1) People are not afraid of Socialism, it is an acceptable political outcome.

While there may be an education issue here – I never heard any (R) really explain what socialism is or why they think it is undesirable, the word was merely used as a generic derogatory – the problem here is that (R)’s, by their own actions, have failed to differentiate themselves from socialists. So when they go on the offensive against, for example, earmarks and subsidies as unjust redistribution of taxpayer funds and then turn around and do the exact same thing, citizens not surprisingly question their sincerity.

When Obama says “spread the wealth”, and citizens look back at “compassionate” conservatism’s government run Faith-Based Initiatives program, they wonder what the hell the difference is other than who’s on the receiving end of the wealth.

3) Image, charisma, and articulation matters. If our candidate doesn’t make the people who watch Access Hollywood say, “Hey! He/She is really hip and cool!”, then we are toast.

I have my doubts about this. 43 stands as a two time presidential winner in defiance of this point, but you might argue that his opponents were even less charismatic, albeit more articulate. Being able to maintain an attention span long enough to interject a principle or philosophy and explain why it is superior to your opponent is indeed important, but that can be accomplished without a great image, IMO.

4) You have to fight everyday if you want to win.

But more importantly you have to actually govern the way you claim you will when making speeches and campaigning. The fight you speak of really wont matter if the basic day-to-day governance and the actual walk don’t match the talk. I can’t count all the lost opportunities (R)’s in power had to govern well and differentiate themselves, but then completely blew because they’d rather pork out or pander.

5) Social conservatism does not trump financial conservatism. As much as it pains me to say this, abortion is not an issue that the majority of the electorate cares about, and frankly we have now lost on Roe v. Wade.

This is probably a minority opinion on this site: IMO financial conservatism has a place in government, but when speaking of “social conservatism”, (R)’s really have got to start differentiating between those issues with a legitimate government interest – for example, those that impact justice – from those that are just social engineering without any real implication for justice. The former certainly could include abortion and seem to me to be very legitimate areas in which to make a case for government involvement. But the latter (for example, gambling) need to be removed from the government’s responsibility and those persons passionate about those issues should work to persuade their fellow citizens to modify their behavior without attempting to leverage the force and threat of government authority and punishment.

6) The education system and the media are devastating losses for us. With no mechanism to publicize our positions fairly, the new voters are being taught lies as truths, and we lose the propaganda war.

Still a red herring IMO. Rush Limbaugh regularly boasts of having a larger audience than the network news stations combined. He certainly has a larger audience than all newspaper subscribers combined. If anyone qualifies as “mainstream media”, it is Limbaugh. Add in the rest of (R)/conservative talk radio and there’s plenty of outreach.

7) Trying to fight fair, when the opposition refuses to do so, is foolish. Campaign finance reform is a crock, and using public financing is moronic.

Agreed. Obama reached out to people he thought would support him financially and he reaped the benefit. No clue why a (R) would opt for public financing rather than take their message to the people who are apt to listen and ask for financial support as well.

So what do I think can work in the future for us?

I don’t have any issue with your points but I will say it seems pretty simple to me:

Govern the way you say you will govern and consistently apply those principles – like individual liberty and responsibility, limited and smaller government – that you claim to hold dear.

well thought out blog. I too share your concern about our culture. The abortion issue, I can’t understand why people don’t care, but it is clear that people vote pocket book every time.

I wrote on another blog that we need revival: spiritual, cultural, polictical and economic revival. In my heart, that is why I think Obama won. He came along when the people were down and wanted to be led. Since our side had no one to fill that void, he did and he won.

We had better find our Conservative voice and A Consevative voice soon!

Excellent analysis. Spot on.

Media bias proof:
They are falling all over themselves, giddy, gloating over their “victory”. They are sighing in relief that their efforts won. Every story is about RACE, what did we just abolish slavery? Not one story about Obama’s ability or qualifications. This was an affirmative action candidate from day 1.

The media will now be doing many negative stories on the state of America to knock down expectations for Obama. It will be a new blame Bush witch hunt until inauguration day, then magically there will be positive news coming out after Obama is sworn in.

Republican branding makeover: YES
Why the heck is our message “take your bad tasting medicine because its good for you.” Exemplified by McCain saying “Yes, we need to take some programs away from you.” Huh? How about, “We need to make bloated government more efficient.” We need to show how conservatism is a POSITIVE. First to all our RINOs, then to the rest of America.

