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Tired of the Republican Party revolution not touching California? Tired of Democratic Party dominance? Well have no fear; I come up with some solutions in how the California Republican Party can have resurgence for 2012 and beyond.
2010 was not a good year; we got completely shut out in the state legislative offices, did not beat Boxer and lost a state assembly seat due to nominating the Prop 8 author. How can we make 2012 better for the California Republican Party? Here are my ideas.
First, revamp the platform this February. Charles Munger may have led the seeds towards a new party document, but the base of the party does not want us to tamper with it because they will not be as motivated to drag the party down with unelectable candidates that have lost year after year. Even though the average voter does not read political party platforms, the news media does use our platform as an albatross to demonstrate how we are out of touch with the body politic.
We do not need a platform that is vague and opaque, but we need to reach out to two demographic groups that the California Republican Party previously waged war on, Latinos and the gays. Throwing raw meat on the balcony may be helpful to get the base to vote, but our base is shrinking rapidly due to demographic change and Democratic Party politicians forcing job creators out of our state depriving us of the money for the public services we value.
Second, if we want to get our ideas and vision passed in California we need to provide for personal AND economic liberty. If we only stand for economic liberty people are still going to vote for the Democratic Party. President Obama is not the only statist around us; you can count on many Republicans who would want to make sure you go to jail for life for smoking a joint of weed or depriving two same sex people from getting married.
Many young people who supported President Obama were bamboozled on the ideas of hope and change and are recognizing that politicians like Ron Paul are the future of the Republican Party. In states such as New Hampshire and Iowa, young people under 30 voted for Ron 46 percent and 48 percent respectively. If we want to start a revolution, working with the youth is one way to go at it. Young people are looking for candidates who will protect our liberties from an overreaching TSA, legislation that will cripple the internet and make it as poor like China with SOPA and pulling our troops from Afghanistan.
Third, we need to be welcoming of people who seek our nation for opportunity. Draconian immigration laws will backfire as shown in Alabama and Georgia where agriculture is falling apart due to the lack of labor from outside our nation. If you came through our borders illegally I would require extra time in a guest worker program, if you are a ‘Dreamer’ I would require participation in the AmeriCorps program or some comparable program in order to get a work permit or be reinstated for the citizenship process. However if you apply properly outside our nation for the guest worker program you would not need as many years to get a green card. Successful seasons as a guest worker would qualify an immigrant for the green card. This may not be a state issue, but our candidates for congress and the US Senate could advocate for sensible ideas. This guest worker program would be for the people who do not have money nor a job skill that would allow for a fast track to immigration.
Lastly, learn from Scott Walker and Rick Snyder in what NOT to do when you get power. There is a reason why Republicans do not have power in California. Even though labor unions have the state legislators by the grasp of their necks we have to argue the big picture on why we need reform that Governor Brown and his Democratic Party legislators will fail to provide and instead run the clock. Explain that public pensions are sadly an unaffordable luxury which is causing many cities to spend a sizable portion of their budgets to pay for these obligations. Private industry phased out pensions, and public sector could do the same. Of course I do not want our public sector retirees to eat dog food, but they should be given at least 1.5 times they would typically would get from Social Security at least since some public sector jobs are ineligible for social security.
My guide in how to “play to win” is simple. Inclusive party that welcomes Latinos and LGBT people, advocate for personal liberty and learn from the mistakes of blue state Republicans so we can have a lasting legacy.
A kinder, gentler Geoff Willis? We see that the local Republicans are learning.
Welcome Matt! Now write something horrible so we can fight with you!
Ummm, well, nice thoughts, but all I can say is good luck with that. Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan NAILED why your vision is impossible at this point in history;
“Let us now play the tiniest violin for what is called the “Republican Establishment”. I’m not sure what this phrase means or represents any more – the Chamber of Commerce? John Boehner? The Bush family? But the concept of a responsible, sane, pragmatic party leadership able to corral or coax or manage a party’s base is, it seems to me, a preposterous fiction on its face, as we are seeing.
The Republican Establishment is Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, Karl Rove, and their mainfold products, from Hannity to Levin. They rule on the talk radio airwaves and on the GOP’s own “news” channel, Fox. They have never quite reconciled themselves to Romney since he represents a gray blur in a stark Manichean universe they have created for more than a decade now. In this universe, there is only black and white. There is only them and us. Anyone who diverges an iota from this schematic is speaking without a microphone in front of a revving airplane engine.
Listen to Gingrich’s victory speech. It was completely, fundamentally, organizationally Manichean, if you’ll pardon the expression. He limned a familiar battle between independence and dependence, pay-checks vs food stamps, America vs “Europe”, the American people vs elites “forcing people” for 35 years not to be American, the traditional America vs the “secular, European style socialist bureaucratic system”. There is no gray here. There is no nuance. And there is the imputation to the other side of malign motives, secret agendas and foreignness that has been Gingrich’s hallmark since the very beginning, when he assaulted the traditions of the Congress until that institution eventually had to repel him.
Listen to Limbaugh, the GOP’s chief spokesman. How does a Romney channel that level of viciousness and rage? Listen to Hannity. How does a smooth manager reach a base that wants the same Manichean approach to foreign policy, in which there is only one ally (Israel) and enemies everywhere else (Europe, China, the Arab world, Russia)? Read Mark Levin. There are only two options now on the table, as he sees it: freedom or slavery. And a vote for Obama is a vote for slavery.
