Ditto on the subject of the claim that 47% don’t pay federal income taxes. It’s not true as I have written on many times; but on messaging, how can any rhetoric of ours top the message sent by four years of economic failure by Obama, which message didn’t stop a majority from re-hiring the man that failed to revive the economy. I don’t see how. I think the problem is the electorate, ie that large portion of takers.

We need a change in the ground game, as far as I can tell was that here, mostly in the Tea Party movement we accepted the sandbox we must play in to make a difference. This was Alinsky antics involving unions, civil rights and most importantly populism derived from Marxism. The argument from others, some in the Tea Party but mostly the establishment wing, we don’t want to play in that sandbox and get dirty, we must keep our morals and principles, and not play those games we don’t understand. We had a war on two fronts, the establishment wing went for the diversion and the undermanned flank was overrun, and they kick our keister. Obama has mentioned his specific attacks many times, Obama in his own words, “concentration of power” he will use not only the civil rights movement but also union and populist movements start at 1:55 in http://youtu.be/ZjzPirAp0vM I said and say again, ignore the facts at your own detriment, this is where the front lines are in this war and you will be defeated if you ignore this. Someone must also mention the Paulbots, as usual they seem to have crawled back under their rock and went in to hiding to avoid the fight. The lesson learned should be know what we are fighting and everyone on the same page.

How to stop losing? Here is a start…

I think the GOP’s fixation with social issues is costing the party more than it’s helping. Today is not the 90′s. Just as extreme liberalism cost the dems in the 70′s, now extreme social conservatism is taking it’s toll on the party…

If the republican party wants to win…this is where you need to start

-Leave women alone. Stop peeping under women’s skirts. It’s nobody’s business whether a woman has an abortion or not. This has nothing to do with small gov’t.

-Leave gays alone. It’s not your business what goes on the people’s bedrooms. This is not small gov’t.

-Leave the bible at the alter. It has nothing to do with small gov’t.

-Accept science. Accept facts. Accept logic. Saying a woman’s body has a way of detecting rape sperm and shutting it down is buffoonish, relects woefully on the brand and make the GOP look a bunch of hacks , charlatans , nutjobs and snake charmers.

-Accept that minorities are here to stay and would vote. You cannot lose 90% of blacks, 70% of latinos and expect to compete beyond the south.

-Cut the umblical cord with buffoons like Limbaugh. You might be enamored of him….but that’s just the base…and the base alone won’t win you much out of the south.

-In short, I’m saying social issues are you Achilles heels, not your strength even though the purveyors of the bible industry would want you to believe otherwise. Social issues may work in Alabama…but not at the national level. So when Romney is saying he’d be “delighted” to sign a bill outlawing all abortions….that freaks women out.

-How do you explain that..in a economy with 7.9 unemployment..women say their biggest concern is access to abortion. Imagine that. (that was Gallup two weeks ago). They say this because it goes to the very core of “individual liberty” which the GOP say they stand for but somehow upend that argument by insisting on legislating morality.

-The GOP cannot continue to bleed women and be viable party. heck! women vote more than men…cue?

This is it.

Have we forgotten about compassionate conservatism?

We threw the winning strategy out the window by nominating a robotic, unempathetic, plutocrat who acted as if he was entitled to the presidency.

We need to muzzle or kick out the jerks and the loud-mouth clowns, and replace them with nice, respectable, likable conservatives.

Who do you want a soccer mom to think of when you say Republican: Todd Akin or Paul Ryan? How about a senior citizen: Ted Nugent or Marco Rubio? Or a hispanic restaurant owner: Rush Limbaugh or Susana Martinez?

No matter what you think of them, there are polarizing figures in our party who turn off swing voters. And we don’t need more of them. We need conservatives who will talk about conservative principles, but who will do so with self-deprecating humor, or a smile, or a story people will relate to. We don’t need more angry, self-absorbed grandstanders.

And we don’t need people who will “energize” the base. Our base got energize to go and vote for Mitt Freaking Romney. The base isn’t the problem. Don’t sacrifice principles, but if you think for a minute that we need a loud-mouthed clown to whip up support, then you don’t understand the history of the Republican party. We’re supposed to be the party of responsibility. Letting the clowns run the show is undoing over a century of good solid conservatism.

Propaganda 101; Social issues, turn your strength in to liability and instead of responding appropriately to the propaganda on the right, somehow we found our selves again in a circular firing squad. Class Warfare 101; War on women and gays, pick any class that has any sort of struggle, make them out to be victims and instead of responding appropriately to the Class Warfare on the right, somehow we found our selves again in a circular firing squad. Morality 101; The Bible, this has everything to do with small government, The Bible or as our founder often referenced it as “individual conscience” is the foundation of our form of government, small government because we govern our selves and not government. Both sides in this argument all too often shoot their selves in the foot and then we find our selves again in a circular firing squad. Immigration 101; Restore the jurisdiction clause, undo the limits in Wong Kim Ark, Sen. Lyman Trumbull, who inserted the phrase; “The provision is, that ‘all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.’ That means ‘subject to the complete jurisdiction thereof.’ What do we mean by ‘complete jurisdiction thereof?’ Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.”

I could go on but that seems senseless, you are either lost to the Marxist propaganda or part of the problem.

Great essay. Completely agree, keep our principles but do a better job of outreach, education, convincing people to join our side.

No more of this talk about how we “just need to get rid of the RINOs” and then a new golden age of conservatism will fall from the heavens.

