A New Agenda

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RedState:

A New Agenda

 

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | January 2nd, 2013 at 04:30 AM

As we start the new year, it is sad to see so many Republicans patting themselves on the back, Grover Norquist included it seems, saying, “It’s ok, it really was a tax decrease because it is Tuesday.”

The one pledge to rule them all got obfuscated away conveniently and it is time to move on to a new agenda for the Republican Party. We are now in the era of the McConnell Tax Hike of 2013, which raises taxes on 80% of Americans making between $50,000.00 and $200,000.00.

I wanted to go over the fiscal cliff, in part, because it would give the GOP the best opportunity to change the subject. They were always going to lose playing Barack Obama’s game. They were always going to lose playing Obama’s game because he has the Republican playbook memorized and can best the GOP at its own plays.

Ben Domenech, in his excellent Transom, concluded 2012 with the breakdown of where the camps are within the GOP’s need for reform. In short, Domenech says there are five camps:

1. The people who think the problem is social conservatism
   
2. The people who think the problem is economic conservatism
   
3. The people who think the problem is bad Republican candidates
   
4. The people who think the problem with the candidates is that they were Republicans
   
5. The people who think this was a purely technological failure and does not demand a shift in ideology, policy, candidates, message, or anything else
   

In 2012, I think we had some bad Republican candidates, I think we had some terrible ID wrapped up in the GOP, and at the national level I do actually think a lot of Romney’s collapse came from failures at the political technology level, not to be confused with technology bells and whistles.

But I think the problem of bad Republican candidates and candidates losing because they are Republicans is wrapped up in a bigger issue related to the second grouping