Much has been said and written about what and how the Republican Party should do to turn around its fortunes in 2010 and 2012. There is, in fact, no shortage of recommendations: be more conservative; attract more moderates; go back to Republican principles; ignore the Religious Right; be more Constitutionalist; be more Libertarian. Throw all the incumbents out.
Follow those directions and victory is assured? Not exactly. Follow that route and the Promised Land is probably a lot more than 40 years away because certainly those directions are nothing short of confusing to the max.
Karl Rove on Fox News Sunday had the most practical, realistic, and honest advice we could ever want: Find candidates that reflect your views and work your butt off to get them elected.
Ok – so that sounds simple and obvious. Why then did the Republicans loose so badly in the last election? Precisely because we didn’t find candidates that we believed supported our political views – starting at the top. John McCain – God love him – is an honorable man, a hero, a great American. We respect him; we thank him for his many years of service and sacrifice for this country, but we Republicans never really supported his positions on many of the issues we find important. His commitment to Life was fine – no argument there. But that’s not the only issue that Republicans vote on – contrary to what many on both sides of the abortion issue would like to have us believe. And we knew he was totally behind our military and our national security. BUT – there was McCain-Feingold, the campaign finance legislation that most Republicans believe violated our First Amendment (Freedom of Speech) rights; his proposed solution to the illegal immigration issue (amnesty by any other name?); his support for the original financial bail out program during the election focused our concerns on his fiscal conservancy. When we tallied up the score, John McCain was only batting .500 on the top six issues for conservative voters. Had it not been for his breathtakingly brilliant choice for a running mate, Sarah Palin, McCain would have suffered not only an electoral college thumpin’, but a huge percentage point loss in the popular vote too.
When push comes to shove – Americans want to vote FOR something – and in 2008, most Republicans couldn’t vote for John McCain; all we could do was vote against Obama.
The same could be said for many of the “down ticket” races also. Here in Montana, our second-tier races generated less enthusiasm than a bucket of warm spit. Who in their right mind would get out there and work for Bob Kelleher? Max may not be anybody’s definition of a political giant, but he isn’t a perennial political joke either. Denny Rehberg may not have lit anybody’s fire, but John Driscoll assured a safe seat there – so no need to get worked up on that race. And in the statewide races, enthusiasm for our candidates ranged from pretty enthused (Tim Fox!) to supportive but not willing to work hard for them (Roy Brown and Duane Grimes) to apathetic-at-best (Elaine Herman and Brad Johnson).
When we look for reasons why Montana Republicans did so poorly in the statewide races, the reality is that we didn’t have candidates we were willing to work our butts off for. Simple as that. If you look at the local races there were very real successes. Right here in Lewis and Clark County – the People’s Republic of. County Commission race. Ed Tinsley – grand high almighty rising star in the Democrat Party, incumbent, lots of money, name recognition, perfect candidate on paper. Challenger – Derek Brown – virtual unknown, political neophyte, no big money or party backing. He captured the imagination and fire of the community and was able to reach out with his message of honesty and accountability to gain the ACTIVE support of literally hundreds of local citizens. His victory was hard fought and very sweet. There were plenty of other local and legislative races around the state where the general antipathy of the Republican Party was overcome by the hard work and enthusiasm of individual supporters who were willing to do whatever it took to prevail – even against huge odds.
As we look toward 2010, the message is clear: If Republicans are going to be successful we need to find good candidates who articulate a message we can support. And then we all need to work our butts off. It really is that simple.
I had a problem with McCain from the very beginning. It was like listening to a “lite” version of Obama.
The media shamelessly foisted McCain on Republicans with the lie that we had to have a “moderate” candidate. They kept pushing that after Bush that only a “moderate” Republican could win.
It seemed that we had “moderate” Republicans or wacko’s running for office. That and a total lack of a difference between the goals made the “moderate” Republican party boring.
Sarah Palin showed that conservatives were ready to support a true conservative Republican. That was why the media did it’s upmost (and continues) to trash her when ever they get the chance.
Well a “moderate” Republican is what CA got for governor and we can all see that produces a tax-and-spend Democrat party agenda with a total failure of public support which will now be blamed on Republicans. Most everybody has forgotten that it was Arnold who supported government funded embryonic stem cell research. Billions wasted on what should have been done by the private sector with absolutely no reward for the citizens of CA.
The media and Democrats have defined the Republican party as a bunch of science ignoring rubes who don’t believe in evolution. A party of old white men. (Another reason the media fears Palin) We have to redefine ourselves. That yes we believe in evolution as a science and intelligent design (creationism) as a religion and that we can separate those beliefs. That yes we believe in stem cell research but it is not up to the government to do that research. It is up to the private sector and like all law abiding citizens they have to respect the laws of this country during that research.
We are gaining on converting the public against abortion on demand, but when we demand to an outright ban on all abortions that is when we lose the public. How can we find an exception for waterboarding and not find an exception for rape or incest in abortion. We, like Democrats, will never have 100% backing for our party agenda. But if we can maintain greater then 50% backing and get greater then 50% of our agenda is that not winning?