Redstate

By John Evans Posted in Archived — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

The following is part of an email I sent to a friend who asked me for my thoughts on Newt Gingrich's call for Republicans to shape up, given their losses in 2006 and the recent special elections.

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The massacre Republicans suffered in the 2006 congressional elections was due
largely to the war in Iraq, but was really made possible by internal flaws that
have not been remedied as of yet.

Before the election, I read poll numbers, news stories, and analysis almost
daily. What I saw was disconcerting, to say the least. Democrats were
bludgeoning Republicans with an ideological sledge hammer, holding them and
President Bush responsible for the war in Iraq, which at the time was going
badly and filling the front pages with images of carnage. Instead of fighting
back by emphasizing the irresponsibility of retreat from Iraq, I remember many
Republican candidates effectively taking cover and saying, "This election will
be about local issues." It indicated to me an unwillingness to go toe-to-toe
with Democrats over what the GOP thought was a losing issue, and it let
Democrats frame the debate as "The Republicans want to stay in Bush's Iraq
quagmire." Ironically, while the Democrats advocated surrender in Iraq, the
Republicans became the party of retreat. To flip Clausewitz's famous dictum,
politics is war by other means, and on the campaign as well as in Iraq, you
don't win by letting the enemy dominate the battlefield.

Even with all this, it looked for a while as if the Republicans, while losing
seats, would barely hold their majorities in the House and Senate. Mark Foley
changed all that. I remember reading someone who said effectively, "It is a
tribute to American superficiality that it took a sex scandal to bring down the
Clintons, and it took another one to bring down the Republicans." I don't know
how much the GOP leadership knew about Foley's homosexual page emails, but the
results were devastating. As you know, when a scandal happens to a Democratic
politician, the media does what it can to bury it. When it's a Republican, it's
on the front page for 3 weeks. With the word "Republican" in every sentence.
Suddenly the GOP became the party of corruption and sleazy sex scandals, while
the Democrats, shielded by a sympathetic media, looked by default pure as the
wind-driven snow. I watched the poll numbers for all Republican candidates drop
like my GPA this semester, and that was that. It seems the GOP leadership,
unwilling to risk losing a seat by throwing Foley under the bus much earlier,
lost over 30.

The current disparity in party affiliation and general preference for Democratic
candidates evidenced in the polls Newt showed is simply a continuation of what
2006 started. Republicans haven't changed. We're still the party of retreat and
surrender, bereft of new ideas, demoralized from our losses, so concentrated on
obstructing Nancy Pelosi we have forgotten that the best defense is a good
offense. We still insist on absolute ideological purity in the party (look at
the beating John McCain, our only hope of stopping Obama, has taken from his
fellow Republicans), while the Democrats have discovered that winning often
requires flexibility. We still field flawed, ethically challenged candidates in
traditionally Republican districts and hope they will win by virtue of the "R"
by their names. I hope the special elections in Illinois and Louisiana have
removed such delusions, especially when the Democrats are recruiting candidates
so fantastic every sports team in America will be looking at how they do it.

We are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the American people. If we
stay on the defensive, we will be relegated to the minority status we languished
under for over 60 years. General Robert E. Lee, though ultimately defeated in
the Civil War, won a great many battles with outnumbered, under-equipped, and
demoralized troops through unorthodox tactics. Typical of his innovative
strategies, he once famously stated, "I was too weak to defend, so I attacked."
I submit that the Republican Party should follow his example.

Here are a few suggestions from a simple observer that I think might help
Republicans.

1. BE TOUGH AND AGGRESSIVE. I heard some good advice from the movie, "The
Untouchables." "If they pull a knife, you pull a gun. If he sends one of yours
to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue." If they say we want to stay
mired in Iraq, we scream that they want to surrender to Al-Qaeda. If they say
don't let John McCain serve Bush's third term, we say don't let Barack Obama
serve Jimmy Carter's second. Every day someone should bring up Obama's
ultra-liberal record, his backing out of public funds acceptance, and his
condescension toward American values. In the District 22 race this also applies.
Bring up every liberal vote Lampson has ever taken and shatter this false
moderate image he has crafted. Attack, attack, attack. It's not gutter politics
if you are shedding light on legitimate issues.

2. MAKE IT ABOUT IDEAS. If we don't really believe our ideas are better than the
Democrats, why are we Republicans? I was dismayed how in the Louisiana special
election, Jenkins tried to link Cazayoux to Barack Obama. First of all, even I
knew it was a stretch. Secondly, did Jenkins have nothing else to talk about?
Did he run out of ads advocating lower taxes, smaller government, strong
defense, and solid values? I just don't hear Republicans trumpeting the virtues
of free markets and strong defense as loud as I hear Democrats railing against
them. We need to tell struggling homeowners why government bailouts are bad for
the market, those who can't afford health insurance why socialized medicine is
not the answer, and the economically troubled why protectionism and higher taxes
will only make things worse. There's a reason Ronald Reagan destroyed his two
Democratic opponents; we have to remind the American people why.

3. THROW CROOKS UNDER THE BUS, NOT INNOVATORS. If Republicans had gotten rid of
Mark Foley much earlier, Nancy Pelosi would not be Speaker of the House. Don't
run candidates with ethics issues. Pressure sleazy congressmen to resign.
Democrats have an advantage here because the media will bury their malfeasance
and highlight that of Republicans. Don't take any chances. In addition, it's not
bad to have an ideologically diverse party. That's how you win. The Democrats
have won Republican seats because they field moderate to conservative
candidates. At a time when the Republican brand is tarnished, John McCain is an
incredible gift who can revitalize the party by his appeal to independents and
anti-Obama Democrats. He has found a way to talk to traditionally Democratic
Americans about Republican values. Stop beating up on him, and learn something
instead. A little humility never hurt anyone.