Town Hall: The good thing about screwing up is that you can learn from your mistakes and do better next time. That, of course, assumes you are not a Republican Party official, because the GOP Establishment seems largely incapable of learning from its mistakes.
We should try again anyway.
We won some races, but we lost a lot more. Losing has one advantage over winning – pain is a better teacher than joy. After all, winning generally teaches you the wrong lessons. It makes you complacent. Look at Texas. The governor did worse than expected; Ted Cruz had a close call, and down ballot the Texas GOP got thrashed. In Texas. With a great economy. Because the Texas GOP got soft from too much winning.
Look, there are sometimes reasons for poor performance that are beyond our control. Tex Kennedy poured $70 million into the race, and the Democrat transcriptionist media nearly flooded Houston all over again slobbering all over that skateboarding goof. It’s no surprise that these factors had an effect – I don’t blame Ted Cruz, but I do blame the guys who were supposed to be keeping the Lone Star State red. The Dems went out and mobilized people who had not been mobilized before. The GOP should have done the same with its own people long ago – it should have had its grassroots wired. But it didn’t, because for a couple decades it didn’t need to. Well, it needs to.
Lesson One: Never get into the mindset that you can’t lose. Always play like you’re 10 points back, which is what saved Ted Cruz.
Let’s look at Arizona. If resumes were competing, Martha McSally, A-10 pilot, would have crushed Pinko Barbie. But resumes don’t run for office; people do. My AZ pal Jon Gabriel has a deep dive post-mortem, but there are some key lessons we have to draw from this ~1 point debacle. McSally is an admirable person who decided to run on “I’m impressive and not one of those conservative kooks” instead of on “Here are the things I stand for that I will get done.” Now, Sinema also ran a campaign based on personality – “I’m nice and oh so moderate.” So why would the average person pick McSally over Sinema if the only difference was “Impressive” versus “Nice?” What was McSally for?
Not being either Sinema or a conservative?
Hardly inspiring. Here’s an alternative idea. How about you embody the conservative values the GOP base wants? How about you not channel Jeff “18% Approval” Flake by launching Operation Desert Sasse and imitating the gutless weenie vibe of the same dork who you were seeking to replace because the GOP base fired him for not being conservative enough?
Trump endorsed her, but like he had a choice. It kind of shows the mindset that led to this fiasco – Well, these conservative dummies will be dazzled by Trump’s thumbs-up of necessity, so we don’t need to pay attention to them. Wrong! McSally had a bloody primary against Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio – say what you want, but they stood for something, and it was something the GOP voters liked. But did McSally go on stage with the defeated primary candidates to show unity? Not that I know of. I do know she skipped out on conservative events and cancelled appearing on the Mark Levin Show. That is certifiably insane. MORE
I have a feeling I can shrink all five down into one. Fight like a Democrat.
Hell! Just fight, goddamnit! I wonder if McSally chose to be a (r) simply because it was convenient and there was an opening. We had a Gov. here a few decades ago who was a lifelong (d) but there was an opening on the (r) side so he switched. He won and was a disaster for the State. But he worked for it – and had a line of earnest, choirboy BS that, as one friend put it, “could make old women lubricate”.
I think most politicians always expect the public to live down to their expectations – but it NEVER hurts to assume many will respond well to genuine content. Contrary to the lefty line, VSPDJT had a concrete message and he thrashed the swamp cons.
McSally won an open primary. Let’s fix that. Open primaries are stupid. The f*ck came up with that idea?
Next, McSally didn’t run a campaign. She ran a 24/7 anti Sinema diatribe that ingrained the name of Sinema into everyones brain. I heard Sinemas name easily 50 times for every time I heard McSallys name.
In fact, no one knows a damn thing about McSally except she flew A-10s… we learned that in late October….and that was about it. The rest of the time it was SINEMA SINEMA SINEMA!!!
We should try promoting our values instead of denigrating those of our opponents so much. People want to hear what you’re going to do, not how crazy your opponent is.
But what do I know? I’m just a Conservative. I’ve long since given up on trying to figure out what the GOP actually is and what it actually wants.
The GOPe isnt about leading: its about stealing our future to make a few bucks.
McSally proved she was all b.s. Her ‘fighter pilot’ resume is probably as b.s. as any hillary clinton or michelle obama published nonsense.
Either you are with Trump or you sre with the hacks trying to.market our nation to the highest bidder.
Right mia love?
All true…on the Republican Party’s side…but then there’s also:
The Right HAS to stop expecting/demanding *every* candidate be a Jordan/Gingrich/Reagan/Trump Republican.
You are absolutely free to run someone like that in the Primaries…but, in reality, you are BEGGING FOR DEFEAT trying to push such a person in a State like Maine or Arizona (historically, Goldwater was a fluke).
The Right needs to keep an eye on the bigger picture of majorities in the House and Senate…big enough that those wishy washy Flakes & Co. don’t matter.
No 5 “mistakes”, just one.
Vote fraud. and letting it happen.
Prosecute it and send any and all perpetrators to a long stay at Federal expense
In a tent city somewhere north of the Brooks Range or in the Aleutians.
Not a peep about demographic change? Hmmm maybe that’s why it’s getting harder for “Republicans” (White conservatives) to win. Stop the flood of LEGAL immigrants, they’re worse than Illegal, cuz once they’re here you CAN’T deport them.