The (latest) GOP ‘comeback’ plan

August 22, 2007

For the last few years, it seems that prominent conservatives roll out a “Republican comeback plan” about every six months or so. “If only the president and congressional Republicans would do (fill in the blank), then everything would be back on track,” they argue.

The latest such effort comes by way of The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes, who laid out a 1,000-word game plan in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

As Barnes sees it, the GOP won’t win the White House next year, and will stay in the minority on the Hill, but they can take some steps this year to put them on the “road to political recovery.” It’s a three-part plan: “Events must work in their favor, notably in Iraq. Democrats must screw up badly. And Republicans must change their ways, in a compelling fashion.”

The first part reads like a fairly silly dream — the surge works, Iraq improves, and the GOP benefits from the “absence of an economic downturn.” Whatever.

The second part is some concern-troll-like assessment of the Dems’ strategy in the near future. As Barnes describes it, as long as Dems don’t push too hard against Petraeus, and don’t shut down the government in a budget fight, they’ll be fine. Again, whatever.

The third part is entertaining part.

Transforming a negative image hardened over a period of years is no easy task. Still, there’s a lot Republicans can do. First, they should clean house of Republicans caught up in scandal. Forcing two or three House members and at least one senator to retire would involve more than friendly persuasion and no doubt provoke strong resistance. […]

Some of the best and most ethical Republicans believe earmarks are a worthwhile tool for incumbents. Maybe so, but they’re now indelibly associated with corruption…. Republicans should advocate their elimination and, additionally, urge Mr. Bush to veto any bill containing earmarks. […]

As Karl Rove has noted, Republicans need a big idea. The best available is the one Mr. Bush abandoned: ownership. Allowing private investment of payroll taxes for Social Security would only be a start. An Ownership Society would allow individual Americans, rather than government, to control how and where their health care, public education, 401(k) and IRA funds are spent.

Yep, the key to the GOP’s future is — once again — the “ownership society.” Whaddaya know.

I think Steve M.’s response pretty much summed up my feelings on the subject.

Oh, please. Please please please please please please please.

Please, Republicans — embrace the “ownership society” idea again. No, don’t just embrace it — brandish it, fly it from the tallest mast, spell it (as Barnes does) with capital letters. Please come to the conclusion that this is your way out of the wilderness.

Yes, I’m afraid Barnes’ plan is pretty silly. For one thing, Republicans are unlikely to force resignations from some of their corrupt incumbents. Retirements make it harder on the NRSC and the NRCC, and besides, a few resignations here and there won’t address the party’s systemic problems.

For that matter, there’s no way on earth Republican lawmakers are going to ban earmarks. The GOP is the Party of Earmarks; it’s how they prefer to legislate.

And lastly, as Steve M. explained nicely, nobody wants to live in an ownership society. Americans don’t want to privatize Social Security, don’t want to privatize public schools, and when it comes to their healthcare, the nation already hates insurance companies.

This is Barnes’ comeback plan? The Republican Party must be in worse shape than I thought.

You should also realize that if Barnes foresaw Republicans being back in power, he would not care a whit about earmarks. Sounds to me like he is taking toys away from Democrats since they’ll remain in a position to play with them.

  • The problem for the repubs is that they have achieved all they were ever serious about: Protecting the rich from paying their fair share of taxes, and stacking the courts to be more corporate friendly. They results are in and they’re as expected. The rich got richer and the corporations bear less responsibilities.

    The social issues were window dressing designed to help with their real judicial agenda. It no doubt helped win some elections, but has also painted the repub brand as a bunch of religious extremists who are obsessed with how people have sex.

    There’s an easy fix for the repubs: Stop lynching your moderates.

  • “Republicans must change their ways”?

    I wonder how many Republicans Fred “Bullshitter” Barnes will be able to find that will say on the record “I need to change my ways”?

    I’m guessing zero.

    I wish I could meet Fred Barnes and ask him what the hell he’s smoking.

  • What happens when people gamble with their Social Security and lose? Is Fred Barnes incapable of thinking even one step ahead? Their proposal is like telling people to buy lottery tickets with food stamps.

  • Dislodging the GOP from power makes pulling teeth look like, well, a cakewalk or something. The upside is that once they’re out, they are so clueless that they may take a good long time before they are a credible threat again. They’ve come to believe their own propaganda, so they’ll need a decade or more of failure before it occurs to them they really need to try something else.

  • The Republican Ownership Society: The top 1% owns everything and the rest are just serfs.

  • Here’s how Republicans will eventually regain power:
    1) Lose power now, and let Democrats take over and fix things,
    2) Once things are fixed and major concerns are alleviated, start appealing to people’s selfishness, fears, and bigotry.

    I’d add the intermediate step of waiting for everyone who remembers George Bush to die, but I’m not quite that optimistic about the American voter.

  • “Republicans must change their ways” — Barnes

    A new marketing approach may convince some voters, but the real problem is modern conservatism, with all it’s internal contradictions and anti-democratic tendencies. The only way for republicans to become truly viable as leaders is to abandon the republican party.

