Previously, I posted an initial plan for reviving the Republican Party (see “Getting the Elephant Back on its Feet”). My intention in this post is to expand and elaborate on that plan…

Besides being out of power in Washington, the GOP is currently fractured and in disarray. While President Bush should be thanked for the actions he took to keep us safe after 9/11, his inability to garner public support for his policies left a void that the liberals successfully filled with lies and propaganda that has hurt the Party overall. The slate of presidential candidates put forth in this election cycle exposed the lack of involvement the Party has in bringing forward the best candidates. Each of them had various flaws that they couldn’t overcome, yet they were all we had to choose from. Several congressional candidates in the past two elections were involved in unethical or illegal behaviors, lost their seats and further damaged the Party. We knew that the mainstream media was biased against Republicans, but with this election cycle we saw that they will now openly try to defeat GOP candidates and promote Democrats.

So, how do we get this moribund Elephant back on its feet? I don’t think the solution is to clean house, let it crash and burn or start a new party. There are some strong Republicans that can be leaders in resurrecting the Party. However, these leaders need to have a sound strategy and approach on which to make it happen. What they need is a set of actionable reforms based on conservative principles that will put them back into a position of strength (similar to the 1994 “Contract with America”). This also requires effective candidate development and marketing of the GOP brand.

Here are the objectives of the strategy:

• Implement reforms that will benefit the country, help Republican candidates win and that put the Democrats at a disadvantage on the political playing field
• Learn to effectively identify, develop and support quality candidates at the national level
• Ensure ethical conduct and integrity in all party members and candidates
• Establish an ongoing marketing campaign to promote the GOP brand and combat the mainstream media
• Restore party pride, unity and loyalty

The Party leaders implementing this strategy will be critical to its success. I will identify potential individuals that I believe can lead the Party and champion each of the specific reforms.

Mitt Romney is my choice to be the new leader of the Republican Party. He is a proven executive that has successfully built and run several organizations. He would also be an effective promoter and fundraiser. Michael Steele would be a good second-in-command. They will be the ones to implement the strategy and establish “champions” to lead each reform to make sure the reforms stay visible and active. I will throw out some names for potential reform champions as well.

Here’s why I believe these are the critical reforms that the Republican Party should rally around at this time:

• These are key issues of our time and will have the greatest impact on the future of the country and the success of Republican Party
• They are founded on conservative principles and American values
• The majority of Americans can support them
• They allow candidates to campaign on a consistent set of actionable issues, instead of a myriad of promises
• The implementation of many of these reforms will result in political disadvantages for Democratic campaigns and candidates

Following are the key reforms I believe need to be part of the ongoing Republican platform. Certainly, the Republican Party may want to make some modifications. I won’t deal with the details of the reforms here, but they can be found in my previous post titled “21 Steps to a Greater America”. There are five broad areas of reform and specific issues within each of them. I will list each one briefly, suggest champions and address the issues in implementing them, along with how they can politically disadvantage Democrats.

1. Congressional Reform (Champions: Fred Thompson, Lindsey Graham, Jim DeMint and Sam Brownback)

• Term Limits – the country needs people in Congress who are there to serve their country, not their next reelection bid. The Executive branch has term limits and so should the Legislative. This will only have a chance if existing members of Congress are not credited with prior terms. The limits on their terms would begin with their next reelection. This is a tough sell for Congress to put limits on itself and will likely take a Republican Congress to accomplish it.
• Line-Item Veto – Congress needs to give the President the ability to veto any specific funding items in a bill while approving the rest of it. Congress can still override any of the vetoed items with a two-thirds majority. This may only be achievable with a Republican Congress.
• Balanced Budget – a balanced budget amendment is needed prohibit excess spending and stem entitlement growth. There are probably enough people in both parties concerned with the swelling national debt that it may be a ripe time to introduce this legislation again.
• No Earmarks – all Republican legislators must pledge to refrain from inserting earmarks into any legislation. Also, they must be fully committed to vote against any bill that contains them. This can be made effective immediately.
• No Lobbyist Money – Republican legislators will not accept any campaign contribution from registered lobbyists. An effective date can be determined by the Party.

Democrats thrive on legislative power where they can promise pork and take lobbyist bribes to secure reelection after reelection. These reforms will strip them of their ability to successfully push earmarks and entitlements and their ability to campaign on them to stay in office.

