The man lost his run to a lame senator. He had margin at best impact in his present position, so let’s advance him?

Nonsense.

Republicans need someone with national name recognition who can do all of that as well as reorganize the RNC, modernize its communications, and find effective candidates for Congress. The chair has to be ubiquitous, appearing everywhere and every day, making himself heard on every single issue.

Is this really true? It seems to me that Howard Dean is more notorious than ubiquitous, yet the Dems have a succeeded in expanding at virtually every level. Isn’t it more important that the RNC chairman be a good political insider than a talking head? I’m not saying this disqualifies Steele, but it seems as if the focus has been more about choosing a chairman who appeals to the public, rather than to a sharp political strategist.

squabbling about “real Republicans” , RINOs, and who is or isn’t a “true Conservative.

I didn’t attribute this quote because my comment is regarding these issues generally.

In our righteous outrage and our zeal to find the way back, we’re acting as though we have a black & white choice: demand for ideological purity or “anything goes”. In reality, what we have to pursue is a balance between the two. The hardcore conservatives (among whom I count myself) are too few in number to win more than a handful of congressional districts without the cooperation of people who are at least SOME more moderate. Put more plainly, WE NEED THEM. That means we are going to have to make more concessions to them.

But of course we can’t just lurch violently left, to the point of being a baby-step to the right of the dems. Our party is defined by certain principles — small government, individual liberty, strong defense, respect for life — that are at odds with the dems, and are the reason we have two parties.

The goal must be the correct balance of the two. The correct balance is to be moderate enough to attract 50.0001% of the voters, and no more than that. That means we ideological purists are going to have to give up some of what we want, and the right-leaning moderates we want to attract will have to give up some of what they want.

Some of you may who have read my other posts may know where I’m going with this. The important thing is to stress what everyone from center-right to far-right has in common: our belief in what I’ve been calling “small government / big liberty”. Social cons (like me — a Bible-belt Southern Baptist Deacon and Sunday School teacher) are going to have to come to grips with the fact that real liberty means that we drop anti-gay rhetoric from our political dialog (as though they AREN’T doing those things now). I’m not suggesting “gay-affirming rhetoric”, but “sex-ignoring” rhetoric. If it allow us to attract people who will vote with us to limit the size and scope of government, and stand with us for free speech — a freedom that is fading fast in what we used to call “the free world” — then it is worth it. We (away from the political stage) can still have discussions of morality and faith without using them as political wedges. Our appeal to people of faith should be THEIR free exercise, not fruitless symbolic attempts to stamp out sin.

I’d rather have Newt, but Steele is probably light years better than whoever we have now.

petefrt on November 17, 2008 at 9:26 AM

The mainstream media destroyed Newt in the 90s and they would do it again. Besides I didn’t care to see him sitting on that climate change couch with Nancy Pelosi. Every time I saw Steele as a contributor on the talk shows he came across as a sound and passionate conservative. But that is about all I know about him.

The Dems know the importance of crafting a message, delivering it convincingly, and shouting it from the mountain top. The last two election cycles were won on lies, and now we have Obama, Pelosi, and Reid to contend with. What good is the truth if no one hears it or believes it?

It is time to politely thank McCain for his service and let him enjoy retirement, and then have a nice pow-wow where some of our best minds create the message and strategy (Newt can be our architect). Steele’s photogenic face should be put out there to deliver the message non stop).

Dear Michael,

You said,
“I think the other thing that I’ve found that’s been lacking over the last four years, especially the last two cycles–’06 and ’08—we don’t know how to talk to people. We’ve absolutely forgotten how to communicate a message … to espouse those principles in the context of people’s everyday lives. … Our party needs to have a voice, it needs to have a relevant voice that people can identify with.”

Would you please take a moment to espouse to us here at
HotAir.com in the context of people’s everyday lives what you believe it means to be a Conservative and a Republican.

Seriously, it won’t be a waste of time, it will become virile. Surely you as a computer geek, knows the value of that.

Best wishes,

The actual reality of things is that the ideology is almost entirely irrelevant. People will vote for anything if they think it’ll get the trains running on time.

The GOP’s problem is that right now they are the party of screwups, and they need to return to being the party of competence. The ideology really is secondary.

Lehosh on November 17, 2008 at 9:54 AM

That’s why losing this election was a good thing in the long run. We don’t have to defend every screwup and corruption deal in the federal government anymore. We can start remaking our image around a bunch of really good, competent, conservative, corruption-fighting Republican governors. When Clinton was president we had Tommy Thompson, John Engler, George Allen, and Mayor Giuliani leading the way on welfare reform, ending parole, cutting taxes, etc. We will do the same now with Govs. Pawlenty, Palin, Barbour, Jindal, Sanford, Daniels, etc. We have a good chance of winning Virginia next year and that will start the rebuilding.

