> In short, no one knows what Republicans believe or why.
Absolutely true, and while it is simple, it is profoundly troubling.

> Reasonable people can disagree with those, I suppose. But we need to get back to the fundamentals and actually demonstrate a belief in them.
Political parties are not “perfect fits” — you vote with the party you feel you agree with “more”. That means, even if I disagree with a couple points, it doesn’t mean I can’t hang out in the tent.

> There is great unity that can result from ideas based on principle instead of political expediency.
The amazing thing about having a principled stance is that it makes you able to deal with the issues that have not yet come up. It give the people who vote for you a sense of security that even if everything changes, some set of principles will guide you.

Go for it.

RINO’s are about the best you will get from places like the northeast.

Rush Republican wouldn’t even win R primaries in places like CT or RI.

So, are you better off with a Lincoln Chaffe or Nancy Johnson who will sometimes vote with you or Shelton Whitehouse who will never vote with you?

Newt beginning to increasingly fill the leadership vacancies in the party. He’s an ideas guy, he’s got experience, he knows how Washington works, he’s truly conservative, you know where he stands and why, and he’s not afraid to point out the obvious truths.

Jindal, Pawlenty, Palin, Sanford, even DeMint are all viable, strong voices, who could do it, and I think Gingrich would defer if one of them made a strong run. I’d even like to see a Jindal/Gingrich ticket, although all we’d hear is how Gingrich is the one running the show.

I was kind of annoyed reading Michael Steele saying a while back that “everyone is welcomed into the tent” and that all ideas would be welcomed and all that. Sorry, but that’s exactly the problem. We welcomed those into the tent that are Democrat-lite and now conservatism is dying a hasty death.

When one party says, “let’s make government bigger!” and the other party says, “let’s not make government bigger!” and then does it anyway, exactly how are we supposed to convince people that conservatism is the way to go?

I for one would like to evict a lot of people from the tent and then sew the flaps shut.

Sounds to me they need a tether. Something to hook onto, like first principles.

We got butt boy saying there are no earmarks in the bill with 9000 earmarks in it. OK, so what is he calling earmarks this week?

Have you got the hang of this jive talk thing yet?

…and the gradual pushing aside and diminishing of the Constitution. And in its stead our elected Republican rep’s are focusing on the edicts of world governing bodies, demands of foreign gov’ts, NGO’s and even the MSM. This is what has a very large segment of former and “estranged” GOP voting Base extremely concerned. Concerned enough so that many Stayed at Home or protest voted for the sole purpose of getting the GOP’s attention. Like the proverbial 2X4 up side the head.
Pitch your political tent directly over the Constitution, Hogan. And the GOP must form up some sort of “enforcement” arm that punishes those who wander to far from the document. Mean business. Move back toward the Rule of Law away from Selective Enforcement. Opposite of the destructive “wrecking crew” of Bush43 and K. Rove who did more damage with their strategy of “pandering” , creating the political mess the Party is in now. DD

“For me, as I have previously opined, those principles are freedom, limited government, fiscal responsibility, self-reliance, peace-through-strength and an appropriate deference and respect for the Almighty.”

I understand what you are trying to say, but when you say you know “anti-gun republicans” it seems more of a rhetorical point. the one thing you don’t say explicitly is complete adherence to the Constitution and Declaration; an act that obviously leads to the positions you hold dear.

I agree our current leadership is weak. We should have thrown them out in 2006, but we did not. We should have replaced tired DC insiders with the likes of Flake and Cantor at the TOP of the leadership.

the reality is we do need a big tent if our goal is to win elections with demographics and education as headwinds. We can’t make everyone a dittohead, but we can have many charismatic and intellectual conservatives speaking to the people in a way that brings them along. We also have the advantage that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum. The American people are notoriously fickle and have the attention span of a fruit fly. They will turn on Obama as they turned on Bush, even though the press willl do its best to stop it. I am not saying we will not have to work, we will have to work twice as hard as we ever have. But the fact is we DO need a tent large enough to get 51 percent of the electorate. the more they suffer under Obama, the more they will join us….for now.

