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Archive for the 'The GOP' Category

PAWLENTY ON THE FUTURE (2)

January 21st, 2009, 5:46 pm by Dan Lehr

The Minnesota governor, in a recent interview with Marc Ambinder:

“…we can’t be so in love with the past that we miss the future. And the world is changing very rapidly, and there’s a lot of technological change, demographic change, cultural change, and it’s all approaching us at a very rapid speed. And I think the Republican Party fondly remembers Ronald Reagan, and we should. He’s going to go down in history as one of the great presidents. Our challenge is to have the solutions of the 1980s not be the solutions that we have in 2008s. .. A lot has happened since the 1980s. There’s been a lot of change. We can be true to those values and principles, but half of the country doesn’t remember Ronald Reagan very well. If you’re under 40, 35 years old, Ronald Reagan is kind of a foggy notion. All I’m saying is, yes, let’s celebrate that, let’s learn from that, let’s build on it, but let’s talk about new ideas, new leaders, for the future.

I’ll give you two actual examples that we should have seen coming instead of dragging behind on it. One is environment and conservation. This was an issue that, in many Republican quarters, conservative quarters, was dismissed as recently as a few years ago, much less in the 1990s. …. A second one would be health care. It wasn’t that long ago that quietly, confidentially, Republican consultants would say, “health care, we can never win that. It’s too ddifficult. It’s a morass. We shouldn’t be involved in that as a leading issue.” Well, nonsense. That’s one of the main concerns of everyday, average Americans, and to say, we’re out of th egame on that? We should have been pushing and leading with our own solutions to that and showing progress.”

See my earlier post, “Pawlenty on the Future” here, filed just a week after the election.

Posted in: 2012 • Healthcare • The Environment • The GOP | Post a Comment »

SPEAKER SWITCHEROO

January 14th, 2009, 1:46 pm by Dan Lehr

Oh, those sneaky, sneaky Tennessee Democrats.

I think regardless of party, this is pretty funny. Depressingly partisan, & a long, long way from productive, but still.

Further Reading & Analysis on this story (all great reads & different takes):

Marc Ambinder

A Fish in the Percolator

Right at Home

Best for last - A.C. Klienheider (multiple posts)

What do you think?

Posted in: Local Politics • The GOP | 1 Comment »

RECOGNIZING THE WORLD OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE (1)

January 13th, 2009, 9:21 am by Dan Lehr

Yes, Virginia, there are Republicans who recognize both their current state of affairs & a way out of them.

There’s so much to like from this essay, ‘The Way Back,’ from former Virginia Congressman Tom Davis (R), like:

“We talked to ourselves and not to voters. We became more concerned with stem cell policy than economic policy, and with prayer in schools rather than balance in our public budgets and priorities. Not so long ago, it was easy to paint the Democrats as the party of extremists. Now, they say we’re extremists, and voters agree.“

&

“We’ve long-since given up on the African-American vote. We’re forfeiting the Hispanic vote with unwarranted and unsavory vitriol against immigrants. Youth vote? Gone. We ask for nothing from these idealistic voters, we offer little except chastisement of their lifestyle choices and denial of global warming, and we are woefully behind the Democrats in learning how to connect with them.”

&

“[We need to] remind ourselves the first principle of conservatism is not tax cuts or free trade or even smaller government. It is prudence, and prudence should be our guide.

Prudence dictates we take seriously the concerns of those who elect us and tailor our policy proposals to counter the government-mandate-heavy ideas bound to emerge from the other side.”

& especially:

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Posted in: Strategy • The GOP | Post a Comment »

THE (CONSERVATIVE) CART BEFORE THE (CONSERVATIVE) HORSE
January 12th, 2009, 3:18 pm by Dan Lehr

‘Cart’ = ideology & ‘horse’ = real-life experiences, as magnificently explained by Jim Manzi, who, in my view, has spotted a way to solve the problem of the Republican brand:

“It’s conventional wisdom to say something to the effect of “we need to apply the timeless principles of conservatism to the challenges of today” or whatever. The instinct behind this – adapting to changing circumstances without sacrificing basic beliefs – is surely sound. But as operational advice, it seems quite misguided.

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Posted in: Strategy • The GOP | Post a Comment »

FLOGGING THE CULTURE WAR CORPSE
January 9th, 2009, 10:17 am by Dan Lehr

(Illustration credit here)

One of the great things about Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish blog is he often makes a great point using a minimum of sentences, as he does here:

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Posted in: Commentary • Dumb Controversies • Sarah Palin • The GOP | Post a Comment »

THE GOP’s NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
January 2nd, 2009, 4:47 pm by Dan Lehr

Peter Berkowitz of the Wall Street Journal wants to remind both social & economic conservatives of the power of the Constitution…

“…a constitutional conservatism provides a framework for developing a distinctive agenda for today’s challenges to which social conservatives and libertarian conservatives can both, in good conscience, subscribe.

…

If they honor the imperatives of a constitutional conservatism, both social conservatives and libertarian conservatives will have to bite their fair share of bullets as they translate these goals into concrete policy. They will, though, have a big advantage: Moderation is not only a conservative virtue, but the governing virtue of a constitutional conservatism.”

