A conservative strategist argues that the GOP governs too much like Democrats, a

[dnalexander]

Stand for Something
A conservative strategist argues that the GOP governs too much like Democrats, and needs to give voters a distinct alternative agenda.
By Denis Calabrese | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 14, 2009


Republican soul-searching about their spectacular decline has been largely focused on the wrong questions. Are social conservatives alienating young and independent voters? Are moderate RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) diluting the conservative cause? Is the message being carried by Rush Limbaugh too mean? What is Twitter? And of course, the timeless old standby, Where is the next Ronald Reagan?
It's really much simpler than all that. In fact, it's largely a two-step operation. Step 1: Join the 21st century. The GOP is still largely running their political operations like it was 1980. While the Democrats have innovated, the Republicans have not. In the business world, small companies and entrepreneurs routinely beat out the lazy big monopolists and force innovation through creative destruction. It happens in politics too, and right now, the Democrats are Fed Ex and the Republicans are the U.S. Post Office.
 
Reinventing the GOP
Republicans face a daunting challenge in re-making and re-marketing their party. Who will shape that effort? Newsweek spoke to four leading Republicans:
Step 2: Stand for something. Independent voters and even the Republican base do not think the GOP really stands for anything, let alone the principles of small government, individual rights and liberty that they espouse. And when they do stand for something, it is often the opposite of what they tell the public they believe.
Liberals are chronic hypocrites, but compared to many Republicans they are at least consistent hypocrites. While bragging about fighting for the poor and middle class, liberals lavishly fund farm subsidies that make food more expensive for the poor and middle class. While forcing the poor into failing and dangerous public schools in the name of supporting public education, they send their own kids to good, safe private schools. In the name of "empowering patients" they propose to ration health care and empower government to make testing and treatment decisions. While making a noisy show of taxing corporations they pretend that this burden isn't passed on to the middle class in higher prices, lower wages and smaller retirement accounts. They stridently defend free speech—unless of course it occurs on conservative talk radio or a college campus. They fight tooth and nail for certain Constitutional rights, including some that do not even exist, except for those pesky 2nd, 9th and 10th amendments. They decry voter ID bills for intimidating voters but want to allow labor intimidation of workers voting to unionize. Once you get rolling on that list, it's hard to stop! But back to the GOP.

Republicans currently have a worse problem. While liberals pretend that government can solve a lot of problems (history is not their strong suit), Republicans proclaim government is not the solution, and then proceed to vote a lot like Democrats. They spend. They regulate. They tax. They grow government. Then they hold press conferences and send out constituent newsletters claiming credit for "doing something" to fix a problem, even if the solution exacerbates the problem or is diametrically opposed to their stated philosophy. To the average voter, and especially the Republican base, this makes them even worse than Democrats. This is why Republicans can lose to Democrats even when the Democratic Congress is held in such low esteem. If you are going to hire people who live in a fantasy world to solve problems, people will hire the professionals, not the amateurs. Even governing like Democrats might not be enough to sink the GOP if Republicans had strong or even discernable positions on major issues, but they don't. For example, everyone knows that Americans are highly skeptical of socialized medicine, or if you prefer the utopian phrase, "universal health care."
But even a plan as deeply flawed as this, and used in Cuba and Canada, beats nothing. What about medical savings accounts, the longtime GOP throw-down response? MSAs are a kind of tax-code aspirin, beneficial in the short run while we actually reform the system. The core flaw in health care is that only employer plans are tax-deductible. All health insurance (and out-of-pocket health-care expenses for that matter), even if not purchased through an employer, must be made deductible. Companies must be allowed to sell plans nationally, making insurance truly portable and further reducing its cost. Imagine the high price and poor quality that would result from Detroit having to make 50 different cars, one for each state's specific rules ... and if you bought a car in Connecticut you could not use it in New York or any other state ... and if you changed jobs in the same state you had to buy a new car. Yet that is the current American health-care system.
Abusive litigation must also be eliminated to stop defensive medicine and lower insurance costs. And the FDA can't continue to require more than a decade and nearly a billion dollars per drug before approval. The resulting true marketplace for health care will give consumers maximum access, choices and control—the polar opposite of the Democratic solution.
Or let's consider that great core GOP issue: taxes. Will a majority of Republicans ever have the courage to move past the simplistic chants of "lower taxes?" Sure it worked great for Ronald Reagan, but the top rates were astronomical then (70 percent) and the tax debate was not as mature. The American public has a huge appetite for fundamental reform, not just for rate cuts and tinkering. Even for those with a rate obsession, a national sales tax is the far superior approach because it would make taxes much harder to raise in the future. With no deductions, exemptions and exclusions to hide rate increases, and no income-rate distinctions, everyone's rate would have to be raised at once. In this way taxpayers could finally get a permanent edge in the never-ending tax-rate fight. But the real pot of gold, both politically and economically, is the elimination of the regressive payroll tax, which is quite simply a tax on work. If the Democrats figure this out first and pass it, the GOP is going to be in a very deep hole for a very long time. Even the flat tax would be a vast improvement. Regardless of the new tax plan, advocating for ground-up reform is a surefire winner, and anything less is a losing strategy.
Another automatic winner is lawsuit reform. Litigation is a huge cost to society, and the plaintiff lawyers have bought and paid for the Democratic Party many times over. As governor, George W. Bush helped lead a hugely successful tort reform effort in Texas, but he couldn't do it in Washington in large part because of Republicans who have sold out to the trial bar, or are themselves connected to the profession in one way or another. Even Dan Quayle was able to score at least rhetorical points on litigation abuse when he was vice president. Plaintiff lawyers have very low approval ratings, and they are well-earned. This is an absolute slam dunk—so what are you waiting for? This issue has the added benefit of flushing out the party's philosophical double agents while highlighting the real puppet-masters of the Democratic Party—personal-injury lawyers.
As for immigration, stop the insanity! Latinos are now at a political tipping point in many parts of the south and west, and they comprise a culture of social conservatives, small businesspeople and entrepreneurs—natural conservative allies. They are essentially economic refugees, and as free-market advocates, Republicans should support the legal flow of capital and labor. The current flow of labor is largely illegal because our immigration system is badly broken. One need not be forced into an extreme at either end—amnesty or deportation—to address the immigration issue. The longer this is unresolved the more Democrats benefit politically, yet it has been conservatives blocking a resolution. Strong border enforcement and tough employer rules form the foundation of real reform, so there is no need for the GOP to sell out their law-and-order credentials. We also need an effective system for employers to check the status of workers and a penalty-based resolution for the 12 million who are here illegally. Just pass it. Now.