From the for-what-it’s-worth department, when I fax my comments to the so-called leaders (McConnell, McCain and Kyl) and others, I tend to remind them that if the are searching for principles upon which to base their opposition to Obama’s march to socialism, etc., they might want to refer to the Party Platform. Recently I pulled together the following list and used it when corresponding with them (I included the part about Amnesty because McCain and Kyl, my Senate servants, were part of the Shamnesty Cabal. Also, the topical headings are mine, not from the Platform.):

Core Principles from the 2008 Republican Party Platform Relevant to the January 2009 Debate over the so-called “Stimulus Bill” and generally for contrasting Republican goals from those of the Democrat Party (http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/)

Republicans Oppose Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity. The American people’s rejection of en masse legalizations is especially appropriate given the federal governments past failures to enforce the law. (P. 3.)

Republicans Support Enforcing Constitutional Safeguards

Republicans will uphold and defend our party’s core principles: Constrain the federal government to its legitimate constitutional functions. (P. 15.)

Republicans Support Only Constitutionally Necessary Federal Spending

Spend only what is necessary, and tax only to raise revenue for essential government functions. (P. 15.)

Republicans Reject Unconstitutional, Wasteful Pork-Barrel Special Interest Spending

The other party wants to continue pork barrel politics; we are disgusted by it, no matter who practices it. The other party wants to ignore fiscal problems while squandering billions on ineffective programs; we are determined to end that waste. The entrenched culture of official Washington – an intrusive tax-and-spend liberalism — remains a formidable foe, but we will confront and ultimately defeat it. (P. 15.)

Republicans Will Stop Unconstitutional Special Interest Earmark Spending

Earmarking must stop. To eliminate wasteful projects and pay-offs to special interests,
we will impose an immediate moratorium on the earmarking system and reform the
appropriations process through full transparency. Tax dollars must be distributed on
the basis of clear national priorities, not a politician’s seniority or party position. (P. 16.)

Republicans Believe “It’s Your Money, Taxpayers”

The most important distinction between Republicans and the leadership of today’s Democratic Party concerning taxes is not just that we believe you should keep more of what you earn. That’s true, but there is a more fundamental distinction. It concerns the
purpose of taxation. We believe government should tax only to raise money for its essential functions. (P. 23.)

Republicans Oppose Using the Tax Code for Social Engineering

The Republican Party will put a stop to both social engineering and corporate handouts by simplifying tax policy, eliminating special deals, and putting those saved dollars back into the taxpayers’ pockets. (P. 23.)

Republicans Support Reducing Corporate Tax Rates

We support a major reduction in the corporate tax rate so that American companies stay competitive with their foreign counterparts and American jobs can remain in this country. (P. 23.)

Republicans Know We Cannot Tax and Spend Our Way to Prosperity

The last thing Americans need right now is tax hikes. On the federal level, Republicans lowered taxes in 2001 and 2003 in order to encourage economic growth, put more money in the pockets of every taxpayer, and make the system fairer. It worked. If Congress had then controlled its spending, we could have done even more. (P. 25.)

Republicans Believe Workers Have a Right to Secret Ballots

The recent attempt by congressional Democrats to deny workers a secret ballot in union referenda is an assault, not only against a fundamental principle of labor law, but even more against the dignity and honor of the American work force. We oppose “card check” legislation, which deprives workers of their privacy and their right to vote, because it exposes workers to intimidation by union organizers. (P. 28.)

Republicans Believe America Must “Drill, Baby, Drill”

If we are to have the resources we need to achieve energy independence, we simply must draw more American oil from American soil. We support accelerated exploration, drilling and development in America, from new oilfields off the nation’s coasts to
onshore fields such as those in Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska. The Green River Basin in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming offers recoverable shale oil that is ready for development, and most of it is on federal lands. (P. 32.)

Republicans Support Domestic Oil Refinery Construction

To deliver that energy to American consumers, we will expand our refining capacity. Because of environmental extremism and regulatory blockades in Washington, not a single new refinery has been built in this country in 30 years. We will encourage
refinery construction and modernization and, with sensitivity to environmental concerns, an expedited permitting process. (P. 32.)