EDUCATION: Where do we even start?

conservatism.

I’d be disappointed if a self-righteous SoCon panicked and forced his/her pregnant teenage daughter to have an abortion.

Similarly, with my limited knowledge of economics and finance, I was disappointed by the insistent support for the bailout from people like Steve Forbes.

If the FisCons can articulate the conservative principles behind a policy, I think the SoCons will have no problem following their lead.

I was contemplating writing something similar to this, but you’ve done far more justice than I could have.

Sadly, I have to reaffirm your first point. America is not afraid of Socialism. We have no mortal enemy any longer to point at and say look at all the flaws of society if we follow this path. When I talk to intelligent enough friends, they generally believe that we do need to redistribute wealth.

Now, I know that Jindal is a favorite in these parts (and for good reason) but your 2nd through 5th points just emphasize to no end he’d be a perfect candidate for national office.

A Fiscal Educator? Check

Awesomeness? (charisma and image) Check

A Steadfast Fighter? Check

Rasmussen is still an unbelievably accurate pollster. His state by state breakdown was 2nd to none. He’s held the race nationally at 52-46 for weeks. We need to accept that he is probably correct and not jump on every conspiracy theory that claims otherwise.

i would like to add a point. i think that design played a major, if not overlooked, role in this election.

as a designer and a conservative, it pains me to say it, but obama’s brand was slick. he tapped big time designers to create his propaganda pieces, logo, and website. his brand was well put together from the get go, while mccain’s seemed to evolve esthetically.

like it or not, we live in a very design-savvy world. people equate a brand’s promise to the quality of its look. style won over substance in this election, but substance combined with style is even more powerful.

our candidates need to look good on tv, the web, and in print. i know there are designers, producers, directors, etc. on our side that are just as talented as the dems’.

for my part, i realize that i need to do more and use my talents and skills to promote what i believe in. i hope other creatives do the same.

ps. i would like to say thank you to the redstate family. you guys are awesome. thank you for creating this community. i look forward to participating more.

[You slipped one of your guys by us: well done. I probably should have caught him on this, but hey: it's not like this is a paying gig. - Moe Lane]

1) People are not afraid of Socialism, it is an acceptable political outcome.

[Actually, now that I think about it: you guys have already linked this thing in full on your own blogs. You can waste the bandwidth, thanks. - ML]

It took an Ohio plumber to put in simple words what was wrong with Obama’s tax plan, and it came too late. At the end of the day, none of our candidates really stood a chance with this dynamic.

Huckabee was better at the quick, simple explanation than Obama.

Similar to the social conservatism, 2nd amendment rights is not a political winner. Not enough of the voters really give a damn.

It doesn’t matter on the east coast, but 2nd amendment rights still matter here in the central red corridor. It is something that is still widely discussed during every election. For example, the heavy manufacturing shop where my equipment is built (rural Oklahoma) loses 10-15% of their staff during the first week of deer season. These are working-class guys that you would expect to vote Democrat for president but they don’t, partially due to this issue. Even the lone Democratic Representative from Oklahoma is openly pro-gun. He has to be or he’d get swept from office.

Grim

As for some of the other original points.

Similar to the social conservatism, 2nd amendment rights is not a political winner. Not enough of the voters really give a damn.

Second Amendment rights are important, but they just aren’t a major issue. People are more concerned about jobs, health care, etc. I still believe that Americans care about gun rights, just that they weigh other issues more heavily.

2) Fiscal education – Strong leadership in teaching the voters the truth about tax policies. We don’t have to get into what the money in the treasury is going to be used FOR, as long as we teach them why lower taxes result in increased revenues. If they think giving it to the UN is the best thing to do with it, then fine. But getting people to understand what is needed for a sound economy is critical.

This is really key. Fiscal and economics knowledge is really lacking all across the country. We’ve seen how devastating this can be over the last few months.

5) Win the hearts and minds – Low level voter education to target the youth and independents to teach them the core principles. Work outside of the liberal school indoctrination, or better yet, force the schools to give us equal time. We have to get past ceding political education to the NEA. We need to stop mind numbed robot Democrats from just showing up at the polls and blindly pulling the lever for the D.

