I know. You’re thinking I’ve lost my mind. But it’s true: sometimes the Editorial Board of the Houston Chronicle stumbles onto the right point.
Earlier today, the Chronicle posted this editorial about the dilemma facing the Republican Party, and the challenges facing our new national chairman, Michael Steele: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6245592.html.
Let me be very clear: the team behind this website welcomes the election of Michael Steele, and we will do all we can to support his national effort here in Harris County.
Since late November, we have been promoting a new strategic plan on this website. Last Friday, our national party chose a bold, new course in its selection of Michael Steele as its new chairman. Steele’s goals are consistent with the plan we have been promoting for the HCRP. In his brief acceptance speech, Chairman Steele directly challenged the status quo within our party by declaring, “[w]e’re going to say to friend and foe alike: ‘We want you to be a part of us, we want you to be with us.’ And for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over.” We couldn’t agree more.
Each era of reform within our party over the last 50 years has been preceded by a defense of the status quo. Unfortunately, many of the “rebels” who have joined and invigorated our party since 1978 are now obstructing reform and defending the status quo.
The contours of the HCRP’s plan announced last Tuesday are a defense of the status quo, are not consistent with the agenda Chairman Steele plans to pursue, and are encapsulated in a model that does not fit a political organization.
Therefore, we will work with those locally who support Chairman Steele and his goals in order to reunite this party, and to broaden its base by promoting our fundamental principles to all of the communities in this county, in order to elect Republicans to office. When the HCRP’s actions are consistent with our strategy, we will work with the county leadership; when it is not, we will work to promote Chairman Steele’s goals.
Ed Hubbard
Showing posts with label gop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gop. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Comment by Aaron Simpson: What's Bugging Me?
As I was thinking about the current situation in Harris County, I started to think about what got us here. Seven years ago the Republican Party in Harris County seated a new chairman. At that time, Harris County was a bulwark against the liberal tide in Texas. It was a reliably red vote and was one of the determining factors that kept Texas a deep red state in national elections. What happened? Three things happened. The loony left got very loud and very organized; the advent of Bush Derangement Syndrome and the fact that, from the RNC down to local parties, we were constantly playing catch-up with the Democrats messaging.
We already know the effect the loony left had on elections starting in 2004 and beyond. When the press’ coverage of the general election becoming more over the top; the Bush victory became an uphill victory in my opinion. I know this to be very close to fact because of the way they covered the war in Iraq. As a Marine returning home from combat, I saw the miss-information spread viciously and the administration fail miserably in its communication of the successes, though at the time very few, of the war in Iraq. I saw these successes. I know they happened. This type of journalistic malpractice is what contributed to and at the same time was a result of Bush Derangement Syndrome. I digress; this is another argument for another time.
We also had a huge problem with the messaging. It seemed that every where you turned you could see Howard Dean somewhere, spouting something negative about the Republican Party, whether it was true or not. Where was Mike Duncan, where was Tina Benkiser, where was Jared Woodfill? The messaging, the rebuttals or even an assertion of our own would have been nice. As a military guy, I’m not inclined to want to sit on the sidelines and wait to be attacked. This is one of the things that drove me crazy about being in Fallujah in the spring and summer of 2004, we were reactionary. That drives Marines crazy and it’s not what we’re meant to do. It’s not what Republicans are meant to do either. We’re meant to constantly have ideas and to take those ideas to the public and pound that message home until the people are sick of hearing it. We’ve failed in that area and it must be rectified.
Over the last few months, I have become more involved with local party politics and have had an opportunity to see firsthand where the good and the bad aspects of the local and national parties butt heads. This is where the observations listed above come from. I have also been involved in a very small movement that has three separate components.
All of these components are separate in that they have specific targets and goals on the micro level, but their macro goal of taking the local and national party into the 21st century is shared. We’ve hit some bumps and road blocks along the way. One of which is the accusation that it’s unchristian to question the competence of current leadership. As a follower of Christ, I take great offense to that. For someone to use the faith of some party members as a tool to keep the reins of power; is in my estimation, wicked. It smacks of some of the things Democrats and Socialists say to justify their oppressive economic and social agendas. “It’s what Jesus would do, for the least of these”. Wicked!
