To all my friends who I assured that Mitt Romney would win Virginia with a typical Republican 53%. I’m sorry. I was obviously wrong. After looking at the numbers I realize I need to get out more.
In the little world where I live, Virginia’s 9th Congressional District, Romney did live up to my prediction. As he did just down the road in the 5th CD. I just need to get out more.
Virginia also returned all our conservative congressmen to Washington. I will be grateful for that. Congratulations Morgan, Robert, Bob, Scott, Randy, Eric, Frank and Rob. I’ll even go ahead and congratulate Gerald, Bobby, and James.
But the hand wringing can stop now, as Shaun recently wrote.
We as a party really need to get more voters to the polls. It is that simple. In this election we turned out 3 million less voters than 2008.
Stop for a minute and let that sink in. Against the first openly socialist incumbent, we turned out less voters than in 2008.
What can we do about it?
The first thing the party needs to do is increase local unit membership. Not with just raw numbers, but with real conservatives who actually believe in Virginia’s Republican Creed. And who will work effectively to get out the vote. Think Reagan Democrats. They do still exist.
As Shaun’s numbers show, we were just flat-out beat with turnout. We need to get started now on improving our house. And our image.
We Believe:
- That the free enterprise system is the most productive supplier of human needs and economic justice,
- That all individuals are entitled to equal rights, justice, and opportunities and should assume their responsibilities as citizens in a free society,
- That fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraints must be exercised at all levels of government,
- That the Federal Government must preserve individual liberty by observing Constitutional limitations,
- That peace is best preserved through a strong national defense,
- That faith in God, as recognized by our Founding Fathers is essential to the moral fiber of the Nation.
Rebuilding our local units with true conservative Republicans will make recruitment of conservative candidates much more fruitful. As conservatives we also need to be better stewards of our image.
The candidates we do recruit and their spokesmen must have a mature enough mind-set to think first and then speak. Refrain from statements that can, and will, be twisted into something it’s not. Certainly not something like this recent disaster from Rick Santorum, which can’t be spun into something it’s not. It’s deplorable;
“I see the hand of the homosexual in this massive election fraud,” Santorum explained, “Romney was tied or leading in most polls before the election. And then he loses?… Homosexual dirty tricks. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”
At least he didn’t call ’em Sodomites. I suppose we can take some solace in that. Well, no we can’t. Because he then went on to say;
“Homosexuals aren’t like you and me. They don’t have respect for democracy. Your average homosexual has no moral compass whatsoever. If anyone is capable of this fraud, its them.”
“And homosexual kingpins like David Geffen, Elton John, and Tim Gill have all the money in the world to turn their dirty, filthy election schemes into reality. Geffen’s a billionaire, he could afford to put a man on the moon. Surely he could afford to pull off something like this.”
“It could have been a virus in the election machines. Gill knows a lot about computers. Or maybe they were just stuffing multiple big, long ballots deep inside each other’s ballot-boxes Who knows? But I know gays had the motive and means to steal this one for Obama.”
Mr. Santorum, I abhor you and your statement. Didn’t really like you much before, but you’ve lost all credibility now. I ask that all Republicans immediately and strongly denounce Rick Santorum. Now.
Repeat after me; This statement does not convey my values, nor those of the Republican Party of Virginia.
Rick Santorum really did not lose this election for us. That was obviously satire. But statements very much like this did. We have allowed our image to be distorted to the point that too many people would actually believe Mr. Santorum said that.
As a whole Republicans are not homophobic. We are not racists. We are not anti-women. We are not anti-student. Too many people see us as all those things and more. (And maybe why we lost 3 million voters since 2008.)
We all have friends who fit into one of those slots. Maybe she even fits in more than one.
I work daily to improve our image. I simply help my neighbors. The old black lady whose trash I take out. The young black woman I give a ride to work each morning. The lady and her daughter who automatically gets a tupperware bowl of my chili when I make it. The gay guy who works in the nearby convenience store. The young conservative black guy who likes to sit with me on the porch discussing politics. Those and more were surprised to learn that an old white guy, who is proud to be a conservative and votes Republican, is not a racist, homophobic asshole.
Have I made a bunch of Republicans out of them? No, but I have improved our image. At least here in my neighborhood.
As long as the general public gets their news from Chris Matthews, Ms. Maddow, Ed Schultz, and Jon Stewart, we have quite a hill to climb. But we must work at it. Individually.
You won’t bring them, or me for that matter, into your local unit until there is a reason for them to attend meetings.
Make your unit committee meetings interesting. Bring in good speakers from your community. Work to educate those who do attend the meetings, like I do in my neighborhood. Have your meetings in a place less stuffy than the local courthouse. Hold interesting and fun events in your community, including fund-raisers for local charities.
I hear some claiming we need to create a new conservative party. No, we need to make our current party adhere to the Creed we all claim to believe in. That’s as conservative as it gets. And we need to bring in folks who believe what we do, but don’t realize it yet.
And yes, we need to totally disavow the Rick Santorums in our midst.
NOTE: I realize the Santorum quotes above are satire. But satire is an excellent way to get a point across. My point is, we need to stop letting others define us. And we need to improve our get out the vote efforts. Both are key reasons we lost this one.
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