This is the current GOP. It purges dissidents, it vaunts total loyalty, it polices discourse for any deviation. If you really have a cogent argument, you find yourself fired – like Bruce Bartlett or David Frum – or subject to blacklists, like me and Fox. You can find Steve Schmidt lamenting Gingrich for very good reasons, and then you realize that it was Schmidt – a moderate, sane, level-headed professional – who helped pick Sarah Palin for the vice-presidential nomination. Because he correctly realized that she would actually add base votes and prevent a total Obama tsunami. In the end, he knew what he had to do. In the end, the “establishment” knows the party they have created.
This now is the party of Palin and Gingrich, animated primarily by hatred of elites, angry at the new shape and color of America, befuddled by a suddenly more complicated world, and dedicated primarily to emotion rather than reason. That party is simply not one that can rally behind a Mitt Romney. He too knows what he has to say – hence his ludicrous invocation of Obama as some kind of alien being. But it doesn’t work. He believes it – since he seems capable of genuinely believing in anything that will win him votes and power. But he doesn’t have the rage to make it work. And that rage cannot be downward, as Romney’s often is – toward hecklers or interviewers. It has to be upward – at vague, treasonous elites. It has to have that Poujadist touch, that soupcon of contempt, that sends shivers up the legs of the Republican faithful, reared on Limbaugh, propagandized by Fox, and coated with a shallow knowledge of a largely fictionalized past.
This is Gingrich’s party; and Ailes’; and Rove’s. They made it; and it is only fitting it now be put on the table, for full inspection. Better sooner than later.
Obama is a poultice. He brings poison to the surface. Where, with any luck, it dies.”
Hark, anon — we should really trim that down to Fair Use limits (usually three paragraphs) plus a link. You know — SOPA, PIPA, etc. Normally, I don’t monitor the site for it, but normally people don’t port in entire stories from online journalists.
Would you like to post it again with the highlights and a summary of the rest? If not — and I see how it would be hard to choose among them — it’s Vern’s call.
Pretty great Sullivan writing though. Yeah, sounds like a good direction to go in, give the good writers their traffic they deserve.
The writing was great. When it comes to this topic, Sullivan is an expert.
I’m tired of the question begging with the assumption that we’re “tired of Obama” or felt “betrayed.” I never thought he’d be much different from how he portrayed himself, and all things considered he’s done quite well. He got a health care bill through, staved off a depression, got Bin Laden, avoided the Supreme Court being even worse than the 5 votes it usually gets, and has had to deal with the most ruthless obstructionist opposition imaginable.
Also, when I consider the alternatives, that’s a non-starter.
ahhh haaaa haa heeee oh he has done a great job lol . spent most than any pres in history . ..nobama 5 trill 3 years . pushed a health care bill NOBODY WANTS . more like ram it through .. renember strech face pelosi .. we have to pas the bill to find out whats in it . yes these are the folks running our country . thank god she is gone and on to next guy to get his ass out of there . nov cant get here fast enough
So, still no chance of a coherent thought, eh?
The trouble with our politics these days is readily visible in this post – the focus is on winning. How about a focus on governing, which requires negotiation and compromise? Try that for a while and the party may again become relevant – until then, it will continue in a death spiral.
If you cant win elections, you can not get reforms passed. Both parties have their heels in the sand not willing to move forwards Equal Time.
Yeah, but the question then becomes “who” are we electing? More and more, it appears many Americans are happy to continue electing rigid ideologues. So “Equal Time’s” comment is quite relevant.
You can’t put this all on the politicians themselves. To great degree, we have the very dysfunction we asked for.
What about your fellow blogger Greg Diamond’s playing to lose in the 29th State Senate District?
http://ocpoliticsblog.com/2012/01/23/why-is-liberal-o-j-blogger-diamond-running-for-the-29th-senate-district/
Why hasn’t he written about this here on the OJ?
What’s the matter Art, are you not getting enough hits on your story about Greg?
Any of us who were at the Occupy the Courts event on Friday know exactly why he’s running.
IDEA – Why don’t you ask him yourself? You sure have sent him plenty of pesky e-mails in the past!
Being 1) a liar; 2) self-loathing; and 3) a miserable and hateful miscreant, Art couldn’t possibly ask Greg why he’s running, or otherwise attempt to fact-check his spurious, venomous bullshit. If he did, I guess the world could rejoice, as it might suggest his disease was abating. The poor man really needs help; he is well on his way to straddling a world of perfect friendlessness and about four DSM diagnoses.
I’m “playing to lose”? Why didn’t anyone tell me? I thought that — if I do run — I was playing for a tie in regulation and trying to win in overtime. Anyway, I’ve only taken out papers yet, sought (and obtained) a recommendation for an endorsement, and started soliciting nomination signatures. I’m not yet a declared candidate, which is one reason I haven’t announced here.
As I pointed out on Art’s blog — and I say this so you don’t have to click his link — if I do run I expect to get a better percentage of the vote this November than Art’s crush Gary Johnson does. In fact, I hope to get more than Bob Huff. Even if I don’t, though, the race will be worth my while.
For the record, dear readers — the main reason that I haven’t written about this here because I’m not sure whether I can write about the campaign here without triggering an in-kind contribution from Vern (and if so, how much of one.) I’m waiting until I hear from the FPPC. I hadn’t expected the story to come out this soon, but it did a week ago — although Art apparently thinks that he broke the story — and since then things have moved quickly.
*Vitriol…….you put a little under your right arm ….you put a little under your left arm….
Stick you little finger in your right nostril….stick you other little finger in your left nostril.. California politics at its best. No, not one of these folks has a vote to spare.
Can’t get or give enough donations…..can’t get or give enough…….of just about anything.
Rather pathetic ….really.
If someone did have power…..what would it look like? Pete Wilson, Gray Davis or Willie Brown? No thanks….we like Downtown Jerry Brown….just fine!