(Source: Gallup)
The Republican party suffered some pretty huge losses in the past few years, including the fight over Obamacare, the 2012 election, and the fight over 2012 fiscal cliff. And now, it looks like they're about to lose once more, over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling.
Why? Frum condenses it down to 7 bad habits: maximalist goals, apocalyptic visions, irrational animus, collapse of leadership, self-reinforcing media, politics as war, and despair.
(I highly suggest you read the article for some great in-depth commentary on these 7 habits.)
A quote from the post that I think is worthy of sharing: "[E]ffective parties make conflict work for them. Hate leads to rage, and rage makes you stupid." He goes on to provide an example in which the Republican party leaders let their rage get to them, which produced an unfavorable outcome for the Republican party as a whole.
And unfortunately, I have to agree with Mr. Frum on that one. It's gotten to the point where the public sees their actions as having stuck a wrench in the works of government and progress. Public opinion of the Republican party has already decreased since the shutdown. How can the Republican party stop these habits from ruining their party's image (and the U.S.'s image in general)? What will have to happen before the Republican party can recover from the blows, or in other words, what will the Republican party need to change? What do you think a Republican presidential candidate in 2016 will have to accomplish and focus on if they want to win?
4 comments:
In order for the Republican party to begin winning elections and gain support again, I think there has to be a fundamental change to the party. As Frum said in the article Jackie posted, "Who wants to hear that things will become much, much better for humanity shortly after [the current Republican party] shuffle[s] off the scene?" And that is where we are. Young people are confident that their beliefs will continue to gain greater support as the mostly older constituents of the Republican party begin to die off. (Kind of morbid, but not unrealistic).
The most important change the Republican party has to make is to soften their social policies. I think I can speak for many of fellow classmates and young people in saying that it is impossible to look past the social policies of the Republican party. I refuse to look at whether some of their other policies, such as economic or foreign policy, make sense to me because I cannot support a group that has a tradition of hurting the most vulnerable people in society.
Basically, as Bobby Jindal, Republican governor of Louisiana asserted, "We have to stop being the stupid party." nuff said.
This article actually reminds me of the article that some students (including me) read in class out of the yellow packet - http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333344/party-s-problem-ramesh-ponnuru
I definitely agree with Joey as well as the Ponnuru that there needs to be fundamental change within the Republican Party if they want to turn things around. The article mentioned that the GOP is scared of America heading into "socialist tyranny," but if they don't change their policies and reach out to more Americans, they are going to continue to ostracize potential voters. The problem with the Republican Party isn't one individual or a group of radicals - I think the GOP is way too adamant about their social policies as Joey says, and the conflict that they generate isn't positive conflict that leads to progress. It's just stale, stagnant conflict. And yes, I think both parties and their respective media messages can exaggerate the faults of each other, but I think Frum makes a good point about how much progress calm assessment can make. I think the Republican Party needs to take a step back, look out their current policies and realize why they keep alienating voters who might actually think that the GOP could manage the economy better. Many voters actually think the GOP has better economic and foreign policy, but they are turned off by them seeming to be the party of rich white businessmen. The GOP needs to send a more comprehensive and consistent message to middle and lower classes and convince them that they will follow through with policies that will impact them in a positive way.
Then again, easier said than done.
I agree with Joey that the Republican Party should definitely adjust some of their social policies to attract a larger audience. Political parties must adapt to its ever changing society in order to maintain their impact and influence in government, which is their main goal. Therefore, the Republican party must make adjustments to their views to attract a larger audience. Because their supporters tend to be white, older, living in a rural area, and religious, Republicans should try to target other groups, especially the those on the fence and who slightly lean towards the Democratic Party (f.e, Hispanics, Men, Women).
I was also thinking about Article A (Ponnuru's article) in our yellow packet when I was reading Frum's post.
Somebody had pointed out to me (I forget who) that the Republican party is often filled with older individuals who have already begun to lose their ability to moderate social behavior because of the deterioration of their prefrontal cortex. For this reason, they often become irrational or hot-tempered and extreme during debates. Celene had mentioned that it's important for the Republicans to adapt to changing circumstances in order to effectively impact government. Going along those lines, I think it's important to recognize that the Republican party may need to cycle out some of it's older members and replace them with younger Republican leaders who may be able to lessen the damage done to the party.
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