Guess Who's 2012 Agenda This Is?

1 – TAX REFORM - We support replacing the current tax code with the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax would treat everyone – gay or straight – equally. Until then, we support death tax repeal; domestic partner tax equity; cuts in the capital gains and corporate tax rates to jump start our economy and create jobs; a fairer, flatter and substantially simpler tax code.

2 – HEALTHCARE REFORM – Repeal of Obamacare; encourage free market healthcare reform. Allow for the purchase of insurance across state lines – expanding access to domestic partner benefits; emphasizing individual ownership of healthcare insurance – such a shift would prevent discriminatory practices by an employer or the government.

3 – SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM - The only way to permanent solvency in the Social Security system is through the creation of inheritable personal savings accounts. Personal savings accounts would give gay and lesbian couples the same opportunity toleave their accounts to their spouses as their straight counterparts.

4 - RESPECTING THE PROPER ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY - We believe our Constitution should be respected and that judges appointed to the federal bench should recognize the proper and appropriate role of the judiciary as laid out by our Founding Fathers.

5 – HOLDING THE LINE ON SPENDING – Standing up for all tax payers against wasteful and unnecessary spending to protect future generations from the mounting federal debt.

6 – FIGHTING GLOBAL EXTREMISTS – Standing strong against radical regimes that refuse to recognize the basic human rights of gays and lesbians, women and religious minorities.

7 – DEFENDING OUR CONSTITUTION – Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment. Marriage should be a question for the states. A federal constitutional amendment on marriage would be an unprecedented federal power grab from thestates.

8 – EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES – Protecting 2nd amendment rights. The answer to stopping bias motivated crime is not the Hate Crimes laws, instead we support empowering individuals to lawfully protect themselves.

9 – RESPECTING STATES RIGHTS – Supporting a strong 10th Amendment that limits the scope of the federal government and empowers states; repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act and return power to regulate marriage and family law to the states.

10 – EDUCATION REFORM – The answer to the serious problem of bullying is not more federal intervention in education. Instead, we support empowering parents and families by supporting school choice initiatives and protecting the right of parents to homeschool their children.

That very admirable agenda is GOProud's, as director Jimmy LaSalvia explains:

The so-called “gay agenda” has been defined narrowly by the gay left. In contrast to the approach of the left, GOProud’s agenda emphasizes conservative and libertarian principles that will improve the daily lives of all Americans, but especially gay and lesbian Americans.

My hat's off to him. I am of a religious bent, so I think that the homosexuality is sinful, but I also believe that is a matter wholly between the individual and God. Gays should not suffer discrimination, and there is a large place open for them both at my table and under the GOP tent.

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Pulling Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

Obama campaigned to the center, he is governing from the far left. And it is clear that his major policies are not supported by the majority of Americans. As the election of Scott Brown to the Kennedy's ancestral seat punctuated, the public is delivering a backlash. What has the GOP done to further that backlash for the past year? Absolutely nothing. Which is precisely what they should have been doing. When your opponent is committing suicide, you stand out of the way. What you don't do is give them the number to the suicide hotline and hire them a publicist who will blame the suicide attempts on you.

But that is just what it seems our GOP is doing. The only way Obama will be able to salvage the 2010 and 2012 elections will be if he succeeds in painting himself as reasonable and the Republicans as obstructionists - or, if in an act of insanity, the Republicans become complicit in Obama passing his socialist agenda into law, either by joining in or refusing to filibuster. In this regard, meeting with Obama on the left's health care legislation and allowing "Pay As You Go" legislation to escape Congress without a filibuster are just mind numbingly stupid errors.

I recently blogged on why the GOP should reject Obama's offer to meet on the health care monstrosity and how they should make a counteroffer to meet on deficit reduction and spending excess. But it seems that the GOP is planning to attend, regardless. They are insane.

And now we have Obama signing Pay as You Go legislation into law today. Pay As You Go was passed on a party line vote a few days ago, along with an increase in the national debt ceiling. If any piece of legislation deserved to be filibustered, it was that piece of Orwellian dribble. I have blogged on this legislation here and here. Pay as You Go does nothing towards imposing fiscal responsibility, it provides a smoke screen for Democrats both to claim fiscal responsibility and to justify tax increases, and because of the accounting rules of the CBO, it makes it virtually impossible for future Congresses to enact tax cuts. So it was both a propaganda victory for the left, a way to deflect attention from another increase in the national debt ceiling, and a brake on conservatives. That is a big win for the left. Way to go GOP.