This is a political party, not a church. Although we should be Jesus with skin on when interacting with others on a day to day basis, we should never forget that our nation was founded on the questioning and criticism of the Anglican Church and the King of England. Was this un-Christian? The founders were doing what the apostles did in the time of Christ, questioning the establishment. That’s what we are doing here. I was saddened last Tuesday when I sat in the Harris County Republican Party Executive Committee meeting as saw the solidification of the leaderships hold on the use of Christ as his crutch for holding on to power within the party.
This type of political posturing needs to be stopped. It will do nothing but alienate those that would otherwise be a member of our party, but won’t because they don’t want to go to a tent revival when they go to vote. National leaders from Michael Steele, to Mitch McConnell on down all agree that this type of bunker mentality will not work and that they Republican Party should become the “big tent” party it was once before, not at the expense of our core principle or platform, but a “big tent” none the less. I heard none of this at the meeting. All I heard was if you oppose us, you’re un-Christian and that won’t be tolerated. This is the narrow view that will destroy our local party and it has to stop.
We already know the effect the loony left had on elections starting in 2004 and beyond. When the press’ coverage of the general election becoming more over the top; the Bush victory became an uphill victory in my opinion. I know this to be very close to fact because of the way they covered the war in Iraq. As a Marine returning home from combat, I saw the miss-information spread viciously and the administration fail miserably in its communication of the successes, though at the time very few, of the war in Iraq. I saw these successes. I know they happened. This type of journalistic malpractice is what contributed to and at the same time was a result of Bush Derangement Syndrome. I digress; this is another argument for another time.
We also had a huge problem with the messaging. It seemed that every where you turned you could see Howard Dean somewhere, spouting something negative about the Republican Party, whether it was true or not. Where was Mike Duncan, where was Tina Benkiser, where was Jared Woodfill? The messaging, the rebuttals or even an assertion of our own would have been nice. As a military guy, I’m not inclined to want to sit on the sidelines and wait to be attacked. This is one of the things that drove me crazy about being in Fallujah in the spring and summer of 2004, we were reactionary. That drives Marines crazy and it’s not what we’re meant to do. It’s not what Republicans are meant to do either. We’re meant to constantly have ideas and to take those ideas to the public and pound that message home until the people are sick of hearing it. We’ve failed in that area and it must be rectified.
Over the last few months, I have become more involved with local party politics and have had an opportunity to see firsthand where the good and the bad aspects of the local and national parties butt heads. This is where the observations listed above come from. I have also been involved in a very small movement that has three separate components.
All of these components are separate in that they have specific targets and goals on the micro level, but their macro goal of taking the local and national party into the 21st century is shared. We’ve hit some bumps and road blocks along the way. One of which is the accusation that it’s unchristian to question the competence of current leadership. As a follower of Christ, I take great offense to that. For someone to use the faith of some party members as a tool to keep the reins of power; is in my estimation, wicked. It smacks of some of the things Democrats and Socialists say to justify their oppressive economic and social agendas. “It’s what Jesus would do, for the least of these”. Wicked!
This is a political party, not a church. Although we should be Jesus with skin on when interacting with others on a day to day basis, we should never forget that our nation was founded on the questioning and criticism of the Anglican Church and the King of England. Was this un-Christian? The founders were doing what the apostles did in the time of Christ, questioning the establishment. That’s what we are doing here. I was saddened last Tuesday when I sat in the Harris County Republican Party Executive Committee meeting as saw the solidification of the leaderships hold on the use of Christ as his crutch for holding on to power within the party.
This type of political posturing needs to be stopped. It will do nothing but alienate those that would otherwise be a member of our party, but won’t because they don’t want to go to a tent revival when they go to vote. National leaders from Michael Steele, to Mitch McConnell on down all agree that this type of bunker mentality will not work and that they Republican Party should become the “big tent” party it was once before, not at the expense of our core principle or platform, but a “big tent” none the less. I heard none of this at the meeting. All I heard was if you oppose us, you’re un-Christian and that won’t be tolerated. This is the narrow view that will destroy our local party and it has to stop.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
What Now? Read On.
Well, as many of you probably know, the resolutions posted yesterday on this website did not reach the floor of last night’s HCRP Executive Meeting. To see a discussion of what happened, and a correct quote by Alan Bernstein, you can go to these links, and to the twitter link embedded in the comments to the second link. http://blogs.chron.com/houstonpolitics/2009/01/no_rebellion_to_quell_at_local_1.html
http://blogs.chron.com/houstonpolitics/2009/01/mutiny_in_the_county_1.html
Before I address the reason for the resolutions failing to reach the floor, I first want to acknowledge what did happen.
