California’s Republican Party looks good. Of course, it never really matters how it looks, just what it does, but it does look good. Three women, one African American, one Hispanic, and a couple of white guys. We couldn’t have done better if we had set quotas. In addition, at a time when Democrats appear to be in a full melt down nationally, a new and interesting Republican Party is necessary.
One of the biggest problems of the 1994 election was that Republicans didn’t win that election, Democrats lost. Republicans didn’t have a mandate, and they took no action to convince voters that what they wanted for California was what was best for people. In defense of the Republicans at that time, they spend a year fighting to get a governing majority, but still in many ways the Republicans started acting like a bunch of kids in a candy store. They didn’t think about building a long term majority in California, they just thought about indulging all of their pent up desires for legislation. It was a heady time, for sure, but Republicans did not exercise much self control.
2010 could be another 1994. Based on the primary election results, Republicans should pick up seats. The statewide slate of candidates is a good one. Lots of strong candidates. The legislative primaries had some real interesting results, and the Democrats are in trouble. How much trouble remains to be seen, but it looks good.
Whatever happens this time, Republicans need to act like winners. We should never be excited that we win elections or pick up seats. We should be excited that we are advancing a policy agenda that is good for Californians. The end of politics is not obtaining power. Obtaining power is only a means to an end, that end being making life better for as many people as possible in California. The purpose of the political process is to persuade people to entrust you with power, and the way you earn that trust is by convincing people your ideas will make their life better.
That is the challenge of the next 5 months. Convincing Californians that Republicans, if entrusted with power, will make their life better. They already know that Democrats will make their life worse. They are just not yet convinced that we will do any better if they give us that power. It is up to us to earn that trust.
June 14th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Trust a Republican…hardly. The Tea Party “mob” got it right…RINOS will not go down easily!!!
June 14th, 2010 at 12:00 am
While I am hearing and reading a lot of hurrahs and confidence from the GOP leaders I am not hearing from my GOP friends, most of whom are not particularly active in politics. They are just telling me what they “feel” and think and are hearing from their friends. This is not the time to be confident. We need to make sure we are bringing in strong leaders and thinkers to our party. There is still a lot of very hard work that needs to be done if we are to convince joe-sixpack out there that the GOP is up to the job.