Opinion: How the GOP should regroup from its election defeat

Now over a week after the election, the Grand Old Party has to quickly regroup and move ahead. But before they do, the party needs to change to have a future as anything other than a minority party. It’s not a matter of changing their core principles as some have suggested (in the end a shift of 407K votes in the battleground states would have changed the winner of the electoral college), but drastic changes need to be made in the way those principles are presented to voters to change the result of future elections.

Below are just a few modest suggestions:

•The GOP must take a stand. They need to decide if the Republican Party will be the party of all things to all people, or the party of the constitution? Will they be the party of smaller government and freedom or simply the “not quite as progressive as the Democrats” party. They must choose wisely; “me, too” pitches rarely work and they risk losing the conservative base.

•Streamline the primaries. The conventional wisdom during that long primary season was debate is a healthy process. But while the GOP was firing bullets at each other, Obama was using his primary dollars to organize the swing states and run anti-GOP commercials. The process needs to be much shorter.

•Obama is not the enemy, his policies are. One of the first things said by Mitch McConnell after Obama was elected to his first term was that his job was to make Obama a one-term-President. That phrase has haunted the GOP for years. They can’t fight everything and they need to stop making it personal.

•It’s time to stop avoiding social issues. This campaign was supposed to be all about the economy; Obama made it a war on women, contraceptives and abortion. There are some in the party who say those issues need to be avoided. But face it—they end up fighting the battle anyway. The mainstream media and the Democrats will make it an issue--that is a guarantee. When it does come up, the GOP is hopelessly unprepared (Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, for example), because they aren’t used to debating life issues and say dumb things.

•Revise the way the GOP presents economic issues. Voters believed that the economy was the number one issue, yet Obama, who’s economic program has been a disaster, still won. It’s certainly not the electorate--we have an intelligent voter base in this country; the GOP must find the “sales pitch” that works in a society where half the voter base is used to receiving government freebies.

•Reach out to Latinos, African Americans and Women. Latinos are not all about immigration; women are not all about abortion. We need to show how our economic policies will improve the life of women and minorities and how our foreign policies will better protect their families. But we also need to find a conservative solution to immigration NOW, not as we near the next elections.

•What do we do about the media? The mainstream media is generally corrupt. It’s hard to get out a message when the supposed journalists are advocates for the opposition. There is talk radio but it’s hard to get them to adapt to changing the message. A strategy for co-opting the media into presenting a balanced approach must be developed.

•Listen To Sean Connery. “You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? Sean Connery as Jim Malone in The Untouchables (1987)

Like John McCain before him, Governor Romney is a truly decent human being (thankfully Romney doesn’t have a dumb blonde daughter like McCain). Romney’s decency was one of things that voters found attractive--it was also one of the reasons he lost. The Republican nominee thought he was competing in the traditional world of presidential politics, but his opponent was following Chicago rules, which is a much dirtier game. In Chicago, the political arena is in the gutter, names are called, lies are told and no one cares, especially when only one side is playing by Chicago rules. And rule number one is there are no rules.

Rather than talk about his policies vs. Romney, Obama’s most effective commercials cast the former Governor as Scrooge, happily firing people, hoarding his money, killing grandmas and promoting the rape of women. It’s time to pick a candidate who will play Obama’s game of Chicago-style politics--it worked AGAIN!

•No More “Same Old Same Old” The Republicans have a nasty habit of selecting “the next in line” as their presidential candidate. Many of the recent nominees were selected because it was “their turn.” Bob Dole, the first George Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney all fit into this category. As they begin to coagulate towards potential candidates for 2012, we look at what pundits have been calling the GOP’s strong bench. People like Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Bob MacDonald and so on. The whole lot of primary contenders from 2012 should be thrown out and they need to find the new blood. Chris Christie was left out on purpose, he has been sulking ever since he wasn’t selected for VP and has proven he cares more about his reelection than his party. There are plenty of political hacks on both sides of the aisle, Christie is just one more Republican one.

•They need to start tomorrow. One of the things Obama did effectively was to keep campaigning. Almost immediately after his first inauguration he went back on the road. He is planning to travel the country to sell his tax plan.

The GOP should figure out what states it needs to win next time, which senate/house races are winnable and keep those organizations alive even though the campaign is over.

Since November 7th there has been much media speculation about the future of the Republican Party. Much of it has been at the hands of the progressive media claiming the party needs to moderate. Nothing could be worse for the country. Imagine a two party system, one on the far progressive left, the other almost as progressive as the first. We would basically have a one-party system. America would never have a choice on election day, all political ideas will be similar and this country would never be able to generate a full range of solutions to its most pressing problems.

The GOP shouldn’t moderate, but should change the way they present their ideas. Only then will America have the benefit of two parties with two different sets of ideas.

Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of the political blog “The Lid” (www.jeffdunetz.com). Jeff contributes to some of the largest political sites on the internet including American Thinker, Big Government, Big Journalism, NewsReal and Pajama’s Media, and has been a guest on national radio shows including G. Gordon Liddy, Tammy Bruce and Glenn Beck. Jeff lives in Long Island.