The GOP Won Big in 2008
by Mark Noonan on January 1st, 2009 at 06:45pm
In Tennessee, at least:
On Election Night, voters spoke loudly with the echoes reverberating still today. In Tennessee, John McCain carried the state with 57% of the vote, Senator Lamar Alexander was re-elected with 65%, and fourteen new Republican legislators were elected yielding a Republican Majority in the General Assembly for the first time since 1868.
Voters elected legislators that carried the same values and principles that are held by average citizen in these districts. Those values and principles are pretty simple.
* Taxes and spending: The government should live within its means and oppose higher tax bills to fund a bloated budget; the voters know government needs to cut spending.
* Gun Rights: Voters want commonsense carry laws making it easier for them to protect themselves and their families.
* Local economies: Families in their community know that improvements are needed by investing in transportation and education infrastructure to support existing jobs and recruit new businesses. They are tired of the powerbrokers in Nashville increasing entitlement programs instead.Candidates, who displayed the courage to challenge Democrat incumbents and in open seats were solid, qualified individuals. They were not just “known” in their communities. They are people that truly represent the values of their communities.
We believe this is what our founders intended with citizen legislators. The hard work and time commitment that is necessary to run campaigns are a good test of how hard each legislator will work for his or her district. The people of these districts will be well represented by their new representative’s principled leadership.
But it should be noted that Alexander out performed McCain by 8 percentage points - and had McCain jazzed up GOPers as much as he should have, we might have had a different result nationally.
The Tennessee GOP showed how its done - in an anti-GOP year with arguably the most unpopular GOPer ever in the White House, the Tennessee GOP clobbered the Tennessee Democrats. We have to get back to our roots, and back to the people - the left talks a great game about being for the people, but what they are really for is themselves…and for too long now, too many GOPers have aped this attitude, and now we’ve paid the price for it, and very deservedly.
It will be a long, hard road back to national power and it may even take a decade or two to complete (though I do think we have bright prospects for 2010), but it is a road we must travel for the sake of the nation. Liberalism, that dead dog of the past, will have its day - and it’ll be our job to ensure that it is the very last day liberalism ever has.
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January 1st, 2009 at 6:51 pm
problem is….how many will sell out those values when they get into the big league…and cross the line from actually representing the people…to playing the game of corrupt politic’s
January 1st, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Tennessee: 2% of the electorate. Good for you. Win big in a bigger state next time. No offense to Tennessee
January 1st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Have fun tilting at windmills there, Don Quixote.
January 1st, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Congratulations on going from a national party to a regional party.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
atheistmule writes:
“Tennessee: 2% of the electorate. Good for you. Win big in a bigger state next time. No offense to Tennessee”
..I dunno, atheist, I can’t dispute the population numbers but Tennessee set their sites on attracting businesses from California and have been pretty successful in getting them to make the move. Nissan was a major departure in 2005 and there have been other successes as well.
Out here in California, we have, arguably, a larger share of the electorate, fleeing businesses, huge deficits, and yet even higher taxes being contemplated by a brain dead liberal state legislature and a tool for a governer.
I am given to understand that New York, Michigan, and other states with a larger share of the electorate than Tennessee’s are in similar shape.
Maybe the Volunteer State just has the smartest 2%, huh?
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:29 am
Classic. You guys do this all the time. When you lose a region, do you bother to win it over again? NO! You just trash it. Michigan was a fine state when they voted for you, but now…
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
And New York is in a crappy state because REPUBLICANS have had control of the state senate for 70 years! They vote NATIONALLY Democratic, LOCALLY Republican. Same in California.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Deleted - troll.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
…I dunno, boy boyskapbo. Nissan did move their headquarters, but over the last 10 years or so California has been pretty successful at attracting businesses of the sort you mention. For example, there are now 11 automotive companies with design studios or regional headquarters in Irvine. You can’t win ‘em all I guess, and CA certainly has been having its share of problems of late. But at least in that sector it’s been a net gain. And it was done without offering relocation incentives.
