The First Task…
Mitch McConnell laid out some of his views on the future of the Party to the RNC yesterday. Here he is diagnosing the problem:
We all hear a lot about how these things have affected our party in particular. We’re all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us. And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one. In politics, there’s a name for a regional party: it’s called a minority party. And I didn’t sign up to be a member of a regional party. I know no one in this room did either.
And here is the crux of what he believes is the solution:
As Republicans, we know that commonsense conservative principles aren’t regional. But I think we have to admit that our sales job has been. And in my view, that needs to change.
I’ll agree with McConnell that “common sense conservative principles” should be the answer across the U.S., but that that does not mean our woes can be attributed to just a bad “sales job.” Maybe we haven’t actually been sticking to our own principles. Maybe (probably) what the party says it stands for has actually changed over the past generation or so.
McConnell goes on to say:
The first task, in my view, is to find the voters who’ve left the party. As we do this, the temptation for some will be to run from our principles or to dilute our message. I think that’s a temptation we need to resist. These people were Republican for a reason. You don’t get them back by pretending to something else. And you certainly don’t gain voters by running away from the ones that are most loyal. But it’s clear our message isn’t getting out to nearly as many people as it should. We need to give voters who’ve turned away a reason to take another look. And that takes a lot of work.
As far as I’m concerned, people who have left the party have done so because they figured out the growing GOP contradictions. The old alliance between economic conservatives and social conservatives just broke after the Cold War and after the new wave came to power from ‘94 on. After our focus turned to big government solutions, Terri Schiavo, attempts to outlaw gay marriage, and the phony culture wars, THAT’S when the economic conservatives decided that they’d much rather become independents (or Democrats!).
The people who have remained just aren’t comfortable with the secular-leaning conservatives who made up our base outside of the South. For them, that brand of conservatism never had any part to play in the party.
McConnell is right– this is going to take a lot of work.
I read this very article last night, and was encouraged until I got to the “sales job” part, then I grew disheartened and disgusted. It seems to me that although McConnell sees some of the actual problems we have as a party, his solution is to find a new way to spin the same old thing.
Speaking as a Republican who is very deep in the South, I am more than just uncomfortable with the direction our party has taken. Couple this with the recent obstructionist vote on the stimulus, I’m growing weary and embarrassed to be a Republican.
I’m beginning to wonder if we can be fixed, and if it is worth the effort to even try. I don’t mind hard work for a cause I believe in, but I do mind beating my head against a brick wall.
I think the sign that Michael Steele has been elected to head the RNC is a good sign. At least a signal to move away from the ’southern’ strategy.
I agree Mary. I posted this before the RNC election, and was feeling very disheartened. Now that Steele has been elected, maybe we will begin to see a more moderate shift. One can hope.
I hope this is a sign for the future. Having a moderate in charge of the party will be good for our party if he is given a chance.
I don’t know Steele from Adam. I’m a small ‘r’ Republican much like I’m a small ‘l’ Libertarian. I’m not part of any party organizations and I don’t care much for organizations anyway.
Which is one reason why I’m a Republican to begin with.
If McConnell wants to know why we conservatives are turning away from the party all he has to do is ask. We’ll give him an earful beginning with torture and extraordinary rendition, violations of civil liberties and suspension of habeas corpus, and moving on to the disconnect between prosecuting a war in two theaters and yet continuing to defend tax cuts whose utility had passed once we invade Iraq.
Now, I have no idea who my precinct people are, etc., since I’m not a joiner or anything. I’d much rather discuss things here and at RFO and at other places on the Internet. So I have no idea if Mitch McConnell or Steele or whoever will ever understand where we’re coming from.
You know Tin, sometimes I feel like most of our leaders are so disconnected from reality that none of them see beyond their own frame of reference. So they probably don’t understand where we are coming from. It’s time to change that, and shake things up a bit……