My Rx For GOP

My return to the crazy world of current events from the solitude of the hardwoods brought me face to face with an unavoidable combined sense of hilarity and concern.  As one pundit after another scrambles around trying to offer suggestions how the GOP can right itself it's my humble opinion that the whole bunch is still taking directions from the Keystone Cops.

The influence of Karl Rove and George W. Bush on policy and politics is being felt now like a punch to the gut.  Rove's playbook was written for a team which no longer exists.  It's as if his plays were all designed for the old New York Jets passing game which is what the GOP is trying to use when all they've got on the bench are a bunch of fragile prima donnas are afraid of being hurt.

It's time to say thank you to the Bush bunch, retire their jerseys and get back to basics.

First, look at your farm club.  It's a bunch of twerpy frat boys with bad social skills wearing blue blazers, khaki pants and button down shirts straight from the model rocket club at their local high schools.  James Carville had a great line.  He said it's as if the only game republicans ever learned how to play was "follow the leader".  We've got to ask, where are the tough guys who vote conservative and why aren't they being groomed to run for office?

The answer is implicit in Carville's comment.  The GOP has for far too long been run as a top down organization.  Only those who are loyal to the death to the ones on top ever get lifted up.  And guess what color their noses are by the time they get in position?

It's time the GOP stopped recruiting only brown nosing, ass kissing "yes men" and started telling the oddballs out there that politics is a brutal sport these days played mostly in the mud, with a whole bunch of eye gouging, hair pulling, arm twisting and taking people out at the knees.  If all you want to do is stand around and cheer the quarterback, grab a pom pom and become a cheerleader.  But if you want to get in the game, beef up your front line.

Second, quit trying to divide the country up like the liberals have done.  They've been doing it longer, better and guess what, your core group has been whittled down to the fundamentalist Christians, and rah rah military types who don't add up to enough players to cover the field anymore.  You need to find common ground with their people, go where they are, play man to man coverage.  Stop sending the message that "if you're not with us, you're against us" to everybody.  Given only two choices a whole bunch of people will end up saying they're against you.

Recognize that most Americans have more in common than you have been willing to admit.  We all want many of the same things but a growing majority have been systematically brainwashed to think those things come from the government.  Get back in the schools, take control of the educational process or start a supplemental process to teach the next generation the truth about American.

Third, start listening and stop talking.  The real world of politics is not a talk radio show.  Don't screen the callers down to those who either agree with you or help you make your point.  Put your ear to the ground, Tonto, there's a stampede coming.  As Will Rogers said, even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just stand there.

America wants change, so give it too them.  Don't insist on keeping your leaders, get busy recruiting replacements.  Keep only those who stand tough on the issues, not those who stand behind the status quo. 

And quit the damned ignorant practice of playing it safe when it comes to taking a bold stand on things.  For crying out loud, this is a full contact sport.  If you run with the ball expect to get hit, hard from time to time.  Don't try to run out the clock when you are behind.  Sure taking a knee avoids bruises, but it doesn't advance the ball.  Hit back, don't let everybody run down field behind the biggest guy. 

Politics may be a team sport, but when your team is losing step up in the huddle, be bold, tell your team mates that the coach's plays aren't winning.  Somebody needs to act like good old Jim Brown and make it clear that since the game is about winning "Just give me the ball".

Quite frankly there's a very poor chance that the GOP can be fixed.  We've tinkered with the machinery enough.  It's time to replace parts, get a whole new unit and upgrade to the latest model of leadership.  And that model isn't based upon telling people what's in their best interest, it's letting people tell you what they want, and by people I don't mean the press. 

The seats in the stadium are filled by a whole lot more screaming fans than sports reporters.  Forget the Monday morning papers, just build a new team, teach them the fundamentals, hit hard, never quit play until the whistle blows and then get back up and hit hard again.

Obama didn't win because he is great.  In fact we could retire the national debt if we could buy his skills for what they are really worth and sell them for what he THINKS they are worth.  Obama won because the GOP was the victim of the electrifying historical significance of Obama's image to the world, it was the victim of bad press, the victim of an unpopular president but more importantly it was the victim of confusion.

Time and time again republicans got elected promising one thing, only to blend in and imitate the very ideas they ran against before taking the oath of office.  It became hard to root for one team when everybody was wearing the same jersey.  The time has come when Obama's team will be easily spotted.  They will line up on the left side of the field wearing their team logo.  Their strategy was to go into the locker room and change.  The GOP needs to do the same thing, only this time instead of draping themselves in the flag, they need to sport the colors of black and white and find some guys who wear a triple X cup to fill the front line. 

Comments

[Robert New]

Excellent post. If we could just get someone to step up to the plate now and listen to what we are saying.

[BimBeau]

Well I guess if we're going to make the Republican wish come true, might as well be done in Democratic fashion. Since the Republican dream is 1-party rule, it might as well be the Democratic Party as described herein.

Mind you ... I don't mind your quoting a good Dem here and there ,,, but when it's Jimmy C. (for Carville, not Carter) it makes my heart sing. Look at the list of real decision makers around O'Bama - Tony Zinni, Wes Clark, Rahm Emmanual, Jim Carville, Hale Boggs, et al.

Your list, parentheticly, is of rats jumping ship. The real Republicans out there: Arlen Specter, Chuck Hagel, Chris Shays, Joe Lieberman, Bob Dole (or Liddy), John Danforth have been shaking their collective head and hanging it in embarrassment at Shrub, Rove, Ashcroft, Robertson and Dobson and their malingering gorillas - any one of whom is likely to be Dr.Leaky's missing link.

When you guys get to real issues instead of fear, let me know. We need to put the brakes on bailouts; begin culturally investing in the future; organizing a single-payer health care system at either the local or federal level; fund education of issues other than chits to take to private schools since they only refund taxes to christian churches; raise taxes to reduce the national debt that was run-up by the rats you've just identified to finance without funding their private war.

That's a start; we're eight years behind.