Mar 02 2009
A Party Divided; Can the Republican Party Woo Back the "Little Guys" They’ve Lost for Common Cause?
A Party Divided; Can the Republican Party Woo Back the “Little Guys” They’ve Lost for Common Cause? Plus the Rush vs Michael Steele Tirade:
By Marc Chamot
Columnist David Sirota wrote an article called, Robin Hood Republicanism? He writes about the mood of the country, especially the anti-bailout Americans, who do not agree, nor support the bailing out of Wall Street.
Republicans as a whole have taken a better stand against these taxpayer financed bailouts over Democrats. Now, Newt Gingrich is trying to capitalize on the contrast, insisting that the GOP can recast itself as the party of the little guy. “If, in fact, it’s terrific for Citibank and GM, but bad for small business, then it’s an elite bill-it’s not a populist bill.”
While most Democrats and President Barack Obama are still tinkering around to save major American corporations, while neglecting to save the people who are most affected directly by the economy, those of us who are being hurt by these tragic economic downturns, could eventually hurt the Democrats and favor the Republicans in the future.
It’s without a doubt that most Americans do not support bailing out large corporate industries, where CEO’s are making million dollar salaries, and those that have been badly mismanaged throughout the years. People around America are still asking, “how about us?” I have said from the get-go, that the Republican Party needs to do a massive internal house cleaning of their own to get back to center stage in American politics.
They have swayed away too far from what made their party very appealing to most folks and those were the needless pork barrel spending throughout the last eight years with President George Bush. But unfortunately for Democrats, their whole basis of their party is more into social spending and higher taxes for Americans in general. It’s what brought down the state of California fiscally. California had to grapple with billions of dollars in deficit because of years of out of control social programs, when their own Democratic politicians knew that they would have trouble finding the source of new revenues to finance these expensive programs.
What happened in California, it’s now happening in a grander scale in the United States, with President Barack Obama and the Democrats. Their social programs come down to huge amounts in taxpayer costs, and by the way they are doing it, they will bankrupt this nation in no time.
Sure, the Republican Party can become the heroes again, by fighting for the average tax-payer who is going to foot these bills for years to come. But the Republican Party needs to choose their battles more wisely. By alienating their corps of potential constituency, the poor folks, the jobless, and the recent out-of-work American is a very big mistake.
For example, conservative talk radios, like Rush Limbaugh are now blaming the victims of these economic crises as the blame for the collapse. Too many people don’t pay their bills, too many people over extended their credits, too many people got too irresponsibly with their financial affairs. And while they find it easy to criticize the little guys, the usual run-in-the-mill folks like us, the out of work Americans, especially those that have seen their jobs vanishing abroad, but these conservative radio hosts fail to put the blame squarely on those banks that made these irresponsible loans, and the politicians, mainly the Republicans that allowed their jobs to be siphoned out in droves, out of the country for the past seven years.
These conservative talk radio hosts also fail to recognize that many banks, like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were behind millions of unscrupulous loans that triggered this disaster last year. They also fail to see and recognize that millions of Americans have lost their jobs, manufacturers have left the country, and former workers don’t have jobs and money to pay their bills. It’s that Republican right wing elitist mentality that must change, if this party wants to get back into the ball game.
To the chagrin of some of my fellow bloggers, those who are Rush Limbaugh loyal listeners, and those who had blasted me for being too critical of him in past postings, I will say this, and I will say it again. If the Republican Party keep following the Limbaugh talk radio doctrine, the Party is good as dead. Limbaugh is seriously dividing the classes between the haves and those who don’t have.
Newt Gingrich has the right idea, getting back the regular folks, the little guys, the blue collar workers that they’ve been losing for the past six years, but it’s going to be a tough sell.
New RNC chair Michael Steele is on the right track in bringing much needed strategic changes that will reform the Republican Party in the right direction. But he will undoubtedly but heads with the Rush Limbaugh’s out there, just as he did today, when he criticized Limbaugh by referring to him as an “entertainer” who can be “ugly” and “incendiary,” But then on his radio show, Limbaugh fired back, calling the RNC and Michael Steele “so-called Republicans” and saying that they “need a little leadership.”
“So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine,” Limbaugh said. “Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican Party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee…and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you.” “I hope that changes,” Limbaugh continued. “It’s time, Mr. Steele, for you to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of being some talking-head media star.”
I don’t think anybody has ever told the Republican Party to become more elitist than populist in its political philosophy. I got one solution for Rush Limbaugh, why not take your 20 million or so listeners and start your own political party, and maybe calling it the American Conservative Party? And to Newt Gingrich and Michael Steele, just do what you have to do where Democrats are failing, just get that Party rolling again for the regular Joe’s on Main Street once again. Please Help Support my Blogging Ventures:
