How Republicans can start winning presidential elections again
2. Compete for every single vote. The 47% and the 53%. And any other combination of numbers that adds up to 100 percent. President Barack Obama and the Democrats can continue trying to divide America into groups of warring communities with competing interests, but we will have none of it. We are going after every vote as we try to unite all Americans.
3. Reject identity politics. The old notion that ours should be a colorblind society is the right one, and we should pursue that with vigor. Identity politics is corrosive to the great American melting pot and we reject it. We will treat all people as individuals rather than as members of special interest groups…
5. Stop insulting the intelligence of voters. We need to trust the smarts of the American people. We have to stop dumbing down our ideas and stop reducing everything to mindless slogans and tag lines for 30-second ads. We must be willing to provide details in describing our views.
6. Quit “big.” We are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, or big anything. We must not be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys. We have to be the party that shows all Americans how they can thrive. We are the party whose ideas will help the middle class, and help more folks join the middle class. We are a populist party and need to make that clear.
Blowback
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By not tearing our own side to shreds for starters…
gatorboy on November 15, 2012 at 3:09 PM
Showing Americans how to thrive, become rich and then you can chastise them for their “Toys”?
Come on, Bobby. Really?
portlandon on November 15, 2012 at 3:11 PM
Poor Bobby accepts every Dem meme about us.
This guy is dangerous to our party.
faraway on November 15, 2012 at 3:12 PM
That all sounds great, Guv. One small problem. Romney/Ryan DID do all of those things with the possible exceptions of #2 and #4. #2 was undercut by that 47% remark by Romney, no doubt. But it’s a little unfair to trash his entire campaign on the basis of that secretly taped comment. Did anyone insinuate that Obama wasn’t going after as many voters as possible in 2008 despite his bitter clingers remark?
As for #4, that’s not really Romney or Ryan’s fault. Achin’ and Mourdock did major damage to themselves and the GOP brand with their stupid and unnecessary comments on abortion and rape, but if we’re gonna allow the Democrat/media complex to link every dumb thing said by a Republican or conservative to our Presidential candidate, then we’ll never win another national election. Does the left allow us to connect the garbage out of Alan Grayson’s hole to the Obama Administration? Didn’t think so.
Doughboy on November 15, 2012 at 3:14 PM
8. Write lofty, nebulous articles that are short on specifics.
JamesSeanMcKeane on November 15, 2012 at 3:15 PM
I’m sorry, is he referring to the Democrat Party here? Because that’s who this applies to. Frankly, I think part of the GOP’s problem is that we don’t dumb down things enough for this American Idol, celebrity-obsessed electorate. You know eyes were rolling back in their heads as Romney tried to explain the benefits of lowering rates for everyone., especially when they hear the other guy spout mindless tax the rich drivel.
changer1701 on November 15, 2012 at 3:15 PM
How about we start at the top, Bobby.
The Republican Party will never again be in power until we crush the Main Stream Media and Democratic smear machine.
JPeterman on November 15, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Jindal is launching his run.
Notice the cognitive dissonance between 3 and 6:
Blathering about the middle class is identity politics, IMHO.
INC on November 15, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Shorter version.. By nominating me.
Two thoughts Governor Bobby.. 1. How about waiting until after Christmas to start the campaign..m’kay. 2. You will be engaging a communication specialist for your campaign.
Illinidiva on November 15, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Actually caring about the deficit and not just (in actuality)m high end tax rates would help.
kunegetikos on November 15, 2012 at 3:17 PM
How about?
INC on November 15, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Bobby should run for president using his real name, Piyush Jindal. Exotic monikers are now in, doncha know…
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 15, 2012 at 3:17 PM
5. Stop insulting the intelligence of
votersturnips.FIFY
vityas on November 15, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Bobby’s a good governor.
kunegetikos on November 15, 2012 at 3:18 PM
The only way left is to cheat better than the Democrats.
Apparently, the GOP isn’t interested in stopping them from cheating, so I don’t see any other option.
The Rogue Tomato on November 15, 2012 at 3:18 PM
8. Become Democrats.
Alpha_Male on November 15, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Agree. No to mention that #6 is totally and absolutely wrong.
We aspire to become anything we want in America. We are limited to the middle class. We can desire to become a pasty white rich guy and be proud of it.
faraway on November 15, 2012 at 3:19 PM
oops, we are not limited to the middle class
faraway on November 15, 2012 at 3:19 PM
No wait, The Republican Party needs a name change.
No wait, the Republican Party needs a face lift.
No wait, the Republican party needs a snappy new theme song.