Ever since we started disseminating the strategic plan posted on this website back in November, 2008, I have publicly challenged the leadership of the HCRP, including Jared Woodfill, to come forward with an effective plan and to implement it. To underline the importance of our concerns, I challenged the Chairman publicly to either take action or step aside.
Over the last two months we have seen incremental movements, cryptic references to a new plan, and reasons why such a plan should not be made public (even though every candidate for the chairmanship of the RNC has made their plan public for Republicans to review and comment), but we’ve seen no plan. I have repeatedly said that if the leadership presented an effective plan, this team would support it.
Last night, though the leadership said that it would not divulge its plan in public, it spent at least two hours presenting the contours of the plan in excruciatingly long increments. Although I have several questions and concerns about whether the model for this plan, and the plan itself (if ever implemented), will be effective, it does try and address many of the objectives and strategies we have proposed over the last two months. If, after the full plan is presented to the precinct chairs in February and March, it truly encompasses an effective strategy that addresses the core of the objectives we have proposed, I, for one, will keep my pledge to the party and support this plan.
The reasons the resolutions did not reach the floor were threefold: 1. more than 3 hours into the meeting, we had lost many of the precinct chairs who we felt should be engaged in the debate; 2. the contours of the new plan need to be digested before we proceed with the concept of creating a Steering Committee; and 3. there were sufficient questions about the resolution to explore the creation of a removal process for party officers, so we decided that we would not present it as the only resolution. You see, this effort has never been about dividing the party or promoting anyone’s ambition, it has been about strengthening the party. If the current elected leadership is truly headed in that direction, there is no reason at this time to present resolutions that would be construed as divisive.
That does not mean we will stop what we are doing—only that we are suspending our efforts to directly challenge the strategy of the leadership until we understand the details of the plan discussed last night. In the meantime, we will continue to present ideas on this website about how to strengthen the party and to implement the objectives we have discussed since November, organizations like the Houston Group of Rebuild the Party will proceed with their technology training efforts, and organizations like Raging Elephants and Conservador will continue implementing their outreach plans.
After 7 years of dawdling, let’s hope the leadership has truly listened to us. Only time will tell.
http://blogs.chron.com/houstonpolitics/2009/01/mutiny_in_the_county_1.html
Before I address the reason for the resolutions failing to reach the floor, I first want to acknowledge what did happen.
Ever since we started disseminating the strategic plan posted on this website back in November, 2008, I have publicly challenged the leadership of the HCRP, including Jared Woodfill, to come forward with an effective plan and to implement it. To underline the importance of our concerns, I challenged the Chairman publicly to either take action or step aside.
Over the last two months we have seen incremental movements, cryptic references to a new plan, and reasons why such a plan should not be made public (even though every candidate for the chairmanship of the RNC has made their plan public for Republicans to review and comment), but we’ve seen no plan. I have repeatedly said that if the leadership presented an effective plan, this team would support it.
Last night, though the leadership said that it would not divulge its plan in public, it spent at least two hours presenting the contours of the plan in excruciatingly long increments. Although I have several questions and concerns about whether the model for this plan, and the plan itself (if ever implemented), will be effective, it does try and address many of the objectives and strategies we have proposed over the last two months. If, after the full plan is presented to the precinct chairs in February and March, it truly encompasses an effective strategy that addresses the core of the objectives we have proposed, I, for one, will keep my pledge to the party and support this plan.
The reasons the resolutions did not reach the floor were threefold: 1. more than 3 hours into the meeting, we had lost many of the precinct chairs who we felt should be engaged in the debate; 2. the contours of the new plan need to be digested before we proceed with the concept of creating a Steering Committee; and 3. there were sufficient questions about the resolution to explore the creation of a removal process for party officers, so we decided that we would not present it as the only resolution. You see, this effort has never been about dividing the party or promoting anyone’s ambition, it has been about strengthening the party. If the current elected leadership is truly headed in that direction, there is no reason at this time to present resolutions that would be construed as divisive.
