The Party in the 21st Century 0
If the Republican Party is going to survive, it will have to join the 21st century at some point. This means two things:
1. It will again have to become the party of ideas, and these ideas will have to work for a broad swath of Americans (hopefully for all Americans).
The divide-and-conquer strategies the party had gotten pretty good at since the 1960’s culture wars are over. The demographics that these strategies depended upon just aren’t there anymore, and the groups that the party regularly alienated are slowly becoming the majority in America. They will continue to be extremely suspicious of the Party’s motives in the coming years.
What does this mean? It means that whatever changes we make in the way we operate, and in how we implement our philosophy (and in deciding what that philosophy even IS), will need to be drastic and real if we’re ever going to get a second look from those who have written us off. Cosmetic changes (a black man as RNC Chair; Brian McKnight performing at the Republican Convention) will do nothing other than make us a laughingstock and a party that eventually gets 30 percent of the vote.
A new Republican philosophy must work for Americans and must represent a path to a stronger America. People need to be convinced that their families and their nation will be better off under our leadership. Of course, if we can’t adapt to the 21st century and offer a better alternative to Americans, then we probably should not be in this business to begin with.
2. We’re going to have to use 21st century tools to organize and reach out to people.
This point goes hand-in-hand with #1. As long as the party continues to alienate the multi-ethnic, increasingly educated younger generations of Americans, we’re never going to be able to attract the armies of young people needed to invigorate the party. While the Democrats will continue to be be able to depend upon millions of motivated, plugged-in generation x, y, and z’ers to help them appeal to and reach out to others, our party has a huge built-in disadvantage.
We will never be able to become a national party unless we can compete for the affection of the 18-40 year old crowd. That crowd wants something very different from what our party has become. This is not the time for tweaking– the party needs to start from scratch and revisit what it stands for. The party will have to appeal to the imaginations of young Americans who want the nation that they’re inheriting to be the best it can be.
Which brings us to this organization. If the party is going to drastically change, it will not be because of the efforts of those currently in charge. It will require pressure from the uneasy fringes of the party– people like us. Our organization is here to help organize current, former, and (hopefully) future members of the Republican Party who are no longer satisfied with seeing the Party go down the drain.
We have no ties to the GOP leadership, and we have no reason to offer anything other than a blunt assessment of the state of the Party and discuss where we feel the party must go in the future.