No wait…..
portlandon on November 15, 2012 at 3:20 PM
And so the 2016 primary season begins.
obladioblada on November 15, 2012 at 3:21 PM
Don’t come all up in here acting like Kennedy defeated Nixon: it confuses me, and undermines the psychological origins of Watergate.
Seriously, it should (cough, cough) be easier to vote than to buy a beer or rent a movie.
kunegetikos on November 15, 2012 at 3:21 PM
Sorry Bobby, but what you outline is a recipe for electoral disaster.
You have to play the game as presented on the field, not how you dream it up in your Utopian mind.
Dems do exactly what you rail against and guess what, they win. Meanwhile, the GOP can go on its merry way fighting the battle it wants to have and get slaughtered again in 2 years.
gatorboy on November 15, 2012 at 3:22 PM
Exactly right.
We’re not the ones who broke the electorate down into a bunch of special interests, all of whom required “gifts” (not artful, but accurate) to get their vote. We didn’t talk about putting people in chains, about a “war on women,” about voting for revenge.
The President won, cynically and miserably. He’s a second-rate kind of guy.
bobs1196 on November 15, 2012 at 3:22 PM
Jindal’s penname should be “Iman D. Nial”.
MelonCollie on November 15, 2012 at 3:22 PM
I used to be a big Jindal fan. But this is shameless demagoguery and unbecoming of someone who should otherwise know better.
SAZMD on November 15, 2012 at 3:23 PM
Bobby’s GOP flogging should get him a lot of press, and love from the MSM.
portlandon on November 15, 2012 at 3:25 PM
Actually, the American people have proven over the course of the past two election cycles that what really persuades them is a snappy PR machine candidate with inane slogans and bumper stickers, not a substantive policy candidate with real ideas.
So, if we wanna win we have to have a better PR program. And a better GOTV effort. Or just any GOTV effort at all would be better than the beached whale we had this time around.
dczombie on November 15, 2012 at 3:25 PM
well, bobby and haley and all the chieftains better know that the let is burn movement is growing. they may need to shore up their street cred with the right as a first step
Ace
http://minx.cc/?post=334950
r keller on November 15, 2012 at 3:26 PM
How about this novel practice, don’t let the DC establishment crud pick our candidates. Also, Get rid of the 5 decades of Bushes, Rove, Morris, Mitch mcconnell, Boehner etc.. I want new!
Start with the grassroots and build from their!
Danielvito on November 15, 2012 at 3:26 PM
I still like him, but I do agree with the above comment that he seems to have bought into every Democrat/media meme out there.
Plus, if he runs, I’d love to hear what he thinks about the intelligence of these voters once the Dems drag him through the gutter with ethnic slurs as well as accusations he performs exorcisms and is anti-science. Good luck counting on their intelligence then, Bobby!
changer1701 on November 15, 2012 at 3:28 PM
Last night Axe mentioned an illustration from an old Reagan speech. I tried to find the speech, but wasn’t able to do so.
However, as I was going through Reagan’s speeches I was struck again by how timeless and prescient they are. The Democrats he described 50, 30, and 20 years ago still push the same old stuff.
http://reagan2020.us/speeches/
These eager-to-be President Republicans should do these things:
The path to the Presidency:
1. Sit down and read Reagan, Russell Kirk and other conservative thinkers for about three months. This should be ongoing.
2. As you read, think over conservative philosophy and ideas. Dig out some conservative minds and talk and debate with them. This should be ongoing.
3. Connect the dots between conservative philosophy and solutions.
4. Think about how to phrase these ideas. Practice explaining them and summarizing them. To be able to summarize you have to thoroughly understand a subject. Only then are you able to do this well.
5. Hire a speech teacher/debate coach. Go speak at every little group around and practice. Interact with people. Hear their questions.
6. Look at how the Dems lie and push their disinformation. Think about how to counter that. Read Reagan again.
7. Look at how the media shills for the Dems. Read Reagan again.
8. Go speak some more to little, medium, large groups.
9. Have the guts to go toe to toe with Obama/Dems/Reps over plans that would harm the country. That takes character.
IMO, anyone who is willing, capable and does these things will be the next President.
That’s my list off the top of my head. I may add to it later.
INC on November 15, 2012 at 3:30 PM
Step 1. Read Alinsky’s book. Start organizing.
faraway on November 15, 2012 at 3:30 PM
1 billion dollars, and a year later we have:
The Same President
The Same Senate Minority
The Same House Majority
The Same Senate Leadership
The Same House Leadership
Call for new Leadership Bobby.
portlandon on November 15, 2012 at 3:31 PM
Republicans have to figure out how to give away more free stuff than the Democrats.
