The Pundits are at it again. The Republicans are on the verge of civil war they say, the party is in shambles, it need to change to bring in more voting bloc. Its too far gone to ever gain traction on the national stage, and etc, etc, etc. This just isn’t so and any true conservative would agree. Abandoning our principles is the wrong thing to do. Republicans and Conservatives need to stand form on the platform they believe in. Running away would only make things worse.
Any sort of major division could lead to the arise of a true 3rd party and if this happens, the Democrats would be able to take advantage of the split vote from the right, and win a majority of the elections at the local, state, and federal level. The absolutely worse thing the Republican Party can do is give in. Are there problems? Yes. Are there solutions? YES! If the Republican Party can get organized, get local, improve communication, and demonstrate to minorities how the GOP platform helps them, the GOP can be revived.
ORGANIZATION
The Democratic machine has earned that name well. They are the epitome of the well-oiled machine. The success they have at the grassroots level is overwhelming and its excruciatingly disappointing that the Republicans can’t even compete in the same league.
To win future elections we have to change the perceived face of the Republican Party to the general public and this starts at the local level. The GOP needs to spotlight more “Joe the Plumbers” and other every day, ordinary Republicans. The Republican Party is not just made up of rich, white men. They are a diverse community of intellectuals’ thinks who share common values. To build to future “GOP machine” it can’t come from the top. This movement needs to start at the bottom. We’ve seen glimpses of how powerful the GOP grassroots movement can be with the surge of the Tea-Party in 2010. If this movement was organized and the energy channeled into spread the message to the independents, the GOP will be in a solid position for future election.
The local district and state leaders need to organize a series of community events. Have public forums and a grill out at a local park featuring local GOP officials and leaders. Invite people from both sides for a discussion among neighbors, among friends, with some complementary food and drink. Do this, get the message out and go from there. Putting a local, likable face on the GOP is a powerful thing.
COMMINCATION
The Republican Party does have a major problem, just it’s not with the core values of the party which some people both inside and out would argue. No, the problem the party, and conservatives, in general have is a “failure to communicate” Republicans tends to argue their views with a sense of logic. Our problem is assuming people think the same way and understand the core concepts that form our logic.
A great example is Rep. Paul Ryan. Congressman Ryan is one of the most brilliant individuals to work for the American people. He is the absolute authority on budget matters and fiscal policy. His ability to read data and numbers is uncanny. Paul Ryan’s biggest problem? Putting all that into English people to understand.
If you watched the Vice-Presidential debate, and may argue that Vice-President Biden won. This is because, why Biden connected with the people with short phrases and campaign slogans, while never directly answering a question. Paul Ryan tried to argue with facts, data, and numbers. Problem was, if you didn’t get the logic behind it all, you were lost, thus bored, and then tuned out. The message was lost. It’s impossible to explain these matters in short 2 minute debate segments. If the Republican Party is to again take control, they need to learn to communicate on a level everyone can understand, and to be able to do it in a short amount of time. No easy task.
The American people did not reject conservatism. They just embraced a simpler message. “Hope” and “Change” is what got Obama elected in 08. Going even more basic “Forward” dressed up in the patriotic red, white, and blue, got him reelected in 2012. Simple as those slogans are they are effective. Everyone can understand the message. Everyone wants hope, everyone wants change, and everyone wants this country to move forward. While Republicans are busy explaining their policy, doing to math (long-hand), and talking about quantum factors that affect everything in the long run sounding like the monotone professor calling role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the Democrats are having a “hope and change” pep rally filled with jamming music and explosions of fun-fetti. What would you rather attend?
If its one thing Barrack Obama does very well, its communicate. He might not communicate what he is going to do, or any sort of policy matters. He is no Ronald Reagan, but what Barrack Obama does communicate very well is excitement. The man gets people’s hearts beating and the passion he emits from his mouth is marvelously absorbed by any who hear him speak. Its not just President Obama that has this knack, the Democratic Party, and especially their campaign staff have a way with words and spinning facts that you can only describe as a true gift of talent. That talent is lacking in the GOP camp. Remember, Barrack Obama won a national election, and made people cry with joy on the words “Hope” and “change” and despite the horrible economy and record of failed policies, his re-election staff was able to spin those numbers and win re-election on the concept of moving “forward” They get people to believe them, whether what they are saying is true or not.
