Republican Messaging

Anytime a political party decides to take to the ground and talk with regular everyday American's, that's a good thing. Shifting values or core beliefs, in terms of a political party's stance for political expediency is never a good thing. The party doesn't need to moderate (except its tone) so much as just finally talk substantively about what plans they have for the United States. If they shift on gay marriage for instance, they're just the Democrat party and this country already has one of those -it also ignores the large part of this country that doesn't support gay-marriage; those people deserve a political party that represents their beliefs. That isn't to say the Republican leadership shouldn't be more accepting of those Republican's that do support gay marriage, like the Representative in either Oklahoma or Kentucky (name escapes me) who's campaign slogan was "God, Guns, and Gay's".

Those in the middle and/or on the fence of the Republican Party (as in lean right but turned off by some things) aren't going to go to a party that talks like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. That isn't to say they aren't substantive in their opinions or beliefs but they just aren't elected officials that come up with plans or write legislation -that is to say they don't add substance to the policy debate. (Neither does Olbermann or Maddow.) They do their job in terms of asking the tough questions of the Obama administration and expressing a substantial amount of American's views that don't support the Democrat agenda but they spend 80% of their time attacking and maybe 20% presenting actual conservative policy.

As we've covered on this blog, there has been a Republican budget offered and they did put forward a different stimulus package. Instead of hammering away, although they did talk about both here and there, they didn't keep the debate on the difference in policy. It isn't enough anymore to simply say "instead of all of this growth of government, we need to be shrinking government". Today voters want more substance, they want to know: Okay, what is Policy R going to do for me that Policy D isn't?

Health Care
It is pretty obvious that the United States understands the Republican Party is against any form of socialized medicine but when have they put forth a policy that expands health coverage and lowers costs? More specifically, when has their version of health care reform been the topic of discussion when a Republican is doing a TV interview or writing an Op-Ed? Representative Eric Cantor dodged around a very direct question regarding how would the Republican Party fix health care in America by Mike Barnacle on Morning Joe the other day. Rather than tip-toe, have a policy idea ready and be very clear in how the Republican Party would fix health care.

Energy
Much to the dismay of the base of the Democrat party, the majority of American's support the Republican policy stance of "all of the above". Where is the actual legislation debate? Where is the legislation coming from? Why when a Republican energy bill that includes "all of the above" introduced, why isn't that a talking point every Republican when they go on TV being asked to put forth?

Education
This is a little harder because President Obama is fairly center on education. He supports teaching standards and charter schools, two absolute bedrocks of Republican education policy. Any political junkie knows where both parties stand on any issue but does the everyday American actually know the difference between Republican and Democrat education policy? If we go by rhetoric/talking points that make the news cycle, even on FOX News, all you hear is private schools, charter schools which almost no one knows what they actually are other than a form of privatized schools, and teacher standards. That isn't enough.

Messaging
In the end, what it comes down to is that Republican's are spending too much time attacking rather than comparing and contrasting. Everyone at this point knows the core beliefs of the Republican Party, maybe it'd help to have everyone know what their plans/policies are and have it explained to them why they're better. In the end, the voters will decide.


"In all things, one must consider the end." ~John Adams