That does not mean we will stop what we are doing—only that we are suspending our efforts to directly challenge the strategy of the leadership until we understand the details of the plan discussed last night. In the meantime, we will continue to present ideas on this website about how to strengthen the party and to implement the objectives we have discussed since November, organizations like the Houston Group of Rebuild the Party will proceed with their technology training efforts, and organizations like Raging Elephants and Conservador will continue implementing their outreach plans.
After 7 years of dawdling, let’s hope the leadership has truly listened to us. Only time will tell.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Resolution #1 for Jan 27, 2009
Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Harris County Republican Party (“HCRP”) to create an Ad Hoc Steering Committee to adopt and implement a new strategic plan for the operation of the HCRP
Whereas, the fundamental purpose of the Harris County Republican Party (“HCRP”) is to advance the interests of Republican voters in Harris County by promoting and supporting the election of Republicans to governmental offices; and
Whereas, the Republican base is shrinking in metropolitan areas across the country, including Harris County, along with Republican voter turnout in the general elections of 2006 and 2008; and
Whereas, the basic strategy, technology, and infrastructure of the HCRP for outreach and for getting out the vote needs to be modernized and coordinated with county parties in counties adjacent to Harris County; and
Whereas, in recent years the regular funds raised by the HCRP have not been adequate to cover expenses related to conducting the necessary affairs of the HCRP, including Senate District Conventions, satellite campaign offices, candidate and precinct chair training, campaign support and getting the vote out,; and
Whereas, the HCRP has not recruited, sufficient numbers of candidates for all of the elected government offices in Harris County; nor filled all of the precinct chair positions; and
Whereas, the current leadership has discussed the creation and implementation of a new strategic plan, but, to date, only minimal details have been shared.
Therefore, we, the Executive Committee, vote to establish a Steering Committee composed of 7 people to develop and recommend implementation of a new strategic plan for the party in order to win future elections by reuniting all of the factions with our party and by expanding the base of our party. At a minimum the objectives of the new strategic plan shall be the following:
1. To work with precinct chairs, affiliated clubs within the Republican Party, and associated groups and individuals to coordinate the activities of the Party and to create the structural reforms needed to elect Republicans.
2. To develop positive principles, messages and policies that unite every faction within the Party.
3. To expand the Party into new communities.
4. To introduce our principles, messages and policies to new voters.
5. To recruit and train strong candidates who will share and promote our principles, messages, and policies, and to run them in every race on the local, state, and national levels.
6. To better mobilize the Party by using every available technology (old and new) to win elections within the county, and to coordinate with other county, state, and national party organizations to identify prospective voters, to get them registered, and to get them to the polls during the 13-day election.
7. To raise the money needed to effectively implement the plan and operate the Party machinery without having to unduly pressure lower level candidates as has occurred with the Senate District Conventions.
8. To better coordinate with other county chairs in the region to elect our shared candidates.
9. To work with other county chairs in other major urban counties around the country to develop an "urban plan" to use our principles to address urban issues, for candidate recruitment, and for voter outreach.
10. To work to reform judicial elections in Texas (or at least in urban counties) in order to retain the ability to elect restrained judges while avoiding sweeps.
The Steering Committee shall be constituted by February 15, 2009, and shall then exist indefinitely through the beginning of the 2010 election cycle. By May 2009, the Steering Committee shall develop a new strategic plan, and a re-design of the structure of the HCRP with necessary Bylaw amendments, which will be submitted for review and approval by the Executive Committee as soon as practicable. For the remainder of its term, the Steering Committee shall begin implementing the new strategic plan with the assistance of the County Chair, Senate District Chairs and Headquarters staff.
The Steering Committee membership shall consist of one resident from each of the seven Senate Districts covering Harris County, who voted in the Republican Primary on March 4, 2008. Each prospective member shall be named to the committee by the SD chair for the Senate District in which he or she resides. The Steering Committee, once formed, shall select its chairperson from its membership. The Steering Committee shall work with the next Chairman elected in the March, 2010 primary in a transition period to be determined, at which time the Committee shall disband and the next Chairman shall take full control of, and responsibility for the remaining implementation of the new strategic plan.
