Rand Paul: Without change, GOP will "not win again in my lifetime"

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People can be fickle, and there is often a spirit of “throw the bums out” that comes with each election. Our collective memory is often short as well, and we think that anything is better than what we have now. But I don’t have a crystal ball, and I also don’t care for much of what the GOP has come to stand for. From outside, it seems they are a house divided, and a house divided will not stand long.
 
The GOP will never hold the White House or Senate again. Demographically impossible.
 
And if the GOP takes a big step to the left in order to be seen as more inclusive, the Democratic Party will simply move further to the left cancelling out the move.
 
The GOP will win the House or White House the day moderate Republicans start gaining some clout, first of all. Second of all, Ohio and Florida need to get their act together when it comes to elections. They could significantly shift an election one way.
 
VanSensei said:
The GOP will win the House or White House the day moderate Republicans start gaining some clout, first of all. Second of all, Ohio and Florida need to get their act together when it comes to elections. They could significantly shift an election one way.
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I’d actually agree with this, as long as they remained socially conservative (no abortion, no gay marriage, no forced violations of conscience, support to married couples). Frankly, to me, such matters will have a longer-run impact than short-term tinkering with an economic system that is already top-heavy and full of legacy code. To fix that would take nothing short of a monarchy, IMO. 😃

That’s why an orthodox (not “liberal” or “conservative”) Catholic candidate would be a good idea. 🙂
 
I can only say that there is a lot of change needed in this party. But mimicking Reagan won’t help anyone or anything. I can never figure out why people think Reagan was such a great President. He almost destroyed California when he was Governor, and then did the same when he got in the President’s position, to the nation. Some of his “bottom line” ideas is what helped get us into the economic quagmire we are in now.
 
Cricket2 said:
I can only say that there is a lot of change needed in this party. But mimicking Reagan won’t help anyone or anything. I can never figure out why people think Reagan was such a great President. He almost destroyed California when he was Governor, and then did the same when he got in the President’s position, to the nation. Some of his “bottom line” ideas is what helped get us into the economic quagmire we are in now.
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[sarcasm]

Blasphemy!

Sacrilege!

Desecration!

How can you say that about President Reagan, the only man excluded from Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus?*

We Reagan Catholics will not forgive this.
[/sarcasm]
  • I kid you not, I’ve actually read an essay claiming this. 😃 😛
 
ringil said:
Speak more about those demographics please.
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An increasingly less white population (which is itself split between D and R since whites don’t vote as a bloc) means the GOP is shut out of the WH and many statewide elections like the Senate.

They’ll keep the House for the foreseeable future though.
 
The demise of both parties has been predicted many times. But it never actually happens.

But I will admit that the “split” in the Repub party doesn’t bode very well, even though, in my opinion, it’s more apparent than real. There is a similar “split” in the Dem party, but they don’t stay home on election day out of pique the way some Repubs and other conservatives do.

Right now, I would say the next two elections depend on three perceptions: First, the perception of obama (and company) as being an ineffectual “flash in the pan” to a lot of not-very-left-wing Democrat voters. Second, the perception of the Dem party as being even more ineffectual. the media, of course, will shield the Dems on this, but really, the only Senator the Senate really needed for the last five years has been Harry Reid. The House Repubs take a lot of heat and deserve some of it, but at least they do SOMETHING. Third, that Repubs can focus on employment and economic takeoff to the near total exclusion of everything else.

All things considered, in my opinion the Repubs need:
  1. A good leader. None, including Rand Paul, currently meets that description in my opinion. But such a person would have to survive the character assassination of the left wing media as soon as he/she appears to be a prospect.
  2. A more coherent and more unitary program. They sort of have a unitary philosophy, but they all go off in myriad directions with this plan or that, in the seeming belief that they have to address everything.
 
What kind of change is Mr Paul envisaging? One where independents outnumber party faithfuls 2:1 and politicians actually serve an informed electorate? Personally, I can’t wait.
 
