The Game Plan: How to win the GOP can win its support back.

Sorry for the long lull in between blog posts, but I wanted to take some time and do some deep reflexion about the current state of my party and the direction I believe the Republican Party needs to go. Unfortunately, the GOP is splitting further every day into two camps: The Conservative Camp and the Moderation Camp. I believe this internal bickering is not beneficial for our party, and is moving us towards a leaderless vaccuum of indecision and confusion. This is the reason why I developed a game plan for the GOP this election cycle.

1. Take back the debate!

Stop letting the Leftists in this country frame the debate. When they do, they paint conservatives in a corner, in which the conservative spends most of their time refuting instead of talking about their solutions. If you can't shut them down in debate, do what they do to us and ignore them. Instead of refuting their claims, don't even acknowledge them, make some claims of your own, and then talk solutions. This is the only way to get your message out and take back the debate. STOP FALLING FOR THE RHETORICAL TRAPS OF THE LEFT!

2. Throw an elbow when they throw a jab!

Stop playing nice! Our opponents are shameless in their name calling and hystrionics. Don't be afraid to call a spade a spade. Look at the response towards Ari Fleischer's appearance on MSNBC's Hardball on Wednesday. Ari called Chris Matthews out on all of his hyberbolic accusations, and made Matthews acknowledge his sensationalistic twisting of the facts. It was awesome, and at the same time Ari was respectful, but he was not afraid to call Matthews out. This is what it takes. The facts and the truth on our side, start using it to throw an elbow from time to time. The American people will respect that. They want us to fight for them, not suck up to them.

3. Approach and reveal the heart in Conservatism.

Instead being completely focused on numbers and statistics in our arguments, we need to start appealing to heart of the American people. We need to celebrate the American spirit, and brag on the individual who succeeds on their own without the government being their savior. We need to champion people like Star Parker, who pulled herself out of the trap of welfare and became successful. We need to put more heart and less brain in our arguments. We need to show that conservatism puts the individual above government, and that our policies are about empowerment and not enslavement. This is the approach of every successful political talk radio host, and it is a strategy we need to adopt.

4. We need real Pro-Life policies, not wedge issues.

The GOP needs to get away from divisive issues like gay marriage and abortion, and begin to show a willingness to compromise to take back certain ground in issues like the above. We need to say that we could be fore civil unions, so long as there are protections for churches who do not wish to perform gay ceremonies. We should say that we would be willing to allow abortions for four key situations: Rape, Incest, Viability of the fetus and health of the mother. If we could get abortion limited to these four areas it would be a huge success and would show compassion towards hard situations.

That being said these issues should not be our sole focus during elections. Yes, they are great for ralling the troops, but we have to show the American people that we care about what they care about, and that is putting food on the table and gas in their car, keeping their children safe and being able to save for retirement and the future. This is what they care about, not whether Adam and Steve are wanting to tie the knot. Moral issues ARE important, but we must not be singular in our efforts, nor be portrayed as such.

5. A moderate who votes with you 80% of the time is still 20% a leftist.

Senator John Cornyn (R- TX) chairman of the Republican Senatorial Election Committee said several weeks ago that the GOP should consider recruiting more moderate candidates to run in more liberal areas in the country if we wanted to win in 2010. He said as his reasoning that he would "rather serve with a Republican who voted with him 80% of the time, than a Democrat who voted with him 0% of the time." Though his reasoning makes since, it is not what is best for the country, and THAT should be the focus of our party, not what is best for our party.

We have learned in the past that moderates will always vote against you when you need them the most, and they will always take more left leaning positions once elected. This is not what America needs. If Conservatives were better at communicating conservatism we would not have a problem getting elected in the center-right country of America. Run a conservative, but help him with message and he will get elected.

These five points are simply my opinions, and should be weighed as such. I know that I am a small time blogger with not much of a following, but I also have a few friends who could take these ideas and put them in the hands of the right people. My only hope, is that you the reader read these points, and pass them along to your friends, so that at the grassroots level we start chaging the Grand Ole Party.