Talking past each other

Ok, so I don’t usually write blogs on political matters, but I’ve already been inundated with clients and friends hashing over the election results.  So here are my thoughts, probably things you won’t hear the talking heads discussing today.  I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Just a footnote about the NY23 election. Voters obviously rejected outsiders telling them who to vote for, just as they rejected GOP party leadership for choosing who their candidate should be. I respect the voters of NY23 for making up their own minds. GOP leadership bungled the election from start to finish and lost a seat that should have been solidly red.  But make no mistake about it – while people in the beltway (and political junkies like me) want to make this particular race about GOP moderates being forced out – clearly the voters wanted a candidate that shared their values.  No matter what the R’s did to try to make “their candidate” a Republican in name, the pro-gay marriage and pro-choice perspectives are not part of the Republican platform. Do we have to compromise our values and ideals to become an “inclusive party?” Big tent doesn’t equal no backbone and no firm principles.

I propose that we can keep our principles without compromising as a party, but not be a bunch of intolerant, uneducated mobs that hate homosexuals and protest with grotesque signs of abortion techniques.  We may disagree on these issues that we hold near and dear, but we don’t have to be hateful and condemning and condescending about it either.

Some thoughts about election night 2009:

• Not a Win – Republicans should not be overly excited about this election tally. This had little to do with a Republican vision or agenda that the masses bought into, and more about inarticulate Democrat candidates that were unpopular or unknown. This was more of a Dem loss, and not a Republican win.
• Solve the problem – If the R’s go out and celebrate these two wins, and forget about the reason why we lost the WH and are in the “super minority,” this election will be a HUGE net loss. R’s still have to get back to fixing the reason why we lost big last year.
• No leadership – One of the reasons R’s lost huge last year was a lack of leadership.  Steele, Boehner and McConnell don’t connect with the public and for good reason.  They have no ideas.  It’s hard to re-brand a product that hasn’t changed and has nothing to offer.  Dem’s were catapulted to victories on the back of articulate guy who had some sort of vision – even if it wasn’t specific in it’s policy description. We don’t need another Ronald Reagan, we need a 21st century leader who can cast a achievable vision for this country and can articulate it without a teleprompter. If I hear R’s quote Reagan one more time, I’ll hurl. We keep having to dig up the memory of a dead president, because there seems to be no one that can speak for R’s today.
• No agenda – Another reason we lost big last year, is that we have no real agenda.  We are more than the party of “no,” but we have to start talking like one. It’s not enough to put out a 230 page healthcare plan alternative 7 months after the debate began.  We have to have solid ideas on EVERY issue, including education, healthcare and the environment. R’s care about those issues too, we just don’t hear our leadership talking about them with any real conviction or regularity. And stop talking tax cuts! We can’t tax cut our way out of a recession with a ballooning national debt.

Unfortunately, we lost more than the WH and the majority.  We lost our way.  We still haven’t found it, and two governorships won’t take us back.  This isn’t a bleak outlook, but rather a pragmatic take on where we are and where we need to be as a party. All Americans are craving leadership.  Neither party is giving it.  We are just continuing to talk past each other without really debating the substantial policy decisions that lie before us. Just my take.  Let me know what you think…

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