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Quote Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff View Post
The GOP needs to recapture the votes of adults. We need to open the door to the youth eventually crossing over by not having some ignorant boogyman fear of one of the 2 main political parties in the nation. We should stand for interesting things, like calling for more libertarian laws on digital copyright - because the Democrats use that one to placate their financial base and it would piss off musicians and hollywood types; backing up on marijauna legislation before the Democrats eventually do it.

I don't care about marijana, but it sounds pretty dumb that the party defending smoking ciggarettes and drinking booze is attacking marijuana which is just as dumb.

Democrats in power will make themselves the party against freedom on their own. Republicans have the opportunity to play up the freedom strangling of the majority governemnt and show themselves to be a real alternative sensistive to Americansims. To get adults back we need to put money in their pockets after the democrats take it away.
I'm not getting any sleep tonight, so pardon me if I sound inarticulate, but I have some commentary.

The GOP needs to recapture the votes of adults. We need to open the door to the youth eventually crossing over by not having some ignorant boogyman fear of one of the 2 main political parties in the nation.
This sounds like the GOP just needs voters to survive politically; talking about demographic groups they need to improve in, rather than why those groups would have an interest in supporting the GOP. Are there groups that the Republican platform naturally represents that are under-represented in the party? Adults may be too generic a group, as all voters would have to be adults anyway. Are there "family values" voters who have temporarily jumped ship to the Democratic party that you're looking for? After the Bush administration becomes more of a memory, and the recent rash of Republican governors and congressmen caught in scandals becomes forgotten, those family values votes will return and vote along abortion/gay marriage/etc lines once again. I don't think the current Democratic party will ever support a more conservative morality platform, so voters who disagree with the Democrats on those issues will head back, if they ever really left to begin with.

As for fear of political parties; that won't go away anytime soon. It is far too lucrative a business on both sides of the aisle to stir up passions and incite division in our society by playing on fears. Conservative talk radio and liberal media outlets will still be there, books and op-eds will be written, talking heads will continue to paint the United States into red and blue camps. Almost any kind of controversy gets ratings and is therefore valuable. Not to mention both parties are at war with one another and will use every resource at their disposal to win the war for the sake of winning. Looney liberal will keep voting for the more liberal party, uptight conservative will keep voting for the more conservative party, and the major parties will continue to jump through hoops for the undecideds who can't make up their mind and are attracted to shiny things, scandals and controversy, and of course, promises that can't be kept without bankrupting the country or worse. And so the sane people who are simply voting in their best interest won't shift around too much, and the nation will continue to see-saw based on the whims of those with amnesia or attention deficit disorder or chronic indecisiveness, as well as the occasional moderate whose views aren't properly represented by either party.

We should stand for interesting things, like calling for more libertarian laws on digital copyright - because the Democrats use that one to placate their financial base and it would piss off musicians and hollywood types;
I think the things the GOP currently stands for are plenty interesting. Nothing more lively/unruly than the abortion debate or the gay rights debate or the gun rights debate... I doubt the prospect of more lax copyright laws will attract many voters. It would absolutely cause many in those industries to become single-issue voters and vote against the Republicans closer to 100% of the time. That's almost like asking the oil industry to give up it's right to charge for oil, something it expends considerable resources producing, refining, and distributing. I am no expert but it sounds like a bad idea if you're looking to gain voters. It's not important enough an issue to the mainstream to really cause people to jump from one party to another, except those who will have a real big fat problem with it, such as those in the industry who are already less interested in voting Republican than the average voter. You're also looking at provoking those upper class, rich, and obscenely wealthy types to dump a considerable amount of money on opposing such "libertarian" laws, further strengthening the Democrats or anyone else opposed to the changes.

backing up on marijauna legislation before the Democrats eventually do it. I don't care about marijana, but it sounds pretty dumb that the party defending smoking ciggarettes and drinking booze is attacking marijuana which is just as dumb.


You could end up splitting the GOP along "morality" voter lines. I'm not saying I disagree with the idea, but it will get progressively harder and harder to raise the banner of "goodness and decency" while promoting less restrictions on vice and "sin". But I would certainly agree that current drug policies don't make sense. It would be quite a shift though to go from being more conservative than Democrats on an issue to more liberal, and I am not sure how realistic that is.

Democrats in power will make themselves the party against freedom on their own.
So far as I am aware, the Republican platform against abortion, gay rights, the ongoing campaign for abstinence-only education, and conservative social policies in general mean that they are the more restrictive party on a slew of personal freedom issues. The Democrats seem to support slightly more taxation and more restrictive gun control laws.... not sure what else qualifies the Republicans to market themselves as being for more "freedom" than the Democrats. It does seem to be a very superficial marketing campaign that you're talking about... there's not much you're proposing in terms of serious policy changes, more like flipping sides on a couple issues and attempting to market that as being a real libertarian shift.

Republicans have the opportunity to play up the freedom strangling of the majority governemnt and show themselves to be a real alternative sensistive to Americansims.
That would certainly be different from their current strategy... seems like they are engaging in a move to the "base" which is more (ugh... I hate this terminology) "right-wing", and attempting to market themselves as being for fewer taxes and economic regulation, yes... but perhaps even more conservative than before; the recent campaign seems to be very centered on fears of whites regarding affirmative action, which doesn't do much to build the GOP a broader base of support among non-whites. As for being sensitive to Americans (?) the GOP seems to be almost stubborn in its refusal to back down on clearly unpopular policies that were recently rejected at the ballot box. Indeed, the marketing has been geared towards trying to sell the same product as before, and telling the voters that that's what they REALLY want, in spite of evidence to the contrary.

The deregulation and lower taxes the Republicans are suggesting is the exact same thing they supported during the Bush administration, and before. The temporary boost in consumer spending caused some short term economic stimulus, but the lack of revenue and no significant drop in spending caused massive budget problems, and then having to bail out several industries which failed due to corruption and deregulation caused even more problems... there isn't much support for more of the same.

To get adults back we need to put money in their pockets after the democrats take it away
Mostly what's taking away our money is the rampant unemployment, lack of affordable healthcare, rising cost of living, and collapse of the housing market along with several industries. It's hard to put money back in people's pockets without addressing those issues, and the Republican platform seems to be vehemently against doing much of anything about any of those issues.

Perhaps my reaction here is predictable, but... I am trying to look at this from a very neutral and nonpartisan standpoint and see what you're saying, and it just doesn't seem to match the facts of what is going on. I have no idea if what the Democrats are doing will turn the country around, and I'm not using this post to advocate for what they have in mind. I'm just saying, from my perspective, where the GOP currently stands on these issues is not very popular, and I don't believe it will be popular anytime in the near future. It seems to be ignoring the huge disconnect between what the GOP wants to do and what the public wants the government to do, which is something besides lowering taxes. More Bush-era policies which people seem to think caused many of these problems is not what the public is clamoring for, and minor changes on some libertarian causes probably won't unite the Republican party, and it in fact may alienate certain groups even more and divide values voters from libertarians. And it still ignores the meat of the entire policy debate: How to address the main problems the country is facing in a way that is different from before. So far, the GOP has come up with nothing truly innovative. Feel free to correct me on this, if you have examples of any real shift in policy since Bush left office.