Succumbing to Democrat identity politics will not work out well - Granite Grok

Succumbing to Democrat identity politics will not work out well

“We have to reach out to this group in order to win and show that we’re hip!”

“NO!  Now we have to reach out to this other group”.    “Wait!  You’re forgetting this other one – it’s important because it contains a whole 2% of the voter population!”

Yuck.  This coming from Republicans as we are almost two years out from the last Prez election is rather sad.  Translation: we’re slinking into the Democrat model of identity politics.  Well, isn’t this just another version of being Democrat-lite?  If the policies being put out are not that much different, and the way about going about getting LIVs to vote for them, really, who is going to really win – Lite or Authentic?

We had Bill O’Brien on GrokTALK! this morning and I mentioned this after he said he had been down to DC where people were all about “groups” – the Republican Party must reach out to all these little groups in order to be relevant.  Now, I have no problem in micro-targeting but when you start sounding like Democrats in their vote hoovering efforts, shouldn’t that alone be setting off alarm bells?  We must always be cognizant of “what’s the differentiator”?  Remember this – pandering is not differentiation; it is simply pandering.  Dems / Progressives / Socialist offer stuff and the road to victory for the GOP is…the same?  I don’t believe that Republicans can replicate the “set up the victimization identity groups, make them feel special in their victimization status, and promise them to punish those that have victimized them”.

Sad, real sad.  I used to hear that we were the Party of ideas, overarching and universal ideals,  and the last time I looked, those kinds of ideas transcend identity groups.  Or should – and now we’re back to the Consistency / Trust / Vote triumvirate.  Ideas still matter but I’ll say, the latest one being “the Opportunity Party” – it has a lot of underlying messages and principles, has great implications in reaching people in stating that we remove obstacles, often governmental derived, so that you can succeed – not because of Obama’s “Julia philosophy” but because we know that you can succeed on your own merits and not by artificial means.  Great idea – that you can succeed based on your talents, your skills, your hard work ethic, and motiviation – but has had lousy results thus far (mostly because the Republican don’t know how to talk about it as they have allowed Democrats to dominate the messaging)..  It should be a winner, but WHY it not turned out that way?  Opportunity – the ability to have a shot at the brass ring and YOU get to define what that brass ring is for you without Government demanding of you so that it can decide who else should get and receive that brass ring?

Our time with Bill was about what the Democrats hated about the policies that were passed here in NH during his Speakership  (and represented, to a degree, by this) that basically returned power and choice back to individual citizens and local control – the relinquishing of the “brass ring” back to those that should have it and as an admonishment to those that stole it from the people in the first place – Democrats who took those brass rings and gathered them into Concord (and to DC).  Not to let you earn them yourself but to hand out as political spoils.  Patronage, not a meritocracy.   How can that be personally empowering?

Yet, there are Republicans that go along – trusting that they, along with other Smart People in Government, know what is best for their wards citizen.

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