2) We’ve gotten lazy about making people’s lives better:

Conservatives are good at talking about great principles. We can tell you why taxes need to be low, explain the importance of states’ rights, and give a good defense of peace through strength. Where we’ve gotten lazy and complacent is in actually taking those principles we believe in and pushing to implement them in a way that makes people’s day-to-day lives better.

After all, why do most people vote for a politician? It’s because they think somehow, some way that politician is going to improve their lives.

You know why it’s important to keep the debt under control. I know, too. But, do you know why that doesn’t work as a political issue? Ultimately, it’s because the average person doesn’t see it impacting his life right now in one way or another. Why did hammering Barack Obama on his “You didn’t build that” comments prove to be ineffective? For the exact same reason. Why don’t the American people care about taxes on the rich or corporate taxes? Because they’re not rich or running a corporation.

On the other hand, the big reason Obamacare is proving to be such a successful issue for us is that it’s hurting tens of millions of Americans and repealing it would make their lives better in a tangible way.

We do have lots of ideas that can be life-changing for a lot of American families, but we don’t talk about them all that much.