GOP Must Define Its Basic Essence, Offer Clear Vision of Future
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Feb. 28, Orange County Voices carried columns on the future of the Republican Party from two thoughtful Orange County writers representing conservative and moderate viewpoints.
At that time we offered this page as a forum and invited readers to join the debate by submitting their views on the future of the GOP and what its themes, appeals and programs should be.
The comments published here are a representative sample of the responses received.
Party Must Address Pocketbook Issues Vital to Middle Class
Kevin Phillips is correct when he states that he fears the Republican Party is in danger of losing the middle-class voters. The vast majority across the country want nothing more than good government. Therefore, when the Republican Party realizes that it needs a new mission statement in order to sell the electorate on its merits this must be paramount.
I believe the middle class is concerned about the pocketbook issues of stable and decent paying jobs, affordable health care for all, and the opportunity to save for a comfortable retirement. Quality education is a concern as well as drugs and crime. All of these need to be addressed in a new mission statement that omits past Republican positions, which have not produced good results.
Republicans are proud of their position that government should only do for individuals that which they cannot do for themselves. Health-care reform is a major problem (that) we have no chance of solving on our own. However, most of our Republican representatives are not providing any leadership to solve the problem.
As our economy becomes more and more complex and new problems emerge for the middle class, the Republican Party must be sensitive to the needs of these people or they will lose support.
A look at Republican history in California should give us some clues as to how to succeed in the future. In 1961, I was precinct chairman for L.A. County. We needed tools to work with and one was a message on why we should be working for the party. About 10 dedicated volunteers from L.A. and Orange counties developed the theme for this message and Zan Thompson, who recently retired from the Los Angeles Times, wrote the script. Ronald Reagan narrated the script, which was recorded.
The only objection to the message which I received was why we had a recent Democrat do the narration. We used this for another 10 years. Volunteers were able to unite behind this mission statement, and on election day we had about 10,000 Victory Squad volunteers helping get out the vote. During the ‘60s we were able to win every special election in the state.
We have proven that as a minority party in the state we must be united and have the best possible candidate if we are to win statewide. When we differ over ideology (our mission statement), we invariably lose. Pete Wilson showed us how to win in 1988. Concurrently, Bay Buchanan showed us how to lose the Treasurer’s office by contesting the very well-qualified incumbent, Thomas Hayes, in the primary. We couldn’t even elect Richard Nixon as governor after Joe Schell ran against him in the 1962 primary. In both cases good candidates were not considered to be conservative enough.
Our party learns very slowly, but I sent in my dues to the national committee with the hopes that the new committee may get us into the 21st Century. I have been in Orange County 15 years, and the party needs to get back to basics with the volunteers and registration. Votes win elections and we must always register our friends and help them vote. This effort is vital in heavily Republican areas such as Orange County. Right now Ross Perot has the most active volunteers.
I would like to challenge our Republican representatives and our Republican Party organizations to articulate our mission statement for serving the middle-class voters during the next few years.
JAMES C. RITCHEY
Mission Viejo