  • It’s really much simpler than that.

    If Hillary Clinton is nominated, that’s–at worst–a firewall against further big Republican losses in Congress next year, and very possibly a road back to at least a House majority. It also probably doubles their chances of retaining the White House, God forbid.

    If she wins the presidency, they’ll have everything back by 2012. And then they can get back to destroying the Constitution, creating neo-feudalism and making us debt slaves of China.

    The Republicans can’t govern, and they aren’t really interested in trying. The motivating factors for their party are hate and greed. Only hate can sustain them out of power, and Hillary Clinton fuels their hate.

  • The “ownership and cut taxes” Republican paradigm is as dead as Ronald Reagan and Fred Barnes oughtta know it…if the volatility on Wall Street has shown anything it’s that we desperately need re-regulation…and good luck if your “ownership” included money markets invested in subprime mortgages.

    I think we’re facing a seachange in economic fundamentals as big as anything FDR faced when he launched the New Deal…what we’re looking at is the aforementioned re-regulation of the markets and re-industrialization as we shift away from carbon in the face of Peak Oil and global warming…

    And while we’re at it toss in universal health coverage too…it would be so simple to extend the safety nets from both sides – over the next couple decades expand CHIP and simply lower the age threshold for Medicare eligibility…that’s why the Bushies are drawing a line in the sand with the new CHIP regulations because they fear that Congress has decided that, in lieu of more radical change, they have opted to gradually take the punch bowl away from the health insurers…

  • N Wells at 8.

    No need to wait.
    You’ll recall when people are asked their favorite president, most voters say Reagan or Clinton.
    That means Dubya will be ancient history by 2030.

  • Well, as for this bit…

    The second part is some concern-troll-like assessment of the Dems’ strategy in the near future. As Barnes describes it, as long as Dems don’t push too hard against Petraeus, and don’t shut down the government in a budget fight, they’ll be fine. Again, whatever.

    …it looks like the Dems are setting up to be their own concern trolls. As usual.

    Levin’s statements signal the clear strategy Senate Democrats are embracing in the preparation for Gen. Petraeus’ imminent visit. Senate Democrats largely will not challenge, but rather will embrace and celebrate, the notion that The Surge Is Working and that we are making “military progress,” whatever that might mean this month.

  • I prefer to think about the Republican “go-back,” as in “go back where you came from,” which these days might be an address in some sort of special hell.

    They’ve got nothing. Nothing.

    Cleaning house? I am mindful of those bug and rodent “bombs” that are used to rid homes of vermin; the GOP’s problem will be fielding candidates who are ethically clean who are not also so far to the right even the die-hard conservatives won’t vote for them.

    Eliminate earmarks? Barnes might as well have tasked the Republicans to figure out how to live without oxygen. A few more decades of global warming – that the GOP refuses to acknowledge exists – and we will all be trying to figure out how to do that.

    The ownership society…yes, great timing on that one. Right about now a lot of older people are on their knees thanking God or whomever for the guaranteed Social Security benefit that will help now that their IRAs and 401(k)s are suffering the consequences of the stock market’s volatility. They may also be donning crucifixes and garlic necklaces to keep Republicans as far away from Social Security as possible.

    I would be enjoying this more if the Demcorats weren’t going to be faced with cleaning up the gargantuan pile of elephant crap that the GOP is leaving behind.

  • Leave it good old Fred to come up with the magic formula for the Republican comeback. I for one just can’t wait to return to the late 19th Century. No pesky FDA bothering farmers if their food happens to kill people, no foolish laws restricting the rights of children to work, no more special rights for women and brown people and the disabled, no more free rides on medical care for grandma and grampa. The list goes on and on.

  • The Republican comeback plan is already in motion. Consider why Democrats poll near 65% disapproval of a Democratic congress…by their own party no less. Independents and Republicans disapprove about the same. All republicans have to do is watch the country become so frustrated with Democrats who cater to Bush, refuse to stand up against Republicans, and rather than doing too much oversight…are viewed as not doing enough. The whole country is angry as hell at them and right now they are just the lesser of two evils. If there were any others to vote for besides Democrats, Democrats would lose…just not to Republicans, at least not yet. But the more Democrats appear weak and cowardly and ready to capitulate the more frustrated voters become with them. Blue dog democrats are bringing down the party and if Republicans become more honest and indulge more social programs they just have to wait while Democrats turn into the “go along” party as they have already lost the respect of their constituents.

  • The whole country is angry as hell at them and right now they are just the lesser of two evils.

    Or as some wag put it during the 2004 election, the evil of two lessers.

  • we all live under the same roof. it be interestting to see how different they live. I injoy the fact that when i go to work my health and safty rules are enforced,i”ll go home to my family. My pension and health insurace is overseen by both empolyer and empolyees so we both see how our monies are spent and invested.All this and more is possible because great leaders of our past knew what was good for the people of this country.Now it’s whats good for corporate america. as a republican are you seating at the front of the bus with corporate america or at the back with the rest of america.A third party is what we want and need.

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