Reform the Republican political culture

I miss that GOP that stood for true economic conservatism, and ran folks who believed that smaller, more efficient government was the way to go.  Granted, I did not agree with some of the beliefs under that big tent, but I certainly respected them.  I listened to them, too, and sometimes (gasp) even learned from them.

The current GOP is not the GOP of my father's age.  President Reagan brought with him those economic conservative values.  Sadly, he reached the presidency by aligning himself with the social conservatives/christianists, such as the Moral Majority (HA!).  And it is those social conservatives/christianists who have thrown the anchor overboard in the attempt to keep the GOP fixed on THEIR interests, not the country's.  Anybody who falls outside of their narrow view of the world, as seen through their skewed and filtered view of their bible, is excluded  And, sadly again, the blowhards of right-wing media have no desire to change their ways or what they say since their current babbling seems to draw the listeners.

The GOP needs, well, just what Mr. Henke has written.  The Dems took a chance with their rebuilding (Thank you, Howard Dean), and it worked.  Your turn.

you are just apart of that blame the GOP first crowd!

nothing is ever our fault!

/sarcasm.

1. MichelleBachman recently got confused over "global currency" vs. "global reserve currency", a mistake that her opponents drove a truck through. Why didn't any national leaders notice that and suggest right at the start that she starts using the correct phrase in order to avoid in effect helping BHO? Maybe reviewing what happened there could be a useful learning experience.

2. Considering the extent to which the GOP is controlled by those who profit from illegal immigration, isn't it going to be extremely difficult for the GOP to maintain high ethical standards? Don't most top and low-level GOP leaders more or less support helping companies profit from illegal activity?

...the only comments you ever see on here are from the left, when you've got posts like this one.  The solution to the GOP's problems is to play nice and be contrite and admit our mistakes?  Is this a joke?  I'm sure if we did that the left and the Democrats and the media would gladly accept our apologies and welcome us back into the debate with open arms, right?  I'm sure they wouldn't take our apologies and use them against us for the next twenty years as evidence of our failures.

I'll be damned if I'm going to apologize for anything just because the liberals elected someone who "sounds reasonable."  And while we're acting civily and being reasonable, Obama and Pelosi and Co. will just ram their agenda where the sun don't shine.  They're going to do it anyway, whether we're civil or not.  Why the hell should we make it easy on them?

We can adjust our attitudes all we want, it's not going to make a difference when the media isn't going to portray us as anything but lunatic nutjobs anyway.  Yes, we need a drastic change in leadership, but that's an internal thing.  There's no way in hell I'm going to apologize or play nice or compromise with the Dems while we're cleaning our own house.  One thing has nothing to do with the other.

Who ever said the GOP had to apologize to dems? You have to admit your mistakes to the people.

Stop trying to defend the sunken ship which was the Bush administration and admit gross errors were made to the people. Then you can move on. But as long as conservative leaders are going to defend the Bush years, the dems are going to keep hitting them over the head with it.

What a bunch of "reformist Baloney".
Conservative Principles win......Culture critique of Republicans sounds like Liberal Baloney. Especially coming from Sullivan. Everyone and his MSNBC cousin is attacking Sarah Palin....our moose huntin Mama who believes in Guns, family, life, and fighting corruption. She has "culture" and so does Miss California . . . .Gay did not get us to where we are today....Guns, Family, and demanding enforcement of the Constitution got America to the Present day.
"Un-necessary and Costly Iraq War ?".
I'll tell you what is Un-necessary and costly beyond Imagination....
$ 3,400,000,000,000 dollar federal Budget......Any Republican gonna vote for this ? ? No ? Then our Republican Culture is fine.

I enjoyed it very much. Thank you.

ex animo

davidfarrar

There is undoubtedly a good bit of truth in that analysis, but it is also colored by certain liberal assumptions that we can ill afford to make.  For instance, the author makes no distinction whatsoever between perception of reasonableness and actual policy.  In politics perception is said to be reality, but this is much more so in the Democratic party than the Republican.  The reasons for that have to do with the different manner in which the two parties capture votes (and it almost goes without saying, the difference in how media covers the parties). So it's no surprise that the entire analysis by our liberal friend was one of perceptions.  Republicans "act smug," but really just need to "show humility."  This is not even close to a comprehensive view of the Republican problem.

Republicans, unlike democrats, win by adhering to a cohesive and comprehensive ideology, specifically that of small government and individual responsibility.  It is not enough for our politicians to merely sound reasonable, they must actually represent this ideology.  The problem which the author fails to identify is that, while Obama sounds reasonable and exudes competence, he has in fact demonstrated neither reasonableness nor competence.  His agenda is almost universally unreasonable, and the needed return to republican principle requires it to be opposed.  Anything less than that would be both unreasonable and disenginuous.  That kind of political hypocracy works in the democratic party because they are a collection of interest groups.  So long as each gets their payday, they are help.  It won't fly in the republican party.  It may take them a while, but republican voters eventually demand actual principles from their representative. Principled opposition to a radical big government agenda is the way out of the wilderness, not an attempt to play nice just to appear 'reasonable.'

Obama seems unreasonable only to conservatives. But independents find him utterly reasonable.

Conservatives find the last 8 years more reasonable that what Obama's proposing. That's why the GOP is in the wilderness.

You can't win without gaining a substantial portion of the indy vote. Convservative pols are turning of indies big time. Moving even farther right won't rectify the situation.

Two words: Dick Cheney

Every time this charner opens his mouth, it's a down payment on anothe rten years of Democratic control in DC. As long as this man is alive, defining the right as the party of hate and torture, you have no chance. None.

WAY TO GO, DICK!!!!!!!!!! LUV YA, BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!

Long time lurker, 1st time commenter.

It is not good for this country to have only one credible party.  But you still don't have a clue. 

NewsFlash:  YOU GUYS WRECKED THE WORLD!

Everybody else is pretty damned pissed off about it and are not going to get over it anytime soon.  The R party and conservatism have been undeniably decredited and repudiated. 

Apologize?  Not even close. 

If the Rs and the right want to regain to some credibility and begin the long road back to some semblance of relevance, leadership (fat chance) should be groveling in sackcloth and ashes and in front LOUDLY calling for investigations and prosecutions of Bush / Cheney et al.

Where are the honorable conservatives?  Where are the Howard Bakers?

Real conservatives like Barry Goldwater would be derided as a "liberal" by the current R party and would be utterly appalled by you.

So, I'm not holding my breath.