…while Paul Krugman recommends throwing out the GOP’s divisive strategy for success for the past 40 years:

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Posted in: Strategy • The GOP | Post a Comment »

REALLY, REALLY SIMPLE RULE FOR (APPARENTLY) CLUELESS REPUBLICANS
December 29th, 2008, 11:51 am by Dan Lehr

This little clip was sent as a “Christmas present” by the chairman of the RNC, who defended it even though many in the GOP have (rightly) distanced themselves.

It seems like Barack Obama’s not fitting the traditional “liberal attackable mold,” standards of which were set so high by Bill Clinton, Al Gore & John Kerry. That has -apparently- left many in the GOP struggling to find a way to attack.

Well, I’m here to help.

Let me just offer this clear & easy to understand bit of advice for those who are looking for ways to be a naysayer:

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Posted in: Barack Obama • Commentary • Dumb Controversies • The GOP | Post a Comment »

QUOTE OF THE DAY
December 23rd, 2008, 9:04 am by Dan Lehr

[above: Sunset, from the back of the Chattanooga High School - Center for Creative Arts, April 26th, 2003. photo by my wife.]

“When a man has joined a [political] party, he is likely to stay in it. If he change his opinion - his feeling, I mean, his sentiment - he is likely to stay, anyway; his friends are of that party, & he will keep his altered sentiment to himself, & talk the privately discarded one. On those terms he can exercise his American privilege of free speech, but not on any others. These unfortunates are in both parties, but in what proportions we cannot guess. Therefore we never know which party was really in the majority at an election.”

Who said it?

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Posted in: Quote of the Day • The Democrats • The GOP | Post a Comment »

NEWT TO RNC: SHUT UP
December 16th, 2008, 4:28 pm by Dan Lehr

Above: an ad from the Republican National Committee attempting to tie Barack Obama to the Rod Blagojevich scandal.

Newt Gingrich was not pleased. Read his rip-roaring response, in full, after the jump.

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Posted in: Ads • Barack Obama • Scandals • The GOP | Post a Comment »

PRESSURE POINTS
December 16th, 2008, 4:03 pm by Dan Lehr

Check out Marc Ambinder’s analysis on which GOP fights in the 1st year of the Obama administration are worth picking, including:

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Posted in: Strategy • The GOP | Post a Comment »

THE MORE FERVENT YOU FEEL, THE MORE LIKELY YOU KNEEL
December 10th, 2008, 9:32 am by Dan Lehr

An interesting graph from SecularRight.org (h/t the Daily Dish) that shows people who are more partisan are more likely to pray more often.

What do you think?

Posted in: Faith & Religion • The Democrats • The GOP | Post a Comment »

THERE MUST BE SOME KIND OF WAY OUTTA HERE
December 6th, 2008, 6:00 pm by Dan Lehr

..but at the moment, it’s difficult to tell what it is for the GOP.

Marc Ambinder, on what he calls ‘the Republican Lockbox Dilemma’:

“Conservatives hold more sway in the Republican Party than liberals do in the Democratic party. To put it another way, conservatives make up a larger portion of the Republican base than liberals do of the Democratic base — a larger percentage, even of their national committee that liberals do in the DNC. Therefore, it’s more difficult for Republican candidates to challenge orthodoxy and dogma; it’s harder for a Bill Clinton figure to emerge. You cannot build a Republican Party without social conservatives.

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Posted in: The GOP | Post a Comment »

SAXBY WINS, CHAPTER 2
December 3rd, 2008, 11:21 am by Dan Lehr

Marc Ambinder:

“Habitual voters tend to vote in special elections; in Georgia, there are more Republican habitual voters than Democratic habitual voters; the minds of Republican habitual voters were no doubt focused on Chambliss’s sudden cameo as the bullwark against an overweening Democratic majority. But these habitual voters are an ideologically charged subset of the electorate. On November 4, 3.7 million Georgians voted. Yesterday, about 2.1 million Georgians did.

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Posted in: Commentary • Local Politics • The GOP • The Senate • Voters | Post a Comment »

ALIGNMENT & ALLIANCES, PART 1
December 3rd, 2008, 7:55 am by Dan Lehr

A concise & fantastic piece from Richard Posner dissects not only the recent splintering of the Republican party, but also what led liberals astray during the Reagan era; he offers excellent advice for breaking the chains of dogma:

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Posted in: Strategy • The Democrats • The GOP | Post a Comment »

THE ‘OTHER’ PROBLEM
December 1st, 2008, 8:56 am by Dan Lehr

Could Neal Gabler have just hit the nail on the head when it comes to the reason the GOP had such a crushing defeat this year? I do believe so. He charts a different course in the rise of conservative success not with Barry Goldwater, but with Joe McCarthy:

“Reagan’s sunny disposition and his willingness to compromise masked the McCarthyite elements of his appeal, but Reaganism as an electoral device was unique to Reagan and essentially died with the end of his presidency. McCarthyism, on the other hand, which could be deployed by anyone, thrived. McCarthyism was how Republicans won. George H.W. Bush used it to get himself elected, terrifying voters with Willie Horton. And his son, under the tutelage of strategist Karl Rove, not only got himself reelected by convincing voters that John Kerry was a coward and a liar and would hand the nation over to terrorists, which was pure McCarthyism, he governed by rousing McCarthyite resentments among his base.

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Posted in: Strategy • The GOP | Post a Comment »

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