12 reasons I'm a Republican

Editor: Ron Phelps sent this to newspapers before the election. With the GOP's identity crisis, it's needed now more than ever. 1. I believe people should be guaranteed equal rights, not equal things.

2. I think making decisions locally is better than having Washington politicians or bureaucrats make them for me.

3. I think a free-enterprise system within a representative republic is a more effective way of running our country and meeting our needs than socialism.

4. I believe businesses in America should be allowed to make profits and I reject government redistribution of the profits of private enterprise. I reject socialism and the nationalization of private companies.

5. I believe that people misusing guns, and not the guns themselves are the issue. If someone with a weapon threatens my family or me, I have the right to, and will, shoot you.

6. I believe judges should not rewrite the Constitution to suit a fringe element, a minority that fails to get the support of voters.

7. I believe in private healthcare, not socialized medicine. I've lived and experienced the inefficiencies of government provided health care as a veteran.

8. I believe it's important to explore, develop, and use all possible sources of energy for our health, safety, and growth. I believe we should drill for oil here and now while we develop alternative sources of energy.

9. I believe marriage is a sacred union of a husband and wife for the purpose of bearing children, raising a family, and teaching them strong moral values. Our civilization is built on and will only survive on a foundation of strong families.

10. I believe that unborn children's lives are valuable, sacred, and should be defended. I reject abortion as a method of birth control.

11. I believe that early abortion should occur rarely and only be considered when the life of the mother is at risk.

12. I believe all who migrate to this country must do so within the established legal system. I believe that allowing, supporting, or offering sanctuary to anyone who illegally migrates to America is a crime.

A GOP district captain's lament

The reasons for Republican losses this year and the steps we need to take to rebuild are extensive. Start with the average voter. He or she does not care about (or honestly understand) ideology. Trying to appeal to the average voter with arguments about Adam Smith’s view of government and socialism etc. will likely get a blank stare. The average voter can tell you all the stats about the Denver Broncos but couldn’t tell you the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah, couldn’t tell you if Al Qaeda is a Sunni or Shia organization, and has no understanding of the ramifications of Georgia being invaded by Russia. The average voter wants to be able to feed his family, have healthcare, have a house with a big flat screen TV, and make sure his kids have a chance to get the same. The average voter (aside from the base on each side) doesn’t care if it is a Democrat or Republican who gives this to him.

Now with that as a backdrop, let’s look at this election. There were two broad issues that came into play…

1) Contextual Issues: Unpopular war, economic crisis, unpopular president, misadventures in the Minneapolis bathroom, etc.

2) Internal Party Issues: things that the GOP did and didn’t do which shot us in the foot.

As far as the contextual issues, this was a tough year for the GOP. You all know the details so I won’t repeat them here. What I would like to focus on is issues related to the GOP. In terms of pure strategy and tactics the matchup between the Dems and the GOP was like watching a football game between the Michigan Wolverines and Cherry Creek High School. They ran circles around us. A few cases in point…

Lack of Infrastructure

The Dems were incredibly well organized on a local level. They have a well run District and Precinct system with appropriate delegation of authority and support from the higher echelons of command. In Denver County we have essentially no infrastructure and we have completely let the precinct system fall into disrepair. I started as a precinct captain early this year and several weeks ago got promoted to District co-Captain. My other co-Captain, Paul Linton, also assumed his position relatively recently and he inherited a district that was in disarray. I have spoken with several other District Captains in Denver and they are experiencing the same thing. Part of the reason for this problem will be explained below.

Lack of Leadership

I have been rather unimpressed by the leadership that I see in the Colorado GOP. I won’t name any names here but too many people are “looking up” and focusing on how they can advance their own careers and get cabinet positions etc. They are not spending enough time “looking down” and making sure that the components of the Party over which they have jurisdiction gets developed. I spoke with several of the candidates who ran for either State House or State Senate and none of them received anything (money or training/advice) from the County or State Party. I understand that the Party may have decided that it would be better for them to put all their money into the Senate and National race.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that ignoring all of your local candidates is a good idea (I do not agree with this position). Ok then how about having a few candidate trainings at GOP HQ? I know there are some smart people in the party who know a lot about political strategy. It would not cost much to have an all-day “boot camp” for candidates to teach them about running for office. It would also cost very little for a county GOP chairperson to have the candidates in the county over to his/her house once a month to talk strategy and give them moral support.

It would not be difficult for the State Chairman to call each of the candidates in the state and say “stay motivated…keep up the good work!” It would not be difficult for the State Chairman to create an email list for all the local candidates and send them updates and strategy ideas. None of these things would be difficult unless hypothetically the State Chairman was trying to run a major Senate campaign at the same time he/she was trying to be State Chairman.

