Republican Party

At Pajamas Media, I write about the key to a revival of the Right and the Republican Party.  The key points....

The Left didn't change their ideals, they changed the story.

In the years since 1980, Democrats cast about for a motivating purpose — a story that would carry them back to a long-term governing majority. They tried liberalism, moderation, and triangulation.

Now, they’re back. But the Left did not retake the executive and legislative branches by being more liberal or more moderate, or by clever political jujitsu. Democrats became the majority because they changed the story.

The Left and Right each built their movements out of paranoia at the machine they believed the other side had built.

[T]he modern progressives have very explicitly modeled their new movement on the movement built by the Right in the ’60s and ’70s.  Paranoia is an excellent strategist.

On what the Right must do now.

For now, the goal should be to build ideological infrastructure — organically — outside the entrenched political establishment. We should build unifying grievances. We should organize ideas and then people. The Republican Party will not lead the Right out of the problems that plague the Republican Party; it will have to follow.

If a movement is to draw a party into its orbit, the movement must have the gravitational pull of messaging, mobilization, and fundraising capacity. For now, it is our role to uncover, organize, and deliver information.

In other words — to change the story.

You can read the entire article here.

It's the Money, the Media, the Groundswell/Grassroots Effort, and the Leadership

I have been listening and reading to a vast array of political experts/pundits and their ideas regarding what has gone wrong with the Republican Party.  Many are spot on and a few are way off base in my opinion.  I am of the opinion that things do need to change, but not our core conservative ideology.

As I have mentioned in replies to other bloggers on this site, this country is 232 years old.  Over this span of time, just about every concept or political ideology has been tried.  Some have been dismal failures and others have been resounding successes.  At the end of the day, there are not many NEW ideas rather, there are new ways to package, present, and communicate these ideas to the American electorate.  It also helps to have a leader that inspires the electorate and can communicate these ideas to the masses with charisma and vision.

I challenge anyone to educate me as to what Obama has campaigned or promised that is new.  Tell me what new ideas that Obama has presented that hasn't already been tried from Clinton to Carter to FDR.  Obama has simply sold a bag of goods that has already been done before or has tried to be done in one fashion or another (HilaryCare for example).  At best, one could only cite tidbits of change or newness with respect to a broader idea. 

First and foremost we need to acknowledge the failures of the RINO leadership we have had in Washington for the past 8 years and we need a comprehensive national strategy with a concerted focus on fund raising, the media, and a major grassroots effort unlike any ever accomplished in the Republican Party.  Record fund raising is a must to counter the Obama Machine and to counter the liberal media establishment.  The need for the grassroots effort should be obvious.

This will not be easy.  There has been a lot of trust lost in the Republican Party and for good reason.  I personally have friends and relatives who are ready to give money and help organize, but everyone is sitting back to see how the dust settles and who they feel they can trust with the future of the party.  It also makes it difficult when we have created a system where nearly 50% of the electorate pay zero federal income taxes and have no stake in the federal system whatsoever.  Further, with the Dems likely to push hard for amnesty for the illegals, we will likely lose the Hispanic vote for the foreseeable future. Where do you suppose these votes will go?? Consequently, we have to face the fact that we will constantly be working for the 5-7 percenters out there who always seem to be on the fence (at least for the short to mid term). 

The Republican Party must rebuild the party with its core conservative values but with new methodologies for communicating our ideas and creating a groundswell of grass roots activity that we can all believe.  We need to communicate our ideas and ideology to the American people and stop acting like Democrats (McCain, Powel, Bloomberg, and Schwarzenegger are prime examples).  We need to defines ourselves and not allow the liberal establishment to define the Republican Party.  We must have leaders with the charisma to communicate to the masses a singular voice of the party and a unique ability to raise much needed campaign funds.  Over time, with success, we can regain the Reagan American Spirit we so fondly remember.

Doug Peterson

www.twitter.com/dpeterson329

Republican officials and strategists debating how bad things really are for the Republican Party.  They break down between don't worry, we'll be fine and we've got a problem.  It is very instructive to note how they are divided, though...

GOP officials and strategists at party conferences last week offered sharply contrasting assessments of what went wrong, and of how difficult it will be to rebuild. Perhaps not surprisingly, the split tended to fall along generational lines.

Older party hands pointed to John McCain’s lackluster campaign and the difficult terrain on which Republicans found themselves battling this year, and they eschewed any sky-is-falling rhetoric.

The up-and-comers, meanwhile, sounded the alarm of impending permanent minority status unless the party changes.

The Republican Party is drunk.  They have gotten drunk on power, drunk on status, and drunk on their own BS.

