Less and Less Room for the GOP
Over the past generation we’ve won some of the biggest ideological battles, forcing the Dems to adopt more moderate positions on crime, welfare and taxes. More recently, they’ve recruited openly religious candidates. If President Obama has his way, the GOP won’t have much to run on over the next 4-8 years.
Here’s the part of Obama’s speech that stuck out the most to me:
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
When was the last time you heard a Democrat talk about ending programs that don’t work?
Of course it’s easy to go out and say we need to trim government, and the President will meet tough resistance from members of congress when he tries cutting their pet projects, but just the fact that he took the time during his Inauguration speech tells me that he’ll try to co-opt the “government efficiency” plank for his party.
What would we do then? Our old arguments about how the Democrats support bloated government and believe that government is always the answer will be harder and harder to make. We’ll just run out of ways to distinguish ourselves.
For the first time in my life, I am looking at a Democratic President that is sounding more Republican than any of our own candidates.
Obama puts forth a lot of ideas that sound like our party did before being taken over by the radical right. I think it’s time for us thinking Republicans to take back our party if we are to ever be viable again.
“Over the past generation we’ve won some of the biggest ideological battles, forcing the Dems to adopt more moderate positions on crime, welfare and taxes. ”
I just want to say — absolutely! What do you do to differentiate yourself once you’ve “won”? Once you can no longer play the same old tropes because the other side has agreed with you, or even where you’ve been proven to be wrong?
The fact is, the GOP can no longer differentiate themselves by the same old ideas. They (we) need to come up with new ideas of what government can and should do for the Republic. To tell the truth, while I do have ideas, I’m not yet sure if I have any new ideas.
So just like there were Reagan Democrats, for now I’m an Obama Republican. I look forward to helping figure out new ideas for how the government should be run.
Oh, and hi everyone!
Hi Tin!
The problem, as I see it, is that as the Dems adopted more moderate positions, the vocal GOP “base” keeps moving farther to the right. That wing of the party has tromped on individual freedoms and lost all semblance of governing according to the Constitution. It’s time for common sense to return to our party. The election of Barack Obama, and the support he generated across party lines, is testimony to that need.
TinSoldier, good to see you.
What’s sad is that it really shouldn’t have to be up to regular old voters like us to come up with new ideas for the Republican party, but at the rate it’s been going, it doesn’t look like today’s crop of Republicans have the courage to think up anything new. My guess is that it’s just going to be “tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts” for a while.
Hi, Suzi. Yes, that was my point. The Democrats we have today are not, for the most part, our fathers’ and mothers’ Democrats. And that’s a good thing, right?
The Dems were stuck for a very long time where the GOP finds themselves today. Hopefully it won’t take us as long to figure out a new direction to help ensure that our core principles are put into policy.
But you say “it shouldn’t be up to regular old voters like us to come up with new ideas” whereas I say that’s the whole point — grass roots, not professional politicians. Not that I’m an activist or joiner myself or anything, but there are a lot of people who are somewhere in-between the mercenary politicians for whom principle is a bullet point on a presentation and the True Believers who organize from the ground up.
(Not that I’m either one — I’m just a regular voter.)
The problem right now though is that there is a gulf between many voters and politicians at all skill levels within the party. We obviously want our party to go back to its moderate, non-anarchic, non-theocratic, and limited libertarian roots. The other factions of the party want to shift things their way.
Meh — I’m rambling for now. Sorry. Maybe more later once I sort my thoughts out better.
Keep rambling Tin, you’re making a lot of sense. Us “regular voters” are where the change must begin, so throw out any ideas or thoughts you may have. One of the purposes of this new website is to brainstorm ideas on what the party needs to do. It’s time that “we the people” have a voice in our party again!
Good points, Suzi. It makes no sense for us to try to parody what the party claims we stand for, especially considering how off base they’ve become. They serve us– not the other way around. If they can’t learn to listen to what party members (and all voters!) are saying, then they’ll just get what they deserve.