One of the big rationales for 'moderate Republicanism' is that the hard-core conservatism of the neolithic base turns off minorities who are a rapidly-growing percentage of the population, dooming the party to demographic destruction. Party hacks gaze yearningly into the distance as they envision millions of 'minorities', inspired by the reasonableness of their views on giveaway programs and amnesty flocking across the aisle to vote Republican.
So these guys think they can take this wonderful sensitivity down to South-Central and unseat Maxine Waters? They're not even going to try because the people in charge of the party are afraid to go down there and they dont understand what they need to do to connect with black people and Latinos who live in those neighborhoods. There are many potential conservatives in minority neighborhoods but few potential Republicans. You dont think that there are Latinos who are pissed off about bad schools, rampant crime, high taxes and stupid anti-business government? Well you're wrong. Many of the Central and South Americans are very conservative and very middle class and are looking at Obama leading the same anti-wealth, anti-success zealots who wrecked the economy in the countries they fled to come here. Americans, never having experienced a lawless left-wing dictatorship, might be fooled by this class-warfare guff but Venezuelans have heard it before. People from the West Indies and Africa are also very conservative and they have large communities in the districts that you are targeting. Muslims are also culturally and financially conservative. But all this is academic. Geeks who have graduated from Top Universities engage in minority outreach by having seminars with other geek graduates from Top Universities who happen to be black or have a last name like Martinez. The 'solutions' always involve giving more power to the state and raising taxes. This is what the McLame Republicans think is going to lure 'minorities' to vote for them.
Its not going to happen. Some ethnic groups might become conservatives in reaction to the failure of leftist policies in their own neighborhoods but they are never going to be attracted by a party hardly distinguishable from the Democrats and which is a caricature of The Evil White Establishment. I know of a Korean businessman, a tax-hating, devoutly Christian entrepreneur, who voted for Obama because he just couldnt say yes to the moth-eaten old white guy. When you dont have any ideas appearances become the most important factors in an election. The conservatives who bring minorities to the conservative movement are going to arise from within those communities and are not likely to survive politically if they are wishy-washy moderates.
So if conservatives cant unseat Maxine Waters where can they go to make gains against the Democrats? I suggest that they target my Congressional District, California's 30th. The gerrymandered safe district for a wart-hog-like creature named Henry Waxman. Last year nobody wasted their time running against him. This district includes West Hollywood, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Westwood, Santa Monica and some similar communities on the other side of the mountains. The 30th is the most left-wing area in the country unless Nadler's district in Lower Manhattan or Pelosi's in San Francisco are taken into account. Except for Pelosi, Waxman is the single most obnoxious person in the House except possibly Barney Frank or Charles Wrangel, not forgetting Jack Murtha and David Obey...hey, OK he's in the top five or six, who's counting, the guy's a trainwreck! He conducts hearings against Evil Oil, Evil Tobacco, Evil Banks, Evil Car Executives and Evil Fast Food; if the left thinks its Evil Waxman conducts a hearing against it. He drags the executives in front of his committee and accuses them of...making a profit! He sees himself as a tribune of the people, the little guy's friend against Evil Monopolistic Oligarchs.
Thats great in Gary, Indiana, to be the friend of the burly but disenfranchised workers, but in Beverly Hills? In Beverly Hills their bonuses are cancelled, their stocks are a meltdown disaster area, and their beloved Barak is talking about who's going to pay for a trillion dollar giveaway. And Guess Who? They might be cool with getting a raise on their EITC south of Olympic in Maxine Waters' district but in the hills above Malibu's beautiful seacoast the liberals are meeting with their accountants and wondering about Hope And Change. When they see the breadth and scope of the coming Carbon Tax and realize what that is going to do to the value remaining in their battered portfolios how far to the left will they be then? A lot of the 'Old Money' that supported the left, held by the children and grandchildren of former celebrities, has disappeared. I'll bet donations to The Sierra Club and Greenpeace have fallen off a cliff.
