Bjcorbin's Blog

Dear Leadership of the Republican Party

I guess I should start by clarifying that I am not a member of your organization, though I have at times voted for your candidates. In my almost thirty years of voting I have never found enough common ground with either of the major political parties to affiliate with them; and at this point, it seems doubtful that will ever change. While I generally try to steer clear of the bipartisan brawl, my growing concern for the future of this country compels me to offer you a little advice for the 2012 Presidential election. Obviously, you can take it or leave it.

First and foremost, is that I hope the current rhetoric being spewed by many of the GOP presidential hopefuls is just the intro to something more substantive. Simply pointing out how bad things are isn’t much of a platform to run on. Don’t count on getting the free pass that the buzzword “change” got in the last election. I suspect that “We the People” will be looking for a definition this time.

Along those same lines, remember that we are a distinctly western culture and that aesthetics matter more than they should. Offering up a candidate who is nearly seventy years old, and whose political heyday was three administrations ago, would be a serious mistake. Barrack Obama was able to sell the idea that he’d be something different based largely on the fact that he looked and sounded different than the alternatives. Mr. McCain’s campaign was floundering until Sarah Palin entered the picture and her appeal was also rooted in the fact that she didn’t look and sound like everyone else. Those same aesthetics will matter in 2012.

Since I mentioned Sarah Palin, I ought to add that I believe that her political shelf life has expired. If she had remained the governor of Alaska and had led them as boldly as she presents herself, she might be considered some sort of credible alternative. Unfortunately, she quit that job, hit the talk-show circuit and her life has become tabloid fodder. At this point, she seems like a caricature; who has way too much in common with the Kardashian’s to be taken seriously.

Despite what the special interest groups will tell you, the number one issue on the minds of most American’s is the economy, and more specifically, jobs. If you don’t have some new ideas about how to turn things around, I’d get working on that now. Please don’t try to perpetuate the myth of the “Consumer Based Economy”. Low interest rates, more affordable lines of credit and tax breaks aren’t going to bring our economy back; we are not going to borrow, spend and consume our way back to prosperity. Our country has got to find a way to restore the balance between what we produce and what we consume. Trying to defy the law of supply and demand is the economic equivalent of trying to defy gravity.

Speaking of balance, I appreciate the idea that some of your guys have been trying to promote about government spending; it is absolutely out of control. Unfortunately, hammering the budget for things like Medicare and Medicaid, while discretionary spending remains largely unchecked, isn’t going to gain you much support with the American people. If you’re serious, you and your brothers across the aisle need to start axing all the activities that the government has no business being involved in. Using that criterion, you could probably cut the budget in half.

Finally, as a man who takes his morality pretty seriously, I like the idea of the “Moral Majority”. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much evidence that such a group really exists. But as I’ve watched the last few election cycles, I have become convinced that there is a group of people who could rightfully be called the “Moderate Majority”. I believe that it is this group who represents the swing vote and that these are the people you need to reach. While staunch conservatives may feel that you’ve done a poor job of representing them, it seems doubtful that they’d be willing to re-elect Barrack Obama to another term. Though the extreme elements of both parties will attempt to hijack the primary process, the actual election will most likely be decided by this large group in the middle.

Well, that’s really all I had to say; hopefully something within this will be helpful to you. Good luck with all that, because there are an awful lot of lives and livelihoods that hang in the balance. See you at the polls.

Sincerely – Bryan J. Corbin (Ohio)