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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2008-10-17

How to Lay The Groundwork 

I'm not completely sold on an Obama landslide . . .yet . . .but the polls are looking more and more grim. And, even though someone as smart as Michael Barone is saying "it ain't over yet," now is the time, when people are paying attention, that John McCain could lay the groundwork for a Republican revival.

I think it's time he stop campaigning for this one--he needs to, as my brilliant friend suggested, say what he really wants to now. I would say it's time to cut simple commercials--one camera, one angle. Just John McCain talking directly to the American people.

Or, better yet, just John McCain and Sarah Palin talking to the American people.

Tell them that the Founders were rightfully worried about the consolidation of power in government, whether that be within one party or one branch or the government as a whole. Tell them--tell US--that the Founders were rightfully wary of making promises to us about what the government could do for us, because every time we looked to the government to do FOR us, we also gave it the power to take away FROM us. Tell us that there is a history in America of protectionism and high taxes, and it led to the Great Depression and the Carter Era of Stagflation. Tell us that, historically, economic troubles IN America have always led to military troubles FOR America. Tell us that the Founding Fathers, when confronted with a difficult choice, pledged their "lives, liberties, and their sacred Honor" to "Liberty, or give me Death." The giants who created this great country never looked to this great country for solutions BEFORE they looked to themselves.

Remind us that the greatness of America lies, not in its government and what it can do for us, but in ourselves, in our creativity, in our work ethic . . .

and in our rejection of the government as our caretaker and Mother Superior.

Because, ultimately, the Founding Fathers of this great country were more afraid of themselves than they were of foreign powers, and that every step towards dependence on the government makes that fear more realistic.

Remind Americans that what we stand for and what we mean is more than government programs and safety nets; remind Americans that Jefferson did not guarantee happiness, but, rather, the "pursuit of happiness;" remind Americans that our greatness is never found in a hand outstretched to Washington, but one extended to our neighbors and our communities.

It could be enough to change the game this time; it might be enough to forestall the long march to obscurity; and it's absolutely necessary to give Republicans any chance in the future.
Posted by: Michael / 10/17/2008 11:55:00 PM

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