after voting Republican my entire life, right now I’m a very tenuous Republican. I’m on the bubble. I say that because I have yet to see a modern Republican government shrink government.

What I see a lot of talk and no action. What I see is a 10 trillion dollar debt.

I mean, how many times am I supposed to be fooled before I get the joke? Seriously. Why should I trust the GOP again?

and totally right on. It felt as though most of our message was “well, I’ll give you this if you vote for me”…It became about who gave the bigger handout, and “we will create a hand-up” – one of the basic principles (and others) of our party were no longer on the table. We need to look back (twenty – eight to be exact) to see forward right now.

now, just a shameless plug to my diary here… Michael Reagan is starting a new group called ReaganAction.com – You can become a ReaganActivist

and totally right on. It felt as though most of our message was “well, I’ll give you this if you vote for me”…It became about who gave the bigger handout, and “we will create a hand-up” – one of the basic principles (and others) of our party were no longer on the table. We need to look back (twenty – eight to be exact) to see forward right now.

now, just a shameless plug to my diary here… Michael Reagan is starting a new group called ReaganAction.com – You can become a ReaganActivist

The Republican Party has lost it’s bearings. It wasn’t the Democrats GOTV. It wasn’t 3 million people text messaging each other to vote for Obama.
There is a reason why some call us Republicrats!

The Republican Party has lost it’s bearings. It wasn’t the Democrats GOTV. It wasn’t 3 million people text messaging each other to vote for Obama.
There is a reason why some call us Republicrats!

Now how do we get our party back on track?

Well stated.

For years I wondered how a person with a high IQ could be a Liberal, or an extremely successful person could be a Liberal.

The only logical conclusion I could come to was they really do not believe a common average person can be successful and pursue their dreams in America. They attributed their success to their superior IQ, or ironically a God given talent. We have often referred to them as Elitist that looked down on everyone as inferior humans incapable of matching their successes. I believe it is a mistake for conservatives to think of them as someone who thinks they are better than most people. I think the correct way to understand them is to think of them as someone who knows they have a high IQ or a special ability that makes them successful and they feel sorry for the common man for not being gifted with that edge, hence the foundation for their belief system, since the common man has no hope of prosperity on their on, the government and the prosperous should be required to make up the difference through all forms of assistance and handouts.

The other group of Liberals, the unsuccessful ones, I see as bitter people who think since they could not be successful, the deck is stacked against them by evil rich capitalist that keep them oppressed and plot to keep them poor.

The American Dream is real. Any person who wants to be prosperous and practices some very basic and simple rules, can be, regardless of IQ or lack of some great skill. That does not make it easy, but it can be done by the common man. Liberal do not believe this, but we know it to be fact because we see it in people around us everyday.

Take a Liberal successful small business owner and they will attribute their success to their great abilities others lack. Take a Conservative successful small business owner and they will attribute their success to following very simple basic rules of providing a product or service at a competitive price and working very hard at it over time. The Conservative knows their path to success can be taught to anyone, the Liberal believes since their success is based on their personal attributes,it can not be taught.

It is my belief our current Republican Leaders have fallen victim to the above Liberal mindset. That is why they appear to be the Democrat Lite Party instead of Reagan Republicans. I think Peggy Noonan is the perfect example. She is a Conservative Elitist who thinks her success is because of how wonderful she is. She demonstrated for the world to see in her perspective on Sarah Palin who embodies what real Conservatives believe.

I am an optimist, but it is my sincere belief our current batch of Republican Leaders are nothing more that Conservative Elitists who do not believe the common man can be successful if government gets out of his way. They play lip-service to it simply to garner votes from our side.

Pejman, an insightful post as always, and I agree that Republicans could go a long way toward rehabilitation and recovery if they recognize this and adjust accordingly.

But I also think that there are just too many people in this country, particularly in the in under-30 crowd, who think government should be active and intricately involved in every single problem.

Maybe the GOP should do this, maybe another organization, but someone needs to put together a coordinated effort on the ideological side of things, so that when the GOP does come around to its roots, there is an electorate that will overwhelmingly respond positively. Not in the 55-45 majority area, but in the 70-30 landslide area.

PY: Great post

I agree with Armey that McCain did not argue convincingly that his health plan and tax cuts would work well.

Now that the election is over, I urge Republicans in Congress to focus Americans’ attention on entrepreneurial small businesses in health and energy that are innovative and profitable.

