We are all deeply disappointed by the recent Presidential Election. It’s a sad day for our country when such an incompetent leader is reelected; this can only result in greater damage to our economy. Our people have suffered enough but have clearly chosen four more years of the same failed policies. Obama has been granted his wish to “finish” the job he started. However, all is not lost and we should start immediately with plans for capturing the White House in 2016. Republicans have a much better chance in 2016 if we take the proper steps.
Romney’s Mistakes
Romney lost because he made fatal choices. First he selected Paul Ryan, who is an excellent Congressman but brought nothing to the ticket. Romney did not even carry Wisconsin, Ryan’s home state. While Ryan is a rising star, political realities made the choice a poor one in this election. Ryan is not a particularly good speaker or persuasive attack dog. Again, not to disparage him but he did not provide the ballast needed on the ticket. Of course this is easy to say in retrospect but I think we can all agree that Marco Rubio would have been a far better choice. In fact, Romney would have likely won if he chose Rubio. When Rubio speaks, people listen. He is a dynamic speaker and would have excited the country far more than Ryan and he would have delivered his home state of Florida. More importantly, he would have reduced Obama’s massive victory among hispanics considerably. Rubio would have provided the energy that a more wonkish Ryan could not.
Romney also failed to press Obama in the third debate, letting him off the hook on Benghazi and other failures. He tried to appease people who would never vote for him, by showing he was not a war monger. Big mistake here, they thought they had the election won and were playing hide the ball. The last two weeks R0mney should have been attacking Obama at every turn, instead he adopted a “real change” slogan which sounded too much like Obama. He pulled up and acted like he was riding the crest of enormous wave to victory. As we all know, this was folly. Clearly, the Republican polling was flawed and Romney’s forays into Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were wasted efforts.
2014 Outlook:
I am not as sanguine as the rest of the party about gains for 2014. I think Obama will press the “Blame the Republicans for Everything” strategy and keep the pressure on. The class warfare rhetoric has been a big winner for the Left and they will now focus on Congress. Watch as Boehner is Romneyed at every turn. This will be an all out Chicago Style attack on the leading House Republicans. Just imagine what damage Obama can do with another two years of one party rule as a lame duck. This is their number one goal.
2016 Analysis:
There will be no entrenched opponent to run against in 2016. Democrat candidates will most likely be from the same desperate retread pool as 2008: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerrey, Bill Richardson. These usual suspects represent the sum total of failed Democrat policies. I would also suggest the Democrats will offer another African American candidate to try to follow the Obama model to victory. It won’t work. Obama is a one off that won’t be replicated in our lifetime. For millions of Americans Obama is the equivalent of Ronald Reagan’s popularity with Republicans. There simply will be nothing to fill this void. This coupled with the end of a disastrous eight years of Obama will leave the country in a desperate leadership vacuum.
Marco Rubio appears to be the presumptive nominee, which is good for the party. It will be much more difficult to attack Rubio as the out of touch, old, rich, white guy as they did so successfully with R0mney. Hispanics will take serious offense as the left it begins its hatchet job probably sometime after Obama’s Second Inauguration.
Even if we settle on another candidate as the Presidential nominee, more political reality has to control the VP selection. We should also not nominate another candidate from the Northeast. They don’t bring any built in advantages.
Systemic Headwinds:
As we know, the media, public schools and higher educational system are dominated by Democrats. A presumptive anti-republican sentiment is imprinted early on throughout the country by the Leftists teaching our children. They belong to the Unions that fund the election of Democrats. This is a self sufficient cycle that is proving difficult to crack in the so called Blue States.
The Media, as never before proved to be utterly complicit with the Obama Administration. It is truly shocking all of the revelations that have come to light after the election. The burdens facing potential Republican candidates are greater than ever and Blue States have become virtually impregnable. The Presidential Electoral Vote Map seems to be shrinking every year, with fewer battleground states.
Changes We Should Make:
While many left leaning publications and pundits advise Republicans to cave in on every issue and completely reinvent ourselves, this is really bad advice. While the losing party always goes through soul searching, this is not the time to make wholesale changes. Just because we lost the election does not mean the ideas are flawed but rather that message is not getting through and the strategy inaccurate and sloppy.
