The Fight to
Define America
During the past two years leading up to the 2012 Election and now three months later, the political landscape has been shifting from the right to the left. The Democrats are claiming they are on right path to retain the Presidency for years to come and have setup an ambitious plan to turn red states into blue states.
Last month in an ABC Univision News article titled, "A Blue Texas? Democrats Think It's Possible" a large group of Democrats announced that they were launching an ambitious plan in Texas to turn the state blue, and they're looking to Latinos to make that happen.
According to Politico, the party wants to take advantage of the rapidly changing demographics of the state and mobilize new, more progressive-minded, voters.
Politico reports that a group of Democrats is forming an organization, "Battleground Texas," that plans to put tens of millions of dollars over the next several years into a plan to engage underrepresented voting populations.
Last week, when interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Texas Governor Rick Perry was asked of what he thought of this Democrat plan. He stated, "Fat chance. The University of Texas will change its colors to maroon and white before Texas goes purple, much less blue," Perry told the Wall Street Journal. Gov. Perry also said, "The biggest pipe dream I've ever heard."
With this kind of "over confidence" from Governor Perry and the Republican Party I am reminded of what history has taught us about people or groups that were at one time very confident.
Does anyone remember the fight for Texas Independence? Where a few hundred brave Texans defeated a Mexican army of thousands lead by General Santa Ana? How about the story of the Titanic where the owners of the ship once said there was no possible way for the ship to ever sink? Or how about the over confident Jimmy Carter during the 1980 Presidential election against Ronald Reagan. In September of that year with only six weeks to go Carter lead Reagan by over 15%. Yet, Mr. Reagan won by a landslide.
If you don't remember anything from this commentary please remember this one thing: History repeats itself regularly!
Whether the Democrats can accomplish this goal or not will depend on two things: First, how effective can the Republican Party connect the party's conservative values that are embedded in our state and national platforms to the conservative family values that so many Hispanics embrace. Second, can the Republican leadership back up their words with the proper action that minorities are truly welcomed into the Republican Party? It's one thing to say, something, but the proof is in the actions that are displayed.
For either party to succeed their message must resonate with the middle class voters of America. So far the Republican Party has failed to clearly communicate their values as well as the dangers of Obama's blueprint for America.
Whether you like it or not the nanny state mentality which President Obama advocates is now the acceptable norm for the majority of Americans, whether they are informed or uninformed. The many surveys on issues such as same sex marriage, abortion, and the fiscal crisis clearly demonstrate that American society now looks at these issues differently than years ago.
The fight to define America will continue over the next 18 months. In time we will all find out whether the Republican Party can fix the many mistakes it has made during the past four election cycles and whether the Democrat Party can continue to improve it's grassroots game plan resulting in turning red states into blue.
My advice for the Republican Party leadership is this: Stop playing politics, talk honestly to the voters, and stick with your principles and do the right thing, and the "good" politics will follow. Remember Reagan's landslide in 1980 and the 1994 Congressional election. America desparetly needs to believe in its leaders once again.
Hold on America, the drama leading up to the 2014 national and state elections has already begun.