With the complete failure of our infrastructure that I described above, every Republican who is in a leadership position needs to be focused on rebuilding the infrastructure. I know it is a lot more fun to socialize and attend parties with powerful people but the stables need to be cleaned out and our leaders need to put their boots on and do some work.

Lack of Innovation

The Democrats utilized the internet and electronic media very well and we completely dropped the ball. This is very frustrating. Here in Denver County there are a number of people in the local GOP who fail to comprehend the importance of this. The Denver Democrat website is an order of magnitude better than the Denver GOP website. This is a critical problem that needs to be addressed NOW.

Here in District 3 we just set up a web page (www.ColoGOPhd3.com) and we are setting up Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace pages. We are going to be sending out post cards to every Republican on the Denver side of the district over the next 6 months trying to get them on our email list and trying to get them to connect with our web site. The GOP needs to make a real push to utilize technology as a force multiplier.

Excluding Voters

The Democrats have made great efforts to reach out to African Americans and Hispanics. In my humble opinion, we have to connect with these folks too or we will continue to lose.

Conclusion

We need to adopt a business mindset. Quite simply we are losing market share. When you really boil it down, we sell red widgets and the other party sells blue widgets. If the red widgets aren’t selling then one of three things might be going on…

1) People just don’t want red widgets anymore because they don’t offer what they want. (We need to change our widget)

2) People just don’t know about the red widgets and don’t realize that they really are a good product. (We need better advertising)

3) The red widgets do not actually deliver the features that they are advertised to be able to do. (We need to walk the talk)

In the first case perhaps our “product” needs to be changed, in the second case we need to do a better job of getting our message out in an understandable way, and in the third case we need to actually do what we claim we can/should do. I don’t claim to know exactly to what extent each of these plays a role but I think that they all contribute to the problem.

In business, if a company doesn’t innovate and compete effectively it goes out of business. In politics, we become irrelevant. Politics will always have two competing sides. Even the European countries that have multiple parties tend to create coalitions that divide up into two opposing sides.

The question is, will the Republicans continue to be a viable opposing force or will the natural polarity develop within the Democrat party causing the direction of our country to be decided every year in the Democratic primaries?

New habits for the GOP

(Denver Post, Nov. 9) “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Did I hear that from Hallmark, my mom, or in Sunday school? Turns out the words are from Stephen R. Covey’s self-help classic on good habits. They hit me on election night. My Republican party needs self-help if anyone ever did. Some of our gripe sessions about this year’s Democratic sweep feel like a sales meeting where everyone blames the customer. There are echoes of the East German party boss who said if the people didn’t like his regime, they needed to be straightened out. I mean serious denial. Having been a highly ineffective party since 2004 in Colorado, and since 2006 nationally, drunk on excuses and worse yet in 2008, maybe the GOP should check into detox. Supervising our rehab could be the stern Dr. Covey with his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Bad habits such as credit card binging, entitlement, victimhood, and not practicing what you preach can entrap groups as well as individuals. Republicans better do an intervention on ourselves after Obama’s blowout of McCain and state Dems’ pickup of two US Senate seats and three congressmen in four years. What would the Covey cure involve?

To maximize effectiveness, according to his 1989 bestseller, one should be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and “sharpen the saw.” Let’s talk about how these might apply to the party of Lincoln and Reagan. Eavesdroppers from other parties can snicker all you want. We’re too desperate to care.

To be proactive, we’ll quit whining about Bush’s blunders, the Messiah’s millions, media bias, or anything else in the rearview mirror. GOP congressional leaders will roll out a 2009-2010 Contract with America before the new president names his cabinet. Colorado conservatives will forge a cash-rich, hydra-headed counterpart to the progressives’ amazing Democracy Alliance.

To begin with the end in mind, we’ll write a Republican president’s 2013 inaugural address and post it on the Web this coming January 1. We’ll map the states our ticket must carry to make Obama a one-termer, then target the issues to win those states. Next write a game plan for taking back Congress in 2010, as we did in 1994.

Putting first things first means a laser-focus at all levels of the party on economic recovery, abundant energy, healthy families, fiscal integrity, and national security, period. The American dream was co-opted this year by a smooth talker with a European agenda. We can unmask that ruse. Retake the high ground, team.

Win-win thinking isn’t easy for Republican individualists, the so-called “leave us alone coalition.” But without it we’re toast. Our ethic of responsibility and opportunity has much to offer women and youth, blacks and Hispanics. Get better at communicating that or prepare to be a permanent minority.

Seeking first to understand, then to be understood, is crucial as a habit-breaker for the refusal to listen that undid both the Bush presidency and the McCain campaign. This doesn’t just mean polling. It means listening with the heart. Millions more “felt heard” in 2008 by their side than ours – and voted accordingly.

Synergizing sounds like Oprah babble, but we’ll be uncompetitive until we catch up with the Dems in using social networking and Facebook to make one plus one equal three. Sharpening the saw sounds like Huckabee cornpone, but we’ll be perennial losers until we commit to habitual self-improvement and the endless campaign ala the other Man from Hope, Bill Clinton.

