Two contrasting view points this week from the GOP
From Governor Schwarzenegger
Schwarzenegger stresses the importance of centrism in American politics, decries excessive partisanship and said the current system of political gerrymandering in which the vast majority of seats in the House of Representatives are heavily weighted in favor of one party or the other “creates extremism.� He favors redistricting such seats and also said he favors open primaries in every state so that Republicans can vote for Democrats and vice versa. “I am very glad we have Republican candidates that are very much in the center and can appeal to both Republicans and Democrats,� Schwarzenegger said. Adding that he wanted his own legacy as governor, aside from specific achievements, to be his bipartisan approach to “fighting for the people.� “That is my primary goal,� he said. “That’s why sometimes Republicans are up in arms and saying this is not our philosophy or sometimes Democrats are up in arms. That’s OK.�
This compares with Newt Gingrich’s most recent email broadcast:
“The American people repudiated the GOP, because the idea of Republicans’ trying to manage the liberal welfare state they inherited from the Democrats was a dead loser. I am not sure many Republican consultants have come to understand this. Certainly the elite news media want Republicans to run as non-ideological “centrists” who will then have no persuasive appeal to the vast majority of Americans that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980 and ’84 and the Contract with America House Republicans in 1994…The liberal welfare state has failed, and its bureaucracies cannot be defended if we focus on the human costs of their failures. It is our challenge to focus on the big choices, the big truths and the big contrasts…This choice between a failed liberal, welfare-state future and an exciting, successful, conservative, opportunity- society future requires transformation at all levels of American elected office (511,000+ elected officials) and not merely the oval office.
It seems to me that the Governor is observing what appeals to the largest proportion of voters, while Newt is more focused on GOP loyalists. But I don’t think that Newt is accurate is concluding that the liberal welfare state has failed and most voters would support its dismantling. I feel that most voters accept the role of government in our lives and want effective leaders who can make the systems as efficient as possible. Perhaps a better angle for the GOP is to champion policies that improve efficiency: Tax simplification, removing barriers to competition, increasing technology and standardization in the management of entitlements and health care, individually owned health insurance, cap and trade environmental strategies…
For moderates I suspect that we have broad consensus about the aims of society to be fair, and provide opportunity and security. I think our main concerns are about the means.
Born 1950, Married, Living in Austin Texas, Semi
Retired Small Business owner and investor. My political interest
evolved out of his business experience that the best decisions come out of an objective gathering of information and a pragmatic consideration of costs and benefits. I am interested in promoting Centrist candidates and Policies. My posts are mostly about people and policies that I believe are part of the solution rather the problem.