating young and independent voters? Are moderate RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) diluting the conservative cause? Is the message being carried by Rush Limbaugh too mean? What is Twitter? And of course, the timeless old standby, Where is the next Ronald Reagan?
It's really much simpler than all that. In fact, it's largely a two-step operation. Step 1: Join the 21st century. The GOP is still largely running their political operations like it was 1980. While the Democrats have innovated, the Republicans have not. In the business world, small companies and entrepreneurs routinely beat out the lazy big monopolists and force innovation through creative destruction. It happens in politics too, and right now, the Democrats are Fed Ex and the Republicans are the U.S. Post Office.
Reinventing the GOP
Republicans face a daunting challenge in re-making and re-marketing their party. Who will shape that effort? Newsweek spoke to four leading Republicans:
Step 2: Stand for something. Independent voters and even the Republican base do not think the GOP really stands for anything, let alone the principles of small government, individual rights and liberty that they espouse. And when they do stand for something, it is often the opposite of what they tell the public they believe.
Liberals are chronic hypocrites, but compared to many Republicans they are at least consistent hypocrites. While bragging about fighting for the poor and middle class, liberals lavishly fund farm subsidies that make food more expensive for the poor and middle class. While forcing the poor into failing and dangerous public schools in the name of supporting public education, they send their own kids to good, safe private schools. In the name of "empowering patients" they propose to ration health care and empower government to make testing and treatment decisions. While making a noisy show of taxing corporations they pretend that this burden isn't passed on to the middle class in higher prices, lower wages and smaller retirement accounts. They stridently defend free speech—unless of course it occurs on conservative talk radio or a college campus. They fight tooth and nail for certain Constitutional rights, including some that do not even exist, except for those pesky 2nd, 9th and 10th amendments. They decry voter ID bills for intimidating voters but want to allow labor intimidation of workers voting to unionize. Once you get rolling on that list, it's hard to stop! But back to the GOP.
Republicans currently have a worse problem. While liberals pretend that government can solve a lot of problems (history is not their strong suit), Republicans proclaim government is not the solution, and then proceed to vote a lot like Democrats. They spend. They regulate. They tax. They grow government. Then they hold press conferences and send out constituent newsletters claiming credit for "doing something" to fix a problem, even if the solution exacerbates the problem or is diametrically opposed to their stated philosophy. To the average voter, and especially the Republican base, this makes them even worse than Democrats. This is why Republicans can lose to Democrats even when the Democratic Congress is held in such low esteem. If you are going to hire people who live in a fantasy world to solve problems, people will hire the professionals, not the amateurs.
Even governing like Democrats might not be enough to sink the GOP if Republicans had strong or even discernable positions on major issues, but they don't. For example, everyone knows that Americans are highly skeptical of socialized medicine, or if you prefer the utopian phrase, "universal health care."
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