While talking heads are dashing back and forth suggesting how to “fix” the Republican party, various solutions are being offered. These include suggestions as extreme as rounding up the RINOs and executing them. Most of the plans include a return to their Reagan roots of small government fiscal conservatism, which is a good plan but doesn’t speak to the real issue. Hand wringing over the fate of a party currently backed into a corner of the deep South should not focus on how to win more elections, but rather on finding a plan for America that solves real problems which Democrats are leaving on the table for them.
Item one on this agenda is the 800 pound gorilla of Social Security and Medicare. Frantic “anti-socialist” elements in the extreme fringe of the party who would see all Federal entitlement programs ended do not hold the answer, but a solution is still required. We have no need to scrap these programs, nor would America’s voters tolerate such a move, but they are still driving us toward a national economic crisis in the next 30 to 40 years which could dwarf the one currently dominating the news cycle. The Democrats have failed to field any serious proposals to fix this because the cure is seen as too painful for an entitlement minded electorate to face. But if the cure is phrased properly, people will be willing to recognize that a little pain up front is preferable to an avalanche of agony further down the line. Take the lead on these issues and you’ll start swinging some hearts and minds back in your direction.
Second, the GOP platform should adopt a retooled approach to personal responsibility. Once upon a time, Republicans stood for personal privacy and keeping the Federal government out of our bedrooms, our churches and our personal lives. If Republicans abandon the purposely divisive tactics of trying to outlaw all abortion, ginning up anger about gay marriage and the rest of the Christian Conservative agenda, they would attract open minds who would rather see these issues settled by the states. Remind the voters of the few, key missions of Washington and pledge to carry them out frugally and efficiently. Leave the bells and whistles to the voters of each state.
If the GOP’s leadership can turn its back on distractions and find ways to deliver real solutions to major, long term problems for America – as opposed to finding ideas to fix partisan problems in their own party – the road to recovery will open up. If the focus remains on discovering attack strategies to “beat the Democrats” then I fear the GOP will need to get used to living in the wilderness. They’re gong to be there for a while.
Oh… and you might win back a few folks like me who left the party in disgust back in 2005.