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| These boots are made for walking - away if you screw things up again, GOP! |
It's been a while since i took to the keyboard (kudos BEL Radio!). Last time I asked for a dialogue about ideas, rather than shouting from the "Peanut Gallery" with rantings riddled with buzzwords full of self-righteousness,wrapping oneself in the flag, and dabbling in "what would Ronald Reagan do?" paganism. Solid ideas,pathway to prosperity and security should suffice (while emulating Reagan without tripping all over him, G-d bless his soul).
That post appeared right after Ted Cruz announced his candidacy We now have a diverse and young field (I know - who's the old white party now?) with six dynamic candidates vs. Hillary Clinton and Bernie "The Commie" Sanders.
I know I should be excited about our prospects for 2016. After all,Obama's legacy should not be hard to run against. The left is not crazy about out-of-touch Hillary, who set up shop in my backyard in Brooklyn N.Y., and are certainly not enamored with Brooklyn-born Bernie Sanders.
So what can go wrong?
Answer: GOP Party bosses and their consultants.
The simple fact is that the Republican Party is not just out of touch with its base - it's worse - they are out of touch with the average American. They have failed in basic political outreach and making sure non-traditional Republican voters can identify with our message. Just about every right-wing minority group member I know (including myself as an Orthodox Jewish) will never give credit to the RNC for their introduction to conservatism. Like it or not,it's the all thanks to traditional family values, talk-radio,the internet, and yes, the political apostates lead by the four horsemen of the apocalypse - The Tea Party.
Karl Rove, Haley Barbour & Co. discovered that they can't harness the power of the Tea Party without adopting the populist free market vs. crony capitalism/corporate welfare message. Sure, it was also about ObamaCare and increased taxes at first, but to the grassroots, it was more about the reemergence of the silent majority letting their voice be heard. A voice that led to John Beohner's election to Speaker of the House in 2010 (who then turned his back on us!) and it is the same voice that kicked out Eric Cantor in 2014. Beltway Republicans gritted their teeth wondering why the can't keep the rank and file voter in line like the Democrats have done. In many ways, 2010 was the backlash of the 2008 "Hope & Change".
But don't think K Street just was not ready to roll over.
The tipping point for many came in the Cochran-McDaniel run-off 2014. Senator Thad Cochran lost to Chris McDaniel in the primary. Since McDaniel was short of 50% of the votes,a run-off open to all voters including Democrats was held. The Cochran camp with Haley Barbour decided to scare black folks in Mississippi not to vote for someone who "disrespects the first black President" and "intends to prevent blacks from voting."
Alienation of the base - all brought to you by the team who "knows how to win" and "wants to reach out to minorities".
So to wrap up the grievances of this young Republican / leaning Libertarian, let me say this: make sure you secure your own base before reaching out to others. Republican leaders need us more than you care to admit. Do the math - we have less registered voters than registered Democrats, and they turn out to vote in the Presidential Elections. A majority of Independents lean our way but are far from guaranteed to come out and vote for team GOP. So do us all a favor and start preaching the "right" message. Non-traditional bases should not be patronized. Make our existing message personal to their American experience. If you think you can jump on the Anti-Tea Party bandwagon and expect to get away with shoving down Jeb Bush down my throat, you have another thing coming.
I'm fresh out of nose-clips to bring with me to my polling station to pull the lever for just any GOP candidate anymore. Just saying.
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