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“We’re Not Democrats!” Rallying Cry For Those Who Fail To Understand Leadership

By: David Hinz (Diary)  |  July 11th, 2009 at 08:32 AM  | 

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Originally Published at The Minority Report

The latest polls…

First of all, let me interject the fact that I despise polls! Polls are nothing more than a lazy way of trying to manipulate public opinion by “reporting” the answers that other people have given to a question that might or might not have been worded in such a way to arrive at the answer the questioner hoped to achieve. Polls are used to drive public opinion by the simple fact that a majority of people are ignorant on most issues, and so base their decisions on the idea that a majority of the “other” people must understand the issues better than they do, and so they will choose to align themselves with the majority as a sign of their own brilliance.

That said:

…the latest polls from Rasmussen would indicate that the American people have become disenchanted with the Democratic Party answers to any number of issues, the economy in particular, and now a plurality of them believe that Republicans have better answers than do those Democrats.

Quote:

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on eight out of 10 key electoral issues, including, for the second straight month, the top issue of the economy. They’ve also narrowed the gap on the remaining two issues, the traditionally Democratic strong suits of health care and education.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that voters trust the GOP more on economic issues 46% to 41%, showing little change from the six-point lead the party held last month. This is just the second time in over two years of polling the GOP has held the advantage on economic issues. The parties were close on the issue in May, with the Democrats holding a one-point lead.

As the country become more mired in “Stimulus” and its attendant unemployment and deficits, the Hope and Change offered by President Obama and his Democratic majorities in Congress looks less and less appealing to the American people.

Republican strategists and pollsters rub their hands with glee as the bloom quickly fades from the Democratic rose, while counting the days until the 2010 mid-term elections when they believe the American people will return their own to a majority.

The party that gave us Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind and spending to rival any drunken sailor of yore, while in the majority for six years, now contemplates a reversal of fortunes as the American people realize that traditional Democrat “tax and spend” cures are worse than the Republican malady that brought the Dems to power.

But a campaign consisting of “We’re Not Democrats!” which appears to be what the National Republican Party is offering, is nothing more than a recipe for disaster. The American people are beginning to realize that the Democratic solutions solve nothing — they merely make a bad situation worse.

But neither are the American people forgetful of the fact that Republican majorities led to the problems in the first place. Republican-sponsored Democrat-lite policies that grow government, spend dollars the government does not have and intrude upon the lives of every citizen looks strikingly like what is happening today under the Democrats.

As the saying goes, “Do not try this at home.”

If the Republican cure, for the Democratic cure, is more of the Republican/Democrat malady, the public will stay with the professionals. Democrat-lite is still Democrat, and so you might as well leave the country in the hands of the professional tax-and-spenders.

On the other hand, as evidenced by the incredible grassroots momentum of the Tea Party movement, the American people are hungry for conservative leadership. A few Republicans understand this, but the message has yet to resonate with party leadership.

Their first clue should have been the mid-term elections in 2006 when a fairly large number of “moderate” Democrats won seats over their Republican rivals by campaigning as Conservatives. These “Blue Dog” Democrats understood what the Republican leadership has yet to figure out.

The second clue should have been the election last year of President Barack Obama. Oh sure, I know he is the most leftist president this country has ever [and hopefully will ever] elect[ed]. But, regardless of what we tried to tell the public at the time, he ran on the conservative principle of cutting taxes on 95% of all Americans.

President Obama spoke of fiscally conservative principles of balancing the budget. We of course knew that it was a smoke screen — he could not possibly cut taxes on 95% of Americans and balance the budget while increasing all of his government spending programs — but the American people came to believe it principally because no Republican leader had made the case for fiscal responsibility in more than eight years.

The recent poll results, and the momentum of the Tea Party tax protests, demonstrate that the opportunity exists for a reversal of the disastrous course the President has set for this country. But that opportunity only exists if Conservative Republican leadership emerges to take that message to the American people.

“We’re Not Democrats!” is not that message.

Come join us at The Minority Report

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COMMENTS

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  • Rod_Patrick

    How, the incumbent Rs in the Congress were also guilty in the past.

    The truth also hurts their INCONSISTENT image as much as they hurt the DEMOCRATS in power.

