How to Fix a Broken Political Party

With the disastrous election behind us, and the passage
of enough time to clear our heads and regain our composure,
let us, my battle-weary readers, examine all what went
wrong and how to repair the broken things in the Repub-
lican Party --- the one and only political vehicle for the
conservative movement with any viability. This was
supposed to be a slam dunk, can't miss, in-the-bag
election for us conservatives; President Obama had
caused so much economic misery at home, made us
look like fools and patsies abroad (remember his
bowing to Middle Eastern potentates?), and tried
mightily to cover up the reason why our ambassador
and some of his staff were brutally murdered in
Libya and our post there in Benghazi overrun by
radical Islamists by blaming the attack on some
two-bit film with a politically incorrect take on
Islam and Islamists. Obama angered a lot of
people across the country. So why wasn't he shown
the door by the electorate?

And what happened to the Senate, which was supposed
to be a veritable ripe fruit, ready to fall into the hands
of the GOP? The Democrats GAINED two seats in
that chamber! Some slight losses to the Republican
majority in the House occurred, but the most painful
loss was that of U.S. Rep. Allen West in Florida. He
lost a very tight race in which vote fraud has been
suspected to be a factor in the former army lieutenant
colonel's defeat. By the way, have you heard of the
precincts in Philadelphia where the vote tallies showed
Obama winning them --- by shutout? Now, Philadelphia
is heavily democrat, as are many major American cities.
But to show NO VOTES for Romney in one or more
precincts? Something foul is afoot!

But the biggest obstacles to victory for the Republican
Party are internal, rather than external. And they are
certainly not insurmountable. But within these obstacles
are the problems which held the GOP back from electoral
success this year, and they will certainly do the same in
elections to come if they are not dealt with immediately.
Let us examine them here, and see what we can come up
with for viable solutions, shall we?

For a start, there is the old problem of the party all but
completely writing off blacks, Hispanics, and youth.
The tendency here is to dismiss these groups of voters
as being irrevocably situated in the Democrats' camp,
thinking that they are permanently for expanded social
programs, i.e. welfare, food stamps, and such, and that
the younger voters, many of them just having turned
eligible to vote, are on an idealism kick, and that there
is no sense talking to them about what the Republicans
have to offer. Over the years, blacks and Hispanics have
shown decidedly conservative tendencies regarding some
social issues, and have shown great concern for the
quality of education that their children are receiving
from the public schools, as many of these families
haven't the money to send their kids to private schools.
And many of them are concerned about the economy
and its impact on job availability. They know that the
path to prosperity and the kind of life that they want
for themselves and their families goes through the
private sector and individual initiative rather than
government assistance. But this is an earth-shaking
revelation to so many in the party, conservative and
establishment alike. As a result hardly anyone in the
GOP makes any overtures to these groups, and these
groups come to think that maybe the Republicans
don't care about them after all, so they march on over
to the Democrats' tent where the Dems ply them with
promises of all kinds of help in all areas of their lives
--- on the taxpayers' dime, of course.

On amnesty for illegal aliens, Republicans must make
clear that they want to help immigrants to enter and
start on the road to citizenship, regardless of where
they come from (this last part must be stressed),
provided that they enter the U.S. LEGALLY (this
part must just as strongly be stressed). We must make
it understood that our country is like a house, in
which we are the residents, and that while we
welcome people to visit or to live with us, we
have rules to which we require obedience for the
common good. If you, my grand readers, were to
invite people to visit you in your homes you would
certainly expect that your visitors respect your home
and your home rules. One rule would be, I'm sure,
is that people come to visit under your auspices
(that is, no one would be allowed to enter your home
without having been invited first; in other words,
if anyone entered your home under any other
circumstances, that would be illegal, according to
your rules --- and to the law of the community you live
in!). Well, the same applies to foreigners entering
the United States. Our "invitation" is all are welcome
here with a visa, and those wishing to become
permanent residents can obtain a green card and
begin the process of becoming American citizens.
Those who want to do anything different would
not be welcome. No exceptions made, whether
by country of origin, religious faith, skin color,
native language, or any other criteria. As it now
stands, Republicans are all over the map on the
subject, and no one is being satisfied as a result.
And building a several hundred-mile long fence
along our southern border is no different than a
homeowner building a fence along the borders
of his plot of land which his house and home is
situated on, as the reason for building it is the
same: to keep out those who would come without
welcome; those who would trespass.

