So where does the GOP go from here? There’s a lot of talk about demographics, but let’s not get carried away there. It’s prudent to let Democrats continue to be a party made up of a bunch of different groups they pander to as eventually that will blow up on them as one day those groups will be opposed to each other and they can’t pander to both at once. Also, the Democrats survive mainly on racism — promoting racial cohesion and lying about racist threats out there. They need a racial wedge to keep different racial groups from ever thinking about voting for the other guy, but that’s not a long term strategy.
The strength of the GOP needs to be that we are not groups that need to be pandered to but are instead united on cohesive principle — that one being liberty. The Democrats furrow their brows at why someone in lower middle class would be against raising taxes on the rich, because they live in a world where you have to pander directly to everyone’s interests. But we’re in a world where liberty is our main interest, and we want to preserve it everywhere.
People argue we need to be “more conservative,” but what does that even mean? What we need to do is make sure we have a central principle we’re united on and can articulate to others. Many people don’t see taxes and regulations in terms of liberty, and that’s where we have to work. The Democrats are the anti-liberty party. They want to force people to behave certain ways, spend people’s money for them, and control businesses despite their ignorance and ineptitude. They don’t think anything of forcing someone morally opposed to birth control to pay for it because they think nothing of liberty. Many are still against guns because liberty just scares them too much. Yet very few will ever argue directly against liberty because inherently they know its value, but that’s where we need to put the Democrats. We can’t let them retreat to their nonsense phrases like, “Freedom is not having to worry about health care costs!” Freedom is not an expansive concept you can redefine. If you’re forcing people to do things by government, then that is the opposite of freedom. The Democrats don’t like liberty, and we need to make them own up to it.
By being more conservative, we need to be more classically liberal not this compassionate conservatism nonsense. We need to be the party of stand on your own feet and use your freedom the best extent possible.
Frank, if we want our country back, we need to stop focusing on the Federal govt. They are evil, our Founding Fathers told us so. We need to strengthen States rights and we need to fight the Federal Govt on the State level, not at the Federal level.
Amendment X:
“The power not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,or to the people.”
Alabama made Obamacare illegal on Tuesday. The more the States fight for their rights against the Federal Govt, the more liberty we will have once again.
Well written, Frank. The Republican party has two problems.
We are currently watching the finest example of the failings of the Republican leadership playing out in front of us. In the wake of this election, the current “leaders” of the Republican party, who are the “face” of the Republican party – Boehner, McConnell, Cornyn, etc. – all believe the party is perceived as being strictly old, white guys. And, they ARE all old, white guys. So, if they believe that is the issue, the solution – for the good of the party, and the good of the country – is simple: Step down from their positions within the party and elect new, younger, more diverse leadership (someone like Marco Rubio Speaker of the House, for example) to put a new “face” on the Republican party. But, don’t hold your breath waiting for them to do so anytime soon, as they are a far cry from the founders of the party…they are all way too self-absorbed and put themselves before all else.
…submitted too soon:
The second problem is the reluctance of those same “leaders” to come to terms that they will never be served by the mainstream media. Instead of embracing and supporting the Tea Party, talk radio, conservative websites, etc. that can spread their message, they instead disown them and insult them out of fear that their association might be exploited by the “mainstream” media. They cannot accept that ANYTHING they do will be ridiculed, right down to Romney sending canned goods to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Wow, rough day. Okay, Rubio’s a senator, so he obviously wouldn’t be Speaker – I realized that as soon as I sent it, but you get the idea.
Conservative and Liberal are labels which now mean the opposite of who they identify. Liberals hate liberty (they hate that which they fear and fear that which they do not understand), and Conservatives want more liberty (a radical change in direction from the one this country has slid towards, whereas conservative means a stubborn resistance to change).
Liberals should rightly be re-branded as socialists, cental-planners, or serfs. Conservatives should align themselves more with radical(comparatively) Libertarians.
I consider myself to be a conservative Libertarian. I realize that to get where we want to be from where we will be after 4 more years of Obamunism will require cultural change on a large scale. To jump straight to Libertarian Utopia is a bridge to far, but we need to change course in its direction, and away from the culture of dependence on the false idol of government. We need to start by tearing down the biggest strawman of all – Federal Government. Educate people that “Government” is really an imaginary entity, made to facelessly act as all of us, but controlled by a few who can be corrupted. Everything the government provides it does so wastefully and with resources it takes from all of us. Resources we could each individually put to better use to the benefit of ourselves and our community.
…Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose…
Tau Dades makes specific reference to the 10th Amendment…that’s fine IF you have a government which respects the constitution.
The Obama administration does NOT respect the constitution.
THAT is something we have to wrap our minds around…but QUICK!
Ideological and philosophical discussions are fine…conduct them over pints of Guinness and solve the nation’s myriad problems before last call.
Just deal with the fact that we exist, today, right the phugh NOW, in a post constitutional, truly imperial, proto-tyranny.
Laws are selectively respected when only convenient for the tyrant.
THAT is the immediate, existing, paradigm. (Just look at how mayors, governors and POTUS dealt with enforcing the laws when dealing with the Occupiers.)
Conservative/Liberal? Pffffft!!
Legal/Illegal & Constitutional/Post-constitutional…THAT is what we must come to grips with.
