My prior posts have been about national politics, terrorism, the federal budget; all “macro” stuff. This one hits closer to home. I just finished working on a local political campaign for a State Rep. in Massachusetts. Granted, Republicans in Massachusetts are a bit like Dark Matter in the Universe. You know they are there but you can’t prove it and no one has ever seen one. But this should have been different. It was a special election and a three-way race; A Republican, a Democrat and an Independent who announced before the election that he would join the Democratic Party if elected. Can you say “Vote Splitting?”
Now this wasn’t Big Time politics. It was a district encompassing 2 towns and part of a third. We won one town. We won the part of the third and lost in the other town which we expected to. Our strategy was to get 3,000 votes. We did all the things modern campaigns do. We didn’t call everyone or knock on everyone’s door. We targeted the Republicans and Independents in the district who had a history of voting. By the end of the campaign we had 3,700 people who had told us that 1) they were going to vote and 2) they were going to vote for “Our Guy.” We got 2,515 votes and lost to the Independent by roughly 400 votes (At least we beat the Democrat). Our strategy and model of getting 3,000 votes was correct. What wasn’t right was that almost 1,200 voters who had committed to our candidate stayed home. They didn’t stay home because they didn’t want lower property taxes, better schools, better jobs and more responsive government. In my opinion they stayed home because Republicans “took a thumpin’” last November locally and nationally and they have given up.
Now I am probably preaching to the choir. Anyone who takes the time to read Blogs, much less write one, is probably motivated enough to work for a candidate or at least go out and vote for one. When I started researching for this post I did my Google Search and there were about 319,000 results. What was interesting was that they dated back to 1980 so Republican Malaise is nothing new. A similar search of Democrat Malaise brought 611,000 results but after the fifth it was all about Canada and Great Britain. Now there are some good commentaries on Republican Malaise in the macro sense available and I would commend many to your reading. I liked David Brooks’ piece of March 29th, 2007 in the NY Times
"The sad thing is that President Bush sensed this shift in public consciousness back in 1999. Compassionate conservatism was an attempt to move beyond the 'liberty vs. power' paradigm. But because it was never fleshed out and because the Congressional G.O.P. rejected the implant, a new Republican governing philosophy did not emerge."
I liked Andrew Sullivan’s rebuttal in The Atlantic On-Line even better.
The International Herald Tribune, in an article dated April 5, 2007, United States: Republican Malaise Grows, rightly points out that first quarter fundraising numbers for Republican Presidential Candidates relative to their Democratic counterparts is a significant and disturbing sign.
"First quarter fund-raising tallies for the 2008 presidential election campaign yesterday indicated that the Republican field of candidates raised 51 million dollars, compared to a Democratic total of 78 million dollars.
The Republican party will face a very unfavourable political environment in 2008. The electoral strategy of catering to the partisan 'base' may have reached its limit. Moreover, this strategy -- as well as failure in Iraq and the administration's troubles at home -- seems to have taken a toll on long-term party identification."
Robert Sowell, writing at Townhall.com has an excellent article about the “The Anger of the Left” .
"That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred."
My question is “Where is the optimism on the Right?” Where is the conviction that our ideas are actually better? Where is the conviction that getting out to vote is preferable to letting the other side win and control the debate? On their worst day, the 10 candidates running for the Republican Presidential nomination are better than Hillary, Obama or Edwards. The next election is about change. We can and must be the party for change and not leave the battlefield to the Democrats. Fred Thompson, Newt Gingrich and certainly not Chuck Hagel are not going to come galloping over the hill and rescue the Republican Party. We need to do it. One vote, on candidate, one election at a time.
Now this wasn’t Big Time politics. It was a district encompassing 2 towns and part of a third. We won one town. We won the part of the third and lost in the other town which we expected to. Our strategy was to get 3,000 votes. We did all the things modern campaigns do. We didn’t call everyone or knock on everyone’s door. We targeted the Republicans and Independents in the district who had a history of voting. By the end of the campaign we had 3,700 people who had told us that 1) they were going to vote and 2) they were going to vote for “Our Guy.” We got 2,515 votes and lost to the Independent by roughly 400 votes (At least we beat the Democrat). Our strategy and model of getting 3,000 votes was correct. What wasn’t right was that almost 1,200 voters who had committed to our candidate stayed home. They didn’t stay home because they didn’t want lower property taxes, better schools, better jobs and more responsive government. In my opinion they stayed home because Republicans “took a thumpin’” last November locally and nationally and they have given up.
Now I am probably preaching to the choir. Anyone who takes the time to read Blogs, much less write one, is probably motivated enough to work for a candidate or at least go out and vote for one. When I started researching for this post I did my Google Search and there were about 319,000 results. What was interesting was that they dated back to 1980 so Republican Malaise is nothing new. A similar search of Democrat Malaise brought 611,000 results but after the fifth it was all about Canada and Great Britain. Now there are some good commentaries on Republican Malaise in the macro sense available and I would commend many to your reading. I liked David Brooks’ piece of March 29th, 2007 in the NY Times
"The sad thing is that President Bush sensed this shift in public consciousness back in 1999. Compassionate conservatism was an attempt to move beyond the 'liberty vs. power' paradigm. But because it was never fleshed out and because the Congressional G.O.P. rejected the implant, a new Republican governing philosophy did not emerge."
I liked Andrew Sullivan’s rebuttal in The Atlantic On-Line even better.
The International Herald Tribune, in an article dated April 5, 2007, United States: Republican Malaise Grows, rightly points out that first quarter fundraising numbers for Republican Presidential Candidates relative to their Democratic counterparts is a significant and disturbing sign.
"First quarter fund-raising tallies for the 2008 presidential election campaign yesterday indicated that the Republican field of candidates raised 51 million dollars, compared to a Democratic total of 78 million dollars.
The Republican party will face a very unfavourable political environment in 2008. The electoral strategy of catering to the partisan 'base' may have reached its limit. Moreover, this strategy -- as well as failure in Iraq and the administration's troubles at home -- seems to have taken a toll on long-term party identification."
Robert Sowell, writing at Townhall.com has an excellent article about the “The Anger of the Left” .
"That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred."
My question is “Where is the optimism on the Right?” Where is the conviction that our ideas are actually better? Where is the conviction that getting out to vote is preferable to letting the other side win and control the debate? On their worst day, the 10 candidates running for the Republican Presidential nomination are better than Hillary, Obama or Edwards. The next election is about change. We can and must be the party for change and not leave the battlefield to the Democrats. Fred Thompson, Newt Gingrich and certainly not Chuck Hagel are not going to come galloping over the hill and rescue the Republican Party. We need to do it. One vote, on candidate, one election at a time.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, http://morewhat.com/wordpress/?p=1494, Perri Nelson's Website, The Random Yak, 123beta, guerrilla radio, Right Truth, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, third world county, Right Celebrity, Allie Is Wired, stikNstein... has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Nuke's news and views, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
More great reading: Giuliani and Nafta from RightTruth
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