The Republican Party must --- MUST --- also be
a unapologetic champion of capitalism, of free
market economics and the benefits of same as
opposed to the nanny-statist, cradle-to-grave,
we'll-guarantee-an-income-and-lots-of-free-stuff
-in-exchange-for-your-personal-liberty government,
which is the Democrats' stock in trade. Republicans
have to demonstrate not only the good of the former,
but the risks of the latter, and the latter's effects on
our country's economy and our sovereignty. That's
right, our sovereignty! We are borrowing more
and more money from China, a country not exactly
a bosom buddy of ours, with its communist govern-
ment. They are now, in fact, our biggest creditors!
Then there is our burgeoning budget deficit and
debt, a gruesome twosome growling at us daily.
We are making debtors of our children and our
grandchildren, with our great-grandchildren next
to become enslaved in these shackles. This is
not just irresponsible; it is immoral!

On the most sensitive of the social issues, namely
rape, abortion, and birth control, Republicans ---
conservatives especially --- have GOT to show
more finesse and less ham-handedness in discussing
their ideas regarding these topics. While many of
the GOP candidates, some of them being Tea Party-
backed, have erred in how they stated their opinions
and ideas on these delicate points quite innocently,
with only good intentions guiding them if not greater
forethought concerning phraseology, one candidate
in particular not only so grievously erred but caused
the failure to pick up an easy-to-win Senate seat held
by a very vulnerable incumbent by compounding his
mistake by refusing to step aside so that the GOP
in his state could quickly replace him with a more
credible candidate, thus preserving the possibility
of gaining the seat in question. Yes, my perceptive
readers, your still cheesed-off Peasant is referring
to U.S. Rep. Akin, whom I brand "The Misery From
Missouri"! After offering a weak apology for his
boobery about "legitimate rape", he thumbed his
self-serving nose at not only Missouri Republicans
but the national GOP and conservatives both in and
outside of the party when they urged him to cut his
and the party's losses and stand down as a candidate
for the U.S. Senate. If he ever wants to run for anything
again, it should be the border! Republican candidates
should simply decry rape, pledge to toughen the law
regarding punishment of rapists, and to strengthen
enforcement of said law; the arresting and sentencing
of rapists. Then the candidates, unless they have done
any research on these subjects and have received
proper coaching on how to answer questions regarding
them, should SHUT UP! An economy of words will
spare an abundance of embarrassment --- and lost
elections.

And the get-out-the-vote efforts seemed to rely almost
solely on hoping for enough people being up in arms
over Obama and his brand of governance to come to
the polls and vote into office a candidate with a poli-
tically checkered record (a smaller-scale version of
Obamacare in his state when he was its governor;
changing his stance on some key issues just to placate
conservative voters) who, some argue, is not and never
was a true conservative. The Democrats got their
supporters to the polls by firing them up and getting
them to look past their debacle of two years earlier,
and your perplexed Peasant has to give then credit for
doing a masterful job of this. The GOP looked
absolutely pitiful on this score. We cannot afford to
have a repeat of this.

In summation, the Republican Party should continue
to promote conservatism, but just do a better job of
it. And the party has to show the electorate that it
speaks with one voice, speaking in one language:
conservatism! It is counter-productive to have some
candidates talking up conservatism while other
candidates plug for "moderation" by advocating
what is basically what the Democrats are offering
but in a somewhat watered-down version. To put
a finer point on all this, the Republicans must offer
Republican Draught to an electorate thirsty for
constructive leadership, not Democrat Lite.

If the Republicans had done this in this election
campaign, we would now be counting down the
days until Barack Obama vacates the White House,
instead of dreading the beginning of his second term.
No reinvention is needed; just an improvement in
how the product is presented in the political market-
place.


MEM