I wrote the following to a prominent political leader in our state who I had the pleasure of meeting recently and I thought what I wrote to him is a good topic for us to talk about too. I will leave his identity out of it because it is not needed for our discussion: What I am challenging conservatives within our party is the notion and belief that whenever the party nominates a true conservative (like Bush II, Regan) we win, but when we nominate a moderate we lose (McCain, Bush I reelection, Romney). I do not believe the facts support this view. It is my view that Romney lost because he lost the race for minorities, women, and hispanics specifically and I believe the exit polls support this position I hold. I do not believe our conservative values lost, but I believe Romney was not the best choice in communicating those conservative values. But I will leave that to future discussion. ================== Letter Hey *****, I want to personally thank you for coming out to our small town (Tahlequah). I am greatly encourage by your consistent conservative views and dedication to the law. I am writing you just a quick letter to challenge you on your view that Romney and nominees like him always lose because they are moderates and not conservatives like Bush II and Reagan were. I am not convinced by this popular view that seems to be making the rounds of conservative talk shows and pushed by people like Ted Cruz. I believe it is important to come to terms on this issue because it greatly effects how our party reaches out to minorities, moderates and women. I have done some reading on the exit polls throughout the nation and specifically in Florida because you brought that up as proof. I am not seeing it *****. I think your statement and belief is not supported by the facts but I am open to being wrong myself. Please look at the following: You claim that Bush II won because he ran as a conservative unlike Romney. I took a look at Bushs platform and found the following, (taken from 4president.org/brochures/georgewbush2000brochure.htm) No Child Left Behind. Is this conservative? He wanted to spend big federal money on education rather than getting the federal government out of education. His brochure for president stated this, Bush will spend $5 billion for early intervention to help every child read by third grade. He will expand character education in schools to help teach our children there are right and wrong choices in life. He will make it easier to remove disruptive students, stop junk lawsuits against teachers and strengthen classroom safety. I sure dont believe you and I want the federal government telling us here in Oklahoma how to teach our children. That is a top down philosophy approach, a big government solution and I would say not conservative. How about Bushs expansion of Medicare like the Drug Prescription program? That was a huge growth of government and debt. Is this the kind of conservatism that you were talking about? Bush will increase the number of community health centers to increase access to health services. Governor Bush will expand Medical Savings Accounts and strengthen and reform Medicare so everyone -- especially low income seniors -- has access to prescription drug coverage. He’ll sign a Patient’s Bill of Rights that holds HMOs accountable and reduces junk lawsuits, as he did in Texas. Governor Bush will help people afford long term care policies with new incentives. Seniors should not worry about being burdens to their children. And families should get help with the cost of caring for elderly family members at home. He’ll expand research into curing cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases, in part by dramatically increasing the budget of the National Institutes of Health. Just look at how many times the words expand and increase is used. On and on it goes. You know I remember when Bush was running that many conservatives accused him of being a moderate and I agreed but I thought that once he got elected he would show his true conservative values. No, he did not, but at the time I did not realize it because I was very much like Bush in my thinking. We got exactly what he said he wanted to push. Bigger government, just GOP style. I believe Romney lost because he lost moderates, hispanics, and women and I believe this can be proven by looking at the election results and exit polls. But I will let you to give me your side before going on and I will get some sleep. I do believe conservatism can win but as I said Saturday we lose if we allow ourselves to get marginalized. We must do a better job of communicating a positive message of conservatism that actually shows people how it will benefit them. Being against things and being critical of government is easy but showing people how our conservative, small government values can benefit them takes more forethought. That is my goal in all this. I would like to help conservatives win smartly with a positive message that inspires rather than running a campaign of personal destruction and negativity. Sincerely, Al
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 08:44:42 +0000