We're Missing the "Why"
  
Recently, the usually astute Charlie Cook wrote a column giving Republicans advice on improving their image and their standing.  He wrote:
 
"The Republican message of small government and self-reliance is completely out of sync now when people are seeing half of their life savings wiped out in the stock market, experiencing home value losses, losing jobs and fearing for their future."
 
Well, it may seem so in the current political climate but the core Republican message of limited government and self-reliance is more important today than ever as we look at the causes of our current troubles and the solutions proffered by the Obama Administration.  In fact, it is that core American value of self-reliance that has caused President Obama his greatest heartburn so far.  The great silent majority of responsible mortgage payors were outraged recently to see that those who overextended themselves or were otherwise less than responsible in meeting their mortgage obligations would be rewarded for their lack of fiscal discipline. 
 
No one - certainly no Republican - wants to see someone lose their home due to unforeseen circumstances or economic troubles beyond their control.  But the vast majority of Americans have watched from their affordable mortgage sidelines as some of their less frugal coworkers, neighbors and associates have extended themselves well beyond any rational, financial framework in hopes of making the big score.  No one begrudged them their success when it worked.  But no one wants to pay for others' failures in which they played no part when it didn't work.  That approach just doesn't seem fair to a large sector of Americans who still believe in old time self-reliance.     
 
Add to that the results of the latest NBC/WSJ poll showing that 61% of Americans are now more "worried that the government will spend too much on the stimulus and increase the deficit" than are "worried that government won't spend enough to get out of the recession" and it's clear the American people do believe there are, and should be, limits to government largesse.      
 
The last thing Republicans should do at this point is turn away from the party's core principles for some vague promise of a short-term blip in the polls.  Today Barack Obama is popular and America wants him to succeed but his instincts are to spend and regulate and generally rely on government solutions to America's problems.  In the long-term the government sector can never create the kind of wealth and prosperity that America's entrepreneurs in the private sector can.  It is those entrepreneurs and small businesspeople and self-reliant mortgage holders who hold the key to America's economic recovery.          
 
The Republican Party does have a communication problem but not because Republican values are out of sync.  Rather, people need to know why those values are important given the current economic situation and their individual challenges.  In today's Communication Age, Republicans have endless ways to deliver a message: press releases are sent out in nanoseconds, thousands of blogs give up to the minute assessments of every political development, and every campaign has a website extolling the wonders of their candidate.  And yet they still have trouble connecting to the average American.  Something has been lost in the translation.
 
What is missing in today's debate is the "why."  Republicans are simply not providing the reasoning for their sound philosophical view of government.  "Wasteful spending" and "burgeoning deficits" and the perils of "big government" are terms every American is familiar with.  But rarely do they get a human face.
 
Has anyone argued that unchecked government spending will further jeopardize Social Security - a program that even most Conservative Republicans have come to accept as a legitimate role for government?  Every dollar of wasteful spending is one less dollar we'll have to meet our commitment to Social Security when, in a few short years, benefits paid out will exceed revenues coming in and those revenues can no longer mask the real deficit.  Where will the money come from to make up that shortfall?  That's an argument for reining in the Obama gravy train that every American can understand.  But if Republicans don't tell them, who will?      
 
Think about last summer when gas prices shot up to $4 a gallon and Democrats were opposing offshore drilling and other common sense solutions to addressing our energy needs.  For the first time in years the Republicans felt a little wind at their backs as that issue provided a clear connection between the parties' approaches to energy issues and how policy decisions impacted American's daily lives.     
 
This is not a complicated exercise but it is critical in explaining to the American people why the Republican approach to government spending and taxes and personal freedoms and regulations all have a great deal to do with their everyday lives.  Not because it's a neat philosophy but because it impacts their bottom line.  Whether it's health care, energy, taxes, spending, defense, whatever the issue, Republicans need to explain how their approach will affect people personally. 
 
Usually, the GOP falls back on taxes (i.e. your taxes are going to go up) to explain the why.  Mostly because it works.  And it will work again as the Obama Administration faces the grim fiscal reality of their "bold" vision and search for ways to pay the bill.  But higher taxes will not be the only byproduct of an Obama Presidency.  That hand of Big Brother which today seems to offer nothing but hope and understanding and kindness and economic rebirth can just as quickly turn into a vise grip on the individual liberty, personal freedom and economic opportunity that have served as the bulwark of the Republican ethos and which offer the greatest hope for the long-term vitality of America.         
 
Republicans don't need to change their stripes and they certainly don't need to become Obama-lite.  Although they may be in the minority today, the Party has seen a lot worse. Going into the 1930 elections, Republicans held 270 seats in the House of Representatives.  Six years later, coming out of the 1936 elections, they held just 88 seats.  In six short years they lost 182 seats.  But even that didn't last and neither will the current situation.    
 
In 1938, Republicans won 81 seats, lost a few seats in the 1940 Presidential year and then picked up another 47 seats in 1942 on their way to reclaiming the majority in 1946.  The 2010 elections may not result in a gain of 81 seats - but you can be sure the Democrats' hold on power is just as tentative and just as vulnerable to a focused and relevant Republican message as it was 70 years ago. 
 
There's a lot of conjecture these days about the demise of the Republican Party but the values of limited government, lower taxes, individual responsibility and self-reliance are as important today as they have been at any point in American history - to both the future of the GOP and America.  Republicans just have to tell the American people why.