The divide on the future of the Republican Party is not ideological (they basically agree on the core ideals), but between the old guard and the new guard.  This is ultimately a fight to maintain the status quo - to preserve the political fiefdoms of a party of drunks.

The old guard wants to maintain the status quo.  They believe a little "we've learned our lesson" will bring the pendulum swinging back to them.  That's been the approach for a long time now, and sometimes it has even gotten Republicans elected....though they never seem to make much progress with that political capital. 

The old guard is an alcoholic.  They don't need rehab; one more drink will ease the pain.

The new guard understands that Republicans didn't just have a difficult cycle.  They had a difficult cycle because Republicans have very real problems and merely waiting for a better political environment won't address those underlying problems.

The new guards are also alcoholics, but they are ready for rehab.

The new guard is right.  The questions are what kind of rehabilitation they have in mind, what the Republican Party looks like on the other side, and how sustainable a project that will be. 

The Drunk Party needs new ideas, not merely a new drug.

There is a lot of talk (and blame) about what the Republican Party needs to do to rebuild itself.  As a campaign Internet consultant, I certainly agree with Patrick Ruffini that change won't come from the top down and that the Internet is vital in developing real grassroots operations.  However, it seems to me that something considerably more important is missing from many of the strategies suggested so far.

Since the Republican Party congressional losses of 2006, many people have been offering advice to the GOP, but it seems as if no one is listening to the likes of Richard Viguerie, Ryan Sager, John Dean, Peggy Noonan, Ron Paul, Michael Tanner, Bob Barr, and the many others who have been suggesting the same general message: get back to the basics of small-government conservatism.

The Internet is merely a tool, a medium to inform and energize the grassroots.  Without a coherent message, it's as useless as John McCain's Meetup numbers.

It's almost as if Republicans have forgotten what fiscal conservatism is.  To illustrate the point, I recall speaking with one of the students Mitt Romney had reportedly bussed in to CPAC 2007.  When asked why she supported Romney, the student replied that "Romney's health care plan in Massachusetts is a shining example of a conservative solution."

Shortly after this encounter, I ran into Ryan Sager in the hallway.  After relating the story to him, he chuckled and made reference to his book The Elephant in the Room.  Months later, when I told Richard Viguerie the same story, he shook his head sadly and talked about a lost generation which knows virtually nothing about conservatism.

Face it folks, the Republican Party has lost its branding.  It is no longer inaccurate to consider the GOP the party of big government, bloated budgets, billion dollar tax increases and bailouts. 

Immediately following Super Tuesday, many of us knew and accurately predicted November's electoral outcome.

Republicans nominated a man with a poor record on the Second Amendment and an absolutely abysmal record on the First.  While Obama (according to NTU data) wanted to increase federal spending by nearly $300 billion per year, McCain's policy proposals would have increased the cost of government by almost a hundred billion dollars per year.  And these data were derived prior to McCain's support of the bailout plans.

McCain talked a big game about cutting earmarks, which aren't nearly as statistically significant as even the tip of an iceberg.  So we cut a few million here and there while we pour a few hundred billion into the trough of ever-increasing federal budgets -- and then we start splashing bailouts into the swill.

The Republican Party can rebuild if and when voters find them credible on issues relating to fiscal responsibility.  With the Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, there will certainly be a target-rich environment for GOP personalities to scream a small-government message at the top of their lungs. 

Toward the end of his campaign, McCain started accusing Obama of being a socialist.  He failed to remember that while his index finger was pointed directly at Obama, three of his fingers were pointed right back at himself.

If my former political party is to get back on track, it is going to have to take a long look in the mirror and soberly make the decision that it's time for change -- that it is time for some real change.

With Democrats winning large majorities in the House and Senate, it's difficult to see new Republican leadership emerging from Congress in the next couple years.   House and Senate Republicans will be playing defense and managing the losses, with little opportunity to move the ball forward on any of the Right's agenda. 

If the Right is to begin rebuilding, leadership will have to come from the outside. That is good.

We are at an inflection point for the Right; a moment in history when the Republican Party is undefined and listless, capable of being either renewed or captured.  The opportunity to mobilize around new leadership is the opportunity to re-take the Republican Party from the entrenched, atrophied Republican establishment.

The next opportunity is the RNC Chairman race in January of 2009.  It will be decided by fewer than 200 Committee members, but there is precent for the blogosphere to have a profound impact on leadership races.  We could do it in the RNC Chair race, too.

