I Couldn’t Agree More
July 11, 2008
I expunged quite a bit of my anger yesterday, and so am feeling no real reaction to anything this morning, making lunchtime posting somewhat unsatisfying. I am, however, enjoying a somewhat smug feeling attached to the GOP’s launch of the RNC Republican Platform Interactive Online Suggestion Box.
The GOP wants you to help it figure out its party platform. Today, the Republican Platform Committee launched a site to gather comments and policy suggestions directly from the party faithful (and anyone else willing to give up their e-mail address). They also launched a corresponding Facebook app. The idea ostensibly is to gather feedback and debate about policy issues such as national security, energy and gas prices, health care reform, judicial nominations, and that old crowd pleaser “Protecting American Values.†Where’s the technology plank? Here are a few resources for them to start thinking about what tech policies we need.
For each issue, there is a synopsis of some of the questions policy makers are grappling with, and registered members are able to respond via either text or video comments. The site will have polls and will be moderated to keep the flame wars down. There is no apparent way to create new topics of debate or suggest detailed policy proposals other than in comments. It kind of screams for a wiki approach to some of this. But that would mean giving up control of the policy discussions on the site. Imagine that.
The TechCrunch article asks why the Democrats haven’t launched a similar measure, to which I respond — two reasons: one, they aren’t stupid enough to advertise to the entire Internet that their party lacks a cohesive platform which will drive voters to the polling booths in November, and two, they probably had something similar on MyBarackObama.com, they realized it failed and went back to traditional social networking. Not that I don’t think soliciting ideas from people with personal computers is a bad move for the RNC, particularly considering its the first proactive measure we’ve seen come out of the camp this election season (other than McCain Space, and I dare anyone to try to set one up with any measure of success) — I definitely do. I just understand that it will be immediately overrun with fellow Paultards, rendering it useless to the RNC, who are probably hoping to the high heavens that it solicits workable policy positions for them, like a blanket endorsement of government spending.
If the Paultards take it over and the RNC takes that seriously, maybe we’ll be in for a better four years than we expected. My money is on…that is never going to happen.
What I think bothers me most is that a platform like this could be really useful, but that it ultimately will be uncovered as a total facade, as Republican leaders write off the technologially savvy youth, who will dominate the forum both at its web address and with the Facebook application, when they start to demand real changes that pull the party more to the libertarian side of things. Instead, we’ll see more of the same from future leaders: an unworkable foreign policy, drastic infringement on personal and civil liberties in the name of national security, and an intense focus on social issues that should be left in the background as each state’s voters — and not the federal personnel — choose how to handle them.
Its symptomatic of a bigger problem that the RNC has: it refuses to treat youth who don’t think like George W. Bush and James Dobson with anything other then condescension and contempt. Young conservative and young libertarian voters who demand government accountability, freedom and liberty, and real change are looked upon as outside the norm. There is a reason so many young people flocked to Ron Paul rallies, and it has nothing to do with his stunning good looks — although Ron had a lot wrong with him (a good deal of that being his apparent insanity), he said things that rang true with kids who grew up in a world dominated by liberal teachers, Bill Clinton and hippie parents. He didn’t talk too much about condemning them for their personal choices, or try to work Biblical messages into his speeches. He merely talked about what he would dismantle. What he wouldn’t do, so that when it came down to it, personal freedom — in the Lockean sense — was preserved.
Just this morning, I received an “urgent” message from a Republican luminary imploring me to reach out to the legions of naive youth who have been hoodwinked and fooled by the Obama campaign. The letter was written as though there were millions of dead-eyed, zombie-like, newly registered Democrats who’d been hypnotized into following Barack. I can kind of see the mental picture someone had when writing the piece — Sylvester the Cat being lulled into a hypnotic state, evidenced by the swirls forming in his eyes, by an image of Tweety Bird with Barack Obama’s face on the little pocket watch he is swinging back and forth. I felt like it was going to be closely followed by a message telling me how evil that new-fangled rock and roll music is.
Now, personally, Barack Obama scares the crap out of me, and his followers weird devotion to him even more so, but its not out of naivete that they are lulled, Pied Piper-like, out of the conservative village. Kids are choosing Obama partly because he’s young and enthusiastic and untested (so they don’t know how much he sucks or how politically connected he is yet), and party because he offers them something they aren’t getting from any political party in the past twenty years — a chance to be represented by someone who takes them seriously. I would imagine (and not too hard since I tend to know), that they see Barack as being more in tune with the world they feel they are charged with inheriting. We grew up in a more global society than our parents. It might have been leftist propaganda, but we learned early on that the US doesn’t exist as an island. We learned that we have responsibilities. And we learned that we should all get along. Also not to run with scissors, though something tells me Barack has never done that.