Republicans, please don’t get caught up in anti-Democrat rhetoric and
let green energy and health care become Democratic issues.

this rather atypical gloomy article
wherein he notes that by 2012 over half the country will be non-taxpayers. He questions whether center-right is really a correct description on the American electorate anymore, or if it is, how much longer that description will continue to be accurate.

Republicans have a tough task. On the one hand, they alienate their own base, and promote eventual economic disaster, with “moderate” or “compassionate conservative” policies regarding government size and spending. But with more and more people feeding at the public trough, how can they continue to be elected by promising smaller government and less government spending when so much of the electorate has a vested interest in the opposite?

The answer has to lie in more creative solutions to problems which may, at least in the short run, involve more government involvement in the economy but which in the longer term would allow non-governmental solutions to take hold. I know that’s a paradox, and no, I don’t know what those solutions might be. I wish I did. But part of the answer has to be finding and grooming creative Republican politicians who can clearly and eloquently state the conservative case — in other words, the antithesis of GWB and McCain.

But we need to stop thinking like us. The typical American voter does not ponder such things, even during an election. This is not an insult, I do not mean to imply that they are not capable, it is a statement of fact-most Americans are to busy with work and family and other interests.

Yes, the conservative positions of small government, individual freedom, low taxes, free markets, etc. need to be emphasized. But they also need to be explained. People want to know how policies will affect them.

For example, McCain’s healthcare plan was described(when he even took the time to mention it) as “free market.” Here comes Obama and totally distorts the plan, with absolutely no opposition.

Yes, the plan was “free market,” and yes, people need to hear that term, most people still think that is a positive thing, but what they also needed to hear from Senator McCain was something like “under my plan, every insurance company in the nation will compete for your business.”

I will scream it again-populism and demaguagery are why we have faced such losses.

If you think spouting “conservative ideas” is going to be enough to win, you are sadly mistaken. They need to be expressed, and explained.

Another example, cutting the corporate income tax. McCain got slammed in commercials for wanting to give more tax breaks to corporations. He did manage to sneak in the point that our tax rate is very high compared to other industrialized nations, but most of the attacks worked, at least where I live. He was defined as someone who wanted to give breaks to companies, and not the “little guy.”

How do we counter this? The only way is to point out to people that when the tax rate is cut, incomes will rise, prices may decline, etc. But we need to anticipate the liberal counter argument, which will be that those evil corporations will simply keep the extra money. At that point, a candidate like McCain or Bush would stop and move on to a different topic, handing the liberal the win, instead of replying that labor is a market, companies compete for workers and customer, and then lambasting the opponent for shameless demaguagery or a dangerous lack of economic knowledge.

The republican base is mad at republicans for abandoning their principles. The American people are angry because they believe that republicans gave large tax breaks to the rich(the purpose of which hasn’t been adequately explained)let oil companies make obscene profits at their expense, haven’t fixed skyrocketing insurance costs, give tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, created the financial mess by deregulating Wall Street, etc.

Until that is realized, and we find another great communicator who has the intelligence, rhetorical ability, and the stones to destroy liberal arguments and effectively explain conservative ones, we will have a difficult time winning.

Go to a little league baseball game or a blue collar bar after work. Ask some random people whether they would rather vote for you if you were a candidate that encouraged small government and free market healthcare reforms, or if you were a candidate who would punish companies that sent American jobs overseas and imposed price controls on gasoline.

We created this mess of people wanting more from Uncle Sam by giving it out in the first place. If people were more self sufficient they would be skeptical of anyone “offering” help like Obama did. He just made the pitch, the people were ready to buy long before he was ever heard of. Why can’t we cut it?

I am time pressed but what stops me is I don’t know how to write. My Grammar for Dummies text & workbook is collecting dust beside my mattress.
I wish I could write to counter some of the plight of the poor liberal nonsense and point out the invisible groups that do need help and real ways any half mature individual could help them.

I have never hard a dem or repub leader that really seems to understand the different reasons for poverty, the different levels of poverty and how it all plays out in people day to day lives. If they don’t understand that how can they make broad policy decisions? They talk about the poor like it’s a foreign country/culture they have never been too and group everyone together.

The faith based initiatives are so popular with Bush but they are not “the answer” to problems like he makes them out to be.