There are a great many candidates (and more ever day, it seems; Marc Ambinder reports that Jim Nussle is in and Newt Gingrich is interested).  However, the RNC Chair covers a wide variety of roles - from fundraising to operational management to communication; strategy and tactics - and it's not at all apparent that any of the candidates could possibly excel at every role.  Some are interesting, but others seem like minor functionaries looking to be elevated to a bigger fiefdom. 

That may be fine when the RNC Chair is just a support role to the Republican President or Congressional leadership.  But the RNC Chair will be in a unique position of Party and movement leadership in years ahead.   The Party will need both the tacticion and the strategist.  And the most important role of the RNC Chair may well be that of visionary leader.

So, who actually embodies the Republican Party ideals best?  I've previously suggested Fred Thompson would be an ideal fit as an RNC General Chairman - a communicator who gets the ideals, the policy and the message - while leaving the role of RNC Chair to the administrative manager.

It looks other people are thinking the same thing.  According to DC Examiner...

Republicans desperate to rebuild their party are looking for a new leader, and former Sen. Fred Thompson may seek the job. Thompson, a Tennessee conservative and former actor, is mulling a run for chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The American Spectator's Quin Hilyer says "there is more detail to the story"...

First, note the distinction between "General Chairman" and "Chairman." The potential Thompson run envisions a two-tiered system like the one that worked under Reagan with Paul Laxalt as General Chairman (but that didn't work so well recently with Mel Martinez as General Chairman). The General Chairman usually provides overall direction and philosophical moorings, and acts as the public face of the party doing media and speeches, etc., and also is available probably for big-money phone calls and events -- but the Chairman, with an Executive Director under him, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the RNC. Think Chairman of the Board vs. CEO, perhaps.

Quin also says Katon Dawson "knows how to get things done politically."   In light of the contention that Dawson is close to SC Governor Mark Sanford, that seems like a potential pairing [Fred Thompson as General Chair; Katon Dawson as Chair] that could appeal strongly to the limited government/leave us alone vision for the Republican Party. 

Hilyer's source says that Fred Thompson and his team are "looking at the lay of the land. If there is an indication of a wellspring of support, he will get in quickly."

If the grassroots Right wants to have an impact on the Republican Party, this is their chance to do it.

[Former Congressman John Kasich says this is the time to rebuild, reorganize and restructure the Republican Party. - Jon Henke]

Congratulations to Democrats on their victories in elections across the country yesterday.

As pundits continue to analyze the exit polls and the final election results, we Republicans must take a minute to look in the mirror, and then refocus on the daunting task before us.

Now is not the time for hand-wringing or finger pointing, which has already begun. Now is the time to dig in and start rebuilding for the future. We must figure out how to reorganize and restructure ourselves so that we can once again command the confidence and respect of not only the members of our own party, but voters of all stripes.

In recent years we've lost our way, but that ends today. From here forward we must be committed to winning the battle of ideas in this country and in this state.

Ronald Reagan once captured the imagination of a country that he called a shining city on a hill. Like Ronald Reagan, I'm hopeful about the future of our party and our country. But as we get ready for the fight ahead, we must return to the fundamentals of what it means to be a Republican. We must communicate clearly what we stand for, and make the case for why our ideas are better. We must reassert the importance of limited government, lower taxes, fewer regulations, individual responsibility, and restrained government spending.

America is not about entitlement, but about being given the opportunity to pursue the American Dream, whatever that dream may be. As Republicans we must find new and innovative ways to think about the role of government in our lives so that we are free to pursue new opportunities and create prosperity.

Here in Ohio, our economy is in a death spiral, our tax system is burdensome, and people are fleeing the state. We must redouble our efforts to reinvigorate businesses and foster an environment that creates jobs. This will require new leadership and a new vision as we seek to overcome these problems.

The path ahead for our party is not easy, but we must embrace this challenge. I know together we can make a difference to reposition our party, revitalize our state and reconnect with voters to ensure a better America and a better Ohio for ourselves and the next generation.

This post is also posted at RechargeOhio.com

Pre-Election I posted about the disease the Republican Party has suffered from: arrogance, complacency, failure to adapt.

The disease has led to the President’s low approval rating, the loss of both houses in 2006, a less-than-inspiring 2008 presidential primary and now the sweeping in of President-elect Barack Obama.

The Republican Party’s disadvantage in organization, fundraising, and even favorable media coverage are all symptoms of that same failure to change.

Yet, now is not the time to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves for being diagnosed with this disease, it’s the time to pursue the cure.  It’s a time to focus only on the causes of the disease for the purpose of remaining focused on the specific steps we can take to “get well.”

