How to save the Republican party
It is important not to forget the positive in today’s situation: After all, Republicans not only maintain control of the House of Representatives, they hold no fewer than 30 governorships. Still, the resounding Republican midterm victory in 2010 now seems more like an aberration—a temporary backlash to presidential overreach—than evidence of an upward trend. To the contrary, it is the negatives that are politically fundamental.
This is not just bad news for the Republican Party; it is bad news for the country. As much as at any time in recent history, America needs a strong, vibrant party on the right to speak for the civilizing ideal of limited government. Barack Obama has put in place an agenda of unreconstructed progressivism that is at war, not only with Reaganism, but also with Clintonism. He has exacerbated a massive fiscal imbalance, added a poorly designed entitlement that further destabilizes the health sector, and sounded an uncertain trumpet of global leadership. If Republicans urgently need to recalibrate, and they do, it is because the stakes are so high.
Among some party loyalists, there is a natural tendency to maintain that the GOP is simply suffering from a “communications problem,” that if only Republicans spoke more loudly, more insistently, and with greater purity and passion, they would broaden their appeal and proceed to sweep national elections. But that counsel, appealing as it might be to a shrinking segment of the electorate, is surely not adequate to present circumstances. More is needed than pumping up the volume.
Blowback
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Kill it.
bgibbs1000 on February 16, 2013 at 11:51 AM
bgibbs is right. The GOP in its present elitist posture must die.
Whether it is reformed or is whigged is entirely in the hands of the leadership. They can abdicate peaceably or they can emulate the kamakazi pilots of 1941 Japan.
The tiger has been awakened. And he’s cranky.
platypus on February 16, 2013 at 11:56 AM
How many Democrats will admit this even to themselves?
Kataklysmic on February 16, 2013 at 11:56 AM
Isn’t it touching how so many want to help? Give more free stuff than the Democrats is always a good ploy.
Cindy Munford on February 16, 2013 at 11:57 AM
The last place I would look for advice is Commentary Magazine or the Weekly Standard. When they fess up that they were wrong and Pat Buchanan was right — right about everything — then maybe, just maybe, they’ll win back a shred of credibility.
Punchenko on February 16, 2013 at 12:00 PM
This article reads rather like a Gingrich position paper. Funny, I don’t remember COMMENTARY getting on that bandwagon.
Seth Halpern on February 16, 2013 at 12:03 PM
Your sarcasm is dripping.
platypus on February 16, 2013 at 12:04 PM
Ah, yes — got to get Jeb Bush in there somewhere, don’t we? After all, we’re all just here to ensure the Bush Dynasty reigns for 10,000 years, right?
Hacks.
Punchenko on February 16, 2013 at 12:04 PM
“Stay out the Bushes.” — Rev. Racebaiter.
platypus on February 16, 2013 at 12:07 PM
Not worth the effort. Let the Mario Antoinette rent boy lovers take care of themselves. Not a single F**KING dime from me. Not anymore. Not after Romney.
abobo on February 16, 2013 at 12:16 PM
Save the Party?
If they were drowning, I’d donate an anvil.
trigon on February 16, 2013 at 12:25 PM
The “establishment” wing of the republican party is just plain BORING. They look tired, old and needy–of votes, ideas, enthusiasm, principal . . .
It is over for them. Unfortunately, they should have exited Washington on their own or voted out when it became clear they were finished in 2006. The newer crop of tea party representatives and senators have a better chance of saving our country if they are not co-opted and corrupted by the establishment in D.C.
KickandSwimMom on February 16, 2013 at 12:33 PM
Call Sarah.
Pork-Chop on February 16, 2013 at 1:00 PM
There is so much wrong with this, it would take another essay at least as long to point out all of it.
One of the main problems is that they seem to ignore any empirical evidence that runs counter to their view, and they cite evidence that is at best irrelevant…e.g..
Bob Dole’s focus on the 10th Amendment 16 years ago ! explains exactly what about the current problems of Republicans? That it’s a mistake to look for the Republican answer to Dukkaakis?
Like so many other “expert,” we hae a demographic problem; 2010 is an abberration…no, in 2010 we succeeded in turnout…but were failures in 2012
If only we would communicate better — no: If only we would communicate…we ceded the field from April till September, and even then didn’t do much…Democrats saturated FL, VA, and OH with character assassination…while we listened to Reince and the boys tell us how monumentally they were surpassing 2008 GOTV numbers….One more time MG: You yapping in MSM outlets is not communicating a conservative messge!
And this little bit of selective memory — no public figure talks about the collapse of the marriage and cultural institutions..oh my lord..G & W regale us with histories of obscure Labor Party travails, but they don’t remember the “Murphy Brown wars”? V. P. Dan Quayle gets no credit for his moral and political courage from these two? Not too mention that every conservative I’ve ever heard speak is worried about these institutions and the destruction liberalism has wrought on these very institutions!
We’re judgmental; see Santorum…yet no mention of a professionally and morally bankrupt media that is wholly complicit to a degree never before seen in American politics…Santorum didnt fire the first shot in the “judgmental” war…No, that was fired by Clinton’s former press secretary turned Democratic operative, who now masquerades as a “journalist.”
And this one is unbelievable:
Seriously…did these guys watch reruns of Romney and the Cayman Islands commercials the entire campaign…there is much that was wrong with the Romney/RNC campaign…but this wasn’t it….did they listen to any…any!…of Ryan’s speeches?
There is so much more wrong, but I love the irony of this:
To which I can only say, Physician, heal thyself.
EastofEden on February 16, 2013 at 1:12 PM
If the Beltway Republicans were given the choice between winning with Palin or ceasing to exist, they would choose the latter.
Kataklysmic on February 16, 2013 at 1:22 PM
Let them burn, in Hades.
No more Bushs, Clintons, Obamas, Kennedys or any dynasties. To Hades with all of them.
Schadenfreude on February 16, 2013 at 1:23 PM
What I find truly amazing is that you think that they did. Baffling.
besser tot als rot on February 16, 2013 at 1:24 PM
Dang. Both sound good to me!
besser tot als rot on February 16, 2013 at 1:28 PM
Guys… The most amusing part of Marco Rubio’s very obvious Presidential ambitions is that they’re going to end Jeb Bush’s political career.
Illinidiva on February 16, 2013 at 1:38 PM
Republicans need to start fighting. Elections are supposed to have consequences but electing a Republican House has been pointless, they have surrendered to Obama at every turn.
For too long the most useless entity in the United States has been the Republican Party. If they won’t or can’t fight it’s time for a formal national TEA Party to be formed and let the Republican Party go the way of the Whig Party.
RJL on February 16, 2013 at 2:32 PM