1) Focus on younger votes earlier. As it stands our children are essentially indoctrinated by the Left starting in Kindergarten. American History is being replaced with false narratives. We need to begin programs to aggressively counteract this brainwashing. One idea is to start “American Academies” free or low cost schools that teach our children about the wonders of our Founding Fathers, The Constitution, and other critical components of our history that are being shaded with guilt and fabrications. These would not be full blown schools but part time after school programs that parents could opt to join to learn more about our wonderful country. These academies would be similar to an immigrant family’s children attending Korean or Chinese school to maintain their culture. We need to emphasize from early childhood how wonderful and unique our nation has been for over 200 years.
This focus should employ social media and other Internet resources to shape interest and thought. Simply putting up a Facebook page, boring twitter account and spamming e-mails does not constitute a new media campaign. We need to establish a more aggressive New Media strategy by engaging youthful and older volunteers to establish online messageboards, Internet memes, blogs, news outlets and other media. This is all pretty much one-sided at this point. Republican do a great job of posting about Patriots and Bald Eagles but don’t get into the more fun, influential and engaging aspects social media. The Democrats have relentless anti-republican online media which is posted all over Facebook, Twitter and the Internet. Sites like Twitchy are a step in the right direction. But where is our versions of the Daily Kos?
We also need to establish cable shows to counter act Bill Maher and his ilk. They make it seem so uncool to be a Republican. I nominate Dennis Miller to host a cable show to compete with Maher, tit for tat. We need to stop whining about the Liberal Media and develop our own content. If we can mock and ridicule the Left the way they cut us down to size, why not? It’s a one sided dialogue at this point.
Along these lines, we should stop taking fake umbrage at what every left wing goofball like Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews says. We promote their stuff more than the MSM does. Let’s just fight back directly and point how stupid they are, yes. But’s let’s can the fake, stuffy old fuddy duddy outrage bit, it isn’t working.
2) We need to pick better candidates. I think everyone knows this so I won’t go on about it. Many of the Senate races we have lost in recent elections were winnable, but second rate candidates could not withstand the scrutiny of the campaign.
3) The Tea Party is an asset, Neocons are not. The Tea Party represents a wonderful grass roots energy and is so feared by the Left that they have not only imitated it (without success) but they are actively trying to destroy it. They are a core constituency of the Republican Party and represent the People. We need them.
Neocons, on the other hand, are just baggage at this point and should be packed off to their retirement homes. Do we really need Bill Kristol to grovel before Obama and pitifully demand that taxes be raised? Bill, the Democrats called and want their failed policies back. By the way, you can go with them.
We don’t need the Neocons war mongering, arrogance or elitism. We should become more like the Tea Party and less like the aging Baby Boomer Neocons that have been dragging the party down for years. Two wars in Iraq, anyone?
3) We need to stop allowing the Democrats to scare women from voting Republican. I think this is the primary area where policy should be modified. I will put it bluntly, we should stop trying to outlaw abortion. While we should never abandon our belief that abortion is an abomination, it is the law of the land. We have lost too many elections over settled law. Abortion is far too divisive an issue and it is an easy way Democrats to trap Republicans into making guffaws (see recent Senate races) and painting them as misogynists. We should encourage women to choose alternatives to abortion but we should stop trying to ban it, it is the law of the land.
4) We should not soften our stance on illegal immigration. We are the party of the rule of law and the law needs to be enforced. We should, however, be out front in repairing our broken immigration policy. But amnesty, an easy path to citizenship and the Dream Act are not acceptable.
5) We have failed to be the party of fiscal restraint. I think this was the primary failure of the Second Bush Administration. He took a balanced budget and ran up record deficits. The fact that Obama has surpassed this is not relevant. We are the party of fiscal responsibility but when we had the power, we spent like Democrats. This is probably the most difficult, bitter pill to swallow. We must mean what we say and stop granting entitlements like the Prescription Drug Benefit. If we don’t stand by this, we stand for nothing. If we don’t offer fiscal restraint, why would anyone ever vote for a Republican?
6) We need to start now in order to bear fruit in 2016. We need to determine which candidates are the most likely to win the Democrat nomination in 2016 and begin the process of defining them on our terms. No candidate will have the edge of the incumbency besides VP Joe Biden, who cannot really be considered a serious contender.
I offer these above as suggestions to help the party make the necessary changes to successfully compete in future elections. Please feel free to forward this letter and make any comments below.
The Greed Report 