Posted by Tina
Two articles in the Wall Street Journal today articulate my sense of the direction and focus that will best serve to strengthen the Republican Party and ensure our viability into the future. One recalls a period in our history when a loss in a presidential election was celebrated as a fatal blow to the GOP. In fact it gave rise to our most revered leader, Ronald Reagan. The second article is a call to reclaim Reagans vision of America, a free country made strong by the creativity and spirit of her people.
What would Reagan Do? by Henry Olsen
This is not the first time that conservatives and Republicans have stared into an electoral abyss. After Barry Goldwater’s crushing 1964 defeat, most political observers thought the only future for the GOP was to become a centrist party only slightly to the right of Great Society Democrats. *** Ronald Reagan didn’t agree. In a trenchant column penned in the Dec. 1, 1964 issue of National Review, he argued that Americans had rejected only a false vision of conservatism as a radical departure from the status quo. Conservatives, he said, had only “lost a battle in the continuing war for freedom.” Voters would rally to the conservative banner once they realized that Democratic liberals were the true radicals. *** His article is striking for what he said — and didn’t say. Reagan spoke of a “war for freedom,” but he did not mention a single specific conservative policy. Rather, he defended conservatism’s salience by arguing that “we represent the forgotten American — that simple soul who goes to work, bucks for a raise, takes out insurance, pays for his kids’ schooling, contributes to his church and charity and knows there just ‘ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.'”
Michael Steele, a candidate for Chairman of the RNC, defines the broad challenges and goals facing the Republican Party:
Listen. Adapt. Be Positive. By Michael Steele
We must articulate a positive vision for America’s future that speaks to Americans’ hopes, concerns and needs. It’s time to stop defining ourselves by what we are not, and tell voters what we believe, how we’ll lead, and where we’ll go; how we Republicans will make America better; how we’ll make their families more prosperous, their children better educated, their parents more secure, and all of us healthier, safer and stronger. *** Our challenge lies not in beating Democrats, but in uniting around a message that solidifies our ranks and attracts new people to our cause. We have to listen to what Americans are telling us about their hopes, desires and needs, and then translate that message into proposals for meaningful action squarely grounded on the values we Republicans have always stood for. *** Our faith in the power and ingenuity of the individual to build a nation through hard work, personal responsibility and self-discipline is our uniting principle. That is the sacred ground upon which our Republican Party was built. For the sake of all Americans, it is the ground we must reclaim.
Much will depend on whether we have effective spokesmen.