We are still working on getting the last few pieces of the site in place, including getting all of our contributors set up. In the meantime, all of our contributors have agreed start their presence at NextGenGOP.com by answering a straightforward question: “How can the Republican Party get back on the right track?” I will be the first to tackle this question.
The path to a GOP resurgence after a devastating four years is not an easy one. Ordinary folks are disgusted with President Bush, and despite Democratic control of the Congress, most of the blame has been pinned on Republicans.
Worse, there is no clear Republican message. While the Democratic Party has unified around Barack Obama’s message of “hope” and “change,” there is simply no unified message present in the Republican Party. How will we be different than Democrats? What does the Republican Party stand for? Why should you elect us instead of them? Unfortunately, these questions have gone unanswered, and with the current negative perceptions of the Republican Party, Democrats are poised to win unprecedented control of the federal government.
As a result, the Republican Party is desperately in need of reform if it ever wants to regain its rightful place as the majority party in this country. We are not talking about a few simple policy shifts, but rather sweeping reforms that remake the entire image of the Republican Party. Specifically, there are three steps that we need to take if we want to recover from these difficult times: establishing a clear message, increasing the effectiveness of our use of new media, and establishing a RightRoots movement.
Establishing a Clear Message
Establishing our message is perhaps the most crucial step for a GOP resurgence. In 1994, our message of the “Contract with America” propelled us to incredible electoral victory. This concept is so powerful because it allows us to include many “sub-messages” (such as cutting taxes, reducing government, and protecting national security) within a single comprehensive message: the Contract. Going forward, we need a Contract version “2.0″ that guarantees to deliver and restore the values shared by the vast majority of Americans. Specifically, this Contract 2.0 should promise the following (in no particular order):
- The Republican Party will not stand for corruption at any level. Elected officials who are even accused of corruption (read: Ted Stevens) will be publicly lambasted by the Party’s leadership and will be immediately asked to resign. Dirty politicians are not and will never be welcome in the Republican Party.
- The Republican Party is the party of free markets. We will fight to make it easier and more affordable for ordinary folks like Joe the Plumber to start their own businesses and succeed. Additionally, we will ensure that federal regulation of our industries is minimized as much as possible.
- Our judges and justices have no business legislating from the bench. Extremist judges who impose their views from the bench are a danger to society as we know it. The Republican Party will only support highly qualified judicial nominees who will not legislate from the bench.
- The Republican Party promises to work to reduce the tax burden on all Americans, regardless of income. We will never stand for a tax increase for any American. Additionally, we promise to fight tooth and nail against any form of socialist income redistribution.
- We promise to reduce the size and spending of the federal government. In addition, we will vote against any bill that includes unnecessary “pork-barrel” spending, and we will publicly distance ourselves from any elected official who attempts to procure such “pork-barrel” money.
- This country faces the gravest threats it has ever seen. We will take any and all necessary action to defend this great country, and we will not relent until every single terrorist has been brought to justice. Finally, we will not, under any circumstances, meet without precondition with our enemies, such as Iran or Venezuela.
Increasing the Effectiveness of Our Use of New Media
I have been privileged to have the opportunity to speak about New Media at a number of conferences – most recently, I spoke on a panel at Americans for Prosperity’s 2008 Defending the American Dream Summit on “The State of the Conservative Movement Online.” I began my thoughts on this panel by making a very important observation: Barack Obama was the first candidate in U.S. history to win a Presidential nomination almost entirely through the use of new media.
I have been reading the book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (which I highly recommend as a read for anyone). The basic premise of the book is that Web 2.0 has created a new age, an “Age of Participation.” This Age of Participation is facilitated by “peer production,” “which describes what happens when masses of people … collaborate openly to drive innovation and growth.” Following this line of thinking, Barack Obama’s website fuels participation and collaboration, while John McCain’s primarily serves to provide information and educate.
For example, Obama’s social networks allows you to see a breakdown of all of your friends: how many calls they’ve made, how much money they’ve donated, and so forth. From there, you can send your friends a message encouraging them to donate more or make more calls. This level of person-to-person collaboration has never been seen before in politics.
If we want to win, we need to gain the upper hand online. To do this, we need to engage people online at the same level that Barack Obama does.
Establishing a RightRoots Movement
Jon Henke, John Hawkins, Patrick Ruffini, and many others have commented on the necessity of constructing a RightRoots Movement, along with how we can accomplish doing this. These brilliant folks have managed to cover many of the points I would normally discuss. However, there is one point that I would like to contribute to the discussion. Above, I talk about the differences between Obama and McCain’s website: namely, that Obama’s promotes peer production but McCain’s does not. The same is true of the Right vs. the Left: the Left successfully established a collaborative “LeftRoots” movement long ago, while to this day nothing of the sort exists for the Right.
Does this translate into electoral failures? You better believe it. In building a RightRoots Movement, the authors of Wikinomics put it best: “We must collaborate or perish.”
