Republicans Are Crotchety White Dudes

It’s stating the obvious to say that the Republican Party had a bad year. Particularly striking in this development are the low percentages of young people who voted Republican. There are lots of possible explanations for why this happened. I suggest that at least one of them is that Republicans have become the party of crotchety white dudes who seem mad about something. OK, I am probably oversimplifying but it’s pretty clear that for the Republican Party to enjoy a resurgence, they are going to have to be more inclusive. Clearly the biggest problems faced by the party in this election were an economic meltdown and one of the most unpopular Republican presidents in history. However, demographics don’t favor Republicans going forward if they can’t change the trend of losing young voters. In my opinion one of the obstacles Republicans face in this regard isn’t so much their message as their tone.

Republicans have garnered the reputation as the smear party. A general attitude seems to pervade the party that says, “We’re right, and you are idiots.” I think this attitude was personified by George W. Bush and his “my way or the highway” administration. The party regularly impugns or ignores the press, claiming that their view is seldom represented in the mainstream media, justifying a generally hostile approach to press relations. Mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh are the perfect example of just about everything I’m talking about here.

To a large degree Republican wins over the last few decades can be attributed to the political influence of Lee Atwater, who was a key political advisor to the presidential campaigns of George HW Bush and others. Atwater knew that elections are decided largely on emotion, not real issues, and that one of the most compelling emotions that can motivate people to action is fear. His approach to elections often meant finding a nasty piece of information that could be used to smear an opponent, using this information to pin a negative label on them, then convincing the electorate that a win for the opponent would end freedom as we know it. The Willie Horton campaign ads during the first Bush campaign was an invention of Lee Atwater. Karl Rove, who was one of the key architects of George W. Bush’s presidential wins, was a mentor of Atwater. We saw the latest iteration of Lee Atwater’s approach in John McCain’s attempts to link Obama to Robert Ayers and ACORN, along with the insinuated label of terrorist.

First off, if the Republican Party is supposed to represent values, which values are represented by the idea that it is acceptable to win an election with smear tactics and lies? It seems to me that the party of moral values and the religious right ought to have a more ethical approach, if there is such a thing in politics. Second, in this new age, where information is available virtually anytime and anywhere, this type of campaign is not only ineffective, but is most likely to backfire unless the claims are backed up by solid facts. The unsuccessful campaign of John McCain and the backlash against Elizabeth Dole are pretty clear cases in point of what I am talking about.

As far as the press is concerned, I would point out that the two largest media outlets in the country are Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, so I’m not really buying the idea that Republicans don’t have an outlet for their message. Next time Rush Limbaugh starts crying about some story that isn’t being covered by the mainstream media, remember this: The moment Rush Limbaugh starts talking about it, it’s being covered by one of the largest press outlets in the nation, himself.

More importantly however, the Republican Party needs to learn Public Relations 101: You aren’t going to change the press’s opinion of you by complaining about them or regularly attacking them. Even the greenest PR rep. in any product manufacturing company knows that if a press outlet gives you a bad product review, the last thing you want to do is call them up and argue about it. Instead, you ask the reviewer things like, “How did you form your opinion?” or “What could we change about our product to make it perform better in future reviews?” etc. The aim is to provide a friendly, reasonable face to your company so that in the next review the analyst will be thinking of reasons to like your product. Remember Dale Carnegie? Winning friends and influencing people, that’s the idea. Republicans would do well to learn this. Obama certainly has.

The truth is, Republicans represent what I believe are the soundest approaches to government: conservative fiscal policy, small government and the protection of moral values. However, these principals don’t mean anything if the party representing them lacks credibility. Republicans need to find their own versions of Barack Obama, who can articulate their ideals clearly, without dogma or divisive, bombastic rhetoric. They need to cut the partisan, left-wing-conspiracy-theory nonsense and talk about the meaningful application of conservative ideals to today’s problems.