As Barack Obama won convincingly on Tuesday, Republicans went into "eating their young" mode. I think I've read over 100 posts online wherein Republicans were blaming certain groups or attacking leaders. Maybe that's going to happen no matter what ... but I'd like to ask everyone to take a deep breath. My least favorites are the Republicans who voted for Barack because they thought McCain was a RINO and needed to be taught a lesson. You know who you are!
Let's all agree that if we were backing John McCain, we got beat, convincingly. We lost the urban centers of America, oh sure most of the geography of America is red, but the cities where ideas are new, and change is rampant are blue. We lost the intellectual center of America, we aren't in the innovation sweet spots. Barack Obama appealed to "change" ... "new ideas" ... "innovation in gov't and private partnerships" ... the thinkers the challengers the progressives wanted Barack ... the students and youth of America wanted Barack.
I disagree with them, doesn't matter the voters spoke and they want something different, even if it doesn't work they are sick of waiting for the old way to turn out different.
Some ideas that work, from the experiences of the campaign:
- Technology can and will engage massive numbers of people, in giving ideas, participating in debates, donating money, and organizing at the grass roots. Barack took technological campaign organizing to a new level and Republicans were too late and too little. I agree with the prior post by Republicans Rock, We didn't get beat because we are Republicans, Republicans better change their ways and step into the 21st Century on technology. Some sites to subscribe and read and learn from - Tech Republican ... The NextGenGOP ... #DontGo Movement ... The Next Right ... (I'll add more later, remind me of some in the comments and I'll add em)
- The Republican Party is a mess, no one person's fault, just plain ole fashioned and boring. Grass roots campaigning has been lost to unions, ACORN, online groups, and special interests community groups. Whereas the Democrats have the White House, the Congress and many state leadership spots ... we here in Indiana need to begin governing from the lowest levels. Do you remember Mayor Jon Costas' call for community oriented governing? Where did that go? We got lost, busy, and forgot that community level, neighborhood level ideas are getting lost in the static. Again a note to technology, it used to be hard to organize a neighborhood, but with technology this will be extremely easy.
- Democrats here locally and at the national level won by being "against" things. Against the dump, against a new highway, against the Gary airport, against an income tax, against an increased sales tax, against reorganization of local government, against against against. (One good friend calls them CAVE Citizens Against Virtually Everything) Governor Mitch Daniels let them shoot themselves in the foot, he proposed a property tax cap and Democrats were against it. The public liked the idea of clamping down on local spending and they sent him back to the Governor's Office by 20 points. Even the unions backed him quietly because they knew that his privatization of the toll road (which democrats were against) has been creating jobs for the union with Major Moves money. If we want to ever win another election, we will need to be against something or for something that is so well received that Democrats are forced to prevaricate.
- Barack deserves a chance to be our President. We didn't like it when George Bush got attacked even before he got to office, mainly by those mad about the electoral college process and Florida. So, for me and my house, we'll support the President-designate Obama, pray for he and his advisors, and our nation. We'll disagree with anything that smacks of socialism or destroying family values. I personally want to work with other innovative conservatives, who will use technology to engage, to listen, to raise money, to debate, to go grass roots and neighborhood level ... to be against dumb things and for really common sense solutions to hard issues.
- Maybe I'm no longer a Conservative, since the wacky right wants everyone to accept a litmus test, I know I'm not a Progressive since that term was stolen by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair ... Independent nope gotta stand for something. Libertarians discount all the potential value of government-private partnerships. Greenies, come on even Michael Crichton said that global warming was a myth.
5 comments:
"wacky right" nails it. The Republican Party has to be a big tent party in order to really compete. The litmus test you talk about flies in the face of that and it is getting worse.
Also, one of Ronald Reagan's sons mentioned in a column months ago that the Republican Party has not been building at a grass roots level. Everyone in the Republican party wants to be a chief but nobody wants to build the party rank and file according to him.
Building at the grass roots will look and feel a lot different than oldline GOP leaders are used to. Many of them won't like the amount of listening to the citizens it will require.
Agreed.
Building at the grass roots level - at a level that will capture both the White House and the Congress requires a big tent - the way the Republican Party used to be.
It's easy to wave raw meat in front of the roaring mob, but that only build the lowest common denominator membership. That strategy will (has) alienated the intellectual Republican's (the William F. Buckley's). The Party need those minds - remeber it isn't just about winning the race - you have to rule after you win - and that is the hard part. You're only going to rule the nation well and wisely with sharp minds. If the party drives them all out then it's going nowhere.
When Reagan lost the first time, he threw himself into party building. He stumped for other Republican candidates both in Cal. and nationally for years. He helped build the party and that helped him win as Gov. and later as President.
I see the party having MANY smaller tents that cast a huge vision. These groups are run by very intelligent people (young & old) to re-invent a Republican PR virus. I also feel that the party gets in the way, not enough soldiers walking the streets, hitting the airways, texting, blogging and doing all the techno things that get more people excited about what ails them. With no connection, people begin to question why Republican, Democrats, etc. or worse yet, don't vote at all because they don't trust any of them. This techno way of campaigning is very different…looks and feels a whole lot different than the 80's & 90's way of campaigning and building from the ground up. PickensPlan has nearly 1.5 million members, most of them haven't even met on a local level, but all feel the need to engage and debate on the commom idea that we need to find a means of getting ourselves off foreign oil dependency. That's how it begins in the digital world. Just think when these people meet ALL together...the vibe this organization will have will be enormous, better yet a force not to be taken lightly!
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