A New Republican Platform (or at least the beginning) (votes, campaign, Reagan)

[tonyd191]

Anyone who pays attention to politics and has studied the election results know that the GOP is in major need of reboot.

This is not the first time the GOP, (or either party was in disaray). FDR had won 4 terms and then one full term of Truman.

Dems suffered back to back thrashings at the hands of Reagan, and then lost to HW Bush.

What should the "new" GOP be like?\

How should it be different from the old and what can it do to re brand it's image.

Should the GOP jettison the Tea Party?

What ideas should it keep and what ideas should it abandon


Here are some ideas I had:

Keep
1) Pro-life: There is an intraparty majority on this side of the abortion debate, and national public opinion is sufficiently divided that there are few political gains to be made.

2) Small government: It is important and natural that one party should represent opposition to an activist government. The GOP can and should stand for limits to the distortions introduced by excess regulation, the welfare state, and well-meaning but ineffective/counterproductive social policy.

3) Peace through willingness to fight: In international relations, somebody needs to be the bad cop. This is not a political winner after the last two wars, but it's an important plank of the Republican Party.



Do away with
1) Opposition to gay rights: The arguments against gay rights are so weak, and the trend in public opinion so obvious, that the GOP would be fools not to change positions.

2) Opposition to taxes: You can either be opposed to taxes or you can be opposed to fiscal irresponsibility. There is nothing approaching a consensus for the kind of benefit cuts to entitlement programs that would be required to make our fiscal path sustainable without tax increases. Most people understand this and are willing to accept tax increases.

3) Stop opposing adequate government provision of public goods: Everyone agrees that infrastructure, education, and scientific research are public goods and should be funded by the government. Infrastructure is badly underfunded, scientific research is moderately underfunded, and, at the state level, education is badly underfunded. Being generally in favor of smaller government shouldn't mean being opposed to the proper functioning of government's core responsibilities.

NOTE: I am only interested in honest adult discussion. I know I'll get some snide remarks from far lefties who would never vote for anything else other than liberal democrat. Just know in advance that I don't care what you have to say.

To everyone else, what are some ideas going forward?

[Electric Blue]

Originally Posted by tonyd191

Anyone who pays attention to politics and has studied the election results know that the GOP is in major need of reboot.

This is not the first time the GOP, (or either party was in disaray). FDR had won 4 terms and then one full term of Truman.

Dems suffered back to back thrashings at the hands of Reagan, and then lost to HW Bush.

What should the "new" GOP be like?\

How should it be different from the old and what can it do to re brand it's image.

Should the GOP jettison the Tea Party?

What ideas should it keep and what ideas should it abandon


Here are some ideas I had:

Keep
1) Pro-life: There is an intraparty majority on this side of the abortion debate, and national public opinion is sufficiently divided that there are few political gains to be made.

2) Small government: It is important and natural that one party should represent opposition to an activist government. The GOP can and should stand for limits to the distortions introduced by excess regulation, the welfare state, and well-meaning but ineffective/counterproductive social policy.

3) Peace through willingness to fight: In international relations, somebody needs to be the bad cop. This is not a political winner after the last two wars, but it's an important plank of the Republican Party.



Do away with
1) Opposition to gay rights: The arguments against gay rights are so weak, and the trend in public opinion so obvious, that the GOP would be fools not to change positions.

2) Opposition to taxes: You can either be opposed to taxes or you can be opposed to fiscal irresponsibility. There is nothing approaching a consensus for the kind of benefit cuts to entitlement programs that would be required to make our fiscal path sustainable without tax increases. Most people understand this and are willing to accept tax increases.

3) Stop opposing adequate government provision of public goods: Everyone agrees that infrastructure, education, and scientific research are public goods and should be funded by the government. Infrastructure is badly underfunded, scientific research is moderately underfunded, and, at the state level, education is badly underfunded. Being generally in favor of smaller government shouldn't mean being opposed to the proper functioning of government's core responsibilities.

NOTE: I am only interested in honest adult discussion. I know I'll get some snide remarks from far lefties who would never vote for anything else other than liberal democrat. Just know in advance that I don't care what you have to say.

To everyone else, what are some ideas going forward?