Republicans Believe our Environmental Laws are Out of Control

Any legislation to increase domestic exploration, drilling and production must minimize any protracted legal challenges that could unreasonably delay or even preclude actual production. We oppose any efforts that would permanently block access to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (P. 32.)

Republicans Support Construction of Nuclear Power Plants

Confident in the promise offered by science and technology, Republicans will pursue dramatic increases in the use of all forms of safe, affordable, reliable — and clean –nuclear power. (P. 32.)

Republicans Believe Patients Should Choose, Not Bureaucrats

Republicans believe the key to real reform is to give control of the health care system to
patients and their health care providers, not bureaucrats in government or business. (P. 37.)

Republicans Oppose Unconstitutional Socialized Medicine

Republicans support the private practice of medicine and oppose socialized medicine in the form of a government-run universal health care system. (P. 37.)

Republicans Believe Education is a Local and State Responsibility

Education is a local and state responsibility.

Education is a parental right, a state and local responsibility, and a national strategic interest. (P. 43.)

<<<<<

Of course, it’s kind of hard for our vaunted party “leaders” to take a principled stand on any of the above principles when they themselves have abandoned them. For example, a few days ago I received the Nat. Repub. Senatorial Comm. fundraising letter from John Cornyn last week (which you probably alsoo received) with a fundraisng sheet with a heading, “Pledge to Defend Our Republican Values.” Hmmm. He only sponsored $85.9 M in earmarks. I faxed it back asking upon which Republican value he pinned the $85.9 M of other people’s money in earmarks he slipped into the bill.

I guess I should know better that our leaders pay any attention to the Party Platform. It’s so important to the Arizona GOP that they have a link to it buried on their web site — only problem, they link to the 2004 Platform. I’m not making that up.

Thank you.

Democrats aren’t quite as unified as they would have you believe. They may have unified behind Obama, but the labor unions aren’t exactly pallin’ around with the environmentalist people. A strong environmentalist agenda tends to create more costs in a business and a tougher chance of them getting more money. The ACLU people aren’t exactly huge fans of the censorship people. Self-explanatory, I think. There’s also a lot of religious folks in the democratic party, especially amongst minorities, that most definitely wouldn’t jive with the extreme atheists. The anti-war people weren’t exactly big fans of Clinton going into Somalia, into the Balkans, bombing Iraq, and on and on.

As far as I can tell the democratic party basically wants health care reform, and, on top of that, wants to stick it to rich people.

Maybe that’s the unfortunate truth. It’s not so much that Republicans need a unifying platform but someone to unify behind. That seems to be the real challenge to me. Someone who might make me forget about some of my more extreme libertarian opinions to support them because they have integrity and the battles they want to pick aren’t completely adverse to my point of view. Mark Sanford could definitely be that guy. I also want McCain to retire and Jeff Flake to take his seat. Let Jindal try his hand at Obama 2012, but I’m looking to 2016 for my dream ticket.

Sanford/Flake 2016.

You will like it, and so should every Republican.

and as yu have said hogan, there is no consensus between the commentors at all. You have proven your point, the party is as divided as you have said.

I think as Republicans we must learn to be more tolerant of other Republican beliefs. We cant demonize a group if they dont adhere 100% of what the rest of us believe.

A perfect example on the last election would be a candidate like Ron Paul, who was anti-war, but at the same time a true conservative. A lot more conservative than lets say John McCain who won the Primaries.

During the primaries the party was pretty hard on him, and I witnessred many messegeboards who banned Paul supporters, or any discussion about him on their website. At the time I really didn’t know what to think about it. But as I learned more about the man, I understand what drawn people to him. An alienating these people was a bad idea. And today its a worst Idea because everytime turn on the damn T.V. hes on it. It seems his popularity has jumped 10 fold since the election.

Personally I think as Republicans we should send the message that you can be antl-war and still be a part of the party. I mean look at Obama a lot of his supporters are upset with him because they feel like hes moving towards the center. But he made sure he didn’t alienate these voters during the election. I think we as Republicans did. This doesnt mean that we should be voting for liberal republicans. But when we like someones views 90+% of the time maybe we shouldnt damn them for the other 10%.