Then again, the Irvine area is pretty heavily Republican (at least the area from Irvine south and east: the area to the north is largely Democratic — and less affluent), so there’s that. Be that as it may, and also accepting that CA has some severe problems, I would say that one of the problems is that the CA budget is now required by law to be balanced (Prop 58, passed in 2004). That sounded like a good idea at the time, and in normal times it definitely is. But not so much when the economy takes a big, sudden hit such as it has of late. When that happens (and you are prevented from running a deficit) you either have to raise taxes or cut spending dramatically — or some combination. Neither option is particularly attractive. Cutting spending dramatically means cutting services almost as dramatically. Sure, there’s some chaffe on the wheat, but it’s not likely to close the gap appreciably. At a certain point you will have to start cutting into the wheat, which is to say neglecting the intellectual and material infrastructure. CA already has some problems in that regard. Making it worse means damaging the long-term health of the state. And that’s tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot. On the other hand raising taxes is, for obvious reasons, also an onerous option. But if you have to do it, what is the least worst choice among crappy alternatives? In CA I’d say it’s raising sales taxes. On the negative side, sales taxes are more regressive than most — on a percentage basis they affect the least affluent the most. On the positive side they apply not only to those living in CA, but those visiting CA. And CA is a popular tourist destination. So if you’re looking for the biggest bang for your tax buck, that would be it. Sure, it would mean that visiting CA would be a bit more expensive. But that is at least partially compensated by other offsets — like hotel rates and such. Even the freeways have gotten more navigable — if you’re staying in LA and start your road trip early enough, these days you can actually make it to San Diego before dark! Lol!
Anyway, I think one has to put the problem into perspective. The state GDP is presently around $2 trillion. The projected deficit (assuming nothing is done about it) is something like $28 billion by June 2010. The US as a whole should be so fortunate. In fact, where ever you live, try dividing your own state’s projected deficit by its GDP and see where you fall relative to CA.
Perhaps I am uncommonly jaded, lucky, or far-sighted, but CA has been (to fracture a line from SNL’s Garret Morris) “berry berry good to me”. CA is a beautiful and multi-varied place. Contrary to popular belief, I suppose, the streets aren’t all paved with gold. Go figure that. But if you can afford it, have the chops, get a little lucky, and know how to take advantage of that luck (at least to a certain degree), the opportunities remain plentiful. In fact, I am positively drooling waiting for the future to reveal itself. That’s not to say that all — or even most — of the opportunities that may reveal themselves will be in CA. But if you think that CA is likely to remain in dire straits for long, you clearly aren’t sufficiently familiar with CA.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I forgot to mention that my hat is off to TN. They’ve been working for more than a decade — in fact, more than a generation — to make their state more attractive to business. I haven’t visited that extensively in TN (mostly just in the Nashville and Memphis areas), but from what I can tell from that there’s a lot to recommend it. My experience is that the people there are very nice, very approachable, and very “earthy”. That appeals to me personally. But I’m a white guy, and one that can affect a convincing Texas drawl when the occasion requires. So I don’t come across as that much of an “outsider”. But I’m not inclined to relocate anywhere without my honey. And though my honey is an American citizen, served in the American military, and raised her kids to be so thoroughly American that they can’t speak Spanish even as well as I, I do worry about how well she would be accepted.
And that’s not a trivial concern. The question was asked (by Mark) on a previous thread to the effect: When was the last time you lauded - by name because you’ve known her for years and watched her struggle - a hispanic, single mother as the ideal of what an American can do when determined to work hard?” My answer to that is… every day for years now — if not in practice all the time, at least in spirit. Perhaps a case could be made that I want to be too protective of my honey. And perhaps it’s true: there is little question but that I am protective. But I argue that I’ve seen too much on several levels not to be. The woman has a heart of gold, a joy of life, and a strength of spirit that I have never seen in anyone, ever, of any age, regardless of their circumstances. And her circumstances haven’t been easy. True, one could argue that some of her inter-familial difficulties she brought onto herself. But only because she’s such a soft touch. On the extra-familial level, I’ve seen the subtle discrimination directed against her — here in SoCal even, arguably a place where you would expect it the least. Given that, there is no way in hell I would be inclined to put her into a situation more in the cross-hairs than she already is. And that, in short, is something the GOP at large doesn’t seem to appreciate fully. And IMO, it’s a crying shame.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Rico, what amazes me about California is that if they were their own nation, they would still be better that Russia!