If the GOP doesn't have the backbone to explain to America why they are filibustering a piece of horrendous legislation, if they think not using the filibuster will protect them from the left demagouging the issue, they are utterly insane. Obama is on the defensive and the GOP is demurring because they think the public is too stupid to understand reality. These jokers will pull defeat from the jaws of victory between now and November, I am sure of it.

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Grand New Party?

I have long thought that the conservative values of the Republican party are much more closely aligned with the non-ideological component of the Democratic base - i.e., the working class. Democrats claim to fight for the "working class" but it is becoming ever more apparent that Dem's rely on the blue collar vote while pursuing avant garde policies that only help narrow special interests. At the same time, these policies actually harm the working class portion of their base. You can see it in every aspect of Democratic politics, from the massive payoff to Big Labor with the Employee Free Choice Act to protectionism and the war on free trade. But nowhere is it more apparent than in regards as to energy. Obama and his far left ideologues embrace $4 a gallon gas as a means to force conservation and a switch to unproven alternative fuels, irrespective of cost. No thought is given to the incredible impact this has on every aspect of life for the average person.

The key to success for the Democrats has been to keep the scales over the eyes of this portion of their base for decades. Those scales are starting to fall off. And as it happens, it presents an ever clearer opportunity for the GOP to capture these voters in a new coalition that is much more of a fundamental and permanent shift than the ad hoc movement of "Reagan democrats." Patrick Ruffini blogs at The Next Right on this opportunity:

Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam's Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam's Grand New Party contemplates a future GOP coalition anchored around the working class. In the past, I've been a bit skeptical of this idea. But with #dontgo, Drill Now, and the current economic situation, I'm starting to think that activating such a coalition may be possible -- and in a way that doesn't require the Republican Party to expand government.

Those seeking a coherent narrative of the two parties can find it in something deceptively simple: the politics of price. Republicans want the things you pay for everyday to cost less. Democrats would make them cost more.

Want cheaper energy? Drill now, expand refinery capacity, go nuclear, and diversify into renewables. Republicans want energy sources that are cheap, reliable, and abundant. Democrats want higher prices to force us off fossil fuels to address environmental concerns first, and affordability concerns last.

Want cheaper consumer products? Fight protectionism and forced unionism.

Want cheaper food? Get rid of ethanol subsidies.

Want cheaper health insurance? Get rid of irrational regulations and frivolous lawsuits, and let people buy health insurance across state lines. The left scoffs at more affordable plans that make sense for cost-conscious Gen Y Obama supporters.

Want cheaper government? Cut spending.

Want cheaper tax bills? This is self-explanatory.

Most of this is not new. However, Republicans have largely been unable to capitalize on wanting things to cost less because the country was relatively prosperous and inflation has not been a real concern for a generation. With the country now facing tangible inflation in the food and fuel sectors, an affordability agenda for the working class is now much more salient.

. . . If we can get out from under the dead weight that is 28% Presidential approval, the economic issue environment can be turned against the progressives. Liberalism is built around sacrificing lower prices for social goods like the environment, health care, or economic equality. . . This is the underpinning of their hatred of low-cost Wal-Mart, their thinly-veiled sense of satisfaction with high energy prices, and their consistent opposition to lower taxes.

A gold-plated agenda that might seem semi-plausible in good times appears laughable in leaner ones, particularly with public attention to prices high as it is.

This is why the reaction to something like domestic oil drilling has been unexpectly strong. The public wants to do something, anything to bring down the price at the pump. This is also why every other ad on the Olympics is about hybrid cars or other kinds of green technology. It's not that the public is greener per se. It's that oil is getting to be so darned expensive that people are looking for alternatives. Hybrids or electric cars will take off once they are demonstrably cheaper than their CO2-spewing counterparts, not when the public has some altruistic environmental epiphany. Why do people buy CFL bulbs? Not because of the environmental benefits (which have always been there) but because of the advertised savings. The American people will not willingly pay for things that cost more.

Read the entire post. The opportunity is there. The question is whether our current crop of Republican leadership can see it and exploit it. To be frank, this probably requires more foresight and leadership than our current crop of leaders possess.

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