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Count us among the skeptics at this stage about the new "National
Council for a New America" initiative which was announced on April 30 by
various Republican governors and members of Congress (launch
stories linked below). See our suggestions for "Restoring
a Limited Federal Government" For further coverage,
try our Conservative Search tool to
easily search many leading conservative websites and blogs, or try our
custom search tools for Republican
Governors, Senators, and
House members to find any comments or PR
about it on their own official websites or by peers. |
| The
new website for the National Council for a New America is being promoted
as
www.wethepeopleplan.org but this redirects to
http://republicanwhip.house.gov/WeThePeople/ |
| This
initiative seems to be led by those who regard themselves as "moderate"
conservatives, or as Republicans who believe that the Party must not be
the "party of no" (as Democratic leaders and their media friends now
like to brand it) by coming up with some alternative policy "big ideas".
This seems to be the same general idea is in the new "Resurgent
Republic" initiative by a different group of Republican leaders,
pollsters, and advisors. |
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that context, many of our initial thoughts
about Resurgent Republic also apply to this initiative. |
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short, we think that Americans still like the "old America". The
people who have been pushing for a "New America" have been the
Democrats, as any Internet search on the phrase will readily show.
It's time to get back to the basic principles which made America great,
instead of apologizing to the critics and tyrants around the world for
everything we have ever done. We don't need to experiment with big
new social policy ideas at the federal level. That is what created
the mess we have today. The focus needs to shift
back to the state and local level, where there is more direct
accountability for performance. The federal government should not
be ruling over states through spending power and legislative mandates
which go far beyond the limited role which was foreseen in the
Constitution. |
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Restoring a Limited
Federal Government - Only "we the people" can make it happen now. |
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Links to coverage
of the launch of the "National Council for a New America" |
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See also "Resurgent Republic"
launched by conservative Republican leaders and advisors at the same
time (April 30 - at the end of the first 100 days of the Obama
administration). SurgeUSA.org was launched on Inauguration
Day, January 20, and is not affiliated with "Resurgent Republic"
or this new "National Council for a New America". Our
focus is still on empowering individuals,
as outlined in our initial conservative "Surge
Strategy" suggestions back in January - before the Tea Party
movement got started nationally as a local grassroots initiative by
individuals in February. |
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January 19, 2010 -
The top 4 things Congressional Republicans must do in 2010 -
Comment: interesting blog entry on BigGovernment.com . The
suggestion to shift the focus away from talking to reporters in
Washington in favor of regional and local events and media nationwide is
still missing the point. The new leadership needs to truly come
from the local level up - not by dragging the career politicians in
Washington out to the hinterlands beyond the Beltway to better market
their big ideas. The party needs to be rebuilt from the precinct
committeeman level up - very quickly. |
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November 19, 2009 -
GOP governors push for 2010 party rebirth - Comment:
What's the plan? |
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May 19, 2009 - A press release reports that Newt Gingrich has joined
the NCNA "panel of experts" |
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May 14, 2009 - The Republican Governors Association sponsored a "GOP
Comeback Fight for Freedom Call" with Texas Governor Rick Perry
and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Their basic message is
that the GOP comeback starts with governor races, such as the ones in
2009 for New Jersey and Virginia, as well as the many other races in
2010. It's an early fundraising pitch. |
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May 7, 2009 - Politico -
GOP base rips Cantor's National Council for a New America - Comment:
No kidding, Sherlock. It took these pundits a week to figure that
out? |
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May 2, 2009 - GOP Leaders Begin Outreach Effort to Re-energize Party
- Comment: Fox News version of the story about the "National Council
for a New America" initiative - which has attracted
hundreds of critical comments already. |
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May 2, 2009 - GOP group launches listening tour to rebrand image -
Comment: Article on TownHall.com about the "National Council for a
New America" tour of town hall meetings organized by Republicans such as
Eric Cantor, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, and Haley
Barbour. Notably absent were Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin, Newt
Gingrich and Mark Sanford. More below. (Sarah Palin
reportedly joined up a few days later) |
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May 2, 2009 - Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) Opinion in the Wall Street
Journal -
How Republicans Can Build a Big Tent Party - Comment: At least
he seems to be starting to "get it" - "The real mistake is that
Republicans became more concerned with staying in D.C. than reforming
it."
That's right - limited federal government powers to
rule over us applies to Republicans, too. We are not looking for
marginally better approaches to the relentless expansion of government
intervention, taxes, debt, and spending in our lives. We are
looking to roll back the role of the federal government by standing up
again for liberty and individual responsibility, including state and
local governance issues. |
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May 1, 2009 - McCain Heads GOP Road Show? - Comment: Rush
Limbaugh shares the perception of many that this new "National Council
for a New America" initiative by a handful of Republican leaders is a
farce which is doomed to failure. They still don't get it.
Ditto for
www.ResurgentRepublic.com
Eric Cantor tried to clarify that this was a
"conversation with America" rather than an attempt to "re-brand" the
GOP. See this
blog post on RedState about the conference call. Even it misses the
point about trying to "re-introduce Republican principles to the
people". Hello? Arrogance alert! We the people
never lost our principles - it's the Republicans in Congress who lost
theirs by thinking that the world revolves around them and their latest
new federal policy ideas or symbolic but meaningless votes.
Maybe they should watch
Glenn Beck's May 1 show on Fox News about
the Tea Party movement. Better yet, the Republicans should
invite all of the Tea Party organizers and any attendees who wish to
join them to meet, and then to actually listen to them instead of doing
town halls to test-market policy ideas and rhetoric in preparation for
their 2010 campaigns. Get out of the bubble of fawning sycophants
and listen to those whose trust you have lost. |
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Some leaders of the Republican Party have launched a new
"National Council for a New America" initiative while others have
launched a
Resurgent
Republic website with some
recent polling data from Karl Rove & Co. They are planning
some "town hall" events, as reported in this
story at TownHall.com
This may be of interest to some Tea Party participants,
but it's not clear that these Republicans "get it" yet. They are
still too worried about being the "party of no", or proposing
alternative "big ideas". Instead of test marketing new ideas and
rhetoric for 2010, perhaps they really need to listen first, and do
something to earn back trust. It's not enough to just wait
passively and hope to regain a few seats in 2010.
Others apparently share misgivings about this initiative.
See "The
Zombie Party Spends a Weekend at Bernies" on the
TheNextRight
blog. |
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