| It's
not yet entirely clear where the new "Resurgent
Republic" initiative is going. There seems to be some
awareness that independent voters could bring the Republican Party back
from irrelevance, but it's not clear that the leaders have clear ideas
yet about how to accomplish this. After all, the last few
elections have discarded many Republican politicians. Although
they might like to be recycled back into political power, there's not
much evidence yet that Americans would trust them again.
"Resurgent Republic" was announced at the same time as
the "National Council for a New America" on
April 30. Both seem to be efforts by various Republican national
and state political leaders and their advisors to find some path back to
greater power and relevance in 2010 and 2012 after their dramatic losses
in 2006 and 2008 which have now left them with little influence in
Washington. The GOP leadership is clearly being pulled in a
variety of directions at this stage. |
|
Restoring a Limited
Federal Government - Only "we the people" can make it happen now. |
| So
far, both groups seem to be having difficulty getting a clear and
effective message out - not because of liberal media bias, but because
they still don't "get it". From the perspective of the hundreds of
thousands of people who were frustrated enough to show up recently at
the 800+ tea party protests nationwide, this isn't about restoring
Republicans to power. In short, it's not really
clear that lots of Americans want to know what these politicians think
should be done next. On the contrary, there's more frustration
about their reluctance to listen.
As Glenn Beck's May 1
show about the Tea Parties recognized, there was more anger directed
at Republicans than at Democrats in many instances during the recent Tea
Parties. Conservatives expect Democrats to ignore or scorn them
and do as they please, so that's not a big surprise or disappointment.
They expect Republicans to actually listen - rather than to
arrogantly assume that we all want more "big ideas" out of them
as policy alternatives, or that we are as worried as they are about
being branded by Democrats and the media as the "party of no".
We WANT them to say NO, and to actually do
something so that their objections will matter. They lost our
trust over the years, so they no longer have the power in Washington to
stop this mess. We the people do still have the power, as Sen.
Arlen Specter recently recognized by changing parties in the face of
almost certain defeat in his 2010 primary.
Are we as worried as Republican politicians about beng
a "big tent" party? No. The Tea Parties were
demonstrably "big tent' events - not Republican ones.
The politicians seem to have forgotten, in their zeal to be the
ringmaster or star performers in the center ring, that somebody has to
do the hard work to put up those tents and bring in those crowds.
We could use a little help from these elephants at the local level to
reach beyond those who have been consistently losing elections for them,
and start reaching motivated individuals who can build up the party.
That's not about reaching out to "moderates" or Democrats in Washington,
as some of the RINOs or "Blue Dogs" seem to believe because it
reinforces their own arrogant sense of importance (Collins, Snowe,
Specter, etc.). |
| The
point is that this is not all about restoring Republicans to power in
Washington. The real debate is about defending the original
concept of America as a Republic in which there is a limited federal
government, rather than one with vast powers and resources to dominate
all aspects of our lives, including interference in state and local
governance issues through mandates and spending powers. |
| The
challenge isn't to "rebrand" Republicans, or to "re-introduce
conservative principles to Americans". We aren't the ones who lost
our principles. Republican politicians did. The world does
not revolve around nor is it driven by their latest policy ideas in
Washington. Like "It's a Wonderful Life", we
have recently been given the gift of seeing a glimpse of just how bad
American government can quickly become when unchecked powers are granted
to those who think that America should be changed however they see fit
at the time.
This has made the choice between liberty and tyranny
more intuitively obvious to individual Americans than perhaps at any
time since the Civil War, or perhaps even the American Revolution.
Americans still share an intuitive resistance to unlimited government
intrusion into their lives, regardless of any declared good intentions
by those imposing their favored change ideas upon us. |
| The
point is that the "surge" isn't about Republican politicians wanting to
find some way back to power and relevance through some clever new policy
ideas or political tactics in Washington. It's
about individual Americans standing up to defend the America in which
they still firmly believe. The question is whether Republican
"leaders" will finally listen and support people at the grassroots level
who are motivated to do the hard work to take their country back.
Are they still test-marketing new campaign rhetoric and specious policy
ideas which have no chance of passage, regardless of any hypothetical
merits? Why is the focus on policies or issues which they cannot
even influence?
They won't become relevant by waiting passively until
2010 or 2012 in the hope that the Democrats will screw up so badly that
they may win back a few seats as the lesser of two evils. It's
time to prove whether or not they really are still the party of
individual responsibility and deserving once again of our trust, with
principles and values rooted firmly in the basic tenets of our
Constitution, or whether they are still trying to find a way to recycle
discarded policy ideas like old wine in new bottles. |
| Like
the "surge" in Iraq through which victory wasn't won among the
squabbling national politicians and power rivalries in Baghdad, the same
is true in America. This war will be won in the door to door
fighting at the grassroots level to take our country back from the
liberal insurgents who keep setting off new legislative bombs on an
almost daily basis to advance their own agenda for power through the
federal government. We can still defeat this liberal insurgency.
It would be a lot easier to win if the state and national
Republican leaders would get firmly behind the local organizations,
instead of expecting all the individuals to loyally do as they are told
by national leaders who arrogantly assume that they know what is best
for all of us. That's what we are trying to defeat - in either
party. Limited government applies to Republicans, too. Try
really listening to the many individuals who feel that Republican
leaders have abandoned them, rather than vice versa. "We the
people" still matter - not "we the wise and benevolent party leaders
with big new ideas". |
|
Links to coverage
of the launch of the "Resurgent Republic" initiative |
|
See also - "National Council for a
New America" launched by other Republicans 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". 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. |
|
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. |
|
November 19, 2009 -
GOP governors push for 2010 party rebirth - Comment:
What's the plan? |
|
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. |
|
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? |
|
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. |
|
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. |
|
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 - "GOP officials look outside Washington for
ideas". In this case, however, the first move "outside Washington"
was among 50 people in Arlington, VA - just across the Potomac River!
That's not exactly a matter of reaching out beyond the Beltway to the
American heartland yet!
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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