Let’s deal with THAT, ok?
My wish list:
For Karl Rove and Dick Morris-shut the hell up and go away.
For Rick Perry-I love you as my Gov, but BACK AWAY from 2016-you’ll be too old and we don’t want anyone who has already lost (last time I checked, O has never lost an election)
For Mark Rubio-please have a squeaky clean background and don’t strap your dog to the roof of your car or do anything the lefties can jump on.
For Ted Cruz-do a bang-up job as my senator-we may very well NEED a Rubio/Cruz ticket in 2016 to win.
Now, what’s the over/under on the number of vacay’s Michelle will take in the next four years-I’m saying 18.
Here’s the problem: all politics is built on pandering. Democrats pander on stupid things that appeal to people’s feelings like race or sex. Republicans pander on serious principles like life or truth.
When Democrat groups disagree, it’s not such a big deal to them. They can give or take more easily because the ties that bind them are loose and squishy. When Republicans disagree, they break hard. Because things matter more to them. Like the Word of God or the Founding Father’s Principles.
It’s over. The principled few have lost. There are not enough principled people to maintain influence in the “mob rule” democracy. It’s time to pull back and focus on our families, our homes, our churches, and our local communities.
The Dems’ idea of liberty is liberty of illegal immigration, liberty of abortion, and liberty of homosexual marriage. Either swing voters prefer those positive liberties over your negative liberties, Frank, or there is something stylistic about Obama or Romney that determined the election.
No, people, it’s not about “pandering”…nor is it about partisan nuances and perceptions of “liberty.”
That, people, is pre-Nov. 6th thinking.
What is the paradigm now is POST,/b>-constitutional existence.
The very framework /foundation of America has been voided. (Remember “fundamental transformation”, hmmm? ‘Menba dat?!?)
When a president who has sworn to uphold, protect, and defend the very document he holds in utter disdain due to what it prohibits government from doing….and the SCOTUS takes no judicial notice of multiple malfeasances…then, people, we are in freefall.
That is anarchy.
Let’s discuss that, shall we?
We need to be principled.
Not one of the current batch has principles, or they would never be ready to compromise them.
The Republicans got routed this election, but the Libertarian party had a great election season. The Libertarian candidate got the highest number of votes ever, and many state-level positions went to libertarian candidates. While I realize I am comparing apples and oranges, I think we can draw some conclusions.
The Republicans have lost their way. They quit being the party of personal responsibility and personal freedom. They became the party of pandering, big government when it suited them, and bowing to populist ideas when they thought it would get them votes. They did it with McCain, and they did it again with Romney. The party claimed to “see the light”, but they actively worked to root out the fiscally conservative candidates so that the most moderate, big government candidate would win. They are beyond hope. We can’t afford to lose any more elections this way. Republicans need to become the “Progressive Libertarian” party. What I mean by that, is they need to become the path by which we move towards a Libertarian type government. What Libertarians don’t realize is that America can’t instantly become a Libertarian state. They also don’t realize that sometimes pro-active foreign involvement is necessary to secure our country and its borders. Republicans need to stop treating immigration like it is a cancer, and start finding ways to make getting a work visa or green card very easy, while simultaneously coming down hard on illegals and companies that hire them. Become the party of compassion for our legal guests. Frame immigration in terms of wanting to protect our new guests and citizens from unsafe working conditions and slave-like wages. Quit worrying about “gay marriage”. You can be religiously opposed all you want, but at the end of the day, two dudes or two women hooking up doesn’t affect you personally, so there should be no legal reason why it isn’t allowed. The same goes with drugs. Drugs, like guns, should be legal. If you do something bad to someone while using them, you should be punished. We already have those laws in place. Make those connections and unite the opposition with you. Frame anti-affirmative action in terms of not treating races and genders like handicaps and wanting to treat everyone equally.
Republicans need to wake up and realize that Fiscal Conservatism sells, but they lose every time because the “average joe” doesn’t care so much about the deficit as they do about the government in their bedroom. Quit trying to mandate religiously derived laws on people when those behaviors hurt no one but the individual.
Bunkerhillbilly, while I don’t disagree with you, I think you may have missed my point. The Federal Govt is out of control. We can not contain it by working within it. The Federal Govt and the States used to struggle for power fairly regularly, in the early days of this Republic. Now, States just go along with whatever The Federal Govt says, whether its Congress, the White House, or the Supreme Court. Believe it or not, there was a time when the Supreme Court’s rulings on the Constitutionality of anything was blatantly ignored. Given recent rulings and the current make up of the Court, States should probably look into that option again.
Arizona is a perfect example of the Federal Govt ignoring its CONSTITUTIONAL responsibilities, and then using the courts to further bring down the State. I submit, that the Constitution explicitly gives the States authority to defend itself against invasion. Whether or not foreign nationals are entering a nation illegally, and murdering people is considered an “invasion”, I suppose is up to debate.
The main method the Federal Govt uses against the States to comply is with holding Federal funds. What happens if the States refuse to allow their citizens to pay Federal Taxes?
The States have options, they just haven’t used any. It shall be my goal, from now own, to ensure that I am active in my local govt and State govt, as I am able, to take power back to the local and State level.
Obama won by creating a coalition of 3 groups:
Racist Americans
Stupid Americans
Greedy Americans
we are boned.