As per my recent discussion on Blog Talk Radio with #the DontGo Movement, I wanted to reiterate some of the issues I wanted to start driving discourse on now. One of the key ways the Democrats took this election was by driving the discourse away from their losing issues, and micro-targeting key groups with particular messages. We can take that same strategy and use it against them this next term by driving a particular line of discourse which defuses their key issues and makes them into winners for our side.
- Abortion: The greatest civil rights violation in our time, we need to have every argument we make be about justifying a change in law based on expansion of rights, something with a clear precedent. This way we drive a clear wedge into the arguments about “choice”, as the clearest choice being violated is that of the unborn. Make it about expansion of rights, and we can bring people in on the left without isolating large sectors of the GOP base which are very much in favor of pro-life movements.
- Gay Rights: Can be entirely defused by granting rights IE visitation rights, communal housing benefits, expanding “common law” marriage rights, etc. This is a line of legislation that can be pushed by the right without explicitly mentioning gay rights per se, would take the brunt of the claims of “unequal rights” out of play. The issue with marriage vs. civil unions can be boiled down to the fact that they are fundamentally different, and so there can be no “separate but equal” because there is no “equal”, and thus they must be separate- while some may argue about the degree of difference, there is no argument saying that the two would truly be equal under any stretch of the imagination.
- Alternative energy: Insofar as it is cost-effective and efficient, it should be used. Conservation and Free-Market principles CAN work hand in hand, and both can achieve their ends through increasing efficiency. This should also be done in a way which entirely defuses the entire global warming debate, which has seen a recent decline in evidence but has still been winning the rhetorical debate. We can merge the two to create a winning issue for our side.
We can make more solutions along these lines, and together, we can change the way the GOP is percieved and start winning!
Last 5 posts by Brad Tidwell
- Voter Fraud- There's an App for That? - April 14th, 2010
- Obama and International Perception - October 20th, 2009
- The Healthcare Debate, Simplified. - October 2nd, 2009
- Win $100 for Reporting Campus Leftist Abuse! - September 30th, 2009
- Serena, Kanye, Wilson and the GOP's Crisis of Coverage - September 22nd, 2009
Why is government in the business of saying who can and cannot get married in the first place? What’s wrong with civil union for all: man/woman, man/man, or woman/woman?
Bueller? Bueller?
redefining polarized phrases won’t change the dynamics of the issue. the republican party wont survive if all it attempts to do is change the way the issues are discussed, rather than adjust to the issues themselves
im a republican who voted for obama because there was just too much vitrol coming from the republican side. that, and sarah palin is an idiot.
ill be waiting to see how the party re-introduces itself to see if ill vote (R) in 2010
I believe the solution to almost all of the problems is smaller government. But we have to define what that means. Bottom-up solutions are ALWAYS better than top-down. To be pro-life is a conservative social issue. Therefore, it should be decided by people who hold your same values. The values of people in rural Texas are likely to be very different than those in urban California – so decide these issues with the people who share your values. Get the Federal government out of the business of social and moral issues. This is the way the founders intended it. Charities: ALWAYS better run by local and state governments than by giant beauracracies. Schools: ALWAYS run better by the local governments and parents because they have a stake in the results. So small government means more liberty for the people and more liberty means more prosperity. We can be conservative without making moral and social policy that polarizes people into one party or the other. Truly being conservative means allowing freedom of the people to believe their own values systems. And we need to drive home the point that overturning Roe v. Wade does NOT mean abortion becomes illegal. sheeesh…..