We want a world that’s different from the one that people over 30 are clamoring to have. That’s just how we are. I wouldn’t expect the under-30 generation of any era to be any different. The young are idealistic. They don’t know failure because to them, failure is not an option. All they know is that, at this point in their lives, they have the opportunity to bring forth a brave new world out of one that is dominated by their parents. And whats great about it, is that, like Obama’s chant, they believe that its actually possible.
Which is why I always wonder why the RNC isn’t listening more closely to the kids who feel this way (and that means almost all of them) and are choosing to be conservatives and libertarians. Its why I wonder why this new forum, with all of its libertarian posters and its definite libertarian leaning, will be ignored completely in favor of some policies that aren’t as palatable to the youth. We will be the future. We will change the world. All that the RNC can do is choose whether it refuses to listen, and therefore becomes slowly irrelevant as our generation ages and gradually obtains power, or it can listen and be the party of change that so many young people are looking for.
We’re willing to support it. And most of us weren’t Warner Brothers fans, anyway.
Posted in Uncategorized
July 11th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I’m still waiting for the “I’m a closet Paultard” post.
But I think you hit the nail on the head. That thing will be overrun with Ron Paul supporters wanting to change the party platform. And those suggestions will be ignored.
They should cut the crap and just call it “Republican Platform Interactive Online Validation Box”.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Thanks for all your thoughtful comments on our efforts for the GOP platform and the challenges ahead. The platform committee is going to do its best to take all views — all of them — into account.
Steven Duffield
Executive Director
2008 Platform Committee
July 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
“Heh, heh, you said validation box.” Sorry, not appropriate for a 50 something to add, but in essence you are both correct. Tech savvy youth and middles will have a lot more to say than say, my mom or your mom, even though they might harbor the same attitudes and positions. One of my neighbors is a local republican organiser who is going on 80 or so, and he’s made the claim that he’s never touched a computer in his life, yet his attitudes and comments on policy and mine are startlingly similar. Yet I fear E.M. is correct, the GOP will ignore the suggestions because somehow they won’t be as “in touch” with the normal voters as they want to believe. That could be a mistake, but I hope they at least listen a little. Not that it will make any difference. “Wars are won in the mind. Perhaps you’ve been playing in the wrong field?” Voter turnout will be the key ingredient come the day, and nothing else will determine who the College of Electors chooses as President.
come visit and lol ur pols pho paws!
July 11th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I’m not sure I’m closeted anymore. I guess I’m a Bob Barr fan now that Ron Paul has dropped out? I don’t know. I’m not really that into Bob Barr. He seems okay, just…he’s not thrilling and I kind of want thrilling.
I’m hearing Ron Paul might run as a Constitution Party nominee, but I really don’t like the Constitution Party, so I don’t want to vote for them and then get their mailers all the time.
I think what I liked about Ron Paul — and I didn’t really like HIM — is that he somehow managed to be conservative, even though he was clearly bordering on Libertarian. I don’t think many of his ideas were workable, but I like that, when the pendulum swung to the extreme, it swung toward “extreme freedom.” I’d rather have half or even a third more of what he was talking about, then have the pendulum swing towards the middle (a la John McCain) or even towards the extreme right (a la Mike Huckabee). Some people would say that that makes me a “recovering neo-con,” but I think even that term is misused. If the people who were in charge were neo-conservatives, things might actually get better. They never even made it THERE.
I hope that they do listen to people on that site. Even listening to a few suggestions would be an improvement over the current state. I think the Republican party has three choices: it can become more Republican — meaning more middle of the road — or it could become more right wing or it could become more libertarian. I think the third option is the best for the long term. I don’t want to see them become the Whigs or the Know-Nothings. They need to be the Conservatives.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Bob Barr is the best of what’s left.
The Republican Party is in trouble and McCain is making it worse. This appears to be a desperate attempt to garner support by making people think that they are finally going to listen to them. It won’t work.
As the traffic builds on their website, expect the MSM special interest groups to spin the story. “The Republican Party is now enjoying a massive online following!” or “Ron Paul supporters flock to McCain!”. The problem is that many people vote based on what they think others are doing and they will pick up a little bit of help.
The thing about Ron is that, while his supporters were fighting and continue to fight desperately, he knew that he wasn’t going to win and didn’t really try. His campaign was just a whimsical trip down what if road to him. Perhaps he came to grips, after fighting the battle for so long, by allowing his passion to leave him. Even the MSM special interest groups wondered why he wasn’t ranting and raving over his treatment.
