Posted on Dec 19, 2015

Does The GOP Have A Winning Formula for 2016?

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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/263742-mcconnell-warns-gop-voters-we-need-candidates-who-can-win

I was reading this article and honestly it was something I didn't expect to hear from the GOP at all, especially one of the leaders.
As I read though this, McConnell made mention of 2014 Congressional candidates Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angles, Richard Mourdocks, and Todd Akins, people who saw their political aspirations go up in smoke after making severe political missteps.
My question is honest and not rhetorical. What does the GOP have to do to win when it counts? Even in the upcoming presidential campaign, their are far too many people that are long on rhetoric and finger-pointing and short on plans of execution or how to get our country back on track.
So, does the GOP have a winning formula or are they all sizzle and no steak?

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Politics

Republicans

Election 2016

Posted 9 y ago

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Responses: 10

SSG Raymond Whitener

Posted 9 y ago

In my opinion, the GOP has to decide what the GOP is. Currently, you have the traditional Conservatives, the Tea Party, the New Conservatives, the Libertarians, and numerous individual small sects, all of which are calling themselves Republicans. Chaos in the party will create a continuous cycle of chaos. They need to clean their house and stand as one if they expect to beat the Democrats. Get ready for another four years of Democratic President if they can't.

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CPT Jack Durish

Edited 9 y ago

Posted 9 y ago

Which GOP are we talking about: The one that purports to represent conservatism or the one caves to the whims of the progressive Democrats? I fully expect the GOP to fail in its bid to take the White House next year and may even lose one or both chambers of Congress in the bargain. The Omnibus Budget Bill just passed was not the final nail in the GOP coffin, it was a vault lid and several tons of dirt being dumped on it all at once.

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CPT Jack Durish

9 y

SSG Michael Hartsfield - That's a very good question and I suspect that you would receive as many different answers as Republicans who responded to it. However, if you dug down you'd find a (small-L) libertarian at the heart of all of them. Republicans are traditional liberals - bound to support individual liberty. Their focus may be on different liberties (speech, religion, assembly, bear arms, due process) depending on their life experiences. Republicans are conservatives - wanting to conserve/preserve individual liberties. Interestingly, you find the same diversity of opinion if you ask Democrats what their core principles are, however, you won't find that same common thread among them that you find among Republicans. Keep in mind (before you give me a knee-jerk response to that last statement) that the Democratic Party intentionally created this oleo of opinions when it set out to create the Rainbow Coalition (their words, not mine). They have successfully formed an alliance of many diverse groups including some that have opposing views, to build a voting block of substantial size.

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SSG Michael Hartsfield

9 y

CPT Jack Durish Isn't that what the GOP is attempting to do now? Aren't they attempting to bring together those same diverse groups to counter the Democratic voting block? Also, couldn't it be that Democrats succeeded in this because they turned away from being a party of exclusion (Democrats by and large were Segregationists, especially in the South) into a party of inclusion?

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CPT Jack Durish

9 y

SSG Michael Hartsfield - Oh, you're talking about the "other" GOP. The Establishment GOP. I don't have a clue as to what principles they avow. Sadly, it appears that the Left has inculcated themselves into the leadership of both parties. Both want to spend tax revenues with all the restraint of drunken sailors on shore leave in a bawdy port. Both want to treat Americans as irresponsible children in need of parental control. Yes, the Democrats were by and large Segregationists, even worse, slave masters, while Republicans were the party formed to end slavery and it was the GOP that was primarily responsible for passage of the Civil Rights Act while leading Democrats such as John Kennedy fought it. But, that was then, this is now...)

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SSG Michael Hartsfield

9 y

Ummm... JFK didn't fight against the Civil Rights Act. In fact, "the bill was called for by President John F. Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments", as well as "greater protection for the right to vote"."
Where and how did he fight against that?
Also how, if the GOP is following in the footsteps of William F. Buckley, are all of the current factions of fighting so hard against each other? Shouldn't the one principle Buckley used to stimulate the Conservative movement be a rallying point for all Republicans to build upon?

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