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Interview with SC GOP's NCM Glenn McCall

Submitted by Soren Dayton on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 00:25
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Yesterday, I talked to Glenn McCall, the Republican National Committeeman of the South Carolina Republican Party. Previously, I had written about his election. McCall was the 2nd Vice Chairman of the SC GOP and the Chairman fo the York GOP. York is the county across from Charlotte, NC.

I asked him why he ran for NCM He said that there was "not enough focus on energizing the party overall." In general, he said that we need to do better with African Americans and young people. His general principle is that "what we believe is right and works for all segments of our society."

Focusing on the the African American vote, he said that we "left the American American vote to the Democrats. Ten to fifteen percent should be achievable." He focused on "professionals who believe in lower taxes and personal responsibility." As these people "move into the middle and upper class" they appreciate the Republican message more.

McCall warned however that "outreach without relationship doesn't work." He insists that we go t groups like the NAACP and genuinely engage in debates.

McCall did say that John McCain is "doing what we should be doing", and that "Ken Mehlman did it" also.

About Barack Obama, McCall said that "it is great that we made history, but it is time to end it."

On the issue of young people, McCall had some interesting observations. He saw two significant groups of young activists. The supporters of Mike Huckabee, who endorsed him, had significant young supporters. McCall suspects that over 50& of Huckabee supporters who attended events were young. At the same time "over 2/3rds of people were young families" at Ron Paul events in York County.

McCall agrees that we have to reach out to Paul supporters. He said that they had been reaching out to Paul supporters who were also loyal Republicans, and slowing reaching out to other Paul supporters. The key message is that they are welcome in the GOP. Many "have not felt welcome into the Republican Party." I suspect that much of the reaction against them has not helped this situation. It is certainly my sense that we need to do a better job here.

In general, McCall is quite optimistic about the future of the GOP. He sees that we can make real progress with both young people and African Americans.

McCall's observation about revitalizing the grassroots resonates with my own experience. Unfortunately, it leaves two different answers. On the one hand, there are the Huckabee supporters who correspond to a new generation of envangelicals. On the other hand, there are the Ron Paul supportrers who are typically very pro-limited government, but also for a limited foreign policy.

Resolving this tension at the grassroots level is likely to be one of the issues that we have to resolve over the next several years. Hopefully we can find a way to include everyone in ths solution.

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Comments

Bravo Glenn McCall!

Submitted by Terri K on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 07:09.

I am happy to see this and am also seeing a few speak out in Virginia.  But the party as a whole missed a huge opportunity to welcome new blood to the party when they closed up that so-called Big Tent early on, and a lot of people went to the LP or CP, never to have anything to do with the republicans again.  Maybe it's not completely too late if people such as you continue to welcome those of us who thus far, have not been all that well received.

As for me, I’m sticking with the republican party but if it continues on its hard-left turn, I too am gone.
 
My personal experience as a Ron Paul supporter is that the republican party, at every level, has gone to great lengths to exclude us, never mind that many of us were life-long republican voters to begin with.  And the efforts to exclude and smear us as a group continue through the blogosphere; we're in the "wrong" party, we're wingnuts and whackjobs, America haters (huh??), Paultards, and a whole host of other not-so-wonderful names.  All this for people who support a candidate who is ideologically aligned with Goldwater and Reagan, who actually takes his oath to the US Constitution seriously and who predicted this economic and foreign policy mess we're now in long before it happened.
 
The Paultards are a cross-section of America; the group in which I was involved had every age, race, creed, and background imaginable, plus a number of converts to conservatism from the left. All brought together by their love for America and the ideas of Freedom, Peace, Prosperity and the Rule of Law. The young in my group was incredibly and impressively well informed on issues and history and they’re intelligent and tech savvy. These were not the type to swoon for an Obama or blindly follow behind some hollow slogan. They could debate the finer points of sound money principles and the economy, constitutional issues or a non-interventionist foreign policy. They’re also active. I see them showing up at town hall meetings for taxes or transportation issues or fighting Real ID.  
 
I don't know how Huckabee's supporters fared with the party but I have yet to read a single article where the party was lining up against them.   Anecdotal again, but I wouldn't paint all of Huck's supporters as Evangelicals only; most whom I know are serious conservatives as well, life-long republicans, and nearly all are Fair Tax activists.  In fact, every Huck supporter I personally know are very similarly aligned with us Paultards; they too want limited government, lower taxes and protection of life, liberty and property. In other words, all principles the republican party supposedly stands for. 
 
One would think the republican party would scramble to recruit people such as these and be thrilled to have them! At least Glenn gets it.  
 
  
 

 

So right!

Submitted by Rensen on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 09:30.
I don't know how Huckabee's supporters fared with the party but I have yet to read a single article where the party was lining up against them.   Anecdotal again, but I wouldn't paint all of Huck's supporters as Evangelicals only; most whom I know are serious conservatives as well, life-long republicans, and nearly all are Fair Tax activists.  In fact, every Huck supporter I personally know are very similarly aligned with us Paultards; they too want limited government, lower taxes and protection of life, liberty and property. In other words, all principles the republican party supposedly stands for. 
 
One would think the republican party would scramble to recruit people such as these and be thrilled to have them! At least Glenn gets it.  

Terri,

You are so right here about the make up of Huck's support. We are really very conservative on all three legs, but strongly pragmatic about results over ideology. If it works effectively, we'll buy it.

Many many times we found ourselves in agreement with Paul..the only thing we could not endorse was his position on the current war. It fact there was a little bit of Huckabee/Paul support infighting during the primaries, because each group saw that the other was poaching the other's support base. The myth that Mike's activist support is a bunch of evangelicals waiting to insitute a theocracy needs to be blown up.

Here is the GOP's 'problem' The youth are the future of a party. Obama is brainwashing a generation of young dems, and the GOP is skeptical of embracing the youth of the two movements that are flourishing.

We either need to find a way to meet the current grassroots halfway in the spirit of compromise, or the GOP needs to find a way to energize young people with the message it wants to present as its 'acceptable' platform.

I'm sure they're already out there, but they don't seem to be as loud or energized as the Huck/Paul supporters. I'm no fan of Mitt, but it would be healthy for the party, if he is your percieved flagbearer, to have a yothful energized grassroots to push the Reagan conservative message, if that's the way you want to go.

If we get the young people fired up, we can then find a way to merge the vision in a way that will ultimately benifit the GOP

I think restructuring the party online...

Submitted by davidfarrar on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 10:04.

...would go along way in reaching out to the grass-roots and the young, at the same time.

Let's be the first political party to do it! Why not?

Let's be the first major political party to go completely online in electing local county execustive committee members; holding EC meetings online, with appropriate "registered" Republican Party members being able to add content. Allow for online elections of State reps to the State party. In fact every party function, offical meetings, votes, party business to be carried online, together with physical meetings to officially record the results?

Let's do it.
 

What say you all?

ex animo

davidfarrar