I totally disagree on taxes. It is not so much the taxes,as what they are paying for. If the goal is just to raise taxes to continue to fund more and more government,what is the point of the GOP?
On 3,I am a strong supporter of improving infrastructure. Bob McDonnell in VA made that a major issue in his 2009 campaign. Obama,had he and the Dems in 2009 right off,pushed a Transportation bill it would have gotten a lot of Republican votes. Instead,he pushed his corrupt stimulus package.
Finally,on the gay issue,I agree, I think though that the party has changed quite a bit. Ending DADT got quite a few GOP votes.

[Ceece]

The GOP can be "personally" prolife or prochoice, it's not a political point since you can't legislate morality. Especially on an issue that has lifelong consequences for people you know nothing about and won't care about, ever. Government should not be in the business of making peoples life harder and creating more problems. There is no other way to do it that to admit you cant inflict laws on people until they are actually people. Anything beyond that is too invasive. We have done what we can and put limits upon limits, that's all that can be done, it's over, move on.

[Randomstudent]

Originally Posted by tonyd191

Keep
1) Pro-life: There is an intraparty majority on this side of the abortion debate, and national public opinion is sufficiently divided that there are few political gains to be made.

2) Small government: It is important and natural that one party should represent opposition to an activist government. The GOP can and should stand for limits to the distortions introduced by excess regulation, the welfare state, and well-meaning but ineffective/counterproductive social policy.

I honestly don't see how these 2 are reconcilable. I don't see how you can be for small government and at the same time have government regulate people's bodies and procreation.

[monkeywrenching]

I dont think the GOP needs any suggestions from diehard liberals on how they should be.

The "new" GOP should be what the old GOP claimed to be for - smaller government, personal freedoms, fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, what they've actually done is promote massive government, trampled and opposed personal freedoms, and stood in staunch, lockstep opposition to fiscal responsibility (no, trying to drive the country into a depression does not constitute fiscal responsibility).

You can't just claim you're for smaller government while creating massive new bureaucracy. You can't say you're for personal freedoms while simultaneously trying to deny equal rights and make laws about what people can do in the privacy of their own homes and with their own bodies. You can't say you're the party of fiscal responsibility when you drive the country into the economic ditch, get our credit downgraded because you don't understand basic facts and want to score some quick political points, and engage in multi-trillion dollar wars without even attempting to pay for them.

[mateo45]

Since the Supreme Court has already long-since determined the issue, and even conservative-leaning pollster Rasmussen recently finds that 54% Are Pro-Choice, 38% Pro-Life, perhaps its finally time for the GOP to downgrade abortion as a priority, at least enough that it no longer appears as a mainstay on their platform. In fact if anything, it typifies the GOP's current disconnect between the mainstream and its social conservative ''base''.

And BTW, if Republicans really wanna seem like the champeens of the individual, than instead of using vague weasel words like ''small guv-mint'' (and then only ''small'' where it suits them), why don't they just include the supposedly ''libertarian'' ideals behind it (and not just the economic ones)?

Platform | Libertarian Party

And BTW, if Republicans really wanna seem like the champeens of the individual, than instead of using vague weasel words like ''small guv-mint'' (and then only ''small'' where it suits them), why don't they just include the supposedly ''libertarian'' ideals behind it (and not just the economic ones)?

Probably because neither the Republican party leadership nor its base respects individual rights. They have to be vague because the reality is that they're authoritarians lying to themselves and telling each other that they really are the party of personal liberty.

[Mr. Mon]

Originally Posted by tonyd191

Anyone who pays attention to politics and has studied the election results know that the GOP is in major need of reboot.

This is not the first time the GOP, (or either party was in disaray). FDR had won 4 terms and then one full term of Truman.

Dems suffered back to back thrashings at the hands of Reagan, and then lost to HW Bush.

What should the "new" GOP be like?\

How should it be different from the old and what can it do to re brand it's image.

Should the GOP jettison the Tea Party?

What ideas should it keep and what ideas should it abandon


Here are some ideas I had:

Keep
1) Pro-life: There is an intraparty majority on this side of the abortion debate, and national public opinion is sufficiently divided that there are few political gains to be made.