Now I’m not for forcing equal time for anything, but the point remains. We need to get out there and win some hearts and minds. We need to articulate and explain the conservative position and its importance.

6) National level branding – Now is the time to begin an advertising campaign to dispel the myths about Republicans. We aren’t racists, we aren’t homophobes, we aren’t war mongers. We need to change our public image, and that has to be done through a public relations effort. Pick a few core messages, and put them out in opposition to the socialism that Obama will be trying to push through.

Personally, I see this as the most important issue that will either limit Republicans or allow us to grow. We need to get past these labels. No matter how good the ideas, if the public image continues to sag as it has, Republicans won’t win. Republicans can’t continue to be seen as a party of angry, old white men. Yes that’s just an image, but the image is killing us all over the place.

Tried to post this a while ago for about 20 minutes but 500 state wouldn’t let me. Anyway let’s see if this works now.

Great analysis and I completely agree. Most of the people I speak with don’t even understand basic economics, and the envy toward the “rich” is absolutely astounding. Someone once said to me that if the Democrats would drop their support for abortion and gay marriage they would win every election. I think culturally we’re moving to the point where they don’t even have to do that. Whether Americans admit it or not there’s a good amount who want to know what their country can do for them, not what they can do for their country.

Add to this the blantly anti-American, anti-white teaching that we go through in public school (believe me, I’ve been there and college too) and the constant drum-beat of the media and you have a recipe for disaster. I hate to see my country and civilization go the way of Rome but the people who could’ve stood up for it (Bush and the Republican controlled Congress) didn’t try, or at least didn’t try hard enough. Indoctrination of the youth is a great way for the left to maintain a permanent hold on our country.

There are probably as many reasons for the R showing as their are voters but I believe, the single largest factor that changed the election’s trajectory was the credit debacle that erupted in September of this year. It was clear that most people attributed the mess and the fix for the mess on the Rs. Right or wrong, electorates often weary of a dominant party particularly when, the economy goes south as it did here.

The election result however has clearly exposed a festering problem that a McCain victory might have hid. There are an increasing number of states where the R party/brand is something other than positive. Contrary to some of the commenters, I do not believe it lies in core Republican principles. Instead, I believe R focus is singularly defaulted to a national focus. Consequently, as state attitudes/problems shift causing the loss of political momentum of the local R organization, all too often, the organization seems unable to effectively regenerate leaving behind a largely ineffective party in place.

This can be and must be changed. Every state or locality have issues that rankle much of the electorate. Many of these issues can be addressed successfully w/ understandable, right of center solutions. The R brand must be built form the ground up starting w/ solutions to local or state problems. Sponsoring successful solutions to local problems sow the seeds for new Rs locally. This is possible in blue areas if we are determined to make it work. Success in this endeavor in turn builds the junior ranks from which more senior positions can ultimately be filled.

…but no party wins all the time. The hardest thing for me was to see “pro-lifers” working for Obama. As a Catholic Christian I will pray for the man that he change his depraved policies about unborn human life– and the far left stuff too.

The issue this year was the economy, not abortion. In bad times it’s always the economy, when it should be abortion. Obama got out his message, and with the help of incredible media bias, managed to snooker enough people.

Solutions? Pray for your country, project a positive image, boycott the media, and with God’s help in 2010 the cavalry will come to the rescue.

I believe that McCain got a substantial number of conservative democrat votes. In north east Florida, traditionally Republican country, (which typically is the main high population area of Florida that traditionally goes to the Republicans), and won Florida for them in 2000. Last night, the vote was split apprx 50/50, out of apprx 400,000 votes. Typically this area goes 60/40 or better. It was apparent that moderate republicans crossed over and voted for obama. In my own county in northeast Florida, we voted 72/28 for McCain. Their were many conservative democrats in my county who voted for McCain.

used2bdemocrat

Now that Obama won, let us continue gathering evidence of about his past.

I agree, we need to educate and rebuild our machinery:

• Continuing the fight against liberal MSM
• ACORN-style activists at the grassroot level to mobilize families for conservatism focusing on small business.
• Financing Conservative Unions against AFL-CIO, Working Families.
• Christian Conservatives unmasking truth about Black Liberation Theology
• Funding Conservative and Anti-Socialism movement in the universities?