Whereas, the fundamental purpose of the Harris County Republican Party (“HCRP”) is to advance the interests of Republican voters in Harris County by promoting and supporting the election of Republicans to governmental offices; and
Whereas, the Republican base is shrinking in metropolitan areas across the country, including Harris County, along with Republican voter turnout in the general elections of 2006 and 2008; and
Whereas, the basic strategy, technology, and infrastructure of the HCRP for outreach and for getting out the vote needs to be modernized and coordinated with county parties in counties adjacent to Harris County; and
Whereas, in recent years the regular funds raised by the HCRP have not been adequate to cover expenses related to conducting the necessary affairs of the HCRP, including Senate District Conventions, satellite campaign offices, candidate and precinct chair training, campaign support and getting the vote out,; and
Whereas, the HCRP has not recruited, sufficient numbers of candidates for all of the elected government offices in Harris County; nor filled all of the precinct chair positions; and
Whereas, the current leadership has discussed the creation and implementation of a new strategic plan, but, to date, only minimal details have been shared.
Therefore, we, the Executive Committee, vote to establish a Steering Committee composed of 7 people to develop and recommend implementation of a new strategic plan for the party in order to win future elections by reuniting all of the factions with our party and by expanding the base of our party. At a minimum the objectives of the new strategic plan shall be the following:
1. To work with precinct chairs, affiliated clubs within the Republican Party, and associated groups and individuals to coordinate the activities of the Party and to create the structural reforms needed to elect Republicans.
2. To develop positive principles, messages and policies that unite every faction within the Party.
3. To expand the Party into new communities.
4. To introduce our principles, messages and policies to new voters.
5. To recruit and train strong candidates who will share and promote our principles, messages, and policies, and to run them in every race on the local, state, and national levels.
6. To better mobilize the Party by using every available technology (old and new) to win elections within the county, and to coordinate with other county, state, and national party organizations to identify prospective voters, to get them registered, and to get them to the polls during the 13-day election.
7. To raise the money needed to effectively implement the plan and operate the Party machinery without having to unduly pressure lower level candidates as has occurred with the Senate District Conventions.
8. To better coordinate with other county chairs in the region to elect our shared candidates.
9. To work with other county chairs in other major urban counties around the country to develop an "urban plan" to use our principles to address urban issues, for candidate recruitment, and for voter outreach.
10. To work to reform judicial elections in Texas (or at least in urban counties) in order to retain the ability to elect restrained judges while avoiding sweeps.
The Steering Committee shall be constituted by February 15, 2009, and shall then exist indefinitely through the beginning of the 2010 election cycle. By May 2009, the Steering Committee shall develop a new strategic plan, and a re-design of the structure of the HCRP with necessary Bylaw amendments, which will be submitted for review and approval by the Executive Committee as soon as practicable. For the remainder of its term, the Steering Committee shall begin implementing the new strategic plan with the assistance of the County Chair, Senate District Chairs and Headquarters staff.
The Steering Committee membership shall consist of one resident from each of the seven Senate Districts covering Harris County, who voted in the Republican Primary on March 4, 2008. Each prospective member shall be named to the committee by the SD chair for the Senate District in which he or she resides. The Steering Committee, once formed, shall select its chairperson from its membership. The Steering Committee shall work with the next Chairman elected in the March, 2010 primary in a transition period to be determined, at which time the Committee shall disband and the next Chairman shall take full control of, and responsibility for the remaining implementation of the new strategic plan.
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Plan: Urban Policy
Republicans are losing the metropolitan voter (urban and suburban voters)—in Texas and across the country. We can not win elections in Harris County by just relying on policies that address the concerns of rural voters.
As we noted in an earlier post, a recent PowerPoint presentation from the state party shows that Republicans are losing ground where most Texans now live. Of the 254 counties in Texas, Republicans gained votes in 140 counties with 2,438,604 registered voters, while Democrats gained votes in 114 counties with 11,136,458 registered voters. The 50 fastest growing Republican counties in Texas have a total of 637,694 registered voters, while the 50 fastest growing Democratic counties have a total of 8,959,881 registered voters. Indeed, we lost the straight-ticket vote in Harris County to the Democrats in both 2006 and 2008.
This trend also is consistent with the following graph produced by Nate Silver and recently published in Esquire magazine (http://www.esquire.com/print-this/how-obama-won-0209#):
In his new Esquire column, The Data, statistical analysis guru Nate Silver reveals for the first time the secret behind November 4, 2008.
