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Matt Lewis

Time for Republicans to do some soul-searching

The first instinct of some will be to blame the voters — to say they just don’t “get” it — or to imply the “takers” simply outnumber the “makers.”

After all, Americans should have been outraged by what happened in Benghazi. Americans should have been outraged by the increasing debt — and by the fact that the unemployment rate actually rose during Obama’s first term.

But it is the job of politicians and parties and movements to persuade Americans to buy into their vision. And they clearly aren’t buying what Republicans are selling. It’s time for the GOP to do some serious soul searching.

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Meant to add, fighting for states’ rights is a valiant goal and all, but so long as the federal executive branch continues to grow in power, it gives them a trump card, because the state’s don’t have any real power if it exists at the whim of the federal level, with no one there to de-centralize that power base.

The Schaef on November 7, 2012 at 9:26 AM

This is just Moesart’s way of trying to blame Palin and the “Socons” for an election catastrophe brought on by the Establishment that told the “Socons” to go pound sand.

And they did. Moesart’s candidate got six million votes less that McCain Palin ’08.

Go away, Moe.

victor82 on November 7, 2012 at 9:26 AM

So essentially the base (evangelicals) didnt turn out and gave us 4 more years of Obama. Can’t say I fault them too much for not feeling enthused about Mitt, but the blame (if we want to assign it) lies with them.

That being said, I am truly done with the GOP. You guys can keep the independent winning moderates. I have giving you my loyal vote for the last time.

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:30 AM

When did HondaV65 go into hiding? I’ve seen this poster here on a regular basis.

Dack Thrombosis on November 7, 2012 at 9:30 AM

This is just Moesart’s way of trying to blame Palin and the “Socons” for an election catastrophe brought on by the Establishment that told the “Socons” to go pound sand.

And they did. Moesart’s candidate got six million votes less that McCain Palin ’08.

Go away, Moe.

victor82 on November 7, 2012 at 9:26 AM

If you think going full-bore Socon now would have netted you anything more than a royal arsekicking in this election, I wonder that you’re able to tie your shoes in the morning.

MelonCollie on November 7, 2012 at 9:31 AM

When did HondaV65 go into hiding? I’ve seen this poster here on a regular basis.

Dack Thrombosis on November 7, 2012 at 9:30 AM

I’m guessing it’s out celebrating.

MelonCollie on November 7, 2012 at 9:31 AM

Time for repubs to do some soul searching???
What the heII does that even mean.. get with the hipsters and move to the left? Screw that.

If it means stop being complacent in the face of blatant lies, or stop giving the benefit of the doubt to people who have proven time and again to not deserve it, then yeah, lets rethink our approach to solving the country’s problems.

Mimzey on November 7, 2012 at 9:33 AM

@mellonCollie

Well, going socon-lite only won over independents but failed to rally the base. So explain to me again how you win an election without your base? I’m really curious.

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:34 AM

If you think going full-bore Socon now would have netted you anything more than a royal arsekicking in this election, I wonder that you’re able to tie your shoes in the morning.

MelonCollie on November 7, 2012 at 9:31 AM

It really can’t have been all THAT much worse, assuming that victor82 is correct about Romney getting six million votes FEWER last night than McCain and Palin did in 2008.

And Romney, we were told over and over again, was supposed to have been the only guy who could have won this year.

Aitch748 on November 7, 2012 at 9:37 AM

Well, going socon-lite only won over independents but failed to rally the base. So explain to me again how you win an election without your base? I’m really curious.

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:34 AM

You failed to rally the base because you failed to come up with a candidate who was an actual conservative, NOT because you didn’t harp on social issues enough.

Republicans have been stuck in the “Atari mentality” of assuming people will buy whatever they’re selling out of pure brand loyalty.

Well guess what? The unreality of that has finally come home to roost.

MelonCollie on November 7, 2012 at 9:38 AM

Remember how they won: they called Romney a felon, said they knew some guy at Bain who said he never paid taxes, claimed he abused his dog, and got the media to treat everything he said as a “gaffe” while ignoring the Benghazi cover-up.

