GOP change will have to be more than window-dressing
Lewis DiuguidThe Republican Party, bruised and beaten in the 2012 presidential election, took a deep look at itself and realized it has to change to remain relevant in America.
The face and tastes of the United States have changed, but the Republicans campaigned on a conservative, noninclusive platform as if everyone was supposed to love it and follow along and enjoy the tea party.
Everyone didn’t, which is why Mitt Romney lost and President Barack Obama was elected to a second term in November.
GOP soul-searching was capped by a four-month analysis and a 100-page report from a listening tour setting the party on a new course for 2016 with a greater appeal to women, younger people and voters of color. You can bet people will see a stronger Republican push now for immigration reform in an appeal for Latino and Asiam American voters.
But the Republicans will have to do more than window-dressing to pretty up the party of Lincoln. The GOP will have to lose its inflexible stand on social issues such as abortion and affirmative action.
It will have to end voter ID laws, expand early voting opportunities and push for voting rights for ex-offenders. The Republicans will have to fully fund education, offer new programs for young people to go to college and ensure the urban development of the wasteland that many U.S. cities have become.
Public transportation has to get new funding so cities like Kansas City can finally get a light-rail system. Jobs initiatives will have to target underserved populations.
Republicans have to drop the resistance to global warming and carbon tax efforts to curtail polluting industries. Republicans not only have to get on the green energy bandwagon, they have to both drive and fuel it.
And the Republicans will have to stop screaming over everything the United Nations proposes and fully get on board ratifying U.N. treaties from opposing racism and landmines to supporting women’s and children’s rights. If the party does all of this, it will start to get the attention of people Romney dismissed as the 47 percent who would never vote for him.
Matt Henry
3 months agoYou forgot about getting on board with droning American citizens. That is apparently okay enough to add to the list.
So they need to change their positions on abortion, affirmative action, other social issues, quit trying to insist on IDs at the polls, let ex-cons vote, increase funding to local and regional infrastructure projects, accept a carbon tax and “drive” the green bus, get fully on board with everything the UN does and then, ONLY THEN, will a majority of Americans vote for them?
Why on God’s earth would someone, ANYONE, vote for a Republican if they supported this littany of liberal values? Wouldn’t they just vote for the real thing instead?
The Republicans nominated a Massachusetts liberal who was the engineer of Obamacare (as we were reminded ad nauseum) and who was a master political flip-flopper (an indication of a lack of core values which conservatives, as opposed to liberals, actually care about (ahem…I LOVE gay marriage now… ahem))… And this guy losing is the proof conservatism is dead?
All of this after the huge, historic, monster pasting the Republicans gave the Dems in 2010, from Senators down to dog catchers, when they actually moved to the right at the insistence of the tea party…
Obama won by a small percentage against a terribly weak opponent with terrible messaging, a fear of fighting and an inability to express conservative values in any meaningful way.
It’s almost like LWD is (gasp!) an ideologue who will say anything to advance the chances of his preferred political party. Can it be?
JR Beillenhouser
3 months agoAs usual, if Lewis believes it, the exact opposite is what should be done.
Very simply, run a conservative, give people a true option.
Libs think they have it all figured out, but the reality is that the economy and the debt is a ticking time bomb. Obama and you, his palace guards, have told us that there is no problem with the debt. When it goes off, you will have no where to run. You are on record. You’ve overplayed your hand.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months agoI am sure the Rs will be looking to the likes of Lewis the lib for advice on what the party should be doing….
Another super parody Lewis….
What should the Rs stand for discriminatory affirmitive actions libs??????