Republicans, Remember When We Weren't Crap?
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:16 pm
Link
It's no secret that I think the Republican Party is a joke, not just for what they've done recently but going back as far as Reagan but this is a refreshing thing to see. Rather than frame Obama as the anti-christ of politics, this member offers a sobering look at the parties troubles and what they should do to fix them.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered a harsh and sobering assessment of his party's political ills, sounding an alarm that the GOP faces a chasm from which it could take years to emerge.
The Senate GOP leader told members of the Republican National Committee (RNC) that the party must return to its core message - smaller government and lower taxes - while seeking to broaden its base with a more diversified voting bloc.
"Every so often, there comes a time when a political party has to re-examine itself. For Republicans, now is such a time," McConnell told RNC members at the annual winter meeting in Washington.
The surprisingly candid speech came as RNC members gather for a biennial reorganization and after two consecutive cycles of massive losses. McConnell himself fought back a stronger-than-expected challenge in 2008, besting businessman Bruce Lunsford by a 53 percent-to-47 percent margin.
"We're all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us," McConnell said Thursday. "And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one.
"In politics, there's a name for a regional party - it's called a minority party. And I didn't sign up to be a member of a regional party," McConnell said. "As Republicans, we know that common-sense conservative principles aren't regional. But I think we have to admit that our sales job has been. And in my view, that needs to change."
McConnell declined to attack President Bush, whose deep unpopularity rubbed off on Republican members of Congress, though he did note Bush "wasn't winning any popularity contests."
"[H]istory shows that unpopular presidents are usually a drag on everybody else who wears their political label. It happened with Truman. It happened with Johnson. It happened with Nixon. It happened with Clinton in '94. And it happened with President Bush in '06 and '08," McConnell said.
"My concern is that unless we do something to adapt, our status as a minority party may become too pronounced for an easy recovery," he added. "The situation is challenging, but it's far from irreversible."
In order to return to power, McConnell said, the GOP needs to resist the urge to abandon its traditional message while appealing once again to voters who have left the party.
McConnell said the party must appeal to black and Hispanic voters. To diversify the party, Republicans should remind African-Americans that the GOP was founded in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, an 1854 law that gave those states the right to determine whether or not to allow slavery, and seek culturally conservative Hispanic voters, who may be more inclined to side with the party on social policy, he said.
Now Republicans must explain their ideas to average Americans in a way that enumerates their practical benefits, the Senate GOP chief told RNC members. From cutting taxes to fighting card-check legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize, McConnell urged members to frame their message in a way that appeals to voters Republicans have lost recently.
As members of the RNC prepare to vote on new leadership tomorrow, many in the party have set upon each other in a battle over candidates' ideologies, a divisive dispute McConnell urged members to avoid.
"We should avoid the false choice of being a party of moderates or conservatives. America is diverse. The two major parties should be too," he said.