Down to the Crossroads
This post has been percolating in my head for the last few days as a result of a couple of dust-ups that have happened around the MOB lately. While some have poked fun at the participants, I kept thinking that there was more to be "learned" from the situation.
Both parties stand at a cross-roads. Fundraising is down, down to the point where the State DFL party is having a hard time making payroll and they are on the brink of losing a core constituency - the unions! (H/T MDE for those two stories). The MNGOP is facing it's own challenges. I touched on them back in May when I posted on the case for political "purists" - the part of the base that puts principle over party! I made the case then and I restate it now....the pricipled conservatives and the party over all Republicans need each other in order to win elections!
What both sides need to do now is to take stock of the state of the GOP today. We have, when you look at the stable of candidates running for President, representation of the "big tent" principle that we have been espousing lately. We have two candidates who have been elected (as Republicans) to office in very blue states, we have a former Senator who (as a lawyer) worked for a firm that represented a pro-choice organization, we have a couple of Representatives running on border enforcement, we have Southern governor who has some seriously "liberal" views on health care and we have a Libertarian Representative who wants to withdraw from the world and go back to an archaic monitary standard. All of these candidates do have their one or two "conservative" issues, but they also have their areas of concern (for principled conservatives).
The RNC/MNGOP are focused on one thing and one thing only...who can beat Hillary! There are many problems to that thought process.
1) You are going to alienate large portions of your base with this thought process. The conventional wisdom is that Mayor Giulliani is the "only" candidate that can beat Hillary. Current polling does confirm it. However, there are parts of the base (the pro-life, pro-traditional marriage) that have concerns about the Mayor's stands on their issues. Then there are many who think that national security is THE issue of concern (myself included) and the Mayor is their candidate of choice. The RNC/MNGOP need to figure out how to resolve that conflict.
2) Hillary! may not end up being the nominee. Current polling shows that Senator Obama is leading Senator Clinton in the all important Iowa caucuses. Large portions of the Democrat Party base is dis-satisfied with Senator Clinton and her patented "triangulation" and they are starting to look for someone who has the appearance of saying what he/she means and meaning what he/she says!
Rather than focus on defeating Hillary, the RNC/MNGOP needs to figure out how to bring all of the factions back into the tent and make them work together toward a common goal. They need to bring the best of all of the candidates into the discussion. They need to bring REAL fiscal reform in DC (Rep. Ron Paul) and they need to bring REAL border reform (Reps. Hunter and Tancredo) into the discussion. They need to tie those two issues into national security (Mayor Giulliani) and how all three work into federalism (former Sen. Thompson) and they need to make sure that the social issues (abortion, traditional marriage) are part of the conversation as well. They need to realize that the Republican base is not all about "God, Guns and Gays", that there are bigger issues out there that need to be addressed. They need to realize that ideas are what sell - not fear.
If the RNC and MNGOP can figure out how to unite the factions for something positive (as opposed to voting against Hillary or Al Franken or Barak Obama) they will be able to unite the rest of the country behind whoever our nominee ends up being. Let's let the factions debate the personalities while the parties look at the ideas that these personalities represent and figure out how to work them into the eventual over-arching campaign. If they can do that, we can win.
Both parties stand at a cross-roads. Fundraising is down, down to the point where the State DFL party is having a hard time making payroll and they are on the brink of losing a core constituency - the unions! (H/T MDE for those two stories). The MNGOP is facing it's own challenges. I touched on them back in May when I posted on the case for political "purists" - the part of the base that puts principle over party! I made the case then and I restate it now....the pricipled conservatives and the party over all Republicans need each other in order to win elections!
What both sides need to do now is to take stock of the state of the GOP today. We have, when you look at the stable of candidates running for President, representation of the "big tent" principle that we have been espousing lately. We have two candidates who have been elected (as Republicans) to office in very blue states, we have a former Senator who (as a lawyer) worked for a firm that represented a pro-choice organization, we have a couple of Representatives running on border enforcement, we have Southern governor who has some seriously "liberal" views on health care and we have a Libertarian Representative who wants to withdraw from the world and go back to an archaic monitary standard. All of these candidates do have their one or two "conservative" issues, but they also have their areas of concern (for principled conservatives).
The RNC/MNGOP are focused on one thing and one thing only...who can beat Hillary! There are many problems to that thought process.
1) You are going to alienate large portions of your base with this thought process. The conventional wisdom is that Mayor Giulliani is the "only" candidate that can beat Hillary. Current polling does confirm it. However, there are parts of the base (the pro-life, pro-traditional marriage) that have concerns about the Mayor's stands on their issues. Then there are many who think that national security is THE issue of concern (myself included) and the Mayor is their candidate of choice. The RNC/MNGOP need to figure out how to resolve that conflict.
2) Hillary! may not end up being the nominee. Current polling shows that Senator Obama is leading Senator Clinton in the all important Iowa caucuses. Large portions of the Democrat Party base is dis-satisfied with Senator Clinton and her patented "triangulation" and they are starting to look for someone who has the appearance of saying what he/she means and meaning what he/she says!
Rather than focus on defeating Hillary, the RNC/MNGOP needs to figure out how to bring all of the factions back into the tent and make them work together toward a common goal. They need to bring the best of all of the candidates into the discussion. They need to bring REAL fiscal reform in DC (Rep. Ron Paul) and they need to bring REAL border reform (Reps. Hunter and Tancredo) into the discussion. They need to tie those two issues into national security (Mayor Giulliani) and how all three work into federalism (former Sen. Thompson) and they need to make sure that the social issues (abortion, traditional marriage) are part of the conversation as well. They need to realize that the Republican base is not all about "God, Guns and Gays", that there are bigger issues out there that need to be addressed. They need to realize that ideas are what sell - not fear.
If the RNC and MNGOP can figure out how to unite the factions for something positive (as opposed to voting against Hillary or Al Franken or Barak Obama) they will be able to unite the rest of the country behind whoever our nominee ends up being. Let's let the factions debate the personalities while the parties look at the ideas that these personalities represent and figure out how to work them into the eventual over-arching campaign. If they can do that, we can win.
Labels: 2008, Political Purism, Pragmatism
posted by The Lady Logician at
8:37 AM
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