“For me, as I have previously opined, those principles are freedom, limited government, fiscal responsibility, self-reliance, peace-through-strength and an appropriate deference and respect for the Almighty.”

I realize that this is only your own personal set of principles, but I would guess most conservatives probably agree with this. And to be honest, even though I’m a liberal, I respect all of these core beliefs. I even like some of them. But I am wondering what do you do about the non-believers and the barely-believers?

A recent huge Pew Poll showed that 5% of Americans are outright atheists. 4% are very strongly agnostic. By these numbers, conservatives have 91% (at least) of the population open to receiving a message that is at least quasi-religious. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. Only 39% of Americans go to religious services at least once a week, and only 54% go at least once a month. That means, in my reading, that 46% are essentially barely believers. They may repeat certain religious tenets, and most of them do believe (at least vaguely) in God. But few, if any of those 46% are really living their religion. I think people are so caught up in the fact that very few people are outright atheists that they assume that everyone else is religious. But I think these numbers show that there are a lot of E+C Catholics, but also probably a lot of E+C Protestants.

Do you assume they have enough respect for God and the Bible (or the Koran or the Torah or whatever) that they are fully supportive of a culture of life and all that entails? I don’t think the question is that easily answered and I think conservatives should be mindful of finding better ways to reach out to those who are not devout.

http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons#

A Rasmussen poll today reveals that few know or care who leads the republican party:

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/09/poll-who-leads-the-republican-party/

And I agree with Hogan that it’s time to calm down and get back to basics. Basics like changing votes face-to-face and on the phone. On the phone to battleground states and districts. To me, that mean remembering that all politics is local. And where Steele or Rush may not be able to change a vote, I can when I talk to my neighbors.

Blogging and social networking help – they help a lot – but a lot of that activity is preaching to the choir. Social networking often diffuses effort while Action Center tools focus effort.

I don’t care much these days about what Rush or Steele say to or about each other. Both should be saying something like ‘perhaps our tent is big enough to include the other guys views – there are probably many voters who feel the same way. And Steele should definitely have the presence of mind to start hyperventilating when we are called Nazis.

But that is not us grassroots workers.

The RNC cares about the party rolls because they want to be the big party and they want to be able to prove it.

I care about how people vote. It’s OK with me if they cross party lines to vote with me. It’s OK with me if the Republican party is the smaller party if they still seat a majority in Congress.

I think we simply need to prove with our votes that we can unseat anybody we don’t like. That’s all we need to do. That will get any incumbent’s complete attention regardless of how many special interests contribute to his/her campaign.

But it’s about talking to our neighbors. The very thing that most of us Republicans hate to do. Talk. Expose our beliefs.

Let our neighbor know that we think the tent is big enough to include them if they like opportunity, lower taxes, less government, personal liberty.

We won’t change a vote if we argue about choice or other party planks. We may change a vote if we talk about how we are inclusive. Do I really care about a voter’s position on choice if they vote with me? Fact is, I don’t.

So let the leaders jaw jaw and move the tent around. I will be talking to voters in my neighborhood about freedom , liberty and opportunity.

Those of you who know me suspect this is coming, so here it is:

The GOP is working on a new web site that will NOT have the tools we really need to influence votes. The GOP omits an Action Center like the one that was so effective for Obama in his campaign.

Well, the GOP’s idleness on this issue has not gone unnoticed and it will not stand.

A group of programmers, database and security people has taken matters into their own hands and are starting a conservative Open Action Center that will program and provide the online tools needed for conservative activism. in the districts and precincts. We had a successful conference call last night and a formal press release will be sent our later today.

We are going to build it, and they are going to come.

We need lots of help! If you are a coder or a database person, or just a blogger who can click a SUBMIT button, we need you to be a part of this.

Join us at http://gopguerrillas.ning.com if you can make an in-kind working contribution. What is it? Visit the site and find out. Join. Help. Help us win in 2010.

http://gopguerrillas.ning.com