2) Small government: It is important and natural that one party should represent opposition to an activist government. The GOP can and should stand for limits to the distortions introduced by excess regulation, the welfare state, and well-meaning but ineffective/counterproductive social policy.

3) Peace through willingness to fight: In international relations, somebody needs to be the bad cop. This is not a political winner after the last two wars, but it's an important plank of the Republican Party.



Do away with
1) Opposition to gay rights: The arguments against gay rights are so weak, and the trend in public opinion so obvious, that the GOP would be fools not to change positions.

2) Opposition to taxes: You can either be opposed to taxes or you can be opposed to fiscal irresponsibility. There is nothing approaching a consensus for the kind of benefit cuts to entitlement programs that would be required to make our fiscal path sustainable without tax increases. Most people understand this and are willing to accept tax increases.

3) Stop opposing adequate government provision of public goods: Everyone agrees that infrastructure, education, and scientific research are public goods and should be funded by the government. Infrastructure is badly underfunded, scientific research is moderately underfunded, and, at the state level, education is badly underfunded. Being generally in favor of smaller government shouldn't mean being opposed to the proper functioning of government's core responsibilities.

NOTE: I am only interested in honest adult discussion. I know I'll get some snide remarks from far lefties who would never vote for anything else other than liberal democrat. Just know in advance that I don't care what you have to say.

To everyone else, what are some ideas going forward?

With the exception of the anti-abortion stance you have described the post-Clinton Democratic Party. So, there's a clue on just how far to the right both parties have drifted.

Originally Posted by Electric Blue

Obama,had he and the Dems in 2009 right off,pushed a Transportation bill it would have gotten a lot of Republican votes. Instead,he pushed his corrupt stimulus package.

Not true at all.
A majority of the stimulus was tax cuts that were injected at the insistence of Republicans. An infrastructure heavy bill was the original intent, but that's not what we go because of the Republican requirement of stimulus through tax decreases, that many then turned around and didn't vote for.

[theunbrainwashed]

Originally Posted by tonyd191

Anyone who pays attention to politics and has studied the election results know that the GOP is in major need of reboot.

This is not the first time the GOP, (or either party was in disaray). FDR had won 4 terms and then one full term of Truman.

Dems suffered back to back thrashings at the hands of Reagan, and then lost to HW Bush.

What should the "new" GOP be like?\

How should it be different from the old and what can it do to re brand it's image.

Should the GOP jettison the Tea Party?

What ideas should it keep and what ideas should it abandon


Here are some ideas I had:

Keep
1) Pro-life: There is an intraparty majority on this side of the abortion debate, and national public opinion is sufficiently divided that there are few political gains to be made.

2) Small government: It is important and natural that one party should represent opposition to an activist government. The GOP can and should stand for limits to the distortions introduced by excess regulation, the welfare state, and well-meaning but ineffective/counterproductive social policy.

3) Peace through willingness to fight: In international relations, somebody needs to be the bad cop. This is not a political winner after the last two wars, but it's an important plank of the Republican Party.



Do away with
1) Opposition to gay rights: The arguments against gay rights are so weak, and the trend in public opinion so obvious, that the GOP would be fools not to change positions.

2) Opposition to taxes: You can either be opposed to taxes or you can be opposed to fiscal irresponsibility. There is nothing approaching a consensus for the kind of benefit cuts to entitlement programs that would be required to make our fiscal path sustainable without tax increases. Most people understand this and are willing to accept tax increases.

3) Stop opposing adequate government provision of public goods: Everyone agrees that infrastructure, education, and scientific research are public goods and should be funded by the government. Infrastructure is badly underfunded, scientific research is moderately underfunded, and, at the state level, education is badly underfunded. Being generally in favor of smaller government shouldn't mean being opposed to the proper functioning of government's core responsibilities.

NOTE: I am only interested in honest adult discussion. I know I'll get some snide remarks from far lefties who would never vote for anything else other than liberal democrat. Just know in advance that I don't care what you have to say.

To everyone else, what are some ideas going forward?

More MSNBC talking points. Not sophisticated, or original, at all. Stop with the ****ing wedge issues already, talk about things that matter to non-rich people!