You do the math—if this trend continues, we will not elect Republicans in Harris County and will soon lose our statewide offices.
We need to face reality: too many metropolitan voters do not understand how our principles of individual empowerment, which promote a smaller role for the federal government (federalism), and a limited, yet effective, role for local government, make their lives better.
We need to begin to look at the issues they care about: keeping children in school through high-school graduation; providing children with the knowledge they will need to succeed in college and in the economy; making college affordable; making neighborhoods safe for children and families; keeping men in families and neighborhoods; addressing the cost and availability of health care; making sure housing remains affordable; maintaining a modern infrastructure; maximizing workers’ take-home pay; making sure retirement savings are safe; and making sure good-paying jobs are available.
These are not Democratic issues, it just sounds like they are because we rarely talk about them, except to focus on processes and costs. We need to develop actual policies that address these issues by implementing our principles. We also need to recruit, train and support candidates who will press our agenda on city councils and school boards, as well as legislatures and county boards.
What we are saying is not a pipe-dream. It’s been done by Republican mayors in New York and Los Angeles in the last two decades. It’s being done in young, growing cities, like Boise and Reno. Houston, with its established neighborhoods and business community, and with its growth, has elements of both the old and young cities, and has something they don’t—a natural conservative political base. If we can’t develop an urban policy here, Republicans have little chance of succeeding anywhere else.
As we noted in an earlier post, a recent PowerPoint presentation from the state party shows that Republicans are losing ground where most Texans now live. Of the 254 counties in Texas, Republicans gained votes in 140 counties with 2,438,604 registered voters, while Democrats gained votes in 114 counties with 11,136,458 registered voters. The 50 fastest growing Republican counties in Texas have a total of 637,694 registered voters, while the 50 fastest growing Democratic counties have a total of 8,959,881 registered voters. Indeed, we lost the straight-ticket vote in Harris County to the Democrats in both 2006 and 2008.
This trend also is consistent with the following graph produced by Nate Silver and recently published in Esquire magazine (http://www.esquire.com/print-this/how-obama-won-0209#):
In his new Esquire column, The Data, statistical analysis guru Nate Silver reveals for the first time the secret behind November 4, 2008.
You do the math—if this trend continues, we will not elect Republicans in Harris County and will soon lose our statewide offices.
We need to face reality: too many metropolitan voters do not understand how our principles of individual empowerment, which promote a smaller role for the federal government (federalism), and a limited, yet effective, role for local government, make their lives better.
We need to begin to look at the issues they care about: keeping children in school through high-school graduation; providing children with the knowledge they will need to succeed in college and in the economy; making college affordable; making neighborhoods safe for children and families; keeping men in families and neighborhoods; addressing the cost and availability of health care; making sure housing remains affordable; maintaining a modern infrastructure; maximizing workers’ take-home pay; making sure retirement savings are safe; and making sure good-paying jobs are available.
These are not Democratic issues, it just sounds like they are because we rarely talk about them, except to focus on processes and costs. We need to develop actual policies that address these issues by implementing our principles. We also need to recruit, train and support candidates who will press our agenda on city councils and school boards, as well as legislatures and county boards.
What we are saying is not a pipe-dream. It’s been done by Republican mayors in New York and Los Angeles in the last two decades. It’s being done in young, growing cities, like Boise and Reno. Houston, with its established neighborhoods and business community, and with its growth, has elements of both the old and young cities, and has something they don’t—a natural conservative political base. If we can’t develop an urban policy here, Republicans have little chance of succeeding anywhere else.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Plan: Message Development
In an earlier blog post, we gave an example of how we could turn one of our platform planks—promoting English as our national language—into a positive message of inclusion. The bottom line for our party going into future elections is that we need to find a way to promote positive messages and policies based on our principles in order to expand the party. We simply can’t continue to be perceived as the party of “no”, especially when we don’t even stick by our decision to say “no”.
In the Action Plan portion of the “Hubbard Plan”, we have tried to grapple with this problem head-on, by proposing a theme of “individual empowerment” to package our message and to differentiate it from the Democrats, who are the party of “government empowerment”.