2. Tax Reform (Champions: Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Carly Fiorina & Saxby Chambliss)

• Fair Tax – the current income tax code is a complicated behemoth that is overdue for reform and should be replaced with a consumption tax, such as the Fair Tax (www.fairtax.org). The Fair Tax movement is gaining support from many citizens and just needs critical mass from enough legislators to get it implemented, along with repealing the sixteenth amendment. However, it’s only likely that a Republican Congress and President could get it passed.
• Social Security – it will demand significant tax increases or reduced benefits if it is not addressed. It needs to be phased out and replaced with personal retirement accounts. Again, a Republican Congress is needed for this one and they must ensure that the transition to personal accounts does not take away what retirees have been promised.

This reform would politically devastate the Democrats. Their ability to win elections mostly hinges on income redistribution, “making the Rich pay their fair share”, the growing gap between the rich and poor, “grandmothers will have to eat dog food”, etc. When tax revenue now comes from people’s spending and not from people’s income, Democrats will no longer have the power to legislate income “fairness” through tax rates, deductions, exemptions and credits. Also, getting rid of the Social Security entitlement will eliminate another program that Democrats have used to demagogue Republicans.

3. National Security (Champions: Rudy Giuliani, Joe Lieberman, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich & Sarah Palin)

• Declaration of War – legislation is needed to recognize that this country is at war with Islamo-fascist terrorists and gives the Commander-in-Chief a framework of authority to prevent future attacks (communications monitoring, surveillance, interrogation techniques, etc.), along with the authorization to use military force to disrupt and destroy terrorist networks. Unfortunately, only the next successful major attack is likely to provide the opportunity to get this passed.
• Illegal Immigration – the border fence needs to be completed and existing laws against illegal immigration need to be enforced. The legislation needs to have more teeth put in to set a timetable for the fence and eliminate the ability to protect illegals in “sanctuary cities”. This would likely require a Republican Congress and President.
• Energy Independence - The goal should be to achieve energy independence so that we are no longer funding terrorist-supporting countries. It needs to start with eliminating all federal restrictions on accessing oil, gas & clean coal resources within our borders and in our coastal waters. President Bush has recently dropped the Executive ban and Congress needs to lift their bans. Congress will also need to rescind any restrictions on building and expanding nuclear power plants. This will likely require a Republican Congress and President and a period of high gas prices to get this moving again.

The disadvantages for the Democrats with this reform are that they will no longer be guaranteed votes from peaceniks who don’t understand the enemy, illegal immigrants and environmentalist extremists.

4. Abortion (Champions: Tom Ridge, John Boehner & Michele Bachmann)

The never-ending abortion battle can only be stopped with a compromise solution. The common ground is that neither side sees abortion as a good thing, and the less abortions that happen, the better. The basis for this change is to set up an environment where most women would choose to not have an abortion. This won’t eliminate abortions totally, but it should dramatically reduce them over time.

The compromise solution would be federal legislation that will provides strong incentives for women considering abortion to see their pregnancies to term and put the child up for adoption, but ultimately gives her the final choice. The legislation would prohibit any future laws that made abortion illegal, but would require that women receive information on adoption alternatives and require parental notification for underage women prior to the abortion procedure.

Even if Roe vs. Wade is eventually overturned, this issue will then go back to the states where they will decide the legality of abortion. If some states make it legal and others do not, then those seeking abortions will find ways to get them done in states that allow it and the problem will continue to be a political fodder for campaigns. Winning hearts and minds, not trying to make it illegal, is the most effective way to reduce abortions and the opportunity is there now to adopt this compromise solution.

Democrats currently have an advantage here because most people are against abortions, but yet want women to make that choice rather than have the courts decide it. If the threat of legal punishment for abortion is lifted, then Democrats will no longer get the votes of people who are afraid that pro-life Republicans will make it illegal.