The Republican Party and Conservatives in general have failed to communicate in the ways of Regan. We have a tough time relating the principles we believe in to the individual. This needs to change. We need better campaign slogans, more “pretty pictures”, more short media bits conveying the success and importance of our economic and foreign policies. If people actually heard the message, and more importantly understood it, and how it relates to what our founding fathers envisioned, it would be illogical to vote against the Republican Party.
If the Republican Party’s leadership can’t figure out a way to convey the conservative platform to the American people in simpler terms, terms that people can rally around, we might be in for some long years as the minority party. To start this process they need to look at the data of the exit polls and figure out how to talk with the people who voted against them.
SOCIAL VALUES
Social values are not a hindrance to the GOPs party platform either. Instead of hiding and spinning their views, the GOP candidates need to openly embrace their moral stands. It worked for President George W. Bush in the 2000 primaries. Religion isn’t dead in America, and until this past election the American people voted every single time to uphold the value of traditional marriage, and the ones they lost, this past year were close votes. Exit polls showed those in a “strong” family setting, both men and woman voted Republican in majority. Some of the most religious people in America today are minorities. African-Americans as a whole are strong church goers, are very influenced by the stands of their church leadership, and are strongly against gay marriage. A majority of Hispanics are devote Catholics, and strongly oppose gay marriage and abortion. It is their vote that kept California from legalizing gay marriage just a couple of years ago. Republican candidates can easily court and communicate to these demographics by endorsing social values for a stronger America, and thus work on bridging the astronomical minority voting gap between Democrats and Republicans.
If people think the Democrats “War on Woman” and promoting abortion rights won them the election, they are wrong. Yes Woman overall went for Romney, but if you remove the minority woman, who voted for different reasons, from the polling data, Romney won the white woman’s vote 56% - 42% and Obama actually did worse this year among white woman then he did in 2008. The GOP can win woman, and standing strong on social issues isn’t turning them away either.
There are plenty of born again Christians in America, and many new ones each and everyday. Not to mention the plethora of other religions uphold social values on the highest level. Morality isn’t extinct. There are plenty of Americans that want to defend the moral ground our great Nation was founded on. It would be a shame if the GOP move away from these beliefs, and it would alienate large and passionate chunk on the party base.
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Its clear the Republican have lost a majority of the minority vote. For the party that led the ending of human slavery in the US, this is unacceptable. The Republican Party should be the party of choice for these individuals. Conservatives, more than Democrats, are trying to protect the “American Dream” and the notion of working hard to build your own success. These are values that the GOP needs not only to endorse, but to actively voice and show how they can benefit the nation as a whole, and the individual, no matter what demographic they are in.
HISPANIC VOTE
The Hispanic vote is increasing in importance every election as the proportion of Hispanic voters increases. While Democrats have traditionally carried this group by a comfortable margin, it was only a decade ago when the Republican Party decreased the democratic margin of these voters.
- In 2000, after Republicans lost the Hispanic vote by 51 percentage points in 1996, George W. Bush decreased that gap to only 27 percentage points, and in 2004 cut it again to an 18 point gap by gathering 40% of the Hispanic vote
- In 2008, this trend of moving toward a Republican candidate revered and Barrack Obama doubled the victory margin by winning by 36 points.
- In 2012 Barrack Obama carried 71% of the Hispanic vote for a +44 point victory in the group
By observing the data, it’s clear that the Hispanic vote can be easily swayed to one side or another, and while the Republicans may never win over 50% of the vote, if the party can get back to 37%-40%, that would be enough to net a few more percentage points in the overall popular voter and could easily swing some states red. If Mitt Romney had the type of support among Hispanics that George W. Bush enjoyed, he would have won Colorado, and been more in play in Iowa, and Florida.
Getting the Hispanic vote is fairly easy. As noted earlier, a majority of Hispanics are Catholics and have firm views on a number of social values. By campaigning on the importance of social values in America by promoting the notion of being successful only if you follow God’s rules first, than man’s and asking them the question “What type of Country do you want your child to grow up in?” Republicans and Conservatives in general should be able to pull enough votes away from the left to compete for market share with this important block of voters.
