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Coburn: Act Like Republicans

Submitted by Patrick Ruffini on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 09:08
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I could hardly imagine a more appropriate day for this WSJ op-ed by Tom Coburn to come out than on The Next Right's launch day. Sen. Coburn encapsulates what many here already believe: the Right needs to help itself before we can start winning again: 

Many Republicans are waiting for a consultant or party elder to come down from the mountain and, in Moses-like fashion, deliver an agenda and talking points on stone tablets. But the burning bush, so to speak, is delivering a blindingly simple message: Behave like Republicans.

Unfortunately, too many in our party are not yet ready to return to the path of limited government. Instead, we are being told our message must be deficient because, after all, we should be winning in certain areas just by being Republicans. Yet being a Republican isn't good enough anymore. Voters are tired of buying a GOP package and finding a big-government liberal agenda inside. What we need is not new advertising, but truth in advertising.

Becoming Republicans again will require us to come to grips with what has ailed our party – namely, the triumph of big-government Republicanism and failed experiments like the K Street Project and "compassionate conservatism." If the goal of the K Street Project was to earmark and fund raise our way to a filibuster-proof "governing" majority, the goal of "compassionate conservatism" was to spend our way to a governing majority.

Read the whole thing.

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Comments

The Party of Limited Government

Submitted by OPDitch on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 09:41.

Coburn has it right, we need to return to the Party of Limited Government.  But this will not happen with just electing John McCain - we need to regain control of Congress with true "Limited Government" candidates controlled by the people, not K Street.

 

O. P. Ditch

Col USAF (ret)

http://Vets4McCain.com  (Vets add their name and comment)

Coburn's ideology, and DeMint's practicality

Submitted by Tom Readmond on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:14.

Coburn has it right -- despite all the chatter about GOPers needing to get back to their conservative roots, many aren't practicing what they preach, as evidenced most recently by the budget-busting farm bill. 

By the same token, there is some refreshment needed, not in conservative principles
(they've been the basis for a nation founded in tax revolt for over two centuries), but in keeping those principles relevant to average Americans and their concerns.  Sen. Jim DeMint had an excellent article last week on the need to apply timeless conservative principles to timely policies, rather than beating Reagan-era drums and expecting them to resonate nearly 20 years after Reagan left the presidency.

While I don't agree McCain is part of the Solution

Submitted by karasoth on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:16.

I do fundementally believe the problem in our 06 Losses and our 08 Losses that we've had now is we aren't being Republicans and I think the numbers show it. I think the "Independents" and "Moderates" don't want to buy milk from us when they know the Democratic party will sell them the whole cow for their votes

Reagan Still applies

Submitted by karasoth on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:18.

I think you miss the Reagan system. Reaganism was about big principles and about fighting the battles you could win (or fighting the battles which would win an ideological point even if we lost) Reagan was not about the timely ideas of his own day he was about timeless principles of how to govern a country. this is why he was so successful.

It's time to get "re-hired".

Submitted by Kristen Soltis on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:25.

Put simply, when the American people voted the GOP out of its congressional majority, it was akin to getting fired.  And plain and simple, though people want to say it was about scandals and point fingers, it was because Congress simply wasn't taking any positive action.

If you don't do your job, you're going to get fired.

Now, rather than pointing out why the Democrats are not a good "new hire", the GOP needs to focus on cleaning up it's resume.  We've got to give America a reason to give us our job back.

I particularly like the line:  "What we need is not new advertising, but truth in advertising."  As a pollster, I often hear clients looking for a snappy phrase or perfect "message" to tackle whatever problem they are facing.  Hopefully, it won't take another electoral disaster to show people that you can't just put lipstick on a pig.

Right on the Money

Submitted by Whitehorse on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 00:03.