Conclusion
The current state of the Republican Party is a sad one. It has lost its identity, its message, and in turn, its electoral prominence. The GOP needs new ideas, new messages, and new leaders if it wishes to return to the “Grand Old” days. I believe that the core values of the Republican Party are much more in line with the core values of the average American than the values of the Democratic Party. And I think that the GOP can have its resurgence sooner rather than later. And because of this, I for one am a firm believer that our best days lie ahead, not behind.
Last 5 posts by Aaron Marks
- Onward and Upward: Building a Sustainable Majority - January 22nd, 2010
- Dear Young Voters: This Is What You Get When You Don't Vote - December 1st, 2009
- The Youth Vote and the 2009 Elections - November 6th, 2009
- The Best of the Post-2009 Election Spin - November 5th, 2009
- Introducing NextGenGOP Executive Director James Kane - October 20th, 2009
It’s about time the younger generation stepped up to the plate! You have my full support.
David
Aaron,
Glad to see that you are initiating this. It is definitely needed.
We have had our Republican brand tarnished by both lack of integrity and by abandonment of our core principles by Republicans elected to office. We need a new breed of Republican who lives in integrity and who will take a stand for free-enterprise, small government and personal liberty.
Kudos.
Whatever I can do to help.
Gary Aminoff
President
San Fernando Valley Republican Club
Greetings from Baghdad,
Meh. Several points of your proposed “contract” abandon classic conservative positions in favor of happy-feeling soundbites. The points sound, frankly, like a re-tread of current GOP talking points. The Party does not necessarily need a whole host of “new ideas,” rather, it needs to return to foundations which it has left behind in the pursuit of a permanent conservative majority. In no particular order:
1) Corruption = bad. Got it. However, conservatives stand firm on individual liberties and rights granted in the Constitution – of which one of the most fundamental is the right to considered innocent until proving guilty and a robust defense in the face of accusers. Public lambasting is not really the cure all; it would be wise not to abandon foundational principles merely to look like the GOP is “tough on corruption” or whatever. Stevens et al are prime examples of a) putting self before service and b) the lack of initiative by party leadership to take on powerful, entrenched interests – particularly with respect to very senior members of the party. Stevens’ largess was common knowledge in and around DC; the party should have dealt with the situation prior to it getting out of control. Instead of focusing on “getting rid of corruption” the party needs to rededicate itself to the idea of serving those that, by grace, elected them in the first place.
2) Joe the Plumber is a nice sound bite but its repeated invocation is beginning to sound like the absence of a real plan. Yes, we like free markets. It is also important, however, not to simply be reflexively “anti-regulation” but more of 1) support the sane ideas and 2) ditch the ludicrous. “Joe the Plumber” is an effective “tool” (for lack of a better word) at the moment but in the long run its continued use is merely a symbol of a party bereft of ideas.
3) Phrases like “socialist income redistribution” are good scare quotes during an election cycle but they mask, much like Joe the Plumber, an absence of any real deep thought on the matter. The GOP used to be the party of fiscal responsibility (though the execution did not always live up to the promise). Under Bush II the GOP has engaged in an orgy of unnecessary spending to the point where many people don’t even give lip-service to sensible accounting. Republicans need new ideas beyond “we’re going to cut taxes.”
I’ll skip a few other issues with the post so this does not get terribly long (save for one more point or two). I think that the GOP has not only strayed from principles of the mid-late 20th century conservative movement the GOP has also forgotten many of the lessons learned.
Republicans always like to say (or at least infer) that we stand on the shoulders of giants (Reagan et al). Ignoring the threat of the spread of Communism for a moment – a circumstance which united even the most disparate of conservatives – there are several lessons that can be learned.
Serious movement conservatives in the 1960s and 1970s were asking themselves several basic questions to include 1) what is in America’s national interest and 2) what kind of America do I want to see in the future? In large part by the time Reagan was elected those ideas were mostly concrete (read his diaries if you want to see his first term struggles with what he knew was correct but the rest of the country did not yet) but required a force of will to push through.
Ignoring the questions about online presence above completely absent from the “contract” is any real intellectual rigor. Frankly, most of them seem to be positions merely at odds with the current Democratic platform. That doesn’t provide an “alternative vision” it merely provides a “difference.”
The Contract with America fizzled not terribly long after it go off the ground due to the fact that the party lost the bubble. Instead of a battle of ideas the focus became on surviving the election cycle. While I tend to agree that the US is historically more conservative than it is liberal I’m not entire sure that the “core principles” that have been articulated by the GOP are the ones that line up with the inherent conservatism within America.
Likewise, your final thoughts in point 6 ignore many of the lessons learned from the “Nixon goes to China” miracle and the associated secret shuttle diplomacy which led up up to the summit. I’m not saying that one should simply jump on a plane and meet either of those two “presidents” rather that some hard calculus must be brought to bear. Point 6 seems to be standard boilerplate; I think that it needs to be articulated a bit better / fleshed out some more.
Remember: what is in America’s national interest and 2) what kind of America do I want to see in the future?
I love the idea of a Contract with America 2.0, but any Contract with America needs to have specified legislative proposals carefully crafted, like the original, to have the same impact the original one had. It would also have to be tailored, in part, as a reaction to what happens policy-wise, after 2008. So I think it would be difficult to say what a Contract with America 2.0 should/would read like.