TallDave on November 7, 2012 at 8:35 AM

Accusations are not the problem. The people that believed it and thought it more important than traditional values and integrity.
We have been dumbed down beyond salvage.

Mimzey on November 7, 2012 at 9:39 AM

It really can’t have been all THAT much worse, assuming that victor82 is correct about Romney getting six million votes FEWER last night than McCain and Palin did in 2008.

Hmm. Maybe i have my numbers wrong.

And Romney, we were told over and over again, was supposed to have been the only guy who could have won this year.

Aitch748 on November 7, 2012 at 9:37 AM

Yeah, but by whom? The same people who came up with bad candidate after bad candidate (someone on another thread posted the whole list) and finally managed to dig him up?

And only then after everyone else had been rejected as either a complete moron or toxic to most of the voting public?

If Romney really was the only guy who COULD have won…conservatives were already in dire straits.

MelonCollie on November 7, 2012 at 9:41 AM

And they clearly aren’t buying what Republicans are selling.

Even with a Salesman like Mitt. The empty chair won goodness sake!

This is God’s will by giving O Sandy.

I think we should call him Mr. The One from now on.

Romney got spanked by O.

Yes, it was #revenge for all the hate you guys communicate every day.

pretty simple really…for me anyway…many tried to tell you hate was not a strategy.

Mittmentum baby!!!

Can.I.be.in.the.middle on November 7, 2012 at 9:41 AM

You failed to rally the base because you failed to come up with a candidate who was an actual conservative, NOT because you didn’t harp on social issues enough.

Wait, what? It seems to me that it is the job of the GOP candidate to rally the GOP base, yes? How is this the failure of johnnyboy or of social conservatives and NOT the failure of the ACTUAL CANDIDATE? Either it was Romney’s job to rally the base, or Romney was running in the wrong party.

Aitch748 on November 7, 2012 at 9:42 AM

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:34 AM

Another poster put it his way:

If it was as difficult for other conservatives to vote for Romney as it was for me, I can easily believe that a big chunk of them stayed home. Voting for the “lesser of two evils” doesn’t work for a lot of folks, especially after G.W.Bush and Captain Amnesty.

dogsoldier on November 7, 2012 at 9:38 AM

Does it make a bit more sense now?

MelonCollie on November 7, 2012 at 9:43 AM

@MellonCollie

So again your argument makes no sense even though we are essentially agreeing on the fact that Mitt was a rino. Explain how you rally the base with a socon lite candidate? You want a TRUE conservative but at the same time you feel like that TRUE conservative needs to be lite on socially conservative issues?

That person just lost the base and the election.

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:48 AM

ou want a TRUE conservative but at the same time you feel like that TRUE conservative needs to be lite on socially conservative issues?

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:48 AM

Please tell me where I said a “TRUE conservative” has to be lite on SoCon issue?

I don’t give a rat’s patootey what a TRUE conservative is or isn’t, so long as they can discern what issues the American public is going to give a cr@p about in the election.

To put this another way, you don’t need to publicly disavow your SoCon stances or something equally drastic. You just need to realize that when John Q. Citizen is afraid of not being able to pay his mortgage and health insurance, social issues really are not going to fire him up!

MelonCollie on November 7, 2012 at 9:51 AM

@melloncollie

Also, please don’t misconstrue my arguments as support for specific socon ideals. If anything I think some of those ideas are misguided and outdated in some respects.

But for a huge number of true conservatives they are essential and Romney obviously didnt win them over

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:56 AM

Gay abortion doctor/minority woman 2016!

Ted Torgerson on November 7, 2012 at 9:57 AM

Oh-My-God. If I hear this “the GOP needs to find some way to appeal to Hispanics” deal once more I’m gonna puke.

No, Sir! Hispanics need to learn the benefits of free enterprise, limited government and personal freedom.