    We need new faces …. new leaders …. new bloods who are NOT yet bought by the system. to take the MANTLE OF CONSERVATISM at Washington with honesty, integrity and most importantly ……. COURAGE.

    Courage is the missing ingredient to the current crop of Rs in the Congress.

    You can be one of those new conservative leaders, David. So….

    Run, David! Run!

    Like so many good people here in RS, you’re more astute, principled and courageous compared to those presently in the Congress.

    • http://theminorityreportblog.com David Hinz

      don’t we have enough clowns in that city already? Now you want to send another one?

      C’mon…….

      • Rod_Patrick

        LOL!!!!!!!

        I’ve heard that consevative clowns are better than the RINOs pretending as conservative.

        So.

        RUN….. DAVID…. RUN!!!!!!!

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com David Hinz

    from her recent comments about Sarah Palin, I think its clear that Noonan is a “We’re not Democrats” type of Republican. No other differentiation but that.

    She epitomizes what is wrong with Republican leadership [and I use the word "leadership" advisedly]

  • ColdWarrior

    “emerge” in the Republican Party, in my opinion, is to have every conservative we can find actually join the Party as voting precinct committeemen. If conservatives flock to the Party NOW, requesting to be appointed as interim PCs until the primary election in 2010 (when they’ll actually be required to get onto the ballot as PCs after having gathered the necessary signatures from their precincts (requirements vary from state to state), that influx of new, “conservative blood” into the Party would make the present Party “leaders” pause and take notice. With about half of the PC slots nationwide unfilled, the Party is ripe for a conservative revolution if only conservatives would get off their duffs and into the Party. At the next internal Party elections, from the precinct captain level, to the legislative district level, to the county, state and RNC levels, new leaders can be elected. If the Party ranks have a more conservative bent, due to the influx of the new “conservative blood,” the current “leaders,” if they want to keep their leadership positions, will have to change their ways or risk getting the boot. Same with the elected officeholders — those having to run in the primary will have to change their ways NOW if they want to have a conservative record to run on against any conservative primary challenger that may emerge.

    Case in point. Here in AZ we just had a handful of so-called Republican state legislatures vote against an anti-illegal immigrant sanctuary city bill and against a bill that would have funded, and required, police departments to determine the immigration status of all arrestees where probable cause existed that the arrestee was here illegally. Why did they buck the Party (the Republicans have a majority in the state Assembly and Senate and we have a “conservative” Republican governor)? This might explain it.

    Maricopa County has about 700,000 registered Republican voters.
    It has just over 6,000 available precinct committeemen slots for those voters.
    Just over 2,000 of those slots were filled. 4,000 vacancies! The 2,000 filled slots are filled, based on the outcome of the voting for the leadership, about 50-50, conservatives to moderates.
    At our county GOP convention this spring, we had only about 800 of those 2,000 actually show up to vote for leadership and vote on Party resolutions.
    800 of the 700,000 registered Republicans “ran” the Party on that day.
    Thankfully our good, conservative candidate for the chairmanship won. By a twenty vote margin.

    It’s a pure numbers game. You’re in the Republican Party leadership “ball game” if you get off the bench and become a precinct committeeman. Cajoling the current leadership to “be more conservative” might work — replacing them by voting them out of their leadership positions in the next round of elections WILL work. And making that threat REAL, NOW, by flocking to the Party NOW, WOULD have an impact on the current “leaders” NOW. Ought we not at least TRY this?

    The more conservatives that actually join the Party, the more conservative its leadership and Platform will be. And the more likely conservative candidates will win the primary elections to go on to the general election.

    Want to be a PC? Or, why WOULDN’T you want to be a PC?

    I met two conservative guys at a bar last night — both had kids and said “something” had to be done about “Obummer.” I explained the above, but they just couldn’t bring themselves to actually “doing something” themselves. Upon exiting the bar, I gave each a copy of my recruitement flyer and asked them to read it and then call me. No calls yet. That’s the problem — everybody thinks somebody else will “do it.” We can’t take that chance, no?. Look in the mirror. It’s ‘we the people” — or we lose our liberties to those in power now who are hell-bent on being the lords over us “little people.” Whether the Constitution allows it or not. And whether we want their un-constitutional c**p or not.

