David Horowitz: How Republicans can win

The Democratic Party is no longer the party of John F. Kennedy, whose politics were identical to Ronald Reagan’s…It is not even the party of Hubert Humphrey…It is now a party led by socialists and progressives who are convinced that their policies are paving the way to a “better world.”…They are secular missionaries who want to “change society.”…

 

Scott Johnson
PowerLine
2/5/2013

I’ve known David Horowitz for more than 20 years, from the time he came through town with Peter Collier talking about their invaluable book Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties. As Jay Nordlinger has written, David was a leader of the New Left who became a leader of the fighting Reaganite Right: “He is a thinker and a doer, an intellectual and an activist. His mind ranges widely, and so do his books. He has written about politics and policy, of course. But he has also written about matters literary, cultural, and spiritual.” He remains a prolific writer and voluble observer.

David is the author, most recently, of the pamphlet “Go For the Heart: How Republicans Can Win.” David has granted us permission to publish it on Power Line. It may be a little long to read comfortably online, but David’s essay can easily be printed out and read at your leisure, as it deserves to be. David writes:

After voters re-elected an administration that added five trillion dollars to the nation’s debt, left 23 million Americans unemployed, surrendered Iraq to America’s enemy Iran, and enabled the Muslim Brotherhood to gain control of the largest country in the Middle East, the one lesson Republicans should agree on is that elections are driven by emotions, not reason. Moreover, when it comes to mobilizing emotions, Democrats beat Republicans hands down.

Worse, Republicans appear unable to learn from their losses. Year after year, Democrats accuse Republicans of the same imaginary crimes – waging wars on women, not caring about minorities, and inflicting pain on working Americans to benefit the wealthy. And year after year, Republicans have no effective responses to neutralize these attacks. Or to take the battle to the enemy’s camp.

In the 2012 election, Democrats attacked Republicans as defenders of the wealthy who are not paying their “fair share.” Republicans responded by deploring “class warfare rhetoric,” which does not answer the charge that Republicans are defending the wealthy and are uncaring. There are plenty of answers to these libels but Republicans don’t have them.

“Caring” is not one among many issues in an election. It is the central one. Since most policy issues are complicated, voters want to know above everything else just whom they can trust to sort out the complexities and represent them. Before voters cast their ballots for policies or values they want a candidate or party that cares about them.

How crucial is this concern? In the 2012 election, 70% of Asian Americans cast their ballots for Obama, even though Asians share Republican values, are family oriented, entrepreneurial, and traditional. Asian Americans voted for Obama because they were persuaded that he cared for minorities – for them, and Romney didn’t.

The Republican response to the Democrats’ attack (that’s “class warfare rhetoric”) doesn’t work because it’s an abstraction. “Class warfare rhetoric” has no human face; it’s about a political style. Criticizing the wealthy for “not paying their fair share” is a direct attack on an easily identified target, which is why so many wealthy taxpayers – including entertainment figures who are normally Democrats –were outraged by the slander. More importantly, the Democrats’ attack on the rich is an emotional appeal to those who are not rich. It tells them that someone cares about them.

Using the term “class warfare” is a polite way of discussing a problem, a habit Republicans seem unable to break. It avoids finger pointing – naming an adversary and holding him accountable. Elections are adversarial. They are about defeating opponents…

 

This excellent article continues at PowerLine.

A link to the PDF file of Mr. Horowitz’s pamphlet, “Go for the Heart,” is at the end of the article.

Update: And, as if to demonstrate the point, Chris Matthews: GOP Spent Months Trying To Prevent Blacks, Poor and Young From Voting

Update 2:   Top Ten Things Republicans Have Failed to Learn from Democrats

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor presented a new vision for Republican strategy in the second Obama term today. The Virginia Republican, speaking to the American Enterprise Institute, emphasized that Republicans needed to learn to work with President Barack Obama, and should emphasize policies that improve Americans’ lives, while compromising on contentious issues such as citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.

Yet before conveying an eagerness to work with Democrats, perhaps Republican leaders ought to consider that President Barack Obama and his party did not build public support by talking about areas of agreement with the opposition. Rather, they sharpened their contrasts with Republicans, and–with the help of the mainstream media–convinced voters that Democrats cared more about them, even though their record proves otherwise.

Conversely, the strong conservative opposition to Democrat policies–including, but not limited to, Obamacare–helped propel Republicans to victory in 2010. It is because of that victory that the Republican Party regained power in the House of Representatives. The GOP is eager to copy Democrats’ ideas and tactics, but has failed to learn from Democrats’ successes–or their defeats. Here are ten key lessons that they seem to have missed…

 

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