So here's the opportunity. Target not the impoverished WalMart shoppers who are expecting manna to fall from Government Heaven but the people who are going to have to provide that manna from very reduced resources. Other issues could also be used to defeat Waxman in this district. Out of control labor unions (SAG and the WGA) are making demands and threatening strikes that could put all of the myriad administrative studio bureaucrats and behind-the-camera technical crews out of work permanently. Card-check will threaten the bottom line of every non-union studio. One of the bases of Waxman's support is the Jewish community. Not as strong as it used to be as the younger generations intermarry and drift away from strong involvement with the community but still a big factor. Did Waxman vote to reward Hamas with $900 million to make up for those Evil Israeli's unprovoked assault on the innocent rocketeers in the Gaza Strip? Yew betcha! Did he vote to support the assault on offshore tax shelters? Yup. Raising rates on upper income brackets? Ditto. Whereas Maxine Waters votes for goodies for her constituents Waxman consistently votes to strip the poor chumps in his own district of their remaining wealth.
Now, right at the moment the Wax Man seems pretty safe. Even though the Green Idiocy of Global Warming is increasingly discredited and the waffling evasions of the Gorians less and less believable the faith still holds sway in the manicured gardens of the mountain range that runs through the center of Los Angeles. When a Carbon Tax and a raised gasoline tax (Thanx Governator!) and the increasing government campaign to wipe out individual car ownership starts to bite many of these formerly wealthy types might start wilting on the vine, becoming less Green. As we abandon Israel to a new potential genocide at the hands of people even less savory than the National Socialists (at least the Nazis washed) will the Jews be so eager to support the Dems? As taxes pass 60-70% on marginal income and shelters and offshore dodges are removed will the people who going to pay more and more still be Democrats?
In a year this is going to be a very different country, reliable Democrat demographics are going to be questioning the wisdom of some of their most closely-held tenets. In one way Waxman is safe because there is almost universal support for legal abortion in the district and whatever candidate who runs against him will have to be pro-choice. Not pro dumping billions down the stem-cell rathole choice. Not making people who think abortion is murder pay for other people's abortions choice. Not forcing Catholic hospitals and doctors to perform abortions in the new Federal Health Care System choice. Not partial-birth choice--Waxman is in favor of all those things BTW. But in favor of legal abortions in the early stages of pregnancy choice. Since the courts and the California Constitution prevent any change in the laws on this subject and the issue is a total loser in the district for Republicans in these upscale districts the rationale for handing this issue on a platter to the Dems is very thin. However, the few remaining Republicans in the 30th are pretty hard-core and pro-life. Ironically enough a candidate who could seriously challenge Waxman would have a tougher time winning the nomination than whipping the Wart-Hog.
Guns are another matter. Right now the matrons of these neighborhoods think that every one of those extra Y chromosome testosterone gun-toting freaks down in the flats should have every single gun and bullet confiscated immediately. The husbands more soberly understand that the police or the private security service are a distance away up winding hillside roads and keep a discreet pistol or two within reach. As the Hugo Chavez-style class warfare heats up and the state and municipal governments wallow in unpayable pensions and debt while their tax receipts fall there will be fewer police and many more criminals, motivated by a sense of justice against the undeserving rich. When the government takes the police away will those same people, the most likely victims of crime, support harsh measures to take their guns away?
There are other issues. The point is that the Democratic party policies are going to impact the upper middle class and the professional classes disproportionately. Classes which have already lost a huge chunk of their wealth which they will never get back, Obama's high tax rates will make that certain. In districts like the one I live in the incumbents could be attacked using simple catchphrases on billboards that would direct people to a website that had brief, entertaining and very simple videos that put the argument that pro-business is better than anti-business, that the megastate is NOT your friend. Waxman and his zealous followers are easy to lampoon. Make Waxman's face the face of economic decline. If things are as bad as I think they will be then a clear, distinct conservative message will resonate. We all have to do everything we can to keep the message clear and stressing parts of that message that hit where the Democrats are the weakest. The 'moderates' might be some hindrance but the coming hyperinflation and economic decline are going to radicalize people one way or another so there will be fewer of them anyway. If conservatives have the clearest and most logical message we can win in places that have been lost to us for decades.
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