   
There are scores of other issues just waiting for leadership, and even more voters waiting for the same. It's time for Republicans to reacquaint themselves with that majority of Americans who will pick freedom over collectivism if given a real choice.

Calabrese is the former chief of staff to former House majority leader Dick Armey, and founder of the Patriot Group, a Texas-based consulting firm working to advance a conservative agenda in business and politics.

[redcliffsw]

In my mind, it's clear that today's Democrats are more Republican than the Republicans.
We have two (2) Republican parties - take your choice which one you like the most.

I recall at a Democrat meeting that the County Chairman made the statement that all
Southern Democrats ought to leave the Democrat party to switch to the Republican.
He was a former a Republican himself finding glorification in the Democrat party like alot of 'em have.

[redcliffsw]

more......Dr. Walter Williams

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=94937

[Teresa]

You know.. I was talking to a client of mine this morning.. and I really truly believe that we better get our heads all put together and just be Americans.. I personally don't believe you can have a penny's worth of difference anymore in the "parties"..
The corruption and deceit in all of them runs so deep that you couldn't dig hard enough to get to the beginning or the end..

I believe in what I believe in.. you can not put a party to it. I suppose if someone had a gun to my head aI would have to say I was more Republican than anything.. unless of course it came to certain issues.. theeeennn I seem to be more liberal.. theeen a few more issues come around and shocker... I seem to lean toward the Libertarian side of the fence..

I think there should be a party called Hard Working Frredom Fighting Americans... THAT is the line I will stand in. 

[Varmit]

Oh Teresa, you must have missed the sign over the line, you're looking for the "Right Wing Extermist" line.  Well, that is according the Department of Homeland Defense.

[Teresa]

Varmit.........

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Six Things You Should Know About the Homeland Security Report on 'Rightwing Extremism'

By Judge Andrew Napolitano
FOX News Senior Judicial Analyst

Homeland Security Warns of Rise in Right-Wing Extremism

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment", dated April 7, 2009, which I have read, is apparently an unclassified summary of a larger classified report.

**To read all 6 click on link:

http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/04/15/napolitano_homeland_security/

[Diane Amberg]

Teresa, maybe you are a closet Republicrateral.

[Catwoman]

Teresa, thanks for posting that.  Scary stuff.  And, Diane...A whosit-whatsit?

[Diane Amberg]

 

[flo]

I agree with Teresa, we need to start thinking "AMERICAN".  The following is a letter I wrote to the Prairie Star and was published a few weeks ago.  Course, by now you all know I'm not afraid to say what I believe, whether you agree or not.  but I defend my right to say it.


On Mar 19, 2009, at 5:32 PM, Florene Smith wrote:

This country needs to forget democrat/republican and start thinking AMERICAN.  That would be AMERICAN with no hyphen as to the origin of your ancestors.  Sorry, if you are here illegally, then you are not an AMERICAN so you don't count.  It seems the poor get mad if the rich get richer and they didn't get their share and the rich get mad if they didn't get their share before the poor got richer. Republicans don't like what the democrats do and vise versa.  This country has been living too high on the hog for too long and this is where it has gotten us.  Greed has played a part in this situation. Have we forgotten the "lean" years? Most younger generations don't know what "lean" years are but they just might find out before long. There's no doubt that things will get worse before they start getting better.  We didn't get in this shape overnight, and it won't get fixed overnight.    Let's let our bickering about political parties go and get behind our elected officials and trust that they know what they are doing, whether you agree with them or not.  Don't sit and say "If there's nothing in it for me and I won't benefit, then I don't like it".  Think of the country and AMERICAN's as a whole and what's good for all. Now I'll step down from my soap box and wait for someone to throw it at me.