September 2014 Newsletter
I do hope everyone had a restful summer and that you are reinvigorated and ready to get to work for November. There is much to do, both in Texas and nationally, to reverse the course of destruction upon which the current administration is set. We can all rest in December.
But do not, for a moment, think that taking control of the Senate means our job is over; indeed it is just the beginning. We will blink and find ourselves in the midst of Presidential campaign season. If we have learned anything from the last two elections, it is that we cannot elect a Republican president by ourselves; it is imperative that the under-30 and our disenfranchised voters feel like our nominee is someone they can support.
Some time back I heard Rand Paul talking about how, if we were ever going to have a Republican president again, the party needed a complete overhaul, not just “a little tweaking around the edges”. He seemed pretty sure that, to succeed, the party of the future needs to have a new message and a new look. He got a pretty enthusiastic response.
I find Rand Paul to be an interesting and thought provoking man. But, in this case, I think he’s dead wrong.
I was reading some old newspapers of my dad’s when I came across a quote from Dwight Eisenhower – remember, he took 442 electoral votes – who preached the need to return to “the overall philosophy of Lincoln: In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with the people’s money or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative.”
“Liberal” to Eisenhower did not mean welfare; he meant compassion. He meant a “hand UP” when necessary, not a “hand OUT”. Democrats co-opted this Republican value and perverted it for political gain. Sadly, not only did we allow this to happen but we allowed the D’s to frame the entire message: Republicans don’t care about people – they only care about corporate welfare and protecting right-wing billionaires. We did nothing to counter that, and the myth continues to seep into every election.
If we truly want to win future elections, I believe that we need to go back to the Republican Party of old. To the party that cared enough about our fellow man to abolish slavery and profoundly defended our individual liberties and the democratic process. We need to find compassion for people, and still be rigidly conservative with our money, our economy and our government.
The Republican party of the future needs to look more like the Republican party of the past if we want to win elections. That’s my take.