… and so on.

These are the thing that Pres. Bush has neglected in 8 years. He became aloof to the people.

We should never look back and continue the fight.

On the SoCon issue:

1) We can/should always fight to protect the traditional social institutions of our society from efforts to marginalize them by the Left.

2) We should, without compromising our conviction on Pro-Life, be willing to articulate it in a way consistent with the principles of Federalism. To me, the best way to neuter the “pro-choice” rhetoric is to point out if they were really “pro-choice” they’d allow States to decide, period. Also we can/should fight the issue of federal tax dollars being used to fund abortion on demand.

3) One word of warning in writing off SoCon concerns… MANY of us…myself included, vote SoCon 1st. I will never pull the lever for a pro-abortion candidate. Life trumps all issues. Period. If I have to vote 3rd party to vote for a pro-life candidate, I will.

That said, many of these issues really ought to be state issues, not federal. And the internet poker issue was suicidal. Gambling is not a cut and dried moral issue, and I say that as someone Theologically trained. There’s no clear text against it. And driving the money off-shore gained from it didn’t help our economy either. If we regulate every addictive behavior because of “potential abuse” we pretty much have to lock every person by themselves into a cubicle for 24 hours a day and only allow them to eat or drink intravenous nutrition.

What kind of life was that? Not the one we were created for. That is certain. Wisdom is known by her children. And building positive moral character, and encouraging education that does this, trumps negative behavior modification at any level, any time.

Folks are afraid of socialism just in desparte times many chose what they thought was selfishly better for their family short term than for the country.

Fear and greed will always trump the right thing when the leader with the right idea is not srtong enough to prevail.

U.S. voters have common sense. They realize that they better get somebody in office who will subsidize them, if many billions are being spent to subsidize the wealthy oligarchies. When they get past the “political footballs,” voters see that the only difference between the political parties is that the Republicans want to spend our taxes on corporate welfare, while the Democrats want to spend it on social welfare.
They are both big spenders.

After 8 years of an allegedly conservative controlled executive, and 6 years of an allegedly conservative Congress, we have not only doubled the national debt. But, we have increased our private debt. We are living high off about 15 trillion dollars of increased public and private debt. Somebody please tell me who is really fiscally conservative?

I think that the majority votes in their own self-interest, not for the abstract ideology. This fiscal conservatism which Republicans use to get votes, they don’t really practice.

Folks are afraid of socialism just in desparte times many chose what they thought was selfishly better for their family short term than for the country.

Fear and greed will always trump the right thing when the leader with the right idea is not srtong enough to prevail.

This site has the exact same tone as that of dailykos (except of course on the conservative side). Exact.

Definition of socialism:

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

In other words, thank you George Bush, you started this off by buying banks and what else in the future? I don’t see the democrats proposing socialism.

And by the way, redistributing wealth from the poor to the wealthy (which is what the Bushies really want and now have) is actually closer to fascism (state support of industry and vice versa).

If you are holding Sarah Palin out as the future of the republican party, you are doomed. She is a decent regional politician. That’s it.

You are absolutely, totally right that fiscal conservatism is the number one issue that should be respected. Clinton and Congress in the 1990s did. Bush and Congress in the last 8 years didn’t. Fiscal conservatism isn’t just holding down costs, and cutting wasteful programs, it is also paying your bills (and no off budget expenses just because you want to hide your graft programs). Sorry, that means raise enough taxes to balance the budget, not borrow from the Chinese. Thanks, GW.

Nice site you have here. Back to #1 above. You know, it is just as shrill in here.

Have a great day.
———————–==
another token liberal.

I see the real battle is not between parties but between us and our ElectedElite in Washington. Spending is out of control. They only think about self preservation and blow smoke to the public looking like they are actually doing something for their country.

We need fiscal conservatives to wage a war against fat cat government.

Will we ever learn the lesson of finishing off the other side when we have the chance? REPS with the majority suffered from “majority guilt” and got soft on us. One thing I admire about DEMS is they slap anyone who reaches across the aisle. They will run with their agenda in a partisan way. REPS, (hopefully conservatives someday) must do the same when back in power.

Remember, government is a reacting entity. If we do the work on the ground, government will eventually affirm it.