Republicans, anyone wanting a vote, needs to give the voter something for which to vote! The Republican leadership lost control of congress in 2006 because they strayed - not dancing with the one that brought them to the dance but still expecting to have their drinks paid for by their date. I am frustrated to no end by this, because the Democrat leadership is so inept, corrupt, & feckless. Our leaders are in no shape to take advantage of the weak Democrat leadership with a bold message.

Reagan's Principles do still apply

Submitted by Tom Readmond on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:27.

Of course Reagan's principles still apply, because they were timeless principles.  The issue is that current Republicans aren't applying those principles to what Americans care about in 2008 versus 1980 (for instance health care).

Reagan himself would have a different set of policies today than he did when the top income tax rate was 90%, inflation was in double digits and the Soviet Union was looking for new nations to conquer.  If you compare Reagan's governorship in the late 60s to his presidency in the 80s you will see he maintained his principles while adapting his message to the current circumstances.

 

Ok Tom

Submitted by karasoth on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:34.

Yeah lets talk about health care. When the current leadership of the GOP accepts the American Left's Defenition of whats going on in Health Care thats not Ronald Reagan. That is as a matter of fact going against Ronald Reagan as this youtube video shows. The House GOP and John McCain is ignoring Reaganism on the health care issue. The fact of the matter is that we don't have one health care crisis, but we have several. So there isn't and shouldn't be one solution. But Republicans have today unlike Reagan accepted the defenition of the Democrats.

So right there its clear the Republican party is abandoning Principles of Reagan for votes. No one here, nor anyone in what some pundits refer to as "the cult of Reagan" advocates doing the same thing Ronald Reagan did in the 80s, though much of it can still apply. We advocate the GOP returning to those principles of Reagan which the GOP has abandoned.

Karasoth

Submitted by Tom Readmond on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:57.

I think you misunderstand the point I was making.  Like most conservatives of my generation, I am a conservative largely because of Ronald Reagan, and my own ideology tracks very closely to both his and Sen. Coburn's.  I'm not finding fault with anything about Ronald Reagan.

In fact, I think my point is that in the very act of offering nothing new that resonates with the concerns of average Americans, we are abandoning what made Reagan such a successful and popular figure.  Barry Goldwater (another of my heroes) made his campaign an ideological, and largely academic, crusade, while Reagan applied conservative principles to the kitchen table.

I think in the past decade, several things have happened:

1) Republicans have come to believe that they have a formula that needs simply be repeated to win elections, without need for adaptation or update.  Clearly this was an incorrect assumption, and someone as savvy as Ronald Reagan never would have bought into it.

2) As cited by someone else on this blog, we became more interesting in telling voters what was wrong with Democrats rather than what was right with us.  Ronald Reagan did both.

3) We fell in love with government, and instead of countering the Democrats' belief that government was the means to all desirable ends, we appropriated government as a means to our ends.  Bush's expanding government more than LBJ's Great Society was just fine, because he was expanding it in ways we liked.

To address health care specifically, I have seen Republicans at large take only two approaches: 1) defending the status quo, or 2) playing "me too" with liberals, by acquiescing or competing with them on who can offer more big government solutions to health care.  Your point about McCain and friends on health care is well taken, and I agree completely, but I don't believe that no solution is a valid counterpoint to a bad solution.  I think we need to embrace policies that move health care from the quasi-socialist system we currently have into one of personal responsibility, and we also need to seriously address entitlement spending.  I don't see how that isn't a pro-Reagan position.

There are a number of issues where we aren't applying conservative principles, nor addressing the key concerns of Americans at this particular moment in time.  In 1980 the economy was a major issue for American families, and I think Reagan might have mentioned it a few times. ;)

Coburn's Message is Correct

Submitted by Whitehorse on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 00:08.

Basically, Republicans get back to the core conservatism that wins elections and works in real life. The base is still there, and independents and conservative democrats will respond to that message positively. We need to see some action, and that hasn't been forthcoming.

There will never be another Reagan. We should not pine away waiting for Reagan to return - the principles he espoused are alive and vibrant, these principles simply need articulation and action.