EDITORIAL
I am a fourth generation Kentucky Republican, married into a strong civil war era Republican family and have held nearly office at every level in the Republican Party of Kentucky. I cut my teeth on politics in the 60's, and 70's and 80's when republicans didn't stand a chance of winning in all but a few places in Kentucky.
I am proud to have been part of the effort to break the stranglehold the democratic party had on government in Northern Kentucky and to have helped elect a republican governor in 2003. I have many conservative friends in the TEA party who are trying to bring the GOP back to its senses and I have many conservative friends who have weathered the storms and battles and are a bit confused by what they see as the accelerating decline of the republican brand.
So let me add one opinion to the question: What is the problem with the GOP?
First, there really is no GOP any more. Oh sure, there is still a party, but little in the way of a clear definition of what it stands for. Yes there is a platform, but it hasn't governed the behavior of elected officials for decades. We announce a mission statement then let anybody who runs under our banner choose which parts, if any, they will adhere to and to what degree they abide.
Second, we have permitted the "other side" to define us. Ask anybody who is hanging on to the nation's safety net what they think of republicans and I suspect you will get a pretty unflattering answer. How much of the population does this represent? Nearly half, and quite frankly, the half that votes alot because their safety net depends on it. They see republicans as representing the wealthiest in our nation, have no ability to reason through the "trickle down" theory of "job creation" and couldn't care less if millionaires have to pay more taxes. Hunger and poverty and fear drives them, not tax cuts.
Third, we have allowed the "socialists" to shame us and to mobilize against us feeding off of the perception that we are "heartless". Some of them really do care about the poor, the sick and the elderly, but a bunch more of these progressives at the top of the political food chain are using the compassion of their supporters to fundamentally transform America into a socialist state. They know what they are doing and so do we, but we haven't found a way to beat them.
Fourth, we are now nominating a bunch of young, "me generation" TEA party kids who are enamored by the concept of "Bitcoin" without any understanding of the abject panic that senior citizens live in every day facing the prospect that they will be forced to live on less in a world that costs more. Sure, paying for somebody else's Grandma's cataract surgery seems like an unwelcome burden to the under 50 crowd, and of course they see no reason why we can't balance the budget by cutting "entitlements" the euphemism for senior citizen care. But how many people do they know trying to make it on $800 per month?
The whole idea of using a computer is second nature to these kids. They can't understand why everybody isn't like them. I know many people who are trying to pay their rent, their utilities, buy food, pay for life saving prescription medicines, pay their transportation costs and get by on less than $800 per month. They are too old, or infirm to start a new career and will not live long enough to save for retirement. They are already too close to or past retirement. Their very lives depend on the safety net of Social Security and Medicare. They simply cannot absorb increases in costs or cuts to benefits.
The GOP needs to stop letting the kids force their world on the rest of us. The GOP needs to stop being the enforcement arm of big business. The GOP needs to develop a much more populist message and in order to do that the GOP needs to listen to "the people".
And the GOP needs to stop forcing every candidate to fend for themselves. If this is going to be the party of political relevance it needs to start acting like a "party", not a name, a banner under which people run, an organization that hosts a convention but will not help good candidates raise money, refuses to jump into races like the Virginia Governor's race and needs to close ranks. And yes, it needs to begin recruiting the right candidates who can win, but not those who can win and then abandon the party's conservative principles.
There must be rules governing membership. Like any organization there must be consequences of not abiding by the party's rules. Every person should be eligible to run for office, but in order to get the "party nomination" there must be some degree of "party control" else a simple switch of registration could have enemies of conservatism winning as republicans for the purpose of destroying the party from within.
And lastly, the GOP needs to stop trying to return America to a day gone by. It's gone by. Yesterday is over your shoulder. The world has changed and Mayberry was fiction then and not likely to come back through the effort of the best intentioned among us. We need to look around, take stock of what this nation has become and find a way to win the hearts and minds first of the people we may eventually get to vote for us in the future.
And the longer we pursue policies "the people" see as "heartless" the longer we will suffer losses. The TEA party and the GOP can preach to and pass the collection plate among the choir all it wants, but the larger congregation should be our focus. We need to look around the nation and see who our countrymen are. We can't win souls until we get them to listen and they certainly won't listen if they don't believe we care.