As we’ve tried to explain, “individual empowerment” is consistent with the value system we share with many communities who are not voting for Republicans right now, because empowering individuals requires promoting policies that empower the relationships through which individuals act—families, neighborhoods, organizations, and businesses. These also are the relationships valued in the Hispanic voters, African-American voters, Asian voters, Indian/Sikh voters. Through this type of message, we run a good chance of getting the attention of members of these communities, so we can re-introduce our principles and policies to them.
As we’ve said earlier, learning English empowers individuals to function in their communities and get good jobs. Also, school vouchers empower individuals and families to get the best education for their children and empowers neighborhoods with competition needed to improve their schools. Demanding higher performance standards for our schools empowers individuals, families and neighborhoods to keep their children in school and to get them the best education possible, and higher performances will help children to grow-up to get better jobs, earn more income and increase the wealth of society. Virtually all of our principles and policies can be explained this way.
Whether the theme is “individual empowerment” or something else, we need to embrace a positive message in order to be successful in our outreach to new voters.
In the Action Plan portion of the “Hubbard Plan”, we have tried to grapple with this problem head-on, by proposing a theme of “individual empowerment” to package our message and to differentiate it from the Democrats, who are the party of “government empowerment”.
As we’ve tried to explain, “individual empowerment” is consistent with the value system we share with many communities who are not voting for Republicans right now, because empowering individuals requires promoting policies that empower the relationships through which individuals act—families, neighborhoods, organizations, and businesses. These also are the relationships valued in the Hispanic voters, African-American voters, Asian voters, Indian/Sikh voters. Through this type of message, we run a good chance of getting the attention of members of these communities, so we can re-introduce our principles and policies to them.
As we’ve said earlier, learning English empowers individuals to function in their communities and get good jobs. Also, school vouchers empower individuals and families to get the best education for their children and empowers neighborhoods with competition needed to improve their schools. Demanding higher performance standards for our schools empowers individuals, families and neighborhoods to keep their children in school and to get them the best education possible, and higher performances will help children to grow-up to get better jobs, earn more income and increase the wealth of society. Virtually all of our principles and policies can be explained this way.
Whether the theme is “individual empowerment” or something else, we need to embrace a positive message in order to be successful in our outreach to new voters.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
To the HCRP: “Where’s the Plan?”
Our plan has been disseminated in public since late November, 2008. At the time it was written, Republicans across the country had already been thinking and writing about a new strategy for the party for some time, including Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions, and Rebuild the Party.
Moreover, books had been written prior to the last election, which were devoted to ways in which the party could develop new strategies and messages consistent with our principles, including Leslie Sanchez’s Los Republicanos, and Michael J. Gerson’s Heroic Conservatism.
Even after our plan was disseminated, several of the leading contenders for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee floated their own plans and blueprints for re-designing the strategies of the party at the national level, and a new book has appeared entitled, Grand New Party.
So after all this time, with the clock ticking for the next election cycle, we have to ask our current leadership of the HCRP, where is your plan? We’ve heard rumors since the Spring of 2007 that the leadership had a 30-page plan for the future—but where is it? We’ve recently heard that they have a 27-page plan under review—but where is it? After 7 years in office, with all these ideas already floating in public, why won’t the current leadership share its plan with us if they have one? It’s just not that hard!
While we wait for their plan, we will continue to share with you further ideas about how we would implement the objectives of the “Hubbard Plan” for you to consider prior to the upcoming Executive Committee meeting on January 27, 2009.
Moreover, books had been written prior to the last election, which were devoted to ways in which the party could develop new strategies and messages consistent with our principles, including Leslie Sanchez’s Los Republicanos, and Michael J. Gerson’s Heroic Conservatism.
Even after our plan was disseminated, several of the leading contenders for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee floated their own plans and blueprints for re-designing the strategies of the party at the national level, and a new book has appeared entitled, Grand New Party.
So after all this time, with the clock ticking for the next election cycle, we have to ask our current leadership of the HCRP, where is your plan? We’ve heard rumors since the Spring of 2007 that the leadership had a 30-page plan for the future—but where is it? We’ve recently heard that they have a 27-page plan under review—but where is it? After 7 years in office, with all these ideas already floating in public, why won’t the current leadership share its plan with us if they have one? It’s just not that hard!
While we wait for their plan, we will continue to share with you further ideas about how we would implement the objectives of the “Hubbard Plan” for you to consider prior to the upcoming Executive Committee meeting on January 27, 2009.
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