Rice County Republicans

When you find you’re digging yourself into a hole, the first thing to do is STOP DIGGING.

The results are in (see table below) and in a nutshell we see the following quick insights for our BPOU …

• we cannot win in our area unless we convert (D) to (R).
  • We could not carry our area for presidential elections even if we got all the voters who went for third parties to vote for our candidate. All of them.
  • Unless you believe that (R) voted in significantly smaller percentages than (D), there are not enough sideline sitters to change the outcome.
• Fewer than 1% of the (D) voters jumped ship to vote for Kline.
• Fewer than that jumped ship to vote for Rud.
• Barkley appealed more to (D) than to (R).
  • 3000 Obama votes did not translate to Franken votes
  • 1000 McCain votes did not translate to Coleman votes
  • Barkley picked up those plus some miscellaneous
    (Of course, these are statistical statements, there are other places these votes could go and come from, but statistically speaking …)

We’ll revisit this data again in the future, but what lessons might we learn?  We will probably learn that

• economically frightened voters have always made frightening voters. This year was no exception.
• Social issues that are hot-button vote getters are unsustainable as the foundation of a party. Are we driving away 5,000 voters to appease 1,000? That trade is a losing proposition. At an early meeting in this campaign a grass-roots supporter stood up and told us this. He warned that focusing on the 3-Gs (guns, God, and gays) was going to cost us elections.  We must consider this grassroots wisdom. We must expand our tent.
• No new taxes is not a foundation upon which to build a party. The people know better. Our politicians should know better.  We cannot be simply the party of no new taxes.  For too many years we have attacked the malignancy on the economy that big government represents by trying to cut off its food supply by lowering taxes. We need to refocus the debate to be about HOW the taxes are used and WHY the programs they support are not economically just.  Other parties mouth the phrase “economic justice” meaning wealth redistribution by bayonet. We must take the phrase back by defining it to mean “economic freedom and the right to keep the fruits of your labor“. Even the catch-phrase is a mouthful, but the lesson is important.
• No ad hominum debates … ever. Our opponents may be scoundrels and scallawags, but we must remember that we cannot convert people on highly technical, reasoned grounds (e.g., micro- and macro- economics) when both sides are screaming epithets and frightening the undecided. Coleman responded very graciously to the last-minute Franken attack.  We should be as strong, so we are in an unassailablly strong position as the party of reason and respect and responsibility.

Reason, Respect, Responsibility. These are the 3-R’s for the next two years, as we set up for the next election. Read up on your history, because we cannot afford to repeat this year.