Bob Barr, like a born again Christian, like many people his age, has had an awakening. Hopefully, we’ll see some fire.
There are many of us over 30 who would like to leave a better country behind us.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
“Not that I don’t think soliciting ideas from people with personal computers is a bad move for the RNC. I just understand that it will be immediately overrun with fellow Paultards, rendering it useless . . . ”
ROFLMAO!
OK, belly-laugh out of the way, you have nailed the the core dysfunction of the establishment GOP with the following - THIS is whey they are in danger of being in the wilderness for many years to come:
“What I think bothers me most is that a platform like this could be really useful, but that it ultimately will be uncovered as a total facade, as Republican leaders write off the technologially savvy youth, who will dominate the forum when they start to demand real changes that pull the party more to the libertarian side of things. Instead, we’ll see more of the same from future leaders: an unworkable foreign policy, drastic infringement on personal and civil liberties in the name of national security, and an intense focus on social issues that should be left in the background as each state’s voters — and not the federal personnel — choose how to handle them.
“Its symptomatic of a bigger problem that the RNC has: it refuses to treat youth who don’t think like George W. Bush and James Dobson with anything other then condescension and contempt. Young conservative and young libertarian voters who demand government accountability, freedom and liberty, and real change are looked upon as outside the norm.
“. . . Its why I wonder why this new forum, with all of its libertarian posters and its definite libertarian leaning, will be ignored completely in favor of some policies that aren’t as palatable to the youth. We will be the future. We will change the world. All that the RNC can do is choose whether it refuses to listen, and therefore becomes slowly irrelevant as our generation ages and gradually obtains power, or it can listen and be the party of change that so many young people are looking for.”
July 11th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
If I was running the platform, I’d make it one sentence. The Republican Party supports less government and more freedom. Period That’s the party I joined. We need more 1994 Republicans and less George W Bush (big spending) Republicans.
The real platform however, not the convention one, is determined by who we elect to Congress, State Rep, State Senate, etc.
July 12th, 2008 at 9:12 am
What Michigander said.
And once you join us on the over 30 side you’ll realize that “thrilling” is overrated. We should be picking the person who is best equipped to move the country in the direction we want it to go, not the person who makes people swoon and faint and sends tingles up their leg. It all reminds me of Clinton v Dole in that dept.
But no matter, we are stuck with two lousy choices, and Barr will at best be the spoiler that hands the country over to Bad Personal Judgement Man and his co-President, Not Proud of America Girl.
I’m just praying Hillary plans to hijack the convention so I can get a little more entertainment before they plunge us into four years of “giddy” Socialism.
Bitter much? LOL
July 12th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Obama’s liberal shock troops (or money buys….)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121581650524447373.html?mod=todays_columnists
July 12th, 2008 at 11:44 am
and while we are on the subject….if the govt owns your house…..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121581762615347451.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
July 12th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
1994 Republicans talked a better game than they actually played. They passed very little of what they set out to achieve, spent much of their time running numerous investigations of the Clintons that were designed more to harass than anything else, and saw several of their leaders flame out in behavior similar to that of the Democratic leaders they took down in the late 1980’s. It was a revolution with a lot of show and very little go.
Clearly, I’m not a Republican, but Emily pretty well covered the distinction that’s going on right now between the Democrats and Republicans. I asked people when I went to the Detroit Obama rally why they were supporting him, and the common answers had to do with unity, with optimism, and with his presence. These are themes that played out in Reagan’s 1980 campaign. He constantly said that we had a better tomorrow ahead of us. He was perpetually sunny and optimistic, and just as Obama is now, he was frequently criticized then for his lack of policy proposals and details, but he won in a landslide.
People gravitate towards the person who makes them feel better, who makes them feel special. Obama does that. His campaign has such a large grassroots support because everyone feels part of his campaign. There is personal involvement that I haven’t seen before in this election. Months ago, I said to some friends that this mattered more to me than any other election I’ve been involved in because I’m working FOR something instead of AGAINST someone. I picked up Rolling Stone, and there was an article on a large group of musicians all working for Obama, and they said the same thing I did.
While Bush briefly was able to herald in Republican dominance in all branches, he has left the party adrift. The scorched earth campaign tactics of Karl Rove worked twice, but events often overtake any strategy, and a combination of factors led to Democratic resurgence in Congress, and likely both Congress and the White House this time around. Demonizing your opponent may help you win once or twice, but what happens the third time around when there are no fresh ideas, no optimism, no hope? Negativity doesn’t build a lasting majority. The rhetoric from the GOP camp has been the same it’s been for three election cycles now, but Americans don’t want to hear it anymore. Terrorism is not much of a concern to the people. The economy, health care, education, jobs, winding down our stay in Iraq, all of these are listed as higher priorities by the people. Yet the mantra out of the RNC is the same tired old lines.