Let’s trash all the political correctness for once. Can we???

Latinos on the whole (and I’m 100% fluent in Spanish, have traveled extensively through Mexico, PR and Spain), they like government. They like government hand-outs. Yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but on the whole, Hispanics are big government types.

Given that, we have two choices. We become more socialist in order to appeal to this demographic. Or, we start teaching Hispanics some Mises, Hayek, Rand and Friedman. I prefer the latter course.

ericdondero on November 7, 2012 at 9:58 AM

“To put this another way, you don’t need to publicly disavow your SoCon stances or something equally drastic. You just need to realize that when John Q. Citizen is afraid of not being able to pay his mortgage and health insurance, social issues really are not going to fire him up!”

It’s like your arguing with yourself. “Be a socon privately, but don’t come out and say it publicly cus it will bite you in the ass and it’s not as important as you think it is”

So you are describing who just lost

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 10:01 AM

Matt’s wrong. Blame and recrimination is not useful. I think the “base” was there, it’s the vast dependent middle that voted their pocketbooks and myopic special interests. The message was very clear. The choice was very clear. The moral personality contrasts more than clear. The society, or at least 50% is broken. More takers than makers. More gullible than pragmatic. More a(im)moral than moral. More virtue-less than virtuous. It may be time to sideline the government, political parties and much of lost Eurosocialist society in favor of new structures that favor a parallel rebirth of the American ideal. What will it look like? I have no real idea yet, but if the ideals of our national founders are to survive we have to be inspired, creative and live in daily stark reality.

ironked on November 7, 2012 at 10:02 AM

Except the base wasn’t there. That’s why we lost

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 10:07 AM

As long as socon crazy is involved, Democrats will hold the White House with their own solib crazy, which the media rubber stamps.

One has to fight that from a fiscal and freedom standpoint. Not, hey we want the government to be in charge of pregnancy. Which is never, ever going to happen now anyway.

Moesart on November 7, 2012 at 10:09 AM

@melloncollie

I think it’s safe to assume we both agree mitt fell short of both our conservative ideals (which are probably identical).

I am just saying that dismissing socon issues when your base cares about that is a mistake

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 10:11 AM

It’s precisely because a lot of voters despair of their economic circumstances and no longer trust either party to fix them, that they were persuaded by hot button cultural issues. If you think Rs and Ds will just spend an eternity in fruitless squabbling anyway , your default concern might as well be your skin color or your lady parts or your take on SSM. Small ball is what happens when you begin to believe everything else is out of your league and beyond your capacity to affect.

Seth Halpern on November 7, 2012 at 10:13 AM

@moesaart

Or we could do what the dems do and embrace their crazy people so that we get more votes like they do.

Just sayin’

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 10:13 AM

Their = our

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 10:14 AM

You want a TRUE conservative but at the same time you feel like that TRUE conservative needs to be lite on socially conservative issues?

That person just lost the base and the election.

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 9:48 AM

PMFJI, but I think the way out of the conundrum is to nominate SoCons who take the strict constitutional position that social issues are best left to state and local government.

Odysseus on November 7, 2012 at 10:33 AM

@Odysseus on November 7, 2012 at 10:33 AM

Exactly. You sir win this comment thread

johnnyboy on November 7, 2012 at 10:47 AM

This is just Moesart’s way of trying to blame Palin and the “Socons” for an election catastrophe brought on by the Establishment that told the “Socons” to go pound sand.

And they did. Moesart’s candidate got six million votes less that McCain Palin ’08.

Go away, Moe.

victor82 on November 7, 2012 at 9:26 AM

Bears repeating.

And this.

PMFJI, but I think the way out of the conundrum is to nominate SoCons who take the strict constitutional position that social issues are best left to state and local government.

Odysseus on November 7, 2012 at 10:33 AM

If a State wants to be as immoral as possible, let them sink or swim on their own, while we’re left free to move to the States that best suit us.

AH_C on November 7, 2012 at 12:32 PM

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