What should the GOP's strategy be for the next 2 years?

Although I appreciate what you are trying to do, assuming of course that you are trying to promote unity, I find your faith in centrism to be ill placed. Therefore, without going into a point by point analysis of your post, I find your position on centrism to be problematic for the following reasons:

1. It conflates the notion of centrism with that of compromise. The problem with this is that when you start conflate ideas in this fashion, it tends to lead to the distortion of ideas. For example, some on the right have somehow conflated the notion of white nationalism with that of patriotism. We have recently seen how such distortion can be divisive, confusing, and even dangerous.

2. Such centrism has led to the type of income inequality that played a role in the development of the type of sentiment that led to the capitol riots. Because there is no effective policy choice available that would in reality help people at the lower end of the economic spectrum, identity politics in the form of race become more effective. As an example with respect to the poverty that afflicts the black community, policy choices like free college, student loan debt relief, and universal health care that would substantially help are pushed to the margins by centrist politicians. Therefore there is nothing left but the type of politics that appeals to race. The same can be said for lower income whites.

3. Clintonian centrism as practiced by the Democratic policy has had the effect of pushing the country further and further to the right. This is because when centrist Democrats come to the table with centrist policies, the result of bargaining produces not a result in the center, but a result to the right because there is no room to bargain on the left. Whereas if it came from the left there might be sufficient room to guarantee a centrist result, assuming of course that Republicans want to compromise, something that they have not been willing to do much of lately. For evidence of this effect, we need only observe that Clinton governed to the right of Richard Nixon.

 

Now that was truly entertaining! Multiracial Whiteness!

You know, with that one I am starting to warm up to you! Damn! Even in all my brilliance, I could not have come up with that in a million years!!!!

 

Most Jews are Whites.
And the Chinese often are whiter than white.

 

Keep tRUMP muzzled. If they want relevance.
Let him have a voice, if they want to lose further ground.

 

Some salient points... though largely misguided (imho)...

How about ensuring an election system where x 1 vote ACTUALLY translates into one vote in the books... How about the peoples' recorded votes, (their ballot) being maintained for the Constitutionally required allotment of 22 month & open to the courts for timely review.

Lets start there... If you don't mind!

 

I don't have "faith" in centrism--or extremism. I'm offering my view of what has happened.

Centrism in conflated by some with compromise. In this case, centrism is acting decisively to get something done. It is a positive assertion of power against the margins.

Centrism isn't responsible for this...



Conservatism is responsible for America's income inequality. Reagan, Bush the Elder, Bush the Younger, and Trump all pushed policies that enhanced the return to capital.

"More effective" at what or to what? I disagree that there are no policy choices to improve wages.

Clinton started with centrism, lost the 1994 election, and played defense against Newt in order to win reelection in 1996.

Joe Biden's stimulus proposal is center-left.

 

Same thing it's always been, work toward a more perfect mutually securing of our human rights.

President Ronald Reagan

Don't focus so much on strategy, focus on what you wish to accomplish, a more free and prosperous people.

 

Which is exactly the kind of candidate the GOP rejected to pick the loser we got. They will have a tough time ditching the Trump brand of white nationalism , and retaining the trump voters for whom white nationalism is the defining cause celebre.

 

It is mostly educated Whites who defect to the Democrats. The Republicans are becoming the working class party.

But I wonder if the White educated class won't abandon the Democrats as they are harangued by Critical Race theorists.

 

"White nationalists" are a negligible part of a projected Republican coalition. It's the populists who feel disenfranchised who will be a challenge to hold.

 

Ate you wanting to end EC votes?

Chris Krebs stated this election had the most paper tracked ballots in history.

So ballots are recorded.

 

Snow White is white too. Now here's the hard part. Is Santa Claus white?

 

OK. You did say that centrism was the only remedy to identity politics or something like that. But fair enough. I don't want to put words in your mouth.

You can act decisively and get something done without being a centrist. Lyndon Johnson proved that.

I beg to differ. Although it would be somewhat more precise to say that centrism is NOT SOLELY responsible, it most certainly bears part of the responsibility because so called centrist Democrats applauded the policies of people like Alan Greenspan. Remember how Al Gore heaped praise on him? And as that applies to Biden, remember that the credit card companies in his state of Delaware pushed for bankruptcy reform that made it harder for troubled consumers to discharge debt through bankruptcy. Biden supported that. So I really don't agree with you on that point.

Let me put it like this. After I completed college, my wages shot way up. Therefore if Joe Biden or anyone else is really serious about doing something about the poverty in the black community, the bests things that they can do is to provide for free college, student loan debt relief, and universal health care. Those three things would be a shot in the arm for the black community with respect to poverty.

Yep and the net effect was that the country moved to the right. So you proved my point.

I am not sure. Maybe. Regardless, Biden's political career has been one of a centrist, center right on some issues like busing back in the 70s.

 

In a democracy, centrism is the general antidote to extremism that often includes identity politics.

Sure, extremists can "get something done" if they acquire power, but few extremists who acquire power are content to press policies that have more general support and typically find themselves losing power quickly.

LBJ was a centrist who was able to get a lot done because the Goldwater GOP was extremist.

Greenspan's policies weren't, IMO, extremist even though I think they were reckless, wrongheaded, and ultimately destructive of the middle class.

Changing bankruptcy laws wasn't extremist. (No, I don't agree

If he focuses on policies just for blacks living in poverty (reparations, for example), Biden would be moving away from centrism. If he says we should help blacks in the context of helping all people sharing similar impoverishment, even though blacks would tend to benefit more than whites, Biden would be operating as a centrist.

You're going to find general support among economists for Biden's spending proposal because we have a large demand deficit and the economy is on the precipice of a nasty recession.

 

My response is that extremism is relative. When this country was founded, the notion that blacks should not be enslaved was an extreme idea. Therefore to frame centrism as some sort of antidote implies somehow that ideas that may be labeled as extreme are toxic.

With regards to your first point, I would point out that the fact that the two political parties oscillate back and forth between election cycles on control on Congress and the presidency indicates that even so called centrists find themselves in the position of acquiring relative power and losing the same as time passes.

As far as LBJ is concerned, the policies that he put in place in the mid to late 60s with regards to civil rights were not centrist.

I didn't say they were extremist. I was responding to your assertion that conservatism was responsible for the existing income inequality. Greenspan's ideology and policies can be said to be conservative in the sense that they preserved and favored the existing ruling class in terms of capital.

Again, I did not say it was extremist. It was not centrist, but on the right end of the spectrum.

I think that in a democracy, those who are elected to office should try to put forward policy the reflects the interests of their constituents. Otherwise its a sham. Blacks have supported the democratic party for years, and have relatively little to show for it and that is seen in the fact that they continue to be hit the hardest by the effects of poverty. Furthermore free college, student loan debt relief, and universal health care would help not only blacks, but society in general as well.

Perhaps.

 

The screaming at Politico continues:

 

Everyone is for intellectual diversity until they get some.

 

Yes, and how about concentrating on how to INCREASE the Freedom and Liberty of All Americans rather than trying to control their every action. What they think, what they say, what they post, how much water they use, how much they drive, where they live, who lives next to them, and on and on and on.

Look for a Party that focuses on our interactions with other nations rather than trying to endlessly control us!

I swear, the Left's in politics in order to control us. If they were told that they were to represent and serve us rather than control us, I don't think they would be interested in political careers.

So, in addition to your sensible points on election reform, that's another thing we need to concentrate on, on just what control freaks the Left are.