All blog posts are cross posted

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Advice to the Republican Party

From young activist Daniel Greenfield. I found it at Canada Free Press but it is cross posted at his blog.
Scott Brown's victory and Obama's falling poll numbers were virtually undeserved gifts to a Republican party that for the most part spent the year on the sidelines, benefiting from grassroots activism without actually doing much about it. It's little wonder that Michael Steele is widely hated or that there's talk of a third party. But to fix the Republican party, it's important to understand what is behind its malaise.
The Republican Party is Conservative
- I don’t mean conservative in the sense of socially conservative or fiscally conservative, but being risk averse and when in doubt sticking to the safest path. The party best known for Lincoln or Roosevelt or Reagan, has been defined more by Taft, Eisenhower and Bush Sr. That aversion to risk and making waves has helped Republican candidates be seen as safer and more traditional leaders, and kept the party afloat, but has made it unable to cope with sudden change.
As I wrote in my article, “A Revolutionary Party Once Again”, the Republican party needs to be able to fight for change, instead of defending a constantly eroding conformity. The left’s counterculture has successfully shifted the battle lines over and over again, because they played cultural offense, while conservatives have played cultural defense. That same phenomenon has occurred in virtually every arena, and politically it has left Republicans ahead on points, but without an actual agenda.
In the aftermath of the 2008 elections, the Republican party was disoriented, confused and lost… because its leadership has no real understanding of how to turn weakness into strength, or to agitate against those in power. And so it was left to the Tea Partiers and others to express the anger that so many Americans were feeling....
....The Republican Party Fears Extremism
- Liberalism’s cultural dominance meant that they were able to define conservative Republicans as either evil bankers or klansmen. The Republican party has since worked hard to avoid being associated with anything that smacks of extremism, not that this changes the false image that has been created at all....
...The Republican Party is Playing it Safe
- (See The Republican Party is Conservative) The Republican party chose to wait out Obama’s first year and let him destroy himself. Arguably they can claim that the strategy worked out nicely for them. The party’s fortunes are on the rise again, with very little risk to anyone besides Joe Wilson. But that is exactly the problem.
Be sure read the whole thing.  I think you will see a well thought out discussion of what we as a Rockport 912 group are all about.
 
Here is the bio on Daniel Greenfield:
Daniel Greenfield is a New York City based writer and freelance commentator. “Daniel comments on political affairs with a special focus on the War on Terror and the rising threat to Western Civilization. He maintains a blog at Sultanknish.blogspot.com.
Daniel can be reached at: sultanknish@yahoo.com

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