Gop Needs Redormation?
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I think its what needs to happen. Interesting story.
http://mobile.usnews.com/news/blogs/Ken-Walshs-Washington/2013/02/06/the-coming-gop-revival
The Republican Party is trying to rejuvenate itself, much like the Democrats did a generation ago when they experienced great difficulty connecting with Middle America and were thrown out of the White House
This was the Republican era of Ronald Reagan, who served eight years as president starting in 1981 and then was followed in office by his vice president, George H.W. Bush. During that 12-year period, the Democrats realized they were doing something very wrong, and they started to pay more attention to their centrists instead of letting the liberals hold sway. That kind of rethinking is going on in the GOP today, with the focus on whether Republicans have moved too far to the right and have become too obstructionist.
Some Republicans are trying to lead a full-fledged conservative revival through the use of tough love. Among those at the forefront is Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who told GOP activists last week that the Republicans should stop being the "stupid party" and emphasize economic growth rather than austerity or divisive social issues.
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee last year and a possible contender for president in 2016, told the National Review Institute, a conservative group, that Republicans should remain true to their principles but need to do a better job explaining their ideas. "We can't get rattled [by President Obama's re-election]," said Ryan, who is chairman of the House Budget Committee. "We won't play the villain in his morality plays. We have to stay united. We have to show that, if given the chance, we can govern"
Reince Priebus, newly re-elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, said, "It's not the platform of the party that's the issue. In many cases, it's how we communicate about it."
Another conservative trying to rebuild the party is former senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the new president of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. He argues that the conservative problem is one of bad public relations, not a flaw in policies or a dearth of ideas.
DeMint goes further than many other conservatives saying that Americans of the right have learned from recent election setbacks, including the re-election of Obama, that they can no longer trust the Republican Party to carry their message.
Conservative strategist Bill Kristol, former White House chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle during George H.W. Bush's presidency, is considering the creation of a policy and research center to update the GOP's message. Some compare it to the Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist organization Bill Clinton once headed that helped shift the party to the middle. But Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, appears to have no interest in moving the party to the center, preferring to find ways to make conservatism more appealing.
Although the hard-line conservatives are getting most of the attention, some moderates are trying to make their presence felt. Former secretary of state Colin Powell, who is also former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticizes "a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party" and Republicans who "still sort of look down on minorities." Powell is African-American and, even though he is a Republican, he endorsed Obama for the White House in both 2008 and 2012.
But Democrats realize that they succeeded in making their way back to power by moving to the center. And this led to the rise of Bill Clinton, who defeated Bush in 1992 and broke the Republican hold on the White House. He did it by avoiding ideological stubbornness and zealotry. Many Republicans today see Obama's re-election in November as a wake-up call signaling that the nation is changing demographically and politically, and the GOP needs to adjust.
They're right, experts say. Forty-nine percent of Americans hold a negative view of the Republican Party, its worst negative rating since 2008, and only 26 percent have a positive view, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll. In contrast, only 38 percent hold a negative view of the Democratic Party, and 44 percent hold a positive view. Obama does relatively well, with 52 percent approving of his job performance.
Revival will be a long process, but experts say it's probably a necessary one if the Republicans are to remain a viable national party over the long run
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I agree with looking more toward the center, especially on social issues.
The last two years have shown you can't just win with Cals
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Obamao won twice because Reagan won twice because......
It's the swing of the pendulum. Go ahead and kid yourselves, lefties, and tell yourselves
you're on a roll no matter how much Obamao screws up.
We'll see. From the looks of it, I say the pendulum definately swings back the other way.
That is, if the Constitution hasn't been thrown out in an Obamao fit of phoney martial law.....
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Yes it does.
"Persons are smart, people are stupid" Social issues won the election for Obama & cost the election for the jackass ambiguously gay duo the Republicans nominated.
Stop trying to legislate morality. Stop trying to make it a platform.
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Social issues will always matter. If the general population feels current laws are not just, they will change.
It is easy for people to say "Stop legislating morality! We have more important issues!" etc, when the current social laws in place are on the side they agree with.
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I see ultra conservatives more than liberals as trying to legislate morality. I mean, really, with so many problems in this country who gives a crap about gays? Just let them be. This whole gays in scouts things is bring held up by the religious right. Give it a rest. Like gays don't want to hike and camp learn to do stuff, all they can think about is their uncontrollable need to corrupt the straight.