5. Election Campaigns (Champions: Mitch McConnell, John Kyl & Karl Rove)

• Campaign Financing – current campaign finance laws infringe on people’s freedom to contribute money to the candidate of their choice. These laws should be repealed and replaced with legislation that allows unlimited contributions with the following restrictions: they can only be made by individual citizens (no organizations, groups or bundling) and requires public disclosure. Another alternative would be to have all contributions made and validated through the Federal Election Committee and distributed to the candidates anonymously so they do not know the contributors and won’t feel obligated to them. This reform is most viable just after an election and will likely need a Republican Congress to deal with the expected opposition of labor unions who are big Democrat contributors.
• Presidential Nomination - the process needs fixing so that all voters can have their votes mean something. One option is for every state to have a presidential primary. There would be only four primary dates for the entire country and all parties, including third parties and independents, would vote on one of those four dates. The country would be divided into four groups representing sets of 12-13 states. States in each group would be scattered across different regions of the country and have combined delegate counts that totaled up to approximately 25% of the total delegates. The primary dates would occur in March, April, May and June and the four sets of states would be rotated so they would all change order from one election to the next. This will require support from the Democratic Party and they should be receptive after the messy nomination process that just occurred.
• Voter Fraud – a photo ID required for registration and voting would significantly reduce illegal voting. Democrats would never support this, so a Republican Congress and President are needed to pass this legislation.

This reform would disadvantage Democrats because they rely heavily on union campaign contributions and groups like ACORN to deliver thousands of illegal votes each election.

Candidate Recruitment & Development

The Party needs to be more aggressive with ongoing efforts to identify future national level candidates. They need to actively vet, recruit and develop these individuals so they will be ready to take the national stage. They must provide training to improve their personal appeal, communication skills and understanding of national issues. These future candidates will also require fundraising and campaign support from the Party.

The objective should be to ensure that the Party always has a stable of high quality candidates for every Congressional race. With term limits in place, this will become much more important because there will no longer be career politicians who retain their seats for 20-30 years. The Party also needs to groom future Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates and they should constantly be working on lists of prospects who can be projected out to the next two or three election cycles. Just imagine what Sarah Palin would have been as a candidate in this election, if instead of getting a last-minute crash course on national issues and foreign policy, she would have been tutored for the VP position for a year or more. Bobby Jindall should be getting groomed right now for a potential candidacy in four or eight years. This grooming would include establishing a record of accomplishments and successes as Governor, getting acquainted with foreign policies and developing a strong understanding of domestic and economic issues. Tim Pawlenty and a host of other top candidates should be engaged with Party to look at ways to beef up their resumes. Specifically, all potential Presidential candidates should be finding ways to meet and get to know key foreign leaders and their issues.

The Party has been too passive in waiting for candidates to emerge. They need to take a more proactive approach that identifies individuals with the most potential, turns them into outstanding candidates and fully promotes their campaigns. There should never again be Republican candidates who are poor campaigners, have limited knowledge on key domestic or foreign policies or have past indiscretions that can be used against them. The Party needs to also get tough on any Republican office holders that violate ethical standards. They should distinguish themselves from Democrats and take swift, appropriate actions, including seeking resignations, from those who don’t uphold high standards of ethics and integrity.

Marketing Campaign

As we have seen from this current election cycle, the vast majority of the mainstream media is the liberal media. This liberal media is worth millions in campaign propaganda for the Democrats. The Republican Party needs to develop an ongoing marketing campaign to counteract the influence of the liberal media. The campaign must include advertising in the liberal media (TV, print, radio and Internet), the unleashing of spokespeople (including reform champions) who can convincingly explain Republican positions and a calling out of the “journalists” who are Democratic Party shills (“make them famous” as John McCain would say).

A scorecard should be developed that shows progress on each of the reforms. It can be distributed to the voters as an election approaches to reinforce what Republicans are trying to accomplish. The marketing should also include keeping a scorecard on what Democrats do, or do not do, in Congress and in the White House. This will make for good ammunition for Republican challengers. Finally, a list of all federal judges should be maintained by the Party and include ratings on how well they make their decisions based on strict interpretation of the Constitution. The list can be used to evaluate potential candidates for Republican appointments and used to identify Democratic appointments whose confirmations should be stopped.

It is also important to ensure that there are active College Republican groups at as many colleges and universities as possible. They should be provided with the necessary support to be able to sponsor Republican speakers on campus, arrange for Republican-Democrat debates and challenge the liberal propaganda preached by their instructors. These college groups can then be leveraged as campaign offices during national elections to distribute literature and spread the word about the candidates. Today’s youth are future GOP voters and candidates and they must be introduced to conservative principles before they become lost to liberal indoctrination.

The bottom line is that the Elephant must take aggressive action to revive itself. If it passively lays there waiting for the next Reagan, then it will likely stay dormant for decades. The next election is a two short years away. Let’s roll!