Cricket2 said:
I can only say that there is a lot of change needed in this party. But mimicking Reagan won’t help anyone or anything. I can never figure out why people think Reagan was such a great President. He almost destroyed California when he was Governor, and then did the same when he got in the President’s position, to the nation. Some of his “bottom line” ideas is what helped get us into the economic quagmire we are in now.
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Maybe so. But some of us can remember a few things.
-That the recession he inherited was worse than the current one, but was over with quickly and decisively.
-That energy production was restored and shortages disappeared.
-That a lot of years of economic growth followed his election.
-That he had a Democrat congress a good part of the time, and couldn’t keep domestic spending from rising because of it.
-That the Cold War ended almost immediately after his term, and to a significant degree because of his actions. (Yes, and to those of Lech Walesa, JPII and Margaret Thatcher)

Like a dummy, and being then a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, I voted against him in his first election. But even I could see, after his first term, that he was right for this country.

Maybe you had to be there.
 
The GOP is doomed IMHO. They’re just like the old Whig party from before the US Civil War; they have no clear stance on any moral or economic issues, they’re internally divided, and they’re obsessed with fighting foreign wars to maintain and expand the empire while the domestic situation is deteriorating.

I don’t think Rand Paul would change that much, even if he were to get his way in the party. He’s a libertarian, which means he would be on the far left socially and the far right economically. That means gay “marriage”, abortion on demand, very low minimum wage (if any at all), and a lot of other things that are incompatible with either Catholic moral theology or Catholic social teaching.

One thing that could fix the GOP is if they were to become like European conservatives, like the traditional Christian democrats–that is to say, on the center-right socially and the center-left economically. Such positions would probably appeal to Catholic and Evangelical/Pentecostal Christians of color, who are a growing political voice in the US, as has been implicitly pointed out by Geist.
 
ssancho said:
The GOP is doomed IMHO. They’re just like the old Whig party from before the US Civil War; they have no clear stance on any moral or economic issues, they’re internally divided, and they’re obsessed with fighting foreign wars to maintain and expand the empire while the domestic situation is deteriorating.

I don’t think Rand Paul would change that much, even if he were to get his way in the party. He’s a libertarian, which means he would be on the far left socially and the far right economically. That means gay “marriage”, abortion on demand, very low minimum wage (if any at all), and a lot of other things that are incompatible with either Catholic moral theology or Catholic social teaching.

One thing that could fix the GOP is if they were to become like European conservatives, like the traditional Christian democrats–that is to say, on the center-right socially and the center-left economically. Such positions would probably appeal to Catholic and Evangelical/Pentecostal Christians of color, who are a growing political voice in the US, as has been implicitly pointed out by Geist.
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I recall, quite clearly, that much of the same sentiments were held about the DNC after Bush was reelected to his second term. The DNC was in disarray and many thought the party might just die…then a certain Senator from Illinois came along…the rest is history.

The GOP needs to change, just as the DNC needed to change many times. It will learn what it needs to do much sooner than people think–politics is a cycle, and no party has forever control.

I do believe the GOP needs a charismatic person who can offer a sound vision for the future–that is the part lacking, a vision for the future. If leaders provide true vision, people will follow them. Simple formula that repeats over-and-over. The GOP needs to stop looking back, and begin to look forward.
 
Geist said:
An increasingly less white population (which is itself split between D and R since whites don’t vote as a bloc) means the GOP is shut out of the WH and many statewide elections like the Senate.

They’ll keep the House for the foreseeable future though.
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I think if you ask most political pundits who is more likely to gain a majority in the Senate in 2014, they will say the Republicans.
 
Geist said:
An increasingly less white population (which is itself split between D and R since whites don’t vote as a bloc) means the GOP is shut out of the WH and many statewide elections like the Senate.

They’ll keep the House for the foreseeable future though.
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I think if you ask most political pundits who is more likely to gain a majority in the Senate in 2014, they will say the Republicans
 
Obama’s re-election after a disasterous first term says it all regarding the future of America.
 
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