Is hard to make, given the watered down history kids are being taught in schools and the liberal indoctrination going in in our universities.

If people don’t have an understanding of the failings of socialism and some historical context, it can indeed sound “hip,” and compassionate and fair, especially given a young, charismatic proponent such as Barack Obama.

No matter what strategies unfold in the short term, in the long term, we need to look at taking back the education system at the school board level.

1) People are not afraid of Socialism, it is an acceptable political outcome. I’m going to be thinking a long time on why this is, but I think that it is a combination of lack of education within the electorate, a generation has passed since Carter, and the illusionary success of European socialism in our globalized economy.

That’s the only part of your tale that I have doubts about; I doubt that 10% of the voters considered Obama a socialist (I would say Marxist). All most people heard was that 95% mantra.

Dave, great job.

I agree that people (at least 60M+) are no longer afraid of socialism, at least how Obama presented it. I’m doubtful that many Americans ever heard socialism during the campaign, and if they did, it simply didn’t register.

We have an 8 year old and a 6 year old and we just pulled them out of public school this year. We’ll move into a smaller house, sell a car, cut out TV and cell phones, anything to make sure we can pay for tuition to their small Catholic school. We live in a pretty conservative area of west Richmond (and it voted or Obama so I’m not sure how conservative it is now..) and the kids were being indoctrinated about community and sharing and all of the beginnings of socialism, even in the 1st grade. Very little instruction, if any on personal responsibility. I’ll be careful here, but they seriously learned about Martin Luther King Jr. before Lincoln. No disrespect towards Dr. King and everything he contributed, but without Lincoln, there would be no Dr. King. But not according to public school. This is what we’re up against.

So we’re now faced with a younger generation that have been fully indoctrinated through secondary and post-secondary education, and with the advent of Facebook, Myspace and other technology, their sense of collectivism is being validated daily. So we face a very tough road ahead in trying to sway these minds. I think it will take a complete and utter economic catastrophe for these people to realize how Reagan and fiscal conservatism and free maket capitalism is really the only solution.

And when this collapse happens (and I fear that it will, sooner than we think) then we must do what Dave mentioned above:

Be completely partisan in our response. we must clearly lay the forthcoming failures at the feet of the Marxists with passion and venom. It’s how they’ve operated for years and we must act and react accordingly.

I’ve said this before, partisanship breeds clarity and simplicity. It makes issues black and white. And this place allows you to speak freely and clearly with conviction and passion and courage. And if you’re speaking with all of this, people will follow. Just look at what just happened. People saw this in Obama. So when he fails (and he will) we must be in a position to resonate in his aftermath.

And finally I also agree that, as much as social issues mean to many of us, the life issue is, for all intents and purposes, over. People just elected a president who supports infanticide. Life is just not an issue that resonates. The most important issue facing us is debt and entitlements. This should be the drumbeat daily. $53T in looming obligations and we keep adding to that debt daily. It simply must stop and I fear that this will ultimately be the trigger for a catastrophic economic situation that may sway Obots away from the dark side.

as it pains me to say this, abortion is not an issue that the majority of the electorate cares about, and frankly we have now lost on Roe v. Wade. The courts are lost for a generation, and there will be no turning back the clock.

First of all is abortion an issue the Majority of the electorate cares about? No. Is it an issue that a portion of the electorate care about? Yes. Do those voters tend to go towards us? Again, yes.

Secondly, what the heck do you mean, “The Courts have been lost for a genration?” If President Obama gets 5 supreme Court appointments, I might concede your point. But what you’re spewing here is pure defeatist BS.

First of all, if we are shattering myths, then it must be stated again that Bush did NOT win 44% of the latino vote in 2004. It was most likely somewhere between 38-40%; a good showing for a Republican, but still a double digit loss to a very lame Democrat. And that was from a Republican who had pandered to Hispanics from the moment he ran for governor back in 1994. And it was before the evil Tancredoites scared away all of the ‘natural Republcans’ with the 2006 and 2007 amnesty battles.