With that said, it would be nice if someone got started on writing one up. Maybe someone can start collecting specific proposals now and over time we can figure out what sticks with the electorate.
I’m going to be looking to get more politically involved over the next four years because I believe now more than ever our party and ideology is at a very precarious point in history.
I came across this website while surfing. I find it interesting that it shares a lot of my concerns. Quoting Fred Barnes doesn’t hurt you either when it comes to gaining favor with Republicans like me. And the Contract 2.0 is great.
I, like most Republicans, am a staunch Reaganite. I think Ronald Reagan was the greatest president of our lifetime, if not the century. Because of Reagan, I became interested in political science and took it as a major in college, earning a B.A.
I have a dual degree in Poli Sci and Literature. I’ve had extensive business training in the real world after graduating. I am partners in a business. I understand the intellectual arguments that go into discussing political policy. I’m not trying to impress you or sell you on believing what I’m about to say. I just want you to know this because its the basis upon which I have given this great thought and come to the conclusion I have. I know that I am also just a regular middle class guy from Virginia who, like the rest of us in life, is just a flea on an elephant’s ass in the grand scheme of things.
But I need to know if my observations based on my background are going to be in line with those of my political party. Because if they are, I am willing to fight for the future of my party. If they are not, then I have more work to do in convincing my party.
The first step to getting the Republican party back to its Reagan roots and reviving its greatness has to be in the selection of its next great leader. We cannot have party in-fighting between moderates and conservatives, or the elite and the rank and file. If everyone who shares my sense of urgency about how important it is to get the Grand Old Party back to being grand again can agree on one person, one candidate, one standard bearer who can lead this party back to greatness, then I think we’re in business.
It’s been a painstaking toil intellectually to find the qualities of greatness in a political candidate after the bar was set so high by Ronald Reagan. It’s been really tough. There have been tricks of the light like George W. Bush. There have been tricks of the mind like Fred Thompson. Therein lies the first issue in choosing our new standard bearer.
I’ve supported both Bushes, and actually thought W would keep the philosophy alive. However, after a brilliant first term, he sputtered on issues of fiscal responsibility and spending. He oversaw the Democratic party’s destruction of our financial system and didn’t utter a word. Bush the father broke his promise on tax increases.
I’ve always voted down the line Republican at both the state and national levels. I’ve researched political candidates, studied leadership in seminars I’ve attended for business and kept in touch with my Reagan roots using Reagan as a litmus test for what I was looking for in a leader.
During this year’s primaries, I still didn’t see it in one candidate. I saw bits and pieces of it in the different candidates. Fred Thompson had the ideas, Mitt Romney had the charisma, Mike Huckabee had the populism, John McCain had the military hero background and Rudy Giuliani had the nuts and bolts leadership skills. If you asked me during the primaries who I wanted to win, I would have told you if you can combine all the candidates into one, I’d vote for that guy.
Are my standards just way to high, or was I just not seeing any true great ones out there? Since Ronald Reagan’s passing, there has been a void in leadership. It’s been a saddening void which basically led me to a melancholy reckoning that “okay, I’ll vote for McCain because he’s the lesser of two evils.”
Then something changed that melancholy to profound hope. John McCain was the last guy on the list of primary candidates that I would vote for. Even after McCain had locked up the nomination, I still voted for Romney in the Virginia primary. Saddened by the fact that our best days may be behind us as I watched the rise of Obama, I reluctantly got on board for the lesser of two evils. Then John McCain did something more profound than just running for president. He did something that history may some day look back on as the choice that saved the party.
I’m going out on a limb. I’m staking my entire political being on this one. I’m willing to eat crow if I’m wrong. I know who the next great one is.
But don’t believe some schmo from Virginia just because he’s got a couple of degrees. I want everyone from your group to the groups across this great country to take a real good hard look. Do the research yourself. But more importantly, understand that some of the research cannot be done because it hasn’t happened yet. I want everyone to watch our next great leader over the next four years. Watch how this person takes the foundation on which this person’s life has been built and adds levels of greatness to this foundation.
I told you I know who the next great one is. But don’t believe me. Believe John McCain, a man who would lose an election if it meant putting his country first.
For the sake of the party and the future of our republic, I implore every American and every republican to come to their own conclusions and say, you know maybe this person really is the next great one. I can give you compelling arguments in the days, weeks and months to come. But it’s not important that I see it. It’s important that everyone else in the party sees it.
John McCain, foot soldier to the last great one, selected the next great one to be his running mate. Sarah Palin embodies everything that Ronald Reagan stood for. She fills the void left by the passing of Ronald Reagan. She’s the greatest hope our party has. If my party is willing to accept her as its leader and standard bearer, I’m in.
[...] to Ms. Austen aside, I’d like to use my first post to answer Aaron’s original question: how can the Republican Party get back on [...]
[...] to these principles – perhaps signing off on a Contract with America 2.0 similar to what I’ve previously suggested – and in doing so we will generate an incredible amount of enthusiasm for our [...]