The election of Barack Obama is the turning point, the rock bottom.  Not only the numerical election results, but also the sheer exuberance that accompanied them should be the wake-up call Republicans, and our country, needs.  In the same way Type-2 diabetes, or a heart attack, is often the wake-up call one needs to diet and exercise, or a chronic cold is what one needs to slow down and reevaluate their lifestyle, we must act now. 

Again, I repeat this seemingly obvious quote, what I suggest as the mantra for the Republican Party in the next few months: if you don’t change, you won’t change.  I also point to a few guidelines for recovery from my last post on this topic.

If we don’t start now with a new, optimistic, yet aggressive approach towards reviving the conservative movement and the Republican Party, we will most definitely only have ourselves to blame.  If we want to survive, we can’t be like those chronic emphysema patients who bemoan their decrepit health, yet continue smoking through their bronchial tube. 

The vote count is in (mostly).  It’s time to finally admit that the status quo is not working; it’s time to democratize the Republican Party, to rewrite the playbook; it’s time to rebuild.
 

This is wrong...

Two days after next week's election, top conservatives will gather at the Virginia weekend home of one of the movement's most prominent members to begin a conversation about their role in the GOP and how best to revive a party that may be out of power at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue next year. [...] "There's a sense that the Republican Party is broken, but the conservative movement is not," said this source, suggesting that it was the betrayal of some conservative principles by Bush and congressional leaders that led to the party's decline.

A political Party is just an empty vessel - a manifestation of the powers and incentives behind it..  If the Republican Party is broken, it is because the Movement is broken. 

The support system of a Movement and Party is destiny.  In the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, the Right created infrastructure designed to (1) elect Republicans in order to (2) limit government.  The Right was very successful for quite some time at (1) electing Republicans.  But they were unable to accomplish #2 - to get those elected Republicans to actually limit government.

Instead of an actual Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, the Right has created a half-assed Right Wing Conspiracy.  The Right has a problem of movement infrastructure - of ideas, agenda, strategy and especially of various communications and enforcement mechanisms.  The Republican Party just follows the incentives it is given.

This entry is cross-posted at NextGenGOP.com.

Today, the question at the forefront of the minds of Republicans seems to be, "How can the Republican Party get back on the right track?" The path to a GOP resurgence after a devastating four years is not an easy one. Ordinary folks are disgusted with President Bush, and despite Democratic control of the Congress, most of the blame has been pinned on Republicans.

Worse, there is no clear Republican message. While the Democratic Party has unified around Barack Obama’s message of “hope” and “change,” there is simply no unified message present in the Republican Party. How will we be different than Democrats? What does the Republican Party stand for? Why should you elect us instead of them? Unfortunately, these questions have gone unanswered, and with the current negative perceptions of the Republican Party, Democrats are poised to win unprecedented control of the federal government.

As a result, the Republican Party is desperately in need of reform if it ever wants to regain its rightful place as the majority party in this country. We are not talking about a few simple policy shifts, but rather sweeping reforms that remake the entire image of the Republican Party. Specifically, there are three steps that we need to take if we want to recover from these difficult times: establishing a clear message, increasing the effectiveness of our use of new media, and establishing a RightRoots movement.

Establishing a Clear Message

Establishing our message is perhaps the most crucial step for a GOP resurgence. In 1994, our message of the “Contract with America” propelled us to incredible electoral victory. This concept is so powerful because it allows us to include many “sub-messages” (such as cutting taxes, reducing government, and protecting national security) within a single comprehensive message: the Contract. Going forward, we need a Contract version “2.0″ that guarantees to deliver and restore the values shared by the vast majority of Americans. Specifically, this Contract 2.0 should promise the following (in no particular order):

1. The Republican Party will not stand for corruption at any level. Elected officials who are even accused of corruption (read: Ted Stevens) will be publicly lambasted by the Party’s leadership and will be immediately asked to resign. Dirty politicians are not and will never be welcome in the Republican Party.
2. The Republican Party is the party of free markets. We will fight to make it easier and more affordable for ordinary folks like Joe the Plumber to start their own businesses and succeed. Additionally, we will ensure that federal regulation of our industries is minimized as much as possible.
3. Our judges and justices have no business legislating from the bench. Extremist judges who impose their views from the bench are a danger to society as we know it. The Republican Party will only support highly qualified judicial nominees who will not legislate from the bench.
4. The Republican Party promises to work to reduce the tax burden on all Americans, regardless of income. We will never stand for a tax increase for any American. Additionally, we promise to fight tooth and nail against any form of socialist income redistribution.
5. We promise to reduce the size and spending of the federal government. In addition, we will vote against any bill that includes unnecessary “pork-barrel” spending, and we will publicly distance ourselves from any elected official who attempts to procure such “pork-barrel” money.
6. This country faces the gravest threats it has ever seen. We will take any and all necessary action to defend this great country, and we will not relent until every single terrorist has been brought to justice. Finally, we will not, under any circumstances, meet without precondition with our enemies, such as Iran or Venezuela.

