Comments On The Gingrich 2014-2016 Republican Strategy Memo

I posted below, without comment, the entirety of a memo from Newt Gingrich passed out as part of a briefing to Republican Congressmen and staffers in reference to the next election cycles. I would like to comment on a few of Gingrich's points here.

THE OBAMA STRATEGY FOR 2014 and 2016

It is clear President Obama has decided that he can win a decisive realignment in 2014 and then consolidate his party in power in 2016. To achieve that he will implement six specific strategies:

1. There will be a permanent 24/7 campaign to dominate the media.

That's been true for most of the past decade, ever since the far left completed their take over of the Democrat Party. The right has completely and utterly failed to match this. The rule of thumb should be simple. For every statement made by the President or a left wing congresscritter, there should be a near immediate response (within hours) made and offered to the same media outlets. Moreover, such must be concise, passionate and vociferous. Moreover, as discussed in the Horowitz column blogged above, it must be emotional. If the above does not happen, we can toss in the towel now.

3. Relentless cynicism will characterize the manipulation of facts, the choice of issues and the willingness to harm the American people and American institutions ("maximum pain for political gain" is the underlying system).

The lesson of the 2012 election is that intellectual honesty and facts are utterly meaningless to the left. Emotion will always win. We have the facts and intellectual honesty on our side, but lack virtually any emotional appeal. If you don't know what I am talking about, look to Andrew Breitbart or, for that matter, Newt Gingrich - and again, see the Horowitz column blogged above. We need emotional appeal, intellectual honesty, and an all hands on deck effort to immediately respond.

4. The entire coalition of left wing allies will be mobilized over and over to overmatchthe Republicans ( think Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, unions, gay rights groups,etc etc).

Look at the groups Gingrich points out. Not listed are hundreds of others, the vast majority of which share a common trait - they are all funded in whole or in large part by our tax dollars. One of the major systemic problems of our form of government has been the growth, over the past four decades, of dedicated progressive groups who the left have figured out how to place on the public tit. These groups than turn around use our tax dollars to advocate for the left.

Planned Parenthood, public sector unions, Acorn and its affiliates are merely the most glaring tip of the iceberg. As to the Sierra Club and other green groups, they make a fortune suing the government under laws that allow private groups to sue under our environmental laws and to recover attorney's fees. The whole system is corrupt beyond measure. This is something the right should be attacking daily - not the least of which because many of these interest groups stand at direct odds with the victim groups the left claims to represent. The teachers unions are the single greatest millstone around the neck of blacks and, indeed, the American middle class. Radical green groups are a mortal threat to the middle class. I could go on but you get the idea. This is fertile ground that the right has not, to my knowledge, even touched upon.

FACED WITH THIS REALITY THE CURRENT GOP IS HOPELESSLY OVER-MATCHED.

FIRST STEPS:

.....

9. Including minorities is a key to success. This will be challenging, at times confusing,and fraught with frustration. Every Republican incumbent, leader and candidate should allocate one third of their time meeting with minority Americans. The first goal has to be to practice listen-learn-help-lead as a model. As Jack Kemp used to say "they have to know that you care before they care that you know". This one principle is an absolute key to any Republican hope to be a majority party.

This is one I've been screaming about for years also. The right can no longer afford to write off any demographic group - blacks in particular. Virtually every victim group the left claims to champion is screwed by them. The most egregious example was when Obama first came into office and, in response to the teacher's unions who form the financial foundation for the Democrats, Obama shut down a voucher program in DC schools that allowed some of the poorest in our Capitol to attend the same private school Obama's children attended. Obama consigned all of DC's poor - and mostly black - to the worst performing school system in the nation. Yet another example is the Lilly Ledbetter Act, something which purports to champion equal pay for women, but which would be a huge drain on the economy and hurt the employment prospects for women. The economic drain would not be because of equalizing pay, we already have laws on the books that do precisely that, but rather because it would create a class action litigation bonanza that would make employers reticent indeed to put women into any position that could possibly invite such litigation. Yet a third example is Obama's green energy madness - something which presents an existential threat to the poor and middle class as energy prices effect the price of all goods and services in our nation.

The bottom line is that we need to be going after every demographic group with a concerted effort that combines honesty and emotion. Just because they might resist the message at first is no reason not to make the effort.

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