Smart, Rich Conservatives versus Poor, Dumb Conservatives

[TJ in Oregon]

Sigh...The GOP needs to figure it's main problem isn't even political. It's the way we expect our politicians to carry themselves. Our zeal for entertainment has gotten so bad it's difficult to even talk to a lot of conservatives anymore. Getting angry doesn't fix America and yelling louder and louder doesn't mean what you have to say any more convincing than if you said it calmly. The left has discovered the joy of politics as entertainment, but so often it's just in making fun of us.

I remember when I was talking to a bunch of Republicans about redistricting Ohio and the idea of combining Jean Schmidt's and Steve Chabot's districts and forcing them into a primary, the conversation somehow, some way ended up getting twisted into about half the people believing that Jean Schmidt was the "true conservative" and Steve Chabot the "moderate" just on the bases that Schmidt was a worse candidate. It took quite a while for people to figure out that ideology wasn't Schmidt's problem so much as how she carried herself at times.

We've done that too much as a national party and as a movement. You don't have to be a moderate to be pragmatic and you don't have to sell out your beliefs to get things done. We need better candidates more than we need ideologically pure ones. That being said, I'll admit there are limits to this. I don't want to turn the GOP into the Democrat-lite party and I don't want to turn it into a socially liberal party. But conservative needs to mean more than the opposite of whatever the liberals want. It needs to be a grand alternate vision for the country.

Now, part of this too is that the Democrats, those on here included, want to try and make the Republican Party looks stupid and ignorant. The idea is to paint us as freakish weirdos and lead the band of internet leftist lemmings wherever makes the GOP look bad to go regardless of whether its true or not. Republicans need to recognize this still, as an honest man in politics will do about as well as a Mormon in Beer Olympics, but try and defuse the attacks instead of playing into them. We have be prepared to be harassed but not react poorly to it.