Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Heather Higgins ·
Mar 25, 2011 at 2:58pm
Independent Women's Voice just completed a survey and focus group in WI. Unfortunately, our red-state messaging and the way the fight was conducted have cost us with Independents and driven up support and solidarity for the government employee unions. My op-ed outlining some of the findings is here.
Not clear if we can turn this around, but if we do it will require a very different approach than the standard Republican approach.
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Jul '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
"Independents now largely lock arms with the union members and protestors."
If they swing and lock arms with unioners, then they wouldn't exactly be "independent" would they?
Jul '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
There was a lot of bogus propaganda in the fight. My favorite was a union sponsored study that carefully cherry picked the market to compare the county teachers with the top white collar workers in the state. It was hilarious as they made the case that all union teachers should be recompensed the same as the most experienced and successful private sector counterpart. If they lie long enough, hard enough, and they never teach the kids any better, game over.
May '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Uninformed, swayed-by-emotion independents are the Republicans' worst enemy.
We're losing those voters here in Ohio, too, where Kasich's popularity has tanked, and where Senate Bill 5 (our equivalent to Walker's bill), once it passes, might very well be overturned by a referendum later in the year. All very depressing.
It illustrates that there's danger in Republicans (in Congress or elsewhere) yelling Charge! before they've properly prepared the battlefield--that is, persuaded the ignorant independents. Those people still don't get it, and we're going to blow our moment--and 2012 besides--if we can't find a way to get the truth into their thick heads.
And I haven't a clue how to do that. God, I hate independents.
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Heather, I know you hate to do this, but put your political strategy hat on. What are two big things you'd do to change the current approach?
Dec '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
From your article,
These points are valid, but the Republican message should be about the illegitimacy and immorality of government workers unions and cooperating politicians imposing future liabilities on taxpayers with no idea how they will be paid for, and about how that caused the current fiscal mess.
The Republican's perennial problem is a tendency to get easily distracted from the basic message and the crux of the issue by peripheral criticism. The message must be kept simple and it must be repeated over and over.
Sep '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
I'm guessing that a very small percentage of these Independents voted for Walker. Of course, that doesn't help the total any. If Wisconsin Independents think that the government should be collecting union dues and that Republican legislators deserve to be recalled more than the Democrats, I can't imagine what could be said, or done, to convince them otherwise.
Dec '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
FWIW, a little while ago I did some research on the WI recall prospects and posted them here.
The Dems have a chance of retaking the WI Senate, but I would not rate it as high.
I think the big battle will come in 2012. The recall attempt is sort of a preliminary skirmish.
Jul '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Those are really alarming poll results. Looks like Governor Walker reached too far too soon. Especially in a blue state, the groundwork needed to be carefully laid; the public needed to be educated.
Republicans, for too long, have been resigned to the idea that trying to educate the public about complex issues is futile, because the left has the media megaphone. Ever since 1988. they've been wandering around pining for another Reagan to explain things to the public. Instead, they've elected two of the worst communicators in my lifetime; Bush and Bush, while nominating incoherent mumblers like Dole and McCain.
You know who could explain this stuff? Allen West.
Oct '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Perhaps it is time for a new Third Party to liven things up a bit more, Any takers ???
Oct '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
As bad as things are economically, I think it is going to have to get a lot worse before "independents" or "swing voters" see the handwriting on the wall regarding public programs. If the municipal bond market crashes, which many on wall street are currently betting on, the most recent financial meltdown will look like a brush fire instead of a conflagration. I'm afraid we aint seen nutin yet.
Dec '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Damnit, Kenneth, why must you make me agree with you!?!
You know how unsettling that is.
Yes, that's a brilliant idea.
At least then we'll know for sure that the Democrats will win.
Third Party runs are worse than useless.
The longer things go, and the more noodle like the Republican spines become, the more I am convinced that we are all well and truly screwed.
I've done what I can for politics, now I'm going back to sacking away canned food and ammo . . .
