Suggestions for how the GOP can stop sucking at elections

     As the GOP begins to get on with its life after another tough loss and begins to "soul search" as the media so likes to call it, there are some very simple quick-fix changes that would benefit the party by as early as 2016 if their leadership could set aside its stubbornness and accept the new reality. 

     First, accept the fact that America as a majority does not like us right now.  It is now considered mainstream and socially acceptable to do so.  We are expected to be tolerant of others' opinions while they are not expected to be tolerant of ours.  And the more we whine about it, the worse it will get.  Bite your tongue and take the high road and realize that we have a destroyed image that we need to address first and foremost.  It will not happen overnight but by focusing on the key elements, it will happen eventually. 

     Second, stop arguing on "WHO" or "WHAT" is the definition of a "true conservative".  Conservatism is based very simply on "personal responsibility".  All other principles are rooted from that. It is not a race, a religion, a gender, an income level, a region of the country nor a sexual orientation. Those are just examples of our diversity. Yes, I said "diversity". We have it too.  We have women, African Americans, Latinos, homosexuals and other minorities on our leadership teams.  Just because we find it inappropriate to parade them around as trophies of social acceptance, it does not need we should bypass the opportunity to make them known to the outside.  They are on our team so let's use it as a basis for unity and not segregation. 

     Third, gay marriage. Leave it the heck alone. Some of us are fine with it like myself and others are not.  Personal opinion is where it should remain.  You don't have to all agree but it's not your life. It's someone else's.  When someone asks your opinion, simply say "It's none of the government's business" or better yet, "I think the government should get out of the marriage business." Marriage is an institution that is dictated freely by different religions.  If a church wants to recognize same sex marriage, the government's stance should be irrelevant. 

     Next, start readdressing the Latino population and the fact that you recently pissed off the largest minority in the United States with your attempts to make immigration the number one hot topic in the last election. It's not. There is a concept called "prioritization" that I suggest you review the definition of a few times. Immigration is not the #1 problem in this country and those that sneak across the U.S. / Mexico border are far from a statistically bad group of people no matter how hard some try to paint them as hardened criminals for trying to escape Mexico's economy for a better life in ours.  

     Next is abortion. You can't change this from your pulpit.  If Roe v. Wade ever changes it will have to be a non-partisan grassroots effort but the moment you take a side from the perspective of your party, you lose at least 50% of the vote.  Stay out of it.  But if you are absolutely compelled to take a public stance, use my answer which just so happens to be accurate: "I personally hate abortion but at the same time understand that sometimes it is the lesser of two evils when certain conditions exist such as the mother being the victim of rape or if their is a major risk to her life in carrying to term." 

      And stop treating liberals like they are horrible people.  When you do, you strengthen their resolve and make the walls of communication that much more difficult to penetrate.  Liberalism is founded by the notion that seeing one person struggling while others are affluent upsets them.  This is a noble attribute that stems from human decency.  This is also compounded by the fact that we are all emotional creatures that when faced with stresses, we seek the path of least resistance in order to remove the source of that stress. We're not pre-wired to care about the financial aspects involved or perhaps why that stress is there in the first place.  It takes too long to think that through and it fails to satisfy our basic human need to find what upsets us and make it go away now.  They are not stupid.  Just probably a little nicer than we are and don't necessarily believe in using "tough love" on someone in order to motivate them to do better.  In a variation of the proverb, we prefer to teach someone to fish while they choose to simply give them a fish (or someone else's fish). They care about people too, just not the same way. 

      And stop getting pushed back on your heels and start swinging.  Democrats have the courage to aggressively defend their convictions and we have a tendency to be their punching bags.  Remember, the best defense is a strong offense.  They take jabs at us so throw some back for a change.  Here is some ammunition backed by the U.S. Census; Democrats statistically have higher salaries than Republicans, donate less money and time to charitable causes and actually have a slightly lower effective tax rate. How they pull that off I still don't exactly understand.  But they have hidden this fact for decades by going on the offense and accusing us of being rich, cheap and uncharitable.  Oh, and regions that tend to lean Democrat also have higher crime and pollution rates.  I'm just pointing out a statistic. If you choose not to use it against your opponent than he will most certainly use it against you.  And while we're at it, don't hesitate to point out that a Republican pushed for the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery while the Democrats in the South lobbied for Jim Crow laws and built up the Ku Klux Klan. FDR had former Klansmen in his administration including his successor, Harry Truman. The Republican party supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by margins in the 80's percentile range while Democrats were down in the 60's. Ronald Reagan signed Martin Luther King Day into law at the same time the Democratic Senate MInority leader, Robert Byrd was a former Klansman. And lastly, George W. Bush had more black Americans on his staff than any other president including Obama today. Quote me on these facts the next time a Democrat quotes Kanye West. 

     In closing, Mitt Romney is good human being with nice family and an impeccable resumé.  Nobody bats .1000 in the business world and occasionally, painful decisions must to be made in order to make room for a higher proportion of good ones.  He may or may not have done a fine job as president but sadly, a majority of people in this country wanted to hate him so much that they fabricated facts and repeated them among their constituents so many times until people began to believe them as gospel.  It's not his fault that he looks like the stereotypical tycoon as painted by his detractors.  But selling someone like that to over 50% of the American voter is a P.R. nightmare.  We have become a pop-culture society to selects leaders based on a perception of coolness regardless as to whether or not that person has any degree of competency.  So it is OK to drape your jacket over a chair, loosen your tie and go casual from time to time.  Stop being so stuffy at your local meetings.  These are stupid rules I agree but the era of the "statesman" is over. 

      Fortunately for us, presidential performance is dictated more so by the people he or she surrounds themselves with and less by his or her immediate qualifications.  Let's face it.  Most presidents have no military experience.  Yet they become in a sense the CEO of the military once elected by default.  Nobody is expecting he or she to make extremely difficult life and death military decisions alone.  That is what their top military advisors and decorated experts on their team are for.  The president makes most  if not all decisions based on a committee of his or her different leadership panels.  Everything else is just a good sales pitch made to the American voters in order to keep him or her in that position to select those teams that make those decisions.  This requires salesmanship in being a good speaker and knowing how to address your target audience. Democrats are exceptional at this.  Republicans are not.  Republicans have been trying to force more people into their predetermined market segment against their will and this never works.  If you guys try to use the angle that our society should function like a business then you need to back track and Google some articles on basic marketing.  The majority in power gets the set the rules and you can either learn to play by the rules of engagement or lose.  It really IS that simple.