An open letter to the Republican Party.
[Update a while later]
The GOP needs a new marketing department:
Now, before this turns into a two-hundred comment post with people yelling about not giving up their core principles, let me be clear. I do not advocate that the party pull left or advertise itself as “Democrat-light.” But I do advocate prioritizing the issues that form the foundation of our marketing campaign..
I’m sure “Transformers 2″ has a romantic subtext between Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. I’m sure that there are at least two minutes in the film of them making kissy face and being sappy. Yet, the trailer is all about giant robots trashing everything in sight. In fact, almost every shot is a giant explosion, or a giant robot. That’s smart marketing. It’s a summer popcorn movie. Give the people what they want. If there is a great romance or moments of rip-roaring comedy, that’s a pleasant surprise. But, if I don’t see a forklift turn into a robot and crush an Apache helicopter, I will be disappointed.
Did the Democrats put nationalizing the banks, firing corporate CEOs, and practically making out with Hugo Chavez in their trailer? Did their poster include Obama’s embarrassing world apology tour? I think not.
Yet, we allow the media to frame the discussions and the debates. Why, for example, did most of our pundits take the bait on the Perez Hilton thing and let the media frame the arguments as an example of the gay marriage issue being debated in the public forum? That incident was about how the left stifles free speech. It was about how women are second-class citizens in the Democratic party. Every discussion of Ms. California should have been an opportunity to bring up the media’s treatment of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. But it wasn’t. Instead, we allowed the Democrats to cut our trailer and replace the robot on the key art with a photo of Shia LaBeouf.
The problem is that many Republicans remain fair-weather federalists. They have to start arguing that the federal government has no business in either your wallet or your bedroom.
“The problem is that many Republicans remain fair-weather federalists. They have to start arguing that the federal government has no business in either your wallet or your bedroom.”
But when the GOP has power they grow the government, they deficit spend like crazy, and they invade your bedroom and living room.
The successful Republicans are spenders because they’ve been naturally selected to be so by the political environment.
Progressive taxation creates an analog to the themodynamics of an engine. You take money from the upper 49 percent income people to buy the vote of the lower 51 percent. The result is political “work” – the election of the spenders.
This is a well known flaw in democracy in it’s various form and can only be fixed by some fundamental changes in the political structure. Which is why such changes are often refered to as “revolts”.
But when the GOP has power they grow the government, they deficit spend like crazy, and they invade your bedroom and living room.
What part of “fair-weather” don’t you understand?
Fool me once shame on you, we, uh, we, uh won’t get fooled again” GWB
“But when the GOP has power they grow the government, they deficit spend like crazy, and they invade your bedroom and living room.”
Just not as bad at the Democrats. They get in your kitchen too.
“uhhhh,ummmm, quatro cinco, uhhhh”
BHO
Jack, that’s why we call them RINOs.
I just wish some adults would run for office. Actually, some adults have run, they just don’t get elected. 🙁
“They have to start arguing that the federal government has no business in either your wallet or your bedroom.”
Unfortunately, a lot of Repulicans DO think the federal (and state, and local) gummints hava plenty of business in your bedroom.
Idiots.
Indeed. That’s why I pray for a Constitutional Convention even though I’m an atheist. Revolutions of the guns & guillotines variety are no fun, as many a former French or Russian aristocrat can tell you.
What has Sensuous Curmudgeon been snorting? Sex issues dominating political campaigns? In what part of the country???
Do you not watch any national TV? Are same-sex marriage, pornography and abortion not sexual issues?
I think the Curmudgeon has it exactly right. Republicans need to get off the righteousness kick and concentrate on the erosion of our freedoms. If they don’t, the dread third party may rear its ugly head.
LBParker, maybe that’s because the people doing the electing aren’t adults either.
I am quite sure that images of Americans that get across the pond are caricatures; but on one side of the political spectrum one has those who want everything to be given to them by the government (we have those, too) and on the other those who think it should be perfectly OK to carry around anything up to and including heavy machine guns.
Another type we also have over here, although not to the same extent, is those who make the following commercial decision viable; to make tyres for the US market out of a different compound from those for the rest of the world – a compound designed to make the tyres squeal loudly whenever going around the gentlest of corners. Would anyone expect mature weighing of the issues and intelligent voting from someone who chooses car tyres by how much they screech?
No, i can’t remember where I heard that.
Fletcher, some of us are adults, just not enough of us to offset the ones who vote according to the emotional bribe of the day.
Actually, Fletcher, it is possible to legally own a .50-caliber (12.7mm) fully-automatic weapon in the United States.
However, the legal and financial obstacles are such that very few citizens may do so.
Kinda like how folks on your side of the pond are barely able to afford a simple Colt Revolver… {/snerk}
What you may not have noticed is that the great majority of gun-based “mass killings” are centered in “gun free zones,” as if passing a statute magically created a force field around any particular location.
What you also may not have noticed is that violent crime has, in general, tended to go down further in those states allowing concealed and/or open-carry. As opposed to areas of very strong gun control such as the state of California, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
Segueing back to point #1 above, how many times have you heard of someone legally owning a machine gun in the United States going berserk and slaughtering the neighbors? What about gang-bangers? Drug dealers with a Ma-Deuce (M2 .50-caliber machine gun)?
{…crickets…}
Yes, oddly enough, our country allows private citizens to own automatic weapons, and for some crazy reason we still don’t see annually-recurring massacres due to “bitter clingers” owning machine guns.
“Do you not watch any national TV? Are same-sex marriage, pornography and abortion not sexual issues?”
SSM: the left is putting more warp power into this issue than Scotty could ever dream of, so the cultural right can’t exactly ignore it.
Porn: uh, when did this become a major campaign issue?
Abortion: it eventually gets mentioned in political campaigns, but it’s not quite a front-shelf issue. The related issue of infanticide of abortion survivors did get some prominence in the last election.
Spending, taxes, and national security are on the front burner. The first two especially at the TEA rallies.
Hm, does infanticide really count as a sex issue? Sex creates abortion survivors, but it also creates tax cheats. Is Tim Geithner’s (dis)qualifications for office a sex issue?