Edited on Mar 25, 2011 at 7:22pmJun '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Unfortunately not even a 1.6 Trillion Dollar Deficit is enough to awaken Independents from their moral and intellectual torpor. There's always someone else to pay the bills and take the arrows in an effort to save this country.
America's only hope may be for President Obama's term in office to become what many have already called it: Jimmy Carter's second term. It took stagflation and the Iran Hostage Crisis to inspire independents to vote in the nearly 30 years of prosperity that Reagan began. I just hope there's something resembling a super power left to hand over to our children once the stuff hits the fan and the myopic independents wake up.
Oct '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Correct. Man proposes, but Geld disposes.
Nov '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
This is no time to jump ship on a brave, conscionable man who had the guts to make the tough and necessary choices.
Ditto.
Edited on Mar 25, 2011 at 10:27pmOct '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
The problem here is that Mitch Daniels has lost the nerve to stand up against the public sector unions, and chris christie has been quiet lately.
Edited on Mar 26, 2011 at 4:59amDec '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
If the Wisconsin electorate is truly stupid enough to not only vote liberal Dem's back into office, but also to toss the current Republicans out early in a recall election, then I say they deserve what they get. Taxes will rise, businesses will flee, and the state will go bankrupt under the weight of public union pressure, which will be emboldened and actually get worse than it is today.
Then again, I live in California, where leftists ran the table in the last election, so who am I to talk?
Dec '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Ah, California.
Or, as Monty (from AoSHQ) calls it, "The founding member of the Loyal Order of the Terminally Boned (LOTB).
The ranks of the LOTB grow every day, but just think, you guys got in on the ground floor.
You all were hosed before being hosed was cool.
Edited on Mar 26, 2011 at 2:02amOct '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Elizabeth Dunn
This is no time to jump ship on a brave, conscionable man who had the guts to make the tough and necessary choices.
Ditto. · Mar 25 at 10:23pm
Edited on Mar 25 at 10:27 pm
These are Wisconsin independents--they may have historical reasons to feel warm and fuzzy when they think of public employee unions. Who knows. Most likely the protestor's sheer energy did it. We'll see if it sticks.
Oct '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Kenneth: Those are really alarming poll results. Looks like Governor Walker reached too far too soon. Especially in a blue state, the groundwork needed to be carefully laid; the public needed to be educated.
Republicans, for too long, have been resigned to the idea that trying to educate the public about complex issues is futile, because the left has the media megaphone. Ever since 1988. they've been wandering around pining for another Reagan to explain things to the public. Instead, they've elected two of the worst communicators in my lifetime; Bush and Bush, while nominating incoherent mumblers like Dole and McCain.
You know who could explain this stuff? Allen West. · Mar 25 at 5:38pm
It's hard to attack labor in any country, though. People deep inside the collective bargaining rights really believe that they have a fundamental right to collectively bargain, even if that means other people do not get to work at all (we see this mostly in the public sector here, but in many European nations there's often a 10-15% structural unemployment).
Plus, unions are the most tribal part of our society; with all the bad that goes with tribal solidarity.
Nov '10
Re: Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemy
Here is one way to construe the divergence between conservatives and liberals on the issue: whereas the former mainly see things in terms of distributive justice (desert), the latter mainly see things in terms of procedural justice (respect).
That is, the former are primarily exercised about union workers getting more than their fair share whereas the latter are primarily exercised about union workers not having a voice. For conservatives, the fact that giving unions a voice would violate distributive justice is sufficient reason to oppose unions; for liberals, procedural justice must be satisfied before questions of outcome even get considered.
I further submit that the reason why each side finds the other's sides stance puzzling and perverse is that each thinks that the other side is concerned with what it is concerned with. So conservatives think liberals are, unlike them, irrational profilgates feathering their nest, and liberals think conservatives are, unlike them, irrational tyrants shutting down negotiations.
This is not to say such thoughts aren't ultimately justified or unjustified. But attention to the forms of argument uppermost in the minds of each side may help allay miscomprehension, and assist in the formulation of effective or bridge-building counterarguments.