Elephants never forget!
When it comes to Republicans, most would like to forget the last two presidential elections.
They had best hope that their mascot reminds them that is not an option.
Unless the GOP understands how they twice managed to lose a national election to a man with no business experience, a man who never ran any large organization, a man who had not completed one term in the United States Senate and a man who did not understand how things get done in Washington or in the world, they are destined to lose the next presidential election and perhaps fail to be a player on the national stage.
The American people, with their votes, have said they are not concerned about the influx of illegals, they are not concerned about gay marriage, they are not interested in extreme right views especially as they are expressed by the Tea Party, and they are not interested in a government that blocks the functioning of America’s day-to-day responsibilities.
How else can you explain the American people turning down a multi-term U.S. Senator and genuine war hero, John McCain, and a highly successful, well educated and blemish free wholesome American, Mitt Romney, in favor of a man clearly an amateur when it came to government experience?
Everyone has his own take on these elections. I think the people were tired of war, mistrusting of politicians, and hopeful for something better. I think they determined someone from outside the usual line-up of presidential candidates was the answer. I think the voters did, indeed, vote for hope and change.
I don’t ask anyone to agree with me but I think the hope and change thing didn’t work very well and that, in fact, our nation has slipped greatly under this administration. I do not attribute to the president any bad intentions. I think he is an honorable and well educated man with a lovely family. There is no question he is an admirable orator. But his lack of executive and political experience has rendered his efforts seriously short of what was needed.
One would think after eight years of what we have experienced the GOP would be a sure thing in the presidential election of 2016. I think that is a real stretch.
Unless the GOP make serious course changes and learn to understand how America has grown and changed, how we have become more accepting and generous, and how much we want two parties with different philosophies of government to find compromise every day, the nation will not remain at the pinnacle of international power and certainly not remain the nation once admired by the world for the way we lived and operated.
I have no idea who the Democrats will nominate for the next presidential nomination but today it looks like the nomination is Hillary Clinton’s to lose. Mrs. Clinton spent eight years in The White House as First Lady. Everyone knows that she knew every discussion, every problem and every plan. All First Ladies do. So she was at least an observer of power in action.
Everyone knows she was elected as a U.S. Senator from New York and that by most assessments worked hard, learned her job, served her constituency well and was admired on both sides of the aisle.
Everyone knows she lost the presidential nomination to someone with seriously less experience but accepted a position in his administration that simply further solidified her credentials, serving as Secretary of State.
Mrs. Clinton was a star student at college and a successful lawyer.
So humor me for a minute and assume she is the Democrat nominee for President.
To this resume she adds the possibility of being the first woman to achieve the office. Such a “first” attracts many votes.
So tell me, regardless of how unhappy the American people might be with Barack Obama at the end of his term, will they turn on Hillary Clinton to vote for any Republican who continues to bleat about immigration issues, argues against equal rights for gays, wants to stop gay marriage and wants to prohibit a woman from making her own decision on abortion.
While I have serious reservations on some of the issues outlined above, I acknowledge that I am in the minority in those reservations and I believe firmly the GOP will have no chance of defeating Mrs. Clinton if they do not change their stance on many national issues
I am not unmindful of the strongly held beliefs of many Republicans in their traditional positions. I admire many people who think of themselves as part of the Tea Party movement because I know how dearly they love America and how strongly they want to see her return to traditional values. I am not writing here about the value of consistency or the importance of loyalty to one’s principles. In this column I am writing only on the pragmatic question: how can the Republican Party regain the presidency of the United States.
I understand for some Republicans, especially the more conservative, winning the presidential election is not as important as building a party of traditional values. I understand they would rather lose national elections than pander to ideas to which they do not subscribe.
But politics is the art of the possible. And our country needs leaders, policies and programs that speak to the majority of our people. The GOP has recently failed to produce these. If they are to remain viable with reference to leading the nation they must adapt.
At the time of this writing, I see no national Republican of enough gravitas to pull this off and I see a party unwilling to face the need to change.
Our nation works better when there is a seriously effective two party system. We do best when two parties are strong enough to require compromise in the crafting of legislation. We are at our best when big issues are seriously discussed and voters participate in large numbers in deciding the way forward.
The GOP has two years to reach a proper conclusion on this, identify a leader with experience, wisdom and appeal, and to build a platform that appeals to voters previously unidentified with the party.
This is a mighty big task.
