Making the GOP Pitch to the Tea Party

My Bossier has a post My Annual 'both parties are evil' blog . I
Full disclosure of course I am GOP. It would be interesting to see a Democrat pitch to the Tea party too.

I like the two party system. I think there are are deep ingrained reasons why we don't have third parties in the USA that have little to do with devious well thought out plans that occur in the boardroom s of the DNC and the RNC.

I think the problem with the two party system is it is not enough of a traditional two party system with major local involvement.

Let me respond to a few things My Bossier has written:

Independent voters now constitute the largest segment of the American electorate. The Democrat and Republican parties have done everything in their power to ensure their continued monopoly on elections, by enacting election laws and rules that benefit themselves and that make it extremely difficult to get Independent or candidates of other parties on the ballot.

Independents generally are found to be center left or center right. I am not sure that having a great number of Independents not involved in the local parties is a good thing.

I do wonder if these Independents were running for party office and debating their ideas in the parties if we would be better off. Also there is the irony. Many hard left or hard right people really start to hate Independents with they act Independent . That is outside that particular Independents world view.

What brought on this rant? Since you asked, I’ll tell you. Sarah Palin (and I’m neither a Palin lover or hater, I’m neutral), recently addressed a gathering of Republican and Tea Party activists in Arkansas. Her advice to the Tea Party movement was this:"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."No, no, no Sarah, they don’t have to. I’m sure that the majority of Tea Party members, at least in our area, do belong to the Republican party. If they were happy with that party, they wouldn’t be at Tea Party events.

Well of course they do not have too. They can have a third party. The question is should these Tea Party people want that?

I have mentioned before the fact of political life that in areas of the country where there are third parties there is a massive Democrat rule. See New York and to some extent areas California. For the Tea Party to be successful it will have to recruit black and Latino voters. I mean really get them to pull that lever for them in some numbers.

Till that happens you will split up the vote of everyone right of center and DEMOCRATS WIN. In fact the democrats would be more liberal since both the GOP and the Tea party would be making pitches toward conservative to moderate Dems. Thus we have a more liberal Democrat majority

Further do the TEA Party folks really want to go beyond a few core issues? If they are going to be a workable party on both the local and National Level they will not be able to get by voting "Present" on a million issues. Does the Tea Party want to take positions on Israel, trade issues, abortion, gay marriage, the size of the pacific surface fleet to combat China, alternative energy, stem cell research, if certain drugs should be illegal, etc etc.

On the core issues they are concerned about is it better to be a third party or more like the NRA and the Pro-life movement?

An alignment of the Tea Party movement with the Republican party would spell the end of the movement, it would become just another fund-raising arm for an already bloated monster.

Is this really true? Let me take the example of the NRA and the Pro-life movement. Are these now just rubes that are getting hit up for bucks. We forget as to the GOP much about the Nixon days and before and the whole Rockefeller Republican branch.

Reagan did not just come in magically one day and changed the party. No many of those people in the above two organization ran for party office, did the grunt work , and got elected to higher office. They needless to say got results and their concerns were largely listened too.

If you are a ‘conservative Republican’ answer this for me: what great conservative achievements has the Republican party given us in the last 25 years?

I hear this a lot. I think the problem is we seem to want to look for some GRAND PIECE of legislation. This country of course have had many grand pieces of legislation in its history. Some good and some bad I suppose. However this is not really how most change works. It is very gradual. In fact so gradual you almost don't see it.

I can say as to that third branch of Government we almost always forget about there has been a much more conservative viewpoint that has taken hold. That has been critical.

When you look at the much liberal GOP lets say pre Reagan and the much more liberal Democrats of that area we see a difference today. So I suspect yes in some ways the parties at times look alike because that is where the vast middle where most Americans are have pushed them .

Let us talk about that vast middle and all those Independents that people praise.

It is I suppose very fashionable to say all these needed change both the left and right want never happens because the parties are just sell outs. It is the politicians!!

However is that the case? I understand the problem here. It is not really fashionable to bash voters and indeed it is counterproductive.

On the left currently there is a revolt over spineless politicos and sell outs that are not getting their agenda passed. The left's argument seems very similar to what I am hearing at Tea Parties. The reason Obama care is not passing is not because of spineless democrats politicos.

I disagree. It is not passing because the majority of Americans don't want it.

On the right there is a argument that the Federal Government needs to get out education!!! Ok so lets say some President proposed the GET FEDERAL FUNDING OUT OF EDUCATION ACT. I suspect in the end the reaction to that would be the same as Obama care. Except it would be the right complaining about spineless GOP sell outs.

We say we like our Representatives listening to the people but we get highly upset when they actually do that some times. This rage gets more because the Internet many times gives us the illusion that the vast majority of people think our way on X. If we see 100 people agreeing with us on a blog or a forum then we make the jump it must be majority at times.

In effect we are a nation that goes from center left to center right that has form of Government that makes any dramatic change from any faction hard to do.

So while the electorate seems fine with the Reagan revolution they don't appear in too much of a hurry to go further right. On the Democrat side we see they seem comfortable with the Bill Clinton like Democrats but not too interested in going leftward.

The parties are not the problem. They are indeed perhaps a accurate reflection of the American electorate in they produce Congress critters that seem to reflect this view with of course the always notable few exceptions . The problem is to get down to it is in the end the argument has not been won with our neighbors and fellow Church goers and the people we sit with at football games.

In a age where people were involved in parties much more this was done at a much more local level. Now we have the Internet which I think is no subsitute.

So change will be gradual!!! I know that is hard. On pro-life issues I care about it is hard. I wish we could have a revolution and ban abortion for instance. However the American public seems not to agree with me. So I have to take those small victories and compromises. Alas that is just life. But it is working.

So I think the Tea party movement is much more aligned with the GOP than the Democrats. Get involved. Run for party offices and then do the real work. Become block captains and engage your neighbors and get out the vote. Run for office and then when in office do the nitty gritty of governing and having to defend your actions. For reasons I have stated above I think this much more likely to find success in the GOP than in some third party.