The GOP Establishment

Kill, or cure? What say you?

In the present crisis, the GOP establishment is not the solution to our problem; the GOP establishment is the problem.

Comments

[unseen]

yes part of the problem because they are stuck on stupid.

[John Q. Public]

Not only do they have sorry candidates (see McCain, John) but they seem to think they can keep repeating that they oppose the messiah but they do not tell you what their ideas are. I'm an independent who would rather vote for anything but a democrat but man the Repubs need to give me something, what they are laying out now is not worth it.

[M. Simon]

Attacking RINOs is good. Taking them out is good. But it is not Grand strategy.

I present a Grand Strategy here:

A National Party
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2009/11/national-party.html

With supporting evidence here:

Why McCain Picked Palin
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-mccain-picked-palin.html

[Sissy Willis]

M. Simon: Good "strategery" for raising the Republican tent. I totally agree that Sarah Palin "is one very smart lady. She can read a map."

Dan: Thanks for the link. Kill or cure? I love the tease. Ans: What doesn't kill us will make us stronger.

[Joe]

Third parties do not work.

Fourth parties however do. If you have the Dems competing with their own third party, then Conservatives can split from Republicans.

[unseen]

Reagan made three very big mistakes in his two terms. The first was picking Bush for vice president. I understand he wanted to heal the party for the general election however, he should have picked someone that leaned more towrds his views. The Reagan agenda and the GOP would then never have been co-opted by a progressive Rep after Reagan. If not for the fact that Bush was able to run as Reagan's third term he would have gone down to defeat like Dole, McCain and Ford. It also allowed his son to don the mask of conservatism and do more damage to the conservative name.

The second mistake was not to make some of his agenda into consitutional amendments after his landslide victory in 1984.

the third mistake was trusting Ted Kennedy with the amnesty bill.

The fact that Reagan did not keep the levers of power from the Rino's proved in hindsight to be a blindspot of Reagan's as they were quickly able to turn his agenda around back into Rinoville. I often wonder if Reagan did not have an illness after his terms if he would have been able to quietly guide the GOP behind the scences to ensure his revolution was more lasting within the party.

The people still believe in Reagan's revolution and only await another national leader to take up his ideas. The elites can not and never did see anything of Reagan worth following except tax cuts.

[Philip McDaniel]

It is probably time to have a heart to heart with the GOP establishment. They either change their ways or step out of the way. It's not a question of a third or fourth party. It's a question of whether we are going to take back our great party or let it continue in the hands of befuddled, grasping, short-sighted political hacks.

[davis,br]

How about this solution: Fire.Them.All.

..."professional" politicians (now there's both a pun AND an oxymoron), simply should not be. The current structure serves only to enrich the political elites.

Like a fallow field, political sinecures need regular plowing to enrich the soil.

...currently all they amount to is night soil. The stench arising from the statehouses and the Beltway being case-in-point.

[seekeronos]

Kill (the party) with extreme prejudice, if we wind up with nothing but a slate of Newt-endorsed, Scozzfava-bean-latte-sipping lefty limousine liberal Rockefeller RINOs running in 2010.

But then again, I backed the Constitution Party in the last election, so that's where my sympathies for the GOP, a.k.a. the Democrat Party Lite™ currently lie.

[gary gulrud]

"Third parties do not work.

Fourth parties however do."

MN is a good example. DFL(Donks) set up far to the left of electorate.
GOP moves one step to the center. Independence party shoehorns itself uncomfortably in between.

I voted Constitution party in the Coleman/Franken contest and retired a squish leaving the Fool a one-term embarrassment.

[templar knight]

"..retired a squish leaving the Fool a one-term embarrassment."

We have to be very, very careful when we identify which Republicans are out-and-out RINOs and which ones are moderate. We should not expect an elected official to vote one way 100% of the time. There are true moderates and there are moderates in name only, of which Scozzafava was an example. She was obviously a liberal who decided to don Republican clothes in order to win the election. These fish need to be thrown out of the water.

As for Coleman vs. Franken, I shudder to think about the damage Democrats are now preparing to do to our country because Franken won this race. But for one Republican in the Senate, cap and trade along with government-run health care may pass, to the eternal detriment of us all.

[John]

The leadership is a major part of the problem, but the voters are too. We need to get out and support the right candidates, ones with the conservative values. We as a society will never agree on any issue 100% but an 80%-90% agreement is possible. The RNC must lead the message and not let the DNC and the propaganda media create the message (like they are now). The values that we believe in are correct and have been the backbone of America for a hundred years, the socialist message does not work for the majority of this country but it is the only coordinated message that the country is hearing now. The DNC and the far left have control of the education system, the propaganda media and the political discussion, we need to speak up and get our message out. Why do you think the media is proclaiming a civil war in the party, to create confusion, fear and doubt in the party and the message?

We the people ….. Silent no more

[NeoconBlonde]

No, I do not think we can blame party leadership. We can, however, blame those government representatives endorsed by our party who talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Those are the people who have screwed our party. I think NY-23 is a complete anomaly. While it demonstrates a conflict between competing GOP ideologies, such problems are prevented using the primary process. I still find Hoffman's lack of residency in that district very problematic. I hope he wins, but I know how detrimental Tedisco's own residency issues were to his candidacy for Gillibrand's seat.

[Ran / Si Vis Pacem]

I say...

Having identified the problem, part of the solution is to overcome the Liberal premise that winning "moderates" with "moderation" is the key to GOP success. I say the solution lies further in a Reaganesque alliance of Libertarians and Conservatives by re-branding the Party back to it's raison d'etre.

I make part of the argument here: http://tinyurl.com/yk795jn

[gary gulrud]

"I shudder to think about the damage Democrats are now preparing to do to our country because Franken won this race."

Senate is not rolling over. The executive powers exercised without further legislation are what is hurting.

Yes, conservatives staying home and indies affliating with/and/or "voting for a change" did their grandchildren in, but moderates will not roll back government.