Enough is enough.
Brian Kirwin and I were invited out the Republican Party of Virginia Beach breakfast Saturday to reprise our election analysis panel from the other week at the Nimmo Republican Women’s Club. What was supposed to be a thoughtful and frank discussion about where the party tripped up and what hopeful messages and ideas the conservative movement should have for the future, turned into an hour of speechifying and pathetic navel gazing.
Herein lies the problem with the GOP.
Enough is enough.
I love Ronald Reagan. Number 40 was the ultimate optimist regarding lower taxes, limited government, and the “city on the hill.”
Without a shadow of a doubt, we Republicans can look to Reagan as our political hero who showed the clear path as to how to win elections.
But we have no Reagan today. He’s dead.
I’m sorry, but he’s gone. Six feet under and not coming back.
It is time for Republicans to get out of the graveyard and into the business of life.
The dour, sour and despondent looks of people at yesterday’s event made me want to lose my breakfast.
There is absolutely no reason why the GOP with its positive messages can’t still win.
While our hero may be in the afterlife, it doesn’t mean that the conservative movement has to go there too.
The GOP has to snap out of it.
Enough is enough.
You know, organizational management is not that complex. All you really need is a message and a reason to believe.
Take any organization that is successful and you will find a successful message. Where is the GOP successful message?
During this entire campaign, where was the advocate for keeping government off your back? Where was the advocate for saying government is not the solution, but the problem? Where was the advocate saying that working until May to pay the government is an issue, not a solution?
It just didn’t exist.
Look, when Republicans advocate freedom, we win.
Charter schools, vouchers, lower taxes, strong defense, market solutions, charitable giving, etc. appeals to most people. Those same people understand that having “mommy” in the White House, House of Representatives, or the Senate telling us how to go about our business is the exact wrong course of action.
I think Brian said it best yesterday when he said McCain wanted to bail out the mortgage and banking industry while folks thought Obama was going to cut taxes for the middle class. And who was the Democrat?
This is not rocket science people.
So many economists have shown that when government gets involved in regulating and managing the free market, this centrally controlled environment falls flat on its face.
Therefore, it’s pretty simple. Sometimes it may seem counter to popular sentiment, but when Republicans advocate free-market solutions in an optimistic, hopeful, and productive way, they will win.
Obama gave people the rhetoric and style they were so longing for: hope and change.
Why Republicans dismissed that and allowed it to happen is a shame.
But what Republicans can do from here forward is show that we are a party of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility; a party of governing to promote free enterprise and the safe and secure exercise thereof; a party of education and personal growth; a party dedicated to preserving our Constitution and equality and civil rights for all.
It’s a pretty simple equation…but it requires hope, thought, action, intellectual honesty and, most importantly, not looking at one’s feet.
Let’s rock. Let’s start working for America.