Increasing the Effectiveness of Our Use of New Media

I have been privileged to have the opportunity to speak about New Media at a number of conferences – most recently, I spoke on a panel at Americans for Prosperity’s 2008 Defending the American Dream Summit on “The State of the Conservative Movement Online.” I began my thoughts on this panel by making a very important observation: Barack Obama was the first candidate in U.S. history to win a Presidential nomination almost entirely through the use of new media.

I have been reading the book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (which I highly recommend as a read for anyone). The basic premise of the book is that Web 2.0 has created a new age, an “Age of Participation.” This Age of Participation is facilitated by “peer production,” “which describes what happens when masses of people … collaborate openly to drive innovation and growth.” Following this line of thinking, Barack Obama’s website fuels participation and collaboration, while John McCain’s primarily serves to provide information and educate.

For example, Obama’s social networks allows you to see a breakdown of all of your friends: how many calls they’ve made, how much money they’ve donated, and so forth. From there, you can send your friends a message encouraging them to donate more or make more calls. This level of person-to-person collaboration has never been seen before in politics.

If we want to win, we need to gain the upper hand online. To do this, we need to engage people online at the same level that Barack Obama does.

Establishing a RightRoots Movement

Jon Henke, John Hawkins, Patrick Ruffini, and many others have commented on the necessity of constructing a RightRoots Movement, along with how we can accomplish doing this. These brilliant folks have managed to cover many of the points I would normally discuss. However, there is one point that I would like to contribute to the discussion. Above, I talk about the differences between Obama and McCain’s website: namely, that Obama’s promotes peer production but McCain’s does not. The same is true of the Right vs. the Left: the Left successfully established a collaborative “LeftRoots” movement long ago, while to this day nothing of the sort exists for the Right.

Does this translate into electoral failures? You better believe it. In building a RightRoots Movement, the authors of Wikinomics put it best: “We must collaborate or perish.”

Conclusion

The current state of the Republican Party is a sad one. It has lost its identity, its message, and in turn, its electoral prominence. The GOP needs new ideas, new messages, and new leaders if it wishes to return to the “Grand Old” days. I believe that the core values of the Republican Party are much more in line with the core values of the average American than the values of the Democratic Party. And I think that the GOP can have its resurgence sooner rather than later. And because of this, I for one am a firm believer that our best days lie ahead, not behind.

We complain about the superficial, biased coverage of the MSM. We are justified in doing so. Thus, we must not succumb to the same trite discussion of why McCain is losing and where the GOP went wrong.

The answer, my friends, is not found in one person, wing of the Party, policy approach or tactic.  The reasons the "circular firing squad" now points to – inconsistent message, poor fundraising, inferior integration of new technology, even the President's low approval rating -- are symptoms of the disease, not the cause of it. 

The disease is complacency with the status quo and arrogance.  The same disease that caused Republicans to lose the majority in both houses in 2006.   Americans demand change. Duh.   

David Frum summarizes this well in The Week as reported by Politico:

In The Week, former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote of McCain's travails in a way that seemed to take defeat for granted and warned the GOP faces a long road back. "That's not a failure of campaign tactics. It's not even a failure of strategy. It's a failure of the Republican Party and conservative movement to adapt to the times."

The Republican Party must heed this quote in the coming months: If you don't change, you won't change.  

If the Republican Party doesn't re-establish a core set of principles that address the issues the majority of Americans care about, we will continue to lose support.  If we don't understand that raising money is not the most important function of a campaign or political organization, we will continue to raise less than our leftist counterparts.  If we don't stop holding ourselves hostage to an entrenched consultant class, we only have ourselves to blame.  If we don't set specific goals and make investments in new media and political technology training, we will continue to cede grassroots dominance to our political opponents.  And if we don't start listening to the American people, and addressing their concerns, rather than pursuing our own agenda, we will continue to be unpopular.

Election Day is one week away.  No matter the specific Republican vote count for President or seat count in the House and Senate, it will be time to finally admit that the status quo is not working; it will be time to democratize the Republican Party, to rewrite the playbook; it will be time rebuild.

It will be time to stop throwing blame around, and for every Republican official, candidate, staffer and consultant to open their eyes and ears to a new approach.

As someone who has advocated a new approach to the Republican Party for the last four years, I look forward to a more open, inclusive discussion about the way forward.  Meanwhile, I look forward to your input here.