Axion on November 15, 2012 at 3:31 PM
I read in separate articles that Senate republican senatorial chair Cornyn and Rove say the reason they weren’t more successful was that couldn’t pick all our candidates in the primaries.
These morons don’t get it! The reason they weren’t more successful is because THEY INTERFERED TO MUCH!
Who the Fu*K is Rove that he controls $100 million dollars that otherwise could have gone to indiviual candidates. Who the h*ll gave him this power that he can make or break candidates!
Rove has destroyed the GOP!!! He HAS TO GO!!!
Danielvito on November 15, 2012 at 3:33 PM
Or convince them that the free stuff has a virus in it.
faraway on November 15, 2012 at 3:33 PM
So Jindal will be the frontrunner for about two days until he tanks his next major speech.
Illinidiva on November 15, 2012 at 3:33 PM
That would be part of my 6 and 7. The organizing Alinsky advocates is not organizing, but a euphemism for rousing mob hysteria/malcontent/hate/class warfare.
I’m all for organization, but real organization, not mob hatred.
INC on November 15, 2012 at 3:34 PM
Bobby Jindal really takes everything our opponents say about us to heart.
Axion on November 15, 2012 at 3:34 PM
Whoo Hooo! I’m part of a caucus now!
Let. It. Burn.
JPeterman on November 15, 2012 at 3:35 PM
We offered Americans a serious, reasonable and competent ticket. We were not waging the culture wars this year, we avoided going negative, we focused on the economy. We had the infamous adult, civil conversation. The result? Binders, birfcontrol, Bigbird and steelworker-wife-cancer prevailed.
We really wanna take that high road to defeat again? Are you drunk, Bobby?
Valkyriepundit on November 15, 2012 at 3:37 PM
The DC establishment didn’t pick Mitt Romney. Millions of people across the country voted in the primaries. They picked Mitt Romney. I’m no defender of the DC establishment, but come on, it’s silly to say they some cohort of fatcat insiders in DC picked our nominee.
dczombie on November 15, 2012 at 3:45 PM
Basically, this article boils down to: Apologize, apologize, apologize…. We’ve tried that for the past quarter-century, and it will never work.
What we need to do is attack, attack, and attack…. If we are afraid to use the words “Communist” and “Socialist” to describe Communists and Socialists, then not only can freedom not win politically, it can’t even compete politically against “Progressive Wonderful Good Democratic Liberalism” or whatever the holy living Hell else they demand that we call them this week.
logis on November 15, 2012 at 3:45 PM
Oh, brother. If Jindal’s trying to roll himself out for 2016 he’s doing a terrible job of it.
ddrintn on November 15, 2012 at 3:46 PM
And then:
Ugh.
ddrintn on November 15, 2012 at 3:48 PM
Am I the only one seeing a contradiction here? “Protecting the well off so they can keep their toys,” sure does sound a lot like a mindless slogan and a tag line for a 30-second ad.
tom on November 15, 2012 at 3:48 PM
RINO have been telling us that this guy was a real conservative. You mean they were lying? What?
faraway on November 15, 2012 at 3:55 PM
Democrats have won the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential Elections (including 2000). I don’t know if Mr. Jindal has the right answer, but there does need to be an answer going forward. America needs two competitive, robust opposing political parties. What message will get through to the discouraged who (for now, at least) cannot find a reason to vote?
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 15, 2012 at 3:56 PM
I like and admire Jindal, and I consider him to be a conservative. But if he’s going to try to build a political future on schizoid let’s-accept-the-prog-terms-of-debate like the one above, forget it.
ddrintn on November 15, 2012 at 3:58 PM
We’re in a crisis of character, and frankly, the last thing the country needs is a nihilistic Let It Burn caucus. The Entitlement Mentality is part of the character crisis on the Left, but this Let It Burn Mentality is part of the character crisis of the Right.
In December 1776 Philadelphia was in such a state of chaotic panic that it took Thomas Paine 10 days to get The American Crisis printed. It was finally printed in a newspaper on December 19th, and as a pamphlet on December 23rd. He didn’t give up and say Let It Burn.
On December 18, 1776, George Washington wrote his brother and another relative and told them:
Did he lay down and die or go back to Mount Vernon and say Let It Burn?
Cynicism and despair and contempt don’t solve a thing. They may give a false sense of superiority, but that’s about it.
Surrounded by charlatans, takers and petty tyrants, we need grit and endurance. Whether the game is up for us or not, the very least we can do as Americans and Patriots is to have the courage and character to do what we can in our own circle of influence.
INC on November 15, 2012 at 4:04 PM
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