Day: May 20, 2009

2009 Anal-Ocity

Just when you thought the RNC was gonna be silent for awhile and would spend their time trying to retool the party before the 2010 elections.  NO….just wishful thinking.

The AP reported that Michael Steele, chairman of the RNC, recently tied same sex marriage to small business by using health care.

Steele said that was just an example of how the party can retool its message to appeal to young voters and minorities without sacrificing core conservative principles. Steele said he used the argument weeks ago while chatting on a flight with a college student who described herself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like gay marriage.

“Now all of a sudden I’ve got someone who wasn’t a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for,” Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. “So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money.”

Does this also apply to “traditional” marriage also?  Does that mean that if I marry Betty Lou that it will be a drag on the business?  What crap!  The employee pays for the right to have his/her spouse on the company policy.

When will Repubs finally see that this guy is an idiot and they need to find someone who can lead the party into the future.

The GOP: So Much White Noise

I know, I know….so what”s new?

Every station, every channel and every network has covered the situation concerning the GOP–will it survive or will it just fade away?  Opinions are like a/holes–we all have one.  I will attempt to answer the question without using some partisan dialect.  But how could we analyze the situation?

And everyone has analyzed the party that has a pc, so why not join the fray?

Larry Sabato and Bruce Larson wrote a book entitled: ” The Party’s Just Begun” which deals with the shaping of political parties.  Within the pages of this book are a set of 10 attributes that a strong party needs to have.  My discussion of the GOP will be based on these 10 points.

1–Equity and legitimacy–a party needs this for public acceptance of the party itself.

2–Electoral Appeal–enables a party to mobilize support.

3–Participation and Education–an internal mechanism that encourages the voter to participate and educate voters on policy, candidates and ideas.

4–Accountability–party leaders and office holders accountable for their actions.

5–Conflict Control–the power to adequately arbitrate dissension, conflict, in party ranks.

6–Resources–have enough money, people and technology to achieve party goals

7–Autonomy–to make changes and alternations to party policy, structure, and so forth.

8–Policy Capacity–the capacity to formulate, refine, and promote party policy, ideas, and issues.

9–Incentives–rewards, incentives, and penalities to induce cooperative from officeholders and activists to better project a coherent image of the party.

10-Candidate Assistance–The ability to assist candidates in their pursuit of political office.

Now using the formula present by the above mention people we can look at the GOP and grade if it is a successful and strong party.

Using an educational model we assign 10 pts per section, as if it were a test.

1–4 pts because the prevailing attitude is that the GOP is not in touch with the electorate.

2–1 pt for appeal, for the same reason as #1.

3–0 pts there is NO apparatus in place to educate the voter, just rehash of old policies.

4–0 pts there is no way to enforce a rule to stay on message if there is no message

5–0 pts for conflict control–same as #4

6–10 pts for assets…they seem to have the same large contributors.

7–0 pts…..because they have no direction only to say NO to anything as far as policy goes.

8–0 pts for policy formulation…there is no definitive policy

9–0 pts–there are no incentives.

10-0 pts for candidate assistance…they have money but they have no candidate that is anything other than pale reflection of the Gingrich days of hate and disdain.

A total of 15 pts out of a 100 is the final tally.  Using the method set forward by Sabato and Larson, the GOP is at best, a weak struggling party with little hope of success without major changes and new blood in their candidates.  Their only bright spot at this time seems to be Gov. Crist of Florida.  The GOP realizes this also that is why it took less than 15 minutes for them to endorse the candidcy of Crist as a candidate for the Senate seat for the state.

Thomas Paine had a thought on this, when considering the character of the party:

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”  The GOP has lost its character and is struggling to recovery it.