Contributors
Carol Platt Liebau - Columnist

Carol Platt Liebau is a senior member of the CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial board. She is an attorney, political analyst and commentator based in San Marino, CA, and has appeared on the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Orange County News Channel, Cox Cable and a variety of radio programs throughout the United States. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Carol Platt Liebau also served as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. [go to Liebau index]

Our New Year’s Aspirations
Some Thoughts for Republicans at 2004’s Beginning
[Carol Platt Liebau] 1/5/04   

It’s always been hard to get behind the idea of New Year’s “resolutions.” The concept is bereft of joy – after all, no one ever resolves to “have more fun” or “always eat dessert.” In fact, the whole notion seems redolent of punitive negativity – a “no pain, no gain”-style of depressing determination.

New Year’s “aspirations” are, perhaps, a better approach. The term suggests that striving for something worthwhile can itself be uplifting, while implying that most lasting gains are achieved over time. And so, as Election Year 2004 begins, herewith are some modest suggestions for “New Year’s Aspirations” for Republicans, both in California and nationwide.

1. Refuse to be Distracted By Media Bias

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But it’s amazing how much time Republicans can waste in bemoaning the admittedly unfair mainstream media news coverage of their positions.

We simply need to find a way to “get over it.” Republicans may remember when, relatively early in his broadcasting career, Rush Limbaugh appeared on Phil Donahue’s television show. Donahue’s politics are notorious – most recently, in the wake of 9/11, he was a vocal opponent of military action in Afghanistan. So the show, predictably enough, consisted of little but sustained and nasty attacks on Rush.

But on his radio program the next day, Rush reproached callers who complained of Donahue’s unfair treatment of him. “What did you think?” Rush demanded. He noted that such treatment was to be expected from Donahue, and taking time to harbor bitterness about it did nothing but distract conservatives from the things that really matter.

The point is a fair one for Republicans generally. Of course, it is vital that we express our views – loud and clear – to media outlets when they display liberal bias, in order to deter them from even more egregious coverage. But we need to leave it at that. The average American has no interest in any Republican vendetta with the press, and will dismiss our complaints as nothing more than partisan whining, particularly in an era when “fair and balanced” media outlets have done much to level the playing field.

As unfair as it is – and it is unfair -- we have no control over the liberal orientation of the vast majority of journalists. Republicans need to accept that, move on, and learn to adjust their message so that it reaches the American people regardless of the predictable media spin. The question is: How?

2. Remember Whom We’re Speaking To

Republicans don’t need to impress The New York Times -- luckily for us. But we do need to find a better way to speak to millions of ordinary Americans. We need to recognize that our ideas are less intuitively obvious than the Democrats’, in large part because our positions rely more on abstract principles than on emotion.

So Republicans need to find concrete ways of explaining to the American people why we take the positions we do, and we must do it in a way that avoids even a whiff of condescension. The Republican Party should adopt a rule of thumb: never present a policy proposal without explaining in clear and concrete terms how it benefits the common man. Every Republican spokesman in America should be able to tell our citizens simply and concisely why, for example, a tax cut is going to benefit a factory worker who has just been laid off.

Not only is this our obligation as a responsible and well-meaning political party – it is our surest line of defense against the inevitable Democratic demagoguery.

3. Understand the nature of the opposition – without hating them.

No opponents can ever be effectively vanquished without a realistic understanding of who they are and what they stand for. So without anger and without malice, Republicans must simply remember that professional Democratic politicians stand for only one thing: Holding onto power.

Remember last summer – when Assembly Democrats’ private strategy session about how to handle the state budget deadlock was inadvertently broadcast across the Capitol? The erstwhile protectors of the oppressed were talking openly about how it might be best just to let the poor suffer – it might help Gray Davis beat the recall and perhaps make it easier to raise taxes.

Similarly, on the national level, no inconsistency is too great, no hypocrisy too embarrassing. Howard Dean can flip-flop on Medicare, John Kerry can take 300 different positions on the war, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are willing to sully good judicial nominees with trumped-up charges, and Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee apparently have no problem with manipulating a bipartisan investigation about the run-up to 9/11 for political gain. But it’s all in service of one overreaching cause: Political victory at any cost.

Even as we seek to understand their motivations, however, Republicans should seek to exploit the Democrats’ divisions. Indeed, the Democratic Party today consists of two very different coalitions: rich liberal elites on one hand, and working-class or minority voters on the other. On many issues – land use, tax policy, even social issues – the values and interests of these two constituencies are antithetical. Republicans need to stress the issues that highlight those differences – for example, outrageous environmental regulations that keep housing prices high and inhibit growth, or tax policies that make it impossible to start and grow small business (the most typical way that newly-arrived Americans can access the American Dream).

And in doing so, Republicans should repeatedly point out that the Democrats are no longer the party of the working man – having become, instead, the party of the Hollywood glitterati, university professors, government bureaucrats, union bigwigs and those on both coasts who identify with the cultural fringe. It is the Republican Party, with its message of lower taxes and more freedom, that is the natural home of struggling immigrant entrepreneurs, over-regulated and over-taxed small business people, and those with more traditional values. The days when the Democratic Party was allowed to talk like the “people’s party” but legislate like the “Streisand party” should have ended long ago.

4. Remain optimistic.

America is a good country, and it is filled with fine, brave people. Had any of us needed reminding, the outpouring of patriotism and selflessness in the wake of 9/11 – not to mention the sacrifices of the troops defending us at home and abroad – are irrefutable reminders of the strength of the American character.

Remaining optimistic is essential. First, as a purely political matter, pessimism is the wrong approach. Remember the liberals throughout the seventies and eighties, as they blithely charged Americans with moral stupidity and materialistic greed? Look where it got them – they lost five of the six presidential elections between 1968 and 1988.

Second, and more importantly, such a view is simply wrong. Americans today have shown that, on the whole, they rise to a crisis with the same resolve that they have demonstrated time after time during times of domestic and international peril. They are the people who, contrary to the threats and fear-mongering of the liberals and the press, elected Ronald Reagan and continue to hold the Reagan legacy in high regard. They are good people who are generous to each other, and friends to the oppressed around the world. Americans do not need a political party to tell them they are selfish and bad – they need a political party that believes in their fundamental goodness and decency, and which is willing to remind them of it.

• • •

2004 is full of opportunity – most notably, the chance to return George W. Bush to the White House, and to increase Republicans’ majority in the U.S. Senate (and remove Barbara Boxer therefrom). So as the year begins, let us aspire not only to political victory – but to achieve it in a way that is worthy of the principles we hold dear.

CRO columnist Carol Platt Liebau is a political analyst and commentator based in San Marino, CA.

copyright 2004

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