The GOP didn’t lose the Hispanic vote in 2012 because of social issues or even economic issues. They lost due to the Immigration Policy issue. President Obama scored major political points with his executive order to basically make the “Dream Act” the policy of America without consent from the US Congress. After saying for nearly 3 years that he couldn't legally do it, with the reality of losing an election becoming clearer, President Obama didn’t care about rule of law, he just did it. Whether you agree with what he did or not doesn’t matter, what matters is he won a majority of the Hispanic vote because of his ideas on amnesty for illegals. The GOP needs to make immigration reform a top priority before the 2016 elections to win back the support of Hispanics and they don’t need to compromise on their principles to accomplish this either. Passing any sort of immigration reform that helps the Hispanic population, while protecting the integrity of America’s boarders and rule of law, will take the doubt away from the Hispanic population, and they will begin to place their voting support behind candidates that match up with their social and economic values to build a brighter future for themselves. Most Hispanics come to America for Work, not to vote and note for handouts. If we create an economy that allows them to do so legally, they will migrate more and more to the side of the GOP.
THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOTE
One of the key demographics firmly in Barrack Obama’s, and the Democrats corner, is the African-American vote. In 2012, Barrack Obama took over 90% of the African-American vote. Some 59 heavily African-American populated voting wards in Philadelphia didn’t cast a single vote for Mitt Romney. Ever since the era of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement, the Democrats have enjoyed near unanimous support from the African-American community. It is time the Republican Party took back a portion of America’s largest minority voting group.
Republicans need to ask the African-American community “how has the democrats helped you advance in your life?” The wording of this phrase is key. Yes, the democrats have expanded welfare coverage and low-income housing programs for all minorities, including blacks, but have they actually helped them overcome the economic and social problems they have when compared to whites?
Over the last 20+ years, numerous economic and social factors that indicate quality of life, show mild up and downs trends in the African American community. Unfortunately nothing has changed much, and even more regrettably, it follows the same trends that white people have seen and the gap between whites and blacks has not narrowed much at all.
The data overwhelmingly shows that over the last 10 and 20 years, African-Americans continue to earn less pay, continue to obtain lower levels of Higher Education, continue to receive lower test and competency scores across the board, continue to have higher rates of poverty, and continue to have higher rates of crime. Yet, they still overwhelming vote Democratic and support Democratic concepts? Where has this gotten them? Yes they have welfare, and can survive, but are they happy? Are they content with living mostly in poverty and depending on US Government? I believe no. I believe African Americans, as do all Americans believe in the American Dream and want to be greater than they are now.
The GOP needs to organize a coalition of black business leaders, political figures, and idols to get into the black communities, into the churches and promote the ideas of the GOP and how Republicans will actually work towards improving their lives of Americans, instead of just keeping them alive to vote as the Democrats have.
Democratic Policies have hurt the African-American community has created a complex problem that has hindered their economic, and therefore social advancement.
In short the Democratic Party has not helped them prosper. This is unacceptable that 40 years after the civil rights movement ended, they are still an unequal part of America. Tomorrow’s Republicans need to take a stand on how outrageous this is and encourage and communicate the advancing the prosperity of African-Americans, as well as all minorities, through Conservative Principles.
THE FUTURE
The future of the Republican Party is bright and strong. The conservative movement is not dead, and if the rising of the Tea Party faction is any indicator, it hasn’t even entered its prime yet. The GOP needs some work; it needs better organization, better communication, and a more direct crusade to recruit minority voters. Republicans and Conservatives to hold tight to their values and weather the storm ahead. They need not to compromise or cave in on their values. The Conservative umbrella is big enough, and there is plenty room for more underneath it.
The Republican Principles are strong. Let us never forget them and why we stand for them.
- To Promote State Rights
- To Promote Fiscal Conservation and a Balanced Federal Budget
- To Promote Free Market Capitalism as the Driving Economic Force in America
- To Promote Small and Large Business Growth, here, on American Soil
- To Promote the Idea that Government closest to the People, is the Strongest
- To Promote and Ensure the Freedoms and Rights under the Constitution are Never Infringed upon
- To Promote the Moral Compass that our forefathers strongly believed in
- To Promote Fairness and Equality for all
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