Will There Be a New Direction?

Mercifully, the election is over….everybody had their moment in the sun and now it is time to start thinking about the next election….that would be 2016 in case you were not sure…….

Contrary to popular belief I am not a fan of a one party system and the way we go about demonizing everyone who does not agree with us is just pathetic…….it is time for the GOP to think about a new direction…….also contrary to popular belief, I like the two party system as long as it is a debate on facts and not some made up crap……sorry to say the last election was more crap than substance.

Two things that I have foreseen……this may be the last time a baby boomer will be nominated……..the demographics are changing and changing quickly…….Obama was basically elected thanx to minorities……..Romney was the candidate of white men with a smattering of Hispanics……..but mainly white men between the age of 45 and 150……..

I really do want to see a viable second party, one of facts and sincerity….for that to happen a few changes would need to occur……..

This was a piece written in the American Conservative…..(yes, I read that to expand my knowledge for I am a voter and want facts not crap)……

It’s a bad night for social conservatives, in fact it is almost a complete reversal of 2004. Same sex marriage won on the ballot in Maryland and Maine. Obama did not really propose anything new on the economy or foreign policy fronts, but he did make contraception, rape, and Roe v. Wade a large part of this campaign. He constantly portrayed Romney as a man with “the social policies of the 1950s.” Apparently this worked. If there is one thought that comforts me (and perhaps some readers), it is that the chances of courts striking down the “contraceptive mandate” that impinges on religious freedom seem very good. However, Obama’s second term will mean that a future American judiciary may be more open to that sort of thing.

But in reality the more pressing problem is that Republicans are still a party badly damaged by the George W. Bush years. The GOP has traditionally held huge advantages on foreign policy and the economy. That advantage is gone now. And Mitt Romney was the wrong candidate to give the party a refresh on those issues, particularly when the gettable voters were downscale whites. It isn’t that Republicans aren’t reaching enough voters; voters simply don’t believe the GOP is competent to govern.

To change the direction of the party will take work………it will take lots of hard work…….just a few comes to mind……

1. The GOP has a huge Latino problem
Latino voters account for 10 percent of the electorate, and their share is growing every year, says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. The GOP’s harsh positions on immigration helped Obama win 69 percent of Latinos’ votes. Romney got just 29 percent. The GOP’s “huge Hispanic problem” was the reason Florida was a tossup, and it will be enough to make once deep-red Arizona a swing state in 2016. “Texas could even be a swing state by 2020 unless Republicans” see the writing on the wall and find a way to make inroads with Latinos. “The Republican Party simply cannot lose 7 in 10 Hispanic voters in elections and expect to be a viable national party in 2016, 2020, and beyond.”
2. Conservatives must soften their rhetoric on abortion
The biggest lesson “from this debacle,” says Joe Battenfeld at The Boston Herald, is that the GOP needs to start winning back women. Putting more women like Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) into GOP leadership positions would be a nice start. Symbolism only goes so far, though. The GOP also has to shed policies that fuel charges that “the party is unfriendly toward women,” and one way to do that is to “reassess their hard-line position against abortion rights.” At the very least, staunchly anti-abortion Republicans need to stop pushing “the rhetorical envelope” when they talk about banning abortion, and whether there should be exceptions in cases of rape, says Lindsey Meeks at The Seattle Times. As Todd Akin found out in Missouri after making his comments about “legitimate rape,” and as Richard Mourdock learned in Indiana when he said pregnancies from rape are “something God intended,” when you’re dealing with a sensitive topic and you use insensitive words, you lose.

3. The GOP nominee has to be more aggressive
The thing that sank Mitt Romney, says William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, was that “instead of playing to win, he appeared much of the time — as did Paul Ryan — to play not to lose.” Nowhere was this more visible than in the third and final debate, “when Romney let Obama slide on Benghazi.” Obama’s mishandling of the attack that killed our Libyan ambassador and three other Americans left him “mortally vulnerable” on this issue, yet Romney gave him a pass in a bid to play it safe by looking presidential. Let’s hope the party’s next nominee will treat his Democratic opponent “as aggressively as he’ll (she’ll?) have treated the other Republican candidates that he beat to win the nomination.”

4. Lying doesn’t work
The Romney campaign’s “most shocking strategy” was acting like “winning was more important than truth,” says Robert L. Cavnar at The Huffington Post. Romney “freely lied about the president, the economy, welfare reform, the auto bailout, major companies, history, and even Americans themselves. He flipped on every single social issue that he had advocated as governor of Massachusetts and stridently concealed his own tax records.” When confronted, he doubled down and told stretched the truth even further. In the end, though, Romney’s failure to be straight with voters “badly damaged his reputation” — and proved to be a losing strategy.
5. Republicans need to stop ripping each other apart in primaries
Republicans, says Battenfeld at The Boston Herald, must “stop engaging in ridiculous primary fights.” Everybody knew from the get-go that Romney was going to be the Republican nominee. He was clearly the most electable candidate in the field. But that didn’t stop “ego-driven Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum” from viciously tearing him apart for months. They forced Romney to overtly appeal to conservative primary voters “when he should have been honing his message to moderates,” doing serious damage to his prospects in the general election against Obama. “Newt, Donald Trump, Karl Rove, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum all need to step aside. It’s time to put a new face on the GOP.”

4. Lying doesn’t work
The Romney campaign’s “most shocking strategy” was acting like “winning was more important than truth,” says Robert L. Cavnar at The Huffington Post. Romney “freely lied about the president, the economy, welfare reform, the auto bailout, major companies, history, and even Americans themselves. He flipped on every single social issue that he had advocated as governor of Massachusetts and stridently concealed his own tax records.” When confronted, he doubled down and told stretched the truth even further. In the end, though, Romney’s failure to be straight with voters “badly damaged his reputation” — and proved to be a losing strategy.

2. Conservatives must soften their rhetoric on abortion
The biggest lesson “from this debacle,” says Joe Battenfeld at The Boston Herald, is that the GOP needs to start winning back women. Putting more women like Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) into GOP leadership positions would be a nice start. Symbolism only goes so far, though. The GOP also has to shed policies that fuel charges that “the party is unfriendly toward women,” and one way to do that is to “reassess their hard-line position against abortion rights.” At the very least, staunchly anti-abortion Republicans need to stop pushing “the rhetorical envelope” when they talk about banning abortion, and whether there should be exceptions in cases of rape, says Lindsey Meeks at The Seattle Times. As Todd Akin found out in Missouri after making his comments about “legitimate rape,” and as Richard Mourdock learned in Indiana when he said pregnancies from rape are “something God intended,” when you’re dealing with a sensitive topic and you use insensitive words, you lose.

I know that there will be many that think this is BS……….The Tea Party will not like much of this deal….but they need the GOP to stay in vogue…..without the party they are just whack-a-doodles…..and the Party needs to make adjustments to remain a viable alternative……

What will the party do?  Will they choose life?