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I will offer this for consideration.
Who cares about a brand name?
If you have core values then what difference does it make if your party gives them up?
If you truly believe abortion is murder then why would you want your party to agree that it's OK at anytime for any reason?
For you Lefties who were so outraged at War criminal George Bush's treatment of the Constitution?
So what difference does it make whether you have a donkey or an elephant on your ball cap?
Let's say you drink diet coke.
If the people at corporate headquarters decide it would sell better if it had more sugar than regular coke, why would you buy it?
Those of us on the left or on the right have seen our ideals eroded.
The brand probably isn't, or shouldn't be, that important.
WSS
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Would you rather vote for the party that has all the values you believe in but lose the election
Or compromise on some and have a party where you believe in most of the values and have them win?
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Would you rather vote for the party that has all the values you believe in but lose the election
Or compromise on some and have a party where you believe in most of the values and have them win?
Would you rather vote for the party that has all the values you believe in but lose the election
Or compromise on some and have a party where you believe in most of the values and have them win?
I suppose I'd need to weigh out each of those issues, but frankly I can't see where that would make much difference.
There is more parity in the political parties than in the NFL.
I think we basically pick our guy and then, after that, start to compile a list of reasons.
WSS
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Well I'm guessing (hoping) most people pick their guy based on how he aligns with their beliefs.
Unless they just blindly pick by party affiliation.
But then again I guess that's going by your values as well.
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The problem imo is that both sides have become to polarizing, the republicans suffer more since their base tends to be people who have established themselves more financially(usually older adults). To often to get the presidential nomination from either side they have to pander to the far right(or left) being to far away from the center to pick up more "swing" votes. If the republicans want to get serious and to take back the white house in 4yrs they should focus more on their fiscal responsibilities issues(and not just be the party of "no" to everything brought by the president) and less on "morality" type of issues, I am not saying to come out and be pro-abortion/gay marriage, but try and move the focus from those issues.
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I think most people vote for the person they think will help THEM the most.
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I think most people vote for the person they think will help THEM the most.
I think most people vote for the person they think will help THEM the most.
Which is precisely the reason the GOP needs to pander more to the center. If you're going to win on nothing but extreme right views you simply will not win.
Steve wonders why anyone would compromise their positions on subjects like abortion...because you want to win. Nothing more.
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Actually Cysko there arent too many issues that are of dire importance to me.
What let's say there was.
If party A decides that they will do exactly what party B wants and neither agree with me then who cares?
Is there any issue that really matters to you?
I'm being facetious now but let's say 1 party agreed with you on every issue except that they want to bring back slavery ....
WSS
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Actually Cysko there arent too many issues that are of dire importance to me.
What let's say there was.
If party A decides that they will do exactly what party B wants and neither agree with me then who cares?
Is there any issue that really matters to you?
I'm being facetious now but let's say 1 party agreed with you on every issue except that they want to bring back slavery ....
WSS
Actually Cysko there arent too many issues that are of dire importance to me.
What let's say there was.
If party A decides that they will do exactly what party B wants and neither agree with me then who cares?
Is there any issue that really matters to you?
I'm being facetious now but let's say 1 party agreed with you on every issue except that they want to bring back slavery ....
WSS
That's a ridiculous example.
Of course you have to weigh each issue's importance to you though.
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Actually Cysko there arent too many issues that are of dire importance to me.
What let's say there was.
If party A decides that they will do exactly what party B wants and neither agree with me then who cares?
Is there any issue that really matters to you?
I'm being facetious now but let's say 1 party agreed with you on every issue except that they want to bring back slavery ....
WSS
That's a ridiculous example.
Of course you have to weigh each issue's importance to you though.
That's a ridiculous example.
Of course you have to weigh each issue's importance to you though.
Of course it's a ridiculous example, woody.
But as I say most issues don't freak me out much.
There are some people that take other things very seriously.
I mentioned the right to life people and the anti war crowd.
WSS
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so the fact remains - the 47% voters of red states / counties reacted to the self styled "center"
position of the libs when they actually decided to go the left of center....the republicans did not have the right guy this time (again) and never mind about voter fraud.....
like Cal said, ebb and flow - besides, the nation will go to the conservative party when it comes time to fix the real problems of its financial house...
right now its just an admiration society
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