Moving The RNC/MNGOP Forward

My good friend, Lt. Col. Joe Repya has a series of posts up on what the MNGOP can do to move forward after 4 years of leadership punctuated by back to back electoral losses, tepid fundraising and a volunteer base who simply told the party to "buzz off - you don't represent me any more!" While most of it is directed toward the MNGOP (he is after all running for the MNGOP chair again this year) there is much that every state and, most importantly, the national GOP can learn from this 6 part series of posts. There are a lot of good ideas in parts 1-5, but I want to focus on part 6 which is the conclusion of the series.

In my opinion, we took another beating this year because leadership was too busy dividing this party rather than uniting this party. Therefore, for the sins of few, the many suffered. Anyone who attended the GOP State Convention in Rochester knows of which I speak. We can no longer continue to divide this party by attacking individuals or groups that do not agree 100% with the party leadership. We must be capable of identifying those issues that we all agree with, compromise if possible on those we do not. Only teamwork and a united message will overcome the DFL and left wing liberalism.

What happened in Rochester is not limited to the MNGOP - for those that were not there the short story is if you were a Ron Paul delegate or anyone who dared to disagree with the direction of the state party and you made the mistake of vocalizing it, you were shut down cold by those who were running the convention (the state party chair and his allies). I know from talking to others in other states that this was the modus operandi in just about every state convention across the country this year and I know that this is what happened to the Paul campaign at the RNC Convention in St. Paul. However that is all in the past. IF we are ever to move forward into 2010 we need...

We need leaders with vision and the ability to motivate our grassroots. We need a leader who will sit down and be willing to open the “big tent” that once was this party. We need a party willing to discuss and embrace new ideas, new people, different issues, and opposing attitudes without alienating other individual and groups. We must articulate a message that the conservative wing, the social moderate wing and independents will rally around.

We also need candidates who will walk the walk.

Many Republicans have lost faith in this party because some of our so called “conservative elected office holders” have voted against our core principles for political expediency or to perpetuate their own political ambitions. We need leaders who will never abandon our core principles. We can always compromise on issues, methods, techniques and tactics, but we can never compromise our core principles.

Gee this seems to be a theme among the conservative base. I think I may have mentioned this a time or three myself.

Another thing I may have mentioned here a time or three is this...

In the past, the Republican Party had been the party of ideas. Somewhere we lost our voice and our message. We must be capable of developing new ideas and communicating our message across this state. We must develop a clear and concise message of smaller government, tax reform, corruption reform and spending cuts. We must demonstrate to our fellow Minnesotans how our message and principles will improve their quality of life. In this bad economy, we should start demanding an end to new spending within the State of Minnesota. Here is a novel idea: let’s hold all state department budgets to the 2008 level and shrink the size of our state governmental departments by 5%. There is plenty of government waste that can be eliminated in Saint Paul. Since we have a balanced budget requirement, we should insure that social programs, not public safety programs, are the first to be cut.

The only "idea" that today's Republican Party has EVER had has been the "we don't like the Democrats or their ideas" idea. The Contract With America has been the closest that we have ever seen to ideas out of this party. If the party ever wants to move forward we have to have a plan and (most importantly) are NOT AFRAID TO ARTICULATE AND DEFEND IT! Football teams can not win playing the "prevent defense" what makes the RNC think that we can win politically playing the prevent defense? The base is out here doing what we can, but when the party leadership won't even try to defend conservative ideas and ideals - why should the base bother?

What the Republican Party needs today are leaders who are willing to step out of the "way it's always been done" and try new things. We need leaders who are willing to listen to the grass roots and "even" Ron Paul supporters! We have to be willing to learn from others if we are ever going to move this party forward.