Following from that, McCain most likely got as much as 32% of the Hispanic vote, so we are looking at a decline of somewhere between 6-9 points. McCain’s share of the white vote fell from 58% to about 55%, and that 3 point drop with whites cost McCain many more votes than did the larger drop with Hispanics simply because of those two groups respective share of the electorate. Of course with the electoral college, location matters, but it’s probably a safe bet that McCain’s poorer showing with whites hurt him much more than his poorer showing with non-whites, especially in North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio. If McCain had lost Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Florida by just a few votes, then it could be argued that latinos were decisive (but then so too could the same argument be made for any group if it is very close), but Obama wound up winning those easily.

I hope we can agree that this party must do a better job at being seen as being inclusive of all people and is not anti Hispanic. Mark my words in 10 years we could be in dire straights if we do not work on this issue

Now there is no question that Hispanic are an increasing presence in political spectrum and 10 years many states may show whites to actually be in the minority (like CA is already) the party must look to the future and realize that if this continues on this path many states may fall to Dems cause they have a coalition that is growing

The Party would be very smart to work on this!

we don’t need to “reach out” if we do we risk pandering. Hispanics have already made up their minds to vote Democratic. that is really sad since it looked like they could vote Republican when they first burst ont he scene in the 2000 election.

I consider Hispanics to be “fake” conservatives or at best, “fake” Catholics. Like another poster said, they live as conservatives but they vote as Democrats because (I think) they know the Democrats are the party of the minority/poor and will give them handouts.

Hispanics claim to be pro-life and church going but there numbers have to be going down overall. I know I don’t see them near as much as I used to, and that was early ’90s when immigration wasn’t even an issue.

They get a lot of credit for going to church and wearing “Mary the Virgin” shirts, crosses, etc. but its all for show. Most of them are Christmas/Easter Catholics just like a lot of people. They are also known to cohabitate which would be breaking a direct commandment so it isn’t all rosy as one may believe.

With that said, Catholics in general disappoint me. Most are not conservative yet pro-life is preached in many churches along with abstainence, and traditional marriage only.

There is no reason that Catholics should not vote Republican in masse, as they could be the Southern Baptists of the North (as it is largly a Northern US concentration).

The reason I see that Catholics vote Democratic aside from largely always doing it, was back when they came to America they were persecuted as having a different religion outside that of Protestantism that this country was majority founded upon. The Democratic party machine as a whole, welcomed all minorities in regardless of religion, or national origin.

However many are Democratic in PA for example. I remember a stat like 65% voted for Obama. Pelosi, Reid, and Biden are all Catholics along with VT Senator Patrick Leahy, CT Senator Chris Dodd, and MA Senator Kerry.

The Catholics I know were split at best, but most of them were voting for Obama-a Pro-abortion candidate. This is a declining issue (nationwide even though its a big deal for me personally) and Roe will never be overturned much like a Federal Marriage Amendment will never be passed as the time for that has passed the electorate by. Its all about the economy.

The 3 day troll is still at it

The basic cause of losses by Republicans is that too many stopped being all-round conservatives. Winning Republican conservatism is the three-legged stool of fiscal restraing/limited government, strong degense, & conservative social policies. Together, these three win. We need leadership top-down that recognizes this & puts it into action.

There are other mechanics that come into play. The visual comparison of Obama v. McCain is similar to Bill Clinton v. Bush 41 & Dole. We need to consistently oppose & publicize wrong & failure by the Dems. I believe the MSM will continue to lose market share & influence, especially with the all-out effort to elect Obama.

The basis for victory & for moving the country in the right direction is getting back to the core conservatism & regaining the mantle of fiscal responsibility & limited government, while keeping the other legs of the stool intact.

Many good points. We have lost the media. Republicans have to buy their message with advertising. Our media isn’t free. Democrats were giddy when McCain pushed through his campaign (let’s screw Republicans) finance plan. Idiot. Bush signed it. Idiot.

Bush and McCain saw that Republicans do well with a minority group. About 40% of the vote. (Talk about fuzzy math. I thought you needed over 50% to win an election.) Bush and McCain though that was a good reason to import a million illegal Mexicans a year. Not the Republican voting ones. The poor ones who will probably need public assistance and vote Democrat. Republicans puhed this. Bush and McCain, again, idiots.

And abortion as an issue causes many people to yawn. Not that Republicans shouldn’t be pro life but talking about it all the time only loses the additional voters we need. It also takes time away from discussing what many undecided voters consider really important leaving those issues to be discussed by the Democrats. They shut up about the issue and appoint the judges that can do something about it after the election.