Communication is certainly the key. However, it is incumbent on our party to hire a child who knows the internet & start sending our message out over you-tube, my space, facebook & the like. We laughed at bambi when he did that, but it helped him. We couldn’t respond fast enough to that.

kelley in virginia on November 17, 2008 at 8:56 AM

Steele is very aware of this. He has been using a lot of these tools at GOPAC. Patrick Ruffini and the folks at RebuildOurParty are making sure that we catch up with all the new communication tools out there.

GOPAC was the only Republican organization that actually called me and asked me for money in this cycle. I was impressed with what it was offering and I gave.

The GOP’s problem is that right now they are the party of screwups, and they need to return to being the party of competence. The ideology really is secondary.

As one writer put it, the first time most people heard about the McCain health care plan was when Obama started criticising it. See what I mean?

Too many Republicans seem to buy into the liberal myth that conservative policies are bad for “the little guy”, minorities and so on. They lack confidence to sell their ideas to anyone but “the base”.

By all means fight for free markets and against big government, but large areas of the economy are highly regulated for a variety of reasons, and will remain so. In these areas, Republicans must offer improvements that serve their natural constituencies: working people, families, small businesses, basically everyone except deadbeats and elitists. And why would this not include Hispanics and Asians?

Sven: then are you saying the GOP should be the libertarian party? actually, i like that idea but i don’t think we’ll reach critical mass in votes which is what it is all about.

kelley in virginia on November 17, 2008 at 9:34 AM

The idea of Libertarian is good in theory. In practice, however, the Libertarians attract far too many theophobes, radical pacifists, and Ron Paul-type conspiracy cranks to be effective.

The GOP is in disarray because of the universal, dominating perception now fairly ingrained, that anyone who believes in God is an idiot, backwater, mouth-breathing knuckle dragger and incapable of actually being reasonable about issues. And a hypocrite. Anything but that! Damn Republicans are afraid of their own shadow. Which is funny cuz I don’t see how they can even see it with their head so far up their ass.

The GOP ran after the likes of televangelists and activists, thinking to court a group of people who are in reality and practice much smarter than the televangelists and who have no truck with that kind of Christianity and are not monolithic in their voting. The GOP no more understands “Christian” than they do “Conservative.” They aided and abetted the MSM’s goals in debasing the Ideals of community whilst whoring themselves out to their own stupid perceptions of the GOP base.

So, since we can’t get along, better to faction out lest anyone be perceived as horrors! a “christer” or “home schooler” or “snowbilly” or a bitter clinger. We rail at it, but we are secretly moved by it, too, to no good ends.

Fine. Tribalize. Then come together to agree on the Least Common Denominator (the Constitution might just work), then everyone can be secure in not losing their precious Identity.

Sven: then are you saying the GOP should be the libertarian party? actually, i like that idea but i don’t think we’ll reach critical mass in votes which is what it is all about.

kelley in virginia on November 17, 2008 at 9:34 AM

It depends. I think the GOP would be well served spending the next six months in introspection and leaning towards either embracing socialism-lite or trying to overtly gain the Union boyz and libertarians. The party that first overtly embraces protectionism in the coming recession will solidify its backing amongst the unions.

The question is do we let the donks do this, OR do we try to whittle off the gun-loving moonbat hating yellow dogs?

I am a free market guy, but I have to be honest we face so much unfair competition from state subsidized industry and dumping that when added to our 35% corporate tax it makes it hard for us to have ANY industrial base…..we’ll lose the cars and eventually the planes at the current rate.

Having an industrial capacity to crank out mil kit and back up capacity in case of a war with a first tier opfor is a strategic necessity we run the risk of losing….

the GOP *could* gain a lot of ground by barking the loudest about “GOOD UNION JOBS BUILDING BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE!” and quietly saying perhaps we need “protection” like our good friends the Germans and Japanese.

Steele might be what one poster called a “gun grabber” doesn’t mean he will trend that way since our party as a whole is 2d amendment strong.

kelley in virginia on November 17, 2008 at 9:28 AM

No “might” about it….

if the GOP doesn’t stand for standing for Liberty why not go with Santa Claus?

Santa doesn’t have endless cash and the eventual implosion will be an interesting social sciences lab if nothing else.

The United States is a synthesis of our economy(why I am a free market guy read Hamilton)and our guaranteed liberties.

McCain wrecked the literal reason for the 1st amendment, if the GOP destroys the 2d then what’s left?

Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR nuked the tenth…the 4th is a joke ask Joe the Plumber….

at what point do we add the spare “S” to USA?