This is a long read, but well worth it. Here are my suggestions - TopicsExpress



          

This is a long read, but well worth it. Here are my suggestions for how the GOP can compete nationally once again, and to actually be a party that the nation can be proud of. • Retire the term “State’s Rights.” I know what you mean, I love the 10th amendment too! I know you don’t intend for states to enact their own slavery or segregation laws, but once upon a time some Southerners did mean that when they said “State’s Rights.” It’s understandable that that term would scare people away from voting for you. Replace it with terms like “Local Autonomy”, which grants authority to more local levels like cities and counties. Talk about States as “Laboratories of Democracy” as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called it. • On a similar note, don’t shy away from discussions on “Civil Rights.” Listen to people who are concerned that America hasn’t achieved complete equality under the law. While many may consider “Civil Rights” to be just something that Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King stood for, it’s actually ensuring Constitutional rights for everyone. Talk about civil rights in the context of preserving every individual’s Constitutional Liberties equitably and liberally. • When discussing civil rights be willing to admit America’s faults. America was wrong to allow slavery. America was wrong to hold Japanese-Americans in internment camps in WWII. America has failed in promoting equality in so many ways including instituting Jim Crow Laws, drafting a very disproportionate percentage of minorities during the Vietnam War, and giving minorities a harsher prison sentence for the same crimes as their white counterparts. America is not a perfect nation, and excusing America’s sins for economic reasons, or because that’s “just how people thought back then”, does not reassure voters that you are actually on their side. • Democrats like to play class warfare, but the GOP does just as much class warfare or possibly more. Democrats are smart, they only go after the “rich” or the “1%”, leaving roughly 99% of America not mad at them. The GOP goes after the 47% that receive government assistance (many of those on Social Security or Medicare which are retirement entitlements after a life of working). Let’s be honest here Republicans, if you were to get complete control of Washington you wouldn’t end Social Security or Medicare or Unemployment Insurance or Welfare or Food Stamps. I know that you wouldn’t and you know that you wouldn’t, but there are real voters out there who think from the way you talk that you just might. The solution is simple…Stop talking like that! I’m as small government/libertarian/Constitutionalist as anyone that I know, and if I could snap my fingers and end those programs I would not. The reason is that in the grand scheme of the federal budget, those entitlements are such a small portion of the budget, but are responsible for lowering the poverty rate from around 33% to about 15%. The small amount of savings from those programs is not worth the problems that come with a nation that has 33% of its citizens in poverty. There will always be those who take advantage of any government program offering assistance, but that will happen with any program. Look into reforming the programs to do away with the perverse incentives, so that those in need can be better assured of the assistance. • Republicans, if there is anything that the Bush Administration and Boehner’s leadership in the House has taught us, it’s that the GOP has no monopoly on the Constitution. In many ways over the past 15 or so years, Democrats have been much better about fighting for American’s Constitutional rights. For many years it was primarily Democrats who opposed the Patriot Act and Bush’s wiretapping. Even with Obama as President, more Democrats still vote against the Patriot Act and NSA spying Program than Republicans. When it comes to interpreting the Constitution, the GOP should always take the most liberal (or generous) interpretation conceivable, so long as it does not interfere with another person’s life or liberty. • The GOP also needs to drop their bloodlust. When Presidential nominee John McCain sings “Bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys hit “Barbara Ann”, it turns off a lot of people including myself. Sometimes war is necessary, but it should always, ALWAYS, be entered into as the absolute last resort, once all other options have been completely exhausted. The GOP of late has been one that has advocated war in far too many countries, and many times for non-defensive reasons. War should be a matter of self-preservation, not economic development or “Democracy advocacy.” • On a similar note, the GOP needs to be willing to part with their sacred cow of defense spending. In 2011, America spent more on defense spending than the next 13 countries combined. Much of that is tied into pensions, health care, tuition assistance, and other good things for our deserving servicemen and servicewomen. But there’s also a serious amount of unnecessary spending in maintaining far more overseas bases than necessary and in the vast excesses of the Military Industrial Complex. In President Eisenhower’s farewell address he warned that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” • When it comes to criminal justice, the GOP needs to remember that defendants are entitled to just as many Constitutional rights as all other Americans. Protecting their Constitutional rights are just as important as protecting mine. Therefore, all precautions must be taken to ensure that their rights are preserved throughout the trial and that they are treated humanely and equitably. Minimum sentencing laws for minor drug possession offenses do not help anyone. Minimum sentences mean an able citizen is unable to contribute to society, the state is charged with paying room/board/healthcare for yet another person, and oftentimes, families are ripped apart. Capital Punishment costs more than life in prison once the appeals cost is factored in, and is blatantly unconstitutional as the 8th Amendment states “Cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted.” If the GOP would just open their eyes, they might see how their views are considered violent and cruel by so many people in America. I don’t intend for this to come off as mean to the GOP. The GOP is generally right on many issues. But oftentimes, the way they present issues is misperceived due to their own apathy toward people who typically don’t welcome their message. On other issues, the GOP is very inconsistent, like when they say they are “life-affirming” but will initiate an unnecessary war, or when they claim to stand for the Constitution but then go to great lengths to deny individuals their civil liberties. 2016 is an important year for the GOP, if we nominate another typical, main-line Republican like Bush, McCain or Romney, we will lose again. But even worse, America will lose.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 19:15:36 +0000

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