    Go here to learn more:

    http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/07/02/the-power-of-small-numbers-a-butterfly-effect/

    http://www.redstate.com/coldwarrior/2009/06/30/lets-change-the-world-now-like-the-obamabots-did-or-not/

    Thank you.

    I am only one. But I am a conservative Republican Party precinct committeeman.

    • eburke

      here in the state that just sent a joke to D.C. and it *does* make a difference. They are so desperate for bodies that I even had the wife of our decidedly moderate state senator encourage me to run and get involved. ‘Course, knowing where *they* were coming from led me, in my conversations with them at the table, to keep my cards close to my vest. So, they didn’t know where I was coming from….well, not until ‘later’ :-)

  • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

    There is the rub. I know a couple of messages about Democrats that need to be repeated every time conservatives talk about Democrats.

    1. Democrats are too far on the hard left wing for America.

    2. Democrats believe in money for government bureaucrats from the wallets of the American people.

    They are too far on the left. They believe in taking money from the American people on false premises and giving it to bureaucrats who just pass more restrictions and rules on the American people. The money they get does not go to the problems they supposedly got the money to solve. It goes to the problem of giving jobs to bureaucrats who are part of the Democrat party. It’s a money transfer to Democrat partisans.

    But what is the message about Republicans? How much do Republicans need to grovel for being such FAKE conservatives for the last 10 years? They said conservative a lot, but didn’t act conservative. What can Republicans say and do to overcome that?

    • eburke

      when he said “We went to Washington to change it; unfortunately it changed us” and I think it can be used effectively in the initial stages of our ‘makeover’.

      Unfortunately, Johnny Mac blew his golden opportunity to ‘name names’ when he decided that ‘business as usual’ in the form of supporting the TARP package was more important than ‘naming the names’ of his Washington buddies.

      To this day I believe McCain would have won the election, and Norm Coleman would have gotten those 1,000 votes he needed, had they put principle over supposedly ‘smart politics.’

  • AceInTX
  • bk

    Let’s hope the Republicans have a message for next year to put the brakes on this train wreck. Independents just need a good excuse to vote Republican rather than sit it out if they think Democrats are terrible and Republicans have no plan.

  • http://politics4all.com/users/davidshockey thersites

    Many of us were too young to remember well what the Republican party was like before Reagan. Back then they were in favor of all the same things as Democrats, just less. They were generally happy with their lot. So, the trend we have seen since Reagan was just a slow return to what they had been before Reagan shook the party up.

    We need another shakeup. But I don’t see another Reagan on the horizon so the shakeup has to come from another direction. Coldwarrior has proposed a solution that will shake up the party from the bottom instead of the top. The result, if successful, should be a more thorough and longer-lasting change than the Reagan revolution. Among the Tea Party adherents, we already have a pool of activists ready to do what needs to be done. Let’s tap into the enthusiasm there to take control of the party again.

    About Peggy Noonan – she is showing signs of early onset Barry Goldwater disease. Her recent book “Patriotic Grace” asks us to play nice with political opponents and yet she recently savaged Palin in her column. She is being revealed for the mercenary hypocrite that she is. So long Peggy, I never knew you.

  • The_Gadfly

    Frankly, I’m not sure the National Republican Party Leadership can lead on this. If you look back to Reagan, he wasn’t part of the NRPL when he ran either of his campaigns. The philosophy he developed, and the commitment to that philosophy all grew out of his prolific interaction with honest to God everyday Americans as he toured all over the country, ironically given the state of things today, on behalf of GE. In fact, if you look at the history of his years in office, the energy and momentum all came from that outside grounding in Americanism, and as he encountered and had to work with the NRPL that energy was dissipated and lost. Don’t get me wrong, he is the greatest president of my lifetime, and I think will eventually rank not merely in the top 10 but the top 5 presidents of all time. But imagine what could have been done if the NPRL had actually worked for him instead of against him because what he wanted wasn’t ‘the way things have always been done.’

    CW – I’ll see what I can do. I’m good behind an anonymous post, but would be lousy in face to face here in The People’s Republic of MD.