The Winkest Link

By Wink

According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll one-third of Republicans hold an unfavorable view of their own party. This is not a good sign. The party is already shrinking.

A third of Republicans in the poll (obviously a DIFFERENT third) said the GOP should not moderate its policies in its quest to regain power.

The mathematics illustrate the problem. It is not 33% of the electorate that says they should stand strong, it is 33% of REPUBLICANS. Since self-described Republicans only amount to about 30% of the electorate, a third of them only totals about 10% of the electorate.

This means all of the current crop of Republican ‘leaders’, those currently banging the drums and opposing all things ‘Obama’, are only appealing to about 10% of the total electorate. This is not a blueprint to ‘take back’ America.

It is okay to be disagreeable. In fact, it is required in a democracy. But labeling your opponents as communists or fascists or terrorists is not a strategy with long-term staying power (think “the sky-is-falling” Chicken Little example). You lose credibility when you continually fling out those wacky labels.

C’mon Republicans, pull it together. Take your foot (mouth) off of the verbal gas pedal.

You have seen the baseball manager who gets so ticked off that he runs out and kicks dirt on the umpire? That is how the American public sees you. Obama is the umpire, and all you guys seem to do is kick dirt.

Sorry, but that IS what it looks like. And dirt-kickers never look like leaders.

Don’t worry Republican, your party is not facing imminent obsolescence. You have too much financial backing to allow that to happen. Plus, there is ALWAYS an audience (albeit a small one) for Chicken Little rhetoric.

A new voice will rise for the GOP. I promise you it will not be a voice we are hearing now. Not Newt. Not Sarah. Probably not Mitt.

Newt can be a compelling speaker though, in ways that Sarah is incapable of doing. He just brings too much baggage with him. He has made too many needlessly incendiary comments throughout his history. Newt is no statesman. And let us not get started on his personal life.

The new leader will emerge from the Republican morass, one who is strong enough to stand up to the wacked-out right. One with real ideas, not just slogans (and certainly not the hateful slogans that are being flung around today).

This person will have to be brave though, because it is easy to get into the comfort zone of feeding red meat to all the demagogues. Verbal firebombs will get you campaign contributions, but will not win general elections.

By the way, liberals made this same stupid mistake years ago, frequently reaching for the word ‘fascist’ to describe Republicans and Republican behavior. It backfired on the Dems, when the public didn’t bite on that terrible label, and it didn’t work for the GOP in this last election when they screamed ‘terrorist’ at every McCain rally.

(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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