The Republican Party's Problems Run Deeper Than Just 'We have To Be More Conservative'

[Tragic Magic]

It is quite distressing to me that we as Republicans have not been able to articulate a message that goes beyond, 'Vote for us because we 'support the troops' / 'support lower taxes' / 'believe in smaller government' or other hot button issues. These types of issues are not going to win elections for us any more. Instead we must clearly explain why liberty and strict adherence to the US Constitution are the only way this country will survive.

[Boudicca]

You hit the nail on the head! The only difference between Republican and Democrat spending is that the Dems like to fund their spending with taxes while Republicans who spend as much as the Dems prefer to fund their spending with debt. George Bush is the biggest spending president since LBJ and under his watch, the national debt soared from $6 trillion to $10 trillion.

Fiscal conservatives? No Way!!

You are correct in your statement that adhering to the constitution is the only way we can survive. We need to massively defang and shrink the federal monster to its constitutional function.

[joe 6 pack]

These type of things are TOTALLY why the GOP will fail until the whole leadership is FLUSHED!

http://www.revver.com/video/926130/gop-convention-shuts-out-grassro...

[Chris Cree]

One big problem is that the US government currently employs 2.7 million people as direct employees each earning an average in excess of $67K.

If the government is tripping over itself to bail out the US auto makers who only employ about 377,000 people directly, how can we hope they'll ever muster up the political will to cut back a significant number of government employees to reduce the budget?

[Tragic Magic]

I think Cris Cree brings up an interesting point. The way the bailout is going now, almost any group can expect to get a handout. What a contrast from the Republicans' previous record of opposing welfare (both corporate and personal).

Our other challenge is to make Republicanism more appealing than lower taxes, etc. I sometimes wonder whether people even care about personal freedom. Hopefully they do and we can start to explain why we're the only Party that really espouses that.

[Whitehorse (Robin Ray)]

What we've had lately are candidates for president who didn't articulate the conservative Republican message very well. McCain didn't have the passion for conservative Republicanism, & that lack showed.

We need to have the information available in detail explaining our platform - our candidates need to be able to sum it up in a sentence or two.

[Tim]

Tim said:

Its too easy for Congress to spend. No one wants to make the tough choices. We should establish every four years a "BRAC" style commission to address what government programs stay and which ones go.
They can list the the agencies who have outgrown there usefulness and recommend changes.
Just identify which institutions such as defense, tax collecting, and postal services that are deemed essential for providing protection and security to the United States. 2/3 of the Federal budget goes to pay interest on money borrowed and pay for government entitlements. With all the bailouts this ratio may become 3/4 on these two areas and 1/4 left for the rest of government programs.

[Uburalus]

LOL,yeah,John McCain didn't show passion for the conservative message,of course not,he isn't a conservative by any stretch of the imagination,so of course he had no passion for it. Bravo TM,the Republican party needs to start advocating strict adherence to all the Constitution,not just the parts that go along with what they wanted to do anyway.

[Daniel Kaplan]

I would add that its important that we apply our principles to issues that people say matter to them. So if people say they want healthcare reform, we should be ready to provide solutions to that problem. Our solutions will differ from Democratic solutions because we will adhere to our principles of keeping govt intervention to a minimum. McCain sounded tone deaf in part because he only wanted to campaign on issues that he thought were "safe" for Republicans.

[Jose B. Rivera]

You may be right, but it needs to be explained well. It should not be a complicated idea to get acoss or you will loose people.

[Michael Brennan]

Our government has grown so large they are the LARGEST employer in the country. We have thousands of people finding new and more titles, offices, departments to create in the government to justify the new spending. Do we really need the Department of Homeland Defense? Do we really need an increase of 18% above inflation to the Humanities department budget? We spend billions on so called health care but anyone on the government health care can tell you there are no services and nothing is covered. Social Security tax continues to rise and the account grows deeper in debt. We spent $1.4 million to rename a street in Minneapolis, $2.5 million to study cow farts and their effects on global warming, $1.2 million on renaming a ball park for a Senator, who has been dead for 20 years. Our national budget has so many Billions added to it in every line that NO one really knows the true size of it until the OBM does its study about 2 years later. The department of interior has increased in size by 23% in 4 years. Its budget continues to grow by 3% above inflation, but the amount of money spent on actual projects decreased by 32%. Senator McCain said it right "SPENDING FREEZE". NO MORE SPENDING. You and I cannot go and write a check to pay for our electric bill if our checking account was overdrawn, we'd go to jail. Why should our employees, err Congress be allowed to do it. They are ruiing OUR credit and financial security.

[Stanley Phillips]

If we don't return to the traditional core values, the values of Abe Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, then we will not win any more elections, and we will not take back our country. I've see countless young people on this site and other Ning conservative sister sites cry out for and embrace these traditional values. Our problem is we have fallen for the centrist movement, watered down our values to appease the "politically correct," and compromised our principles. When the Left saw a breath of fresh air from Alaska embracing these traditional values, they shivered in the cold North wind, grew paranoid of Sarah Palin, and have sought to ruin her at all cost. We MUST return to these core principles or the GOP is finished. We must tell the young people, we are not afraid of these core values, and we must not tolerate the left's smear campaign against Gov.Sarah Palin. The youth see something in her that the rest of us had better get up off our duffs, wake up, embrace their vision, and then take back our country.

[Rosk]

Correct Jose. The ideas of limited, efficient government which would result in more personal freedom is an idea that needs to be articulated and presented in a professional, media savvy package, similar to Bush '04 and Obama '08.

Jose B. Rivera said:

You may be right, but it needs to be explained well. It should not be a complicated idea to get acoss or you will loose people.