When Obama took office with a majority in the House, a filibuster-proof Senate and the full power of the Executive, he did damage to Constitution and our society with that triumvirate that movement Conservatives like us may never be able to repair. At that point in time, he rammed his agenda through with the full knowledge of a second term campaign on the horizon. In 2014, 13 Senate R’s, and 20 Senate D’s are up for election. We cannot afford to have another down-ticket disaster like we did yesterday. In the next 2 years, if we don’t figure out how to produce the same, or better result as we did in the 2010 midterms, Obama could very well have another filibuster-proof Senate. What do you think Obama, with all of his arrogance and tyrannical proclivities will do to us, the Constitution and our civil society with that?

It’s going to take more than messaging. We need Hispanic votes, and why do we do so poorly among Asians, the supposed model community of success that should be a GOP bulwark? As much as I hate to see another Bush in the White House, at least Jeb appears to be the most conservative. If George W could get 40% of the Hispanic vote, Jeb would do better, and wouldn’t even have to be all that successful to be a better President than his sorry excuse for a brother. Set Jeb up with a running mate like Rubio or even better a non-Cuban Hispanic and female like the governor of New Mexico, which would put that state into play and appeal to women voters, if we can get buffoons like Rush to shut their mouths. (Calling that woman a slut in a country where research shows that 60% of American young adults between the ages of 19 and 32 have had a sexually transmitted disease is not going to win a sexually promiscuous generation to the GOP banner.) Susanna Martinez would also broaden the reach among the non-Cuban Hispanic voters. The GOP may be able to come back from the dead.

Give full amnesty to all Hispanics who don’t have criminal records, with some type of penalty involved. Change the constitution if that is what it takes to limit citizenship to only children born in this country where at least one of the parents is an American citizen. Revise immigration so that only a spouse or minor children can come to the United States; not parents, siblings, etc. The rest will have to get in line using the legal channels for immigration. Do so, with the understanding that everyone will be subject to e-verify, with heavy fines on businesses that dare to hire new illegals, once amnesty has been granted. This will prevent a wave of new illegal immigrants, and absolutely no benefits for anyone who does come into the country or remains in the country illegally. Let the Jeb Bushes of the GOP, who are among the few Anglos trusted by the Hispanic communities, and the Rubios, and the Martinezes provide the leadership for this change in immigration policy; so the Hispanic community sees the compassionate side of our party, and the leadership roles Hispanics are playing in the Republican party.

This solution isn’t fair for those who played by the rules to enter the country legally. Well guess what folks life isn’t fair. This country has been so corrupt for so long, that not much of anything is done fairly. Some of these illegals have lived here for some time, their children have grownup here, which is the humanitarian side that must be expressed by action not simply by messaging. The political reality is that the GOP is finished, if it doesn’t come to terms with the need for Hispanic votes. Of course, all this is based upon what may be a very false assumption that elections if held will matter in 2016 with Caesar Obama sitting on his throne, and the marxists selling out the country at every turn. A fact few people want to address.

Social issues aren’t the problem. Obama made abortion an issue, and instead of running from that fight, Romney should have taken the fight to Obama. The only party with an extreme position on abortion is the Democrats. They want no restrictions on abortion, and support abortion into the 9th month. There was plenty of ammo to use against Obama, and his extreme position on abortion, and it wasn’t taken advantage of. Not all pro-choicers are comfortable with the idea of aborting a baby that is days away from being born, or tossing a baby that survived an attempted abortion into a corner to die. He then should have reminded everyone that while the GOP position on abortion would require a change to the constitution, the Progressive position is happening as we speak.

Besides, simply labeling abortion as a social issue, or a women’s rights issue, equates to labeling slavery as a property rights issue.

Well, actually, we happen to be killing Mexicans.

Running from what many of you are calling social issues is not the answer. That is an answer that the radical Paulie’s that want to think they are actually in touch with reality might say. Paulie’s are a very big problem for the party and we need a cleansing before we can ever recover properly. Not that they don’t have a few good ideas among the many goofy ones.
Anyway, back to the social issues problem, it is how the party is presenting (actually not presenting itself) itself on these issues. They have no cohesive party line, everyone tip-toes around the issues and they run scared when the subject is brought up anywhere around them.
It is amout true American Values, common decency, morality and standing up for what is wright in this world without worrying about political correctness. When the Republican Party returnes to these values, sticks to them with conviction and actually puts them in their platform, there will never be a real recovery of the party or America.
This does not mean the party has to say in the platform that they will come in and ban abortion, or that they will pass laws to take away rights from any minority group, or that they will prevent anyone from becoming a citizen or that they will prevent people of any religion from worshiping as they wish.
What they can say is that they are going to fight hard to allow the American people to regain the true American Values that their grandparents and great grand parents held (even the values that the immigrant grandparents held). They can say they will protect a woman’s right to decide what is wright between she, her family and her God as to abortion in the case of rape. They can say they will protect every persons rights equally, but it just must be understood that means that no one should have more or different rights than others. They can say that they will protect everyone’s right to worship as they please, but the religion must prove itselfe to be a religion and not a form of civic rules and all places of worship must be transparent to remain open.
In other words, the party needs to address American Values directly and tell people how they will returne America to a moral, common sense (no more PC) and values based society and the voters will flock to them in droves.
It has been proven that over 75% of Americans want common sense and values to be returned. The party will still need to articulate the economic and other platforms to win.

We have lost the culture. Our political losses flow from that. Until our sick, twisted culture changes, no amount of slick packaging will win us enough elections.