The GOP saw monumental shifts in 1964 and 1976. In 1964, Goldwater had the passion, but he didn’t have the filter, and he scared the living sh*t out of a lot of people. He wasn’t nearly as wild as he came off as, but he’d get riled up and say something that would just kill him politically. That year started the conservative rising in America. 1976 was the year that moderate Republicanism died. Nelson Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger were both booed at the Kansas City convention, and Ford narrowly squeaked past Reagan, and then Reagan took the stage and gave a speech that made Ford look SMALL. Ford lost, but it brought the “Sun Belt” conservatives to prominence within the party, the group that was more isolationist, hard-line, and dogmatic than moderate Republicans such as Rockefeller, Everett Dirksen, Eisenhower, Ford, hell, in some ways, even Nixon.
In the past 32 years, no such shift has occurred, and the Republican brand has become stagnant, much as Democrats were stagnant during the 1980s until Bill Clinton shook things up in 1992. Just the fact that Democrats had a variety of ages and races running for the presidency, while the Republicans had a bunch of old white men, signals the GOP downturn. The major question is: Who will lead the next revolution? Ron Paul made a good shot at it, but the RNC machine won out as always.
The only thing that can save Republicans is burning down the house and starting over. Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV) said this earlier in the week:
“I’m of the position that we really need to clean house in this Republican Party, and I think the next couple of election cycles are going to do that,” Heller said.
Republicans who should be swept out, in Heller’s view, include some from the historic class of 1994, which gave the GOP a majority in the House for the first time in 40 years.
“It’s an old mantra: they came to change Washington, and Washington changed them,” Heller said several weeks ago. “I think we got to the point where the majority of Republicans were trying to change America and tell (Americans) what they wanted instead of listening to … what they need.”
Heller’s fellow Republicans weren’t too happy. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), who was part of that class, shot back, “The fact is, the Class of ‘94 created the longest serving Republican majority in recent history, and we didn’t lose it until Dean showed up.”
Heller’s right, though, and Emily backs it up with what she wrote. The GOP needs to get back in touch with the voters, and it needs someone who is optimistic, who is full of life, who can clearly communicate with people and generate some passion while taking policy positions that will appeal to a broad majority of positions. It’s not there right now. There isn’t excitement, there is too much entrenchment, and if not corrected, it’ll relegate the GOP to a permanent minority status.
July 12th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
has there been any period in recent american history where the party in power did not get corrupted and besotted with money over time ?
is it inherent to the system, thereby mooting the democratic process ?
imho, the cure is separation of economy and state and that is a long slog but not impossible. In the words of Nobel prize winning economist Friederich Hayek : “The only way to save civilization will be to deprive governments of the power over the supply of money.”
as the expression goes, may it happen “speedily and in our days, amen”
July 13th, 2008 at 6:24 am
[...] So, what do I see while perusing ye olde Bloglines at the American Princess’ place? E.M. has a post up about the GOP soliciting ideas for its own platform, and she writes The TechCrunch articleasks why the Democrats haven’t launched a similar measure, to which I respond — two reasons: one, they aren’t stupid enough to advertise to the entire Internet that their party lacks a cohesive platform which will drive voters to the polling booths in November, and two, they probably had something similar on MyBarackObama.com, they realized it failed and went back to traditional social networking. [...]
July 13th, 2008 at 6:24 am
[...] So, what do I see while perusing ye olde Bloglines at the American Princess’ place? E.M. has a post up about the GOP soliciting ideas for its own platform, and she writes The TechCrunch articleasks why the Democrats haven’t launched a similar measure, to which I respond — two reasons: one, they aren’t stupid enough to advertise to the entire Internet that their party lacks a cohesive platform which will drive voters to the polling booths in November, and two, they probably had something similar on MyBarackObama.com, they realized it failed and went back to traditional social networking. [...]
July 13th, 2008 at 6:25 am
[...] So, what do I see while perusing ye olde Bloglines at the American Princess’ place? E.M. has a post up about the GOP soliciting ideas for its own platform, and she writes The TechCrunch articleasks why the Democrats haven’t launched a similar measure, to which I respond — two reasons: one, they aren’t stupid enough to advertise to the entire Internet that their party lacks a cohesive platform which will drive voters to the polling booths in November, and two, they probably had something similar on MyBarackObama.com, they realized it failed and went back to traditional social networking. [...]