This interview with on-again, off-again GOP consultant Mike Murphy, was brought to my attention yesterday and, considering the challenges facing the GOP right here in Virginia, the topic is right on the money:
FIX: You recently tweeted out that the fight within the Republican party right now is between “mathematicians and priests”. Explain.
Mike Murphy: There seem to be two schools of thought in GOP. One group, the mathematicians, look at the GOP’s losing streak and the changing demography of the country and say the party needs to make real changes to attract voters beyond the old Republican base of white guys. Not just mechanics, but also policy. They want to modernize conservatism and change some of the old dogma on big issues like same sex marriage. I’m one of them. The other group, the Priests, say the problem is we don’t have enough ideological purity. We must have faith, be pure and nominate “real conservatives” (whatever that means; the Priests are a bit slippery about their definitions) who will fight without compromise against liberalism. The Priests are mostly focused on the sins we are against; they say our problem is a lack of intensity; if we are passionate and loud enough, we will alert and win over the rest of the country. The Mathematicians hear all this and think the Priests are totally in an 55 year old white guy echo chamber of their own creation and disconnected from the reality of today’s electorate. They are worry more about what the party should be for, and how we grow our numbers. They think the Priests fail to understand it is not 1980 anymore and votes are not there for the Old Pitch. The Priests hear the Mathematicians and think they are all sell-outs.
That’s just a taste of what Murphy has to say. It’s tough medicine, but he is also right.
And I say that as someone who has priestly tendencies.
While Murphy’s argument is framed around national politics, it translates to what is happening here and now. In Ken Cuccinelli, the GOP nominated its most conservative candidate since…2009. Yes, Bob McDonnell was quite conservative. Why else would the Washington Post have tried so mightily to drag him down over his years-old graduate school thesis?
The difference is that McDonnell was, and remains, pliable. He adapted to circumstances — enraging some, including me, along the way. But he was also a winner. Clearly, he was on to something beyond mere timing. Chris Saxman notes how simple the formula is:
Know your brand. See Rule #2. Ask everyday what is your brand. Commit to it. Stay in your lane. Senator Mark Warner knows his brand as well as anyone in politics and he stays there. Bob McDonnell was for jobs. Bob’s for Jobs. That was a very good brand.
That simple message should be engraved in stone about RPV headquarters and no one allowed to cross the threshold unless they understand it.
Ken Cuccinelli is a man of principle. A smart guy, a fighter. But what is his brand? I don’t know. He has not defined it. So Terry McAuliffe created one for him. Call it unfair, a caricature or whatever — he followed a few simple advertising rules (the biggest being repetition) and stuck to them. The results should surprise no one.
They also provide clear lessons for the future. Virginia Republicans either learn them, or perish.