The political pendulum has swung left. The right can either wait for it to swing back, or we can form new habits and pull it back. I’m for the Covey cure.

Bait & switch by both parties

Those of us who have been through a few election cycles know that nothing really ever changes. Candidates make feel-good promises that could never really be implemented without some sort of consequence, and yet we buy into it, follow the hype, buddy up to our candidate and hammer in those yard signs. It seems both sides make the move to the center, contrary to how they historically have voted. This year the Democrats have especially done so, but to be fair and objective -- as if there was such a thing, anywhere -- my latest cartoon (posted in right column) lampoons both sides.

Tax cuts, strong defense, limited spending, pro small business, wait a minute, those are Republican talking points! Use the federal government to stop corporate greed? Now my side is sounding like Democrats!

Anecdotally, I occasionally hear individuals talking about how they will support a certain Democrat candidate because they promise to reach across the aisle and be bipartisan. When it was brought to their attention that said candidate was one of the most liberal in the House or Senate and has yet to reach across the aisle, according to readily available congressional records, those people merely replied with, “but now they say they will this time.”

A liberal will always be a liberal and a conservative will always be a conservative and a campaign promise is not worth a whole lot. It amazes me how some people vote based on what a candidate says rather than what a candidate has done.

Fannie-Freddie fiasco is Dems' baby

Cut through the doubletalk that obscures the financial mess in Washington and on Wall Street, and these points are obvious to everyone paying attention: • Congress used the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to force banks to make risky loans to "help" people buy houses they could not afford.

• As early as 2001, President Bush and Republicans warned that Freddie and Fannie's financial house was unstable and could wreak havoc on the economy.

• Fannie and Freddie spent more than $200 million lobbying Congress to ignore the problem.

• Subservient Democrats, like Barney Frank, dutifully declared that Freddie and Fannie were safe and sound and blocked reform.

Now, no one can dispute that Freddie and Fannie were certainly unsound. So, who pays for Congress' failure to reform? Taxpayers, of course: up to $4 trillion in lost savings and investments plus more than $1 trillion in new government debt.

Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid want us to believe that the financial fiasco is the fault of deregulation. Poppycock.

In 1999, before George W. Bush took office, the New York Times' Steven Holmes reported that the Clinton administration was pressuring Fannie Mae to expand mortgage loans to "people with less-than-stellar credit ratings." Through CRA, banks were strong-armed to make risky loans and threatened with fines of up to $500,000 per violation if they didn't reach government quotas. Banks were encouraged to hire "community groups," like ACORN, to find "qualified" borrowers.

Not surprisingly, when banks were offered the chance to dump those risky loans on Fannie and Freddie, they jumped at the chance.

Holmes reported, in 1999: "Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times (but) . . . may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s."

In 2001, the Bush administration warned of "strong repercussions in the financial markets" if Fannie and Freddie encountered financial trouble. Treasury Secretary John Snow repeatedly warned that federal regulators didn't have enough authority to properly supervise Fannie and Freddie.

As recently as August 2007, President Bush urged Congress "to get them reformed, get them streamlined, get them focused."

Democrats ignored those warnings:

Rep. Barney Frank said he did not want to "focus on safety and soundness . . . . I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation toward subsidized housing."

Rep. Maxine Waters claimed, "We do not have a crisis . . . Everything (in CRA) has worked just fine."

And Sen. Christopher Dodd, No. 1 recipient of Fannie and Freddie campaign cash, called them "great success stories."

Fannie and Freddie spent more than $200 million and employed over 140 lobbyists to avoid just the kind of scrutiny that Republicans urged. They throw around millions in campaign contributions, targeting key members of Senate and House finance and banking committees.

Ironically, Barack Obama doesn't sit on those committees, yet he ranks as the No. 2 recipient of Freddie and Fannie campaign cash after just four years in the Senate.

Last week, Associated Press reported that three years ago Freddie Mac even paid a consulting firm peel off enough GOP votes to kill a reform bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel.

"What we're dealing with is an astounding failure of management" that was "driven clearly by self interest and greed," Hagel said.

With unanimous Republican support, Hagel's reform bill sailed through committee, but Freddie's lobbying fusillade found enough weak-kneed Republicans to help its loyal Democrats derail the bill.

Three years later, we cannot know if reforms proposed by Bush, Snow and Hagel would have averted the current crisis, but we certainly know that Fannie and Freddie's Democrat defenders were dead wrong.

Given Democrats' complicity in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it is utterly astounding that confused voters could actually reward them on Election Day.

Mark Hillman of Burlington, Colorado, served as Senate Majority Leader and State Treasurer. He is now Republican National Committeeman for the state. To read more or comment, go to www.MarkHillman.com.