Aaaaand the surrender train keeps rolling on
In the 1970s. a perfect storm of libertarians, Christian conservatives, and conservative Democrats came together to shift the GOP from an afterthought to a force to be reckoned with in North Carolina. Folks with some things in common — and some NOT — came together in a way that benefited all of them (and the state as a whole).
Here we are in 2018. We have two Republican US senators who vote slightly to the right of the average member of the Democrat caucus in their chamber. We have an ever-shrinking legislative majority, elected on a platform of limited government and lower spending, making a mad dash to the left with record spending and appeasement of traditional Democrat constituencies like state employees and environmentalists.
I told this story earlier about watching TV one night with a friend. As the barrage of campaign ads smacked us in the face, my friend turns to me and says,”I can’t tell who is a Democrat and who is a Republican.”
Yeah. That’s the problem.
The NCGOPe has had some time to do a little navel-gazing and soul-searching about Tuesday. And here’s what they’ve come up with:
*They didn’t “moderate” and STILL cleaned our clocks!* (*Somebody call a 
waaaaaaaaaaanh-mbulance!*)
He is quite the “special” counsel, isn’t he?
Conservatism did not kill the GOP on election day. (We haven’t seen a whole lot of it in action.) The NCGOP simply got out-hustled, out-strategized, out-organized, out-played, OUT-EVERYTHINGED.
A lot of those races the NCGOP lost were lost during early voting. It’s hard to come back on election day from a 6000 vote deficit incurred during early voting.
The party had no sales pitch other than “We’ve been in charge, and would like to keep being in charge and spending your money.”
Dan Forest has not moderated. He’s won TWO statewide races. Dan Bishop hasn’t moderated, and he won in Mecklenburg County. Ted Budd and Mark Harris didn’t moderate. Jesse Helms never moderated, and we gave him 30 years in the US Senate.
Believe it or not, voters have a tremendous amount of respect for candidates who are passionate and principled. (Even if they don’t agree 100 percent, they still like to know the candidate is not BS-ing them.)
Donald Trump is showing HOW it’s done. The two guys he campaigned for in our state WON very tough races.
Most of our party establishment jumped in Marco Rubio’s lap in 2016. But they could learn a lot from the man in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If the NCGOP wants to survive to fight – and lead – another day, they need to adopt some of The Donald’s fighting spirit.
Extend a hand of friendship or “bi-partisanship” to the leftist hordes, and they will punch you in the face. ‘Moderate’ or ‘cave’ on your principles, and the hordes will demand you surrender further on even more stuff.
Our side needs to stand by our party platform, defend our principles, and HIT BACK. This is not tiddlywiinks, people.
Amazing how many of those that are elected could not or chose not to correctly reason, a long time ago, that the Trump train trumps the “surrender train”.
Browny Douglas
It is telling that 9 of the 11 candidates that Trump campaigned for heavily won, but NONE of the candidates that Obama campaigned for won.
Still, these Never-Trumpers like Woodcox just don’t get it.
This Woodcoz creature is an infiltrator. The fact that he still has a job after trashing President Trump is an outrage. He is one more sign that Tim Moore needs to go and he needs to go badly.
It is the liberalism of Moore and Berger that has cost us. The Christian conservative part of our base still does not trust the GOP after Moore and Berger’s massive berrayal of them on the cowardly surrender to the far left and the corporate bullies on repealing HB2. Their staying home is what cost us seats, and Berger and Moore’s veering left is responsible.
The other problem in the last election is that the caucus spent their money in a campaign designed by the leadership and its chosen consultants, mostly through direct mail. Both the messaging and the mail piece design were awful, and I have heard several House candidates comment on that.
The biggest tent I know of is a circus tent, and that is what this bozo Woodcox wants to make of our party – a circus. He and his patron Tim Moore need to be G-O-N-E.
A comparison of 2016 and 2018 on social issues tells the tale. In 2016, the GOP was standing firm on keeping the men our of the Ladies room and defending HB2 and we won a supermajority. In 2018, we had surrendered on those issues and we suffered substantial losses.
The GOP does better standing firm on social issues like bathroom privacy because it motivates our voters to go to the polls. Selling out on these issues motivates them to stay home. Comparing the legislative election results of 2016 and 2018 shows that clearly.
The 2018 results are what happen when you kick a big part of your base in the teeth.
What does it take for us Republicans to realize that Robin Hayes? & Dallas Woodhouse? have to go! When I saw an ad for Anita Earls, beautifully done, on TV, I was livid! We had money for a TV ad for Barbara Jackson, why was it not spent for her benefit? We need PRINCIPLED CONSERVATIVES to lead the NCGOP, not the asshats who betrayed us when they pushed out Hassan Harnett!
Woodcox is clueless. President Trump is a very good example of how you win by running to the right, not to the center, as the last two GOP presidential nominees tried unsuccessfully.
That is an executive office race, but a number of legislative elections this year illustrate that it works for parties in winning legislative victories, too.
Take the Canadian province of Ontario, Canada’s most populous and its most industrialized, and its provincial parliamentary election a few months ago. Ontario’s Conservatives had been out of power for 15 years and had been playing the centrist game most of that time. The party chose a dynamic new leader, Doug Ford, who took the party significantly to the right, ran as a populist like Trump, and ran on hot button issues like stopping illegal immigration and ending the wind and solar energy boondoggle. When the votes were counted, the Conservatives had almost tripled their seats in a landslide, going from 28 seats to 76, and Ford became Ontario’s first Conservative Prime Minister in 15 years. What about the Liberals who were still playing the centrist game? They went from 55 seats and a majority to a mere 7 seats, too few to even be recognized officially as a parliamentary party. That is where hard charging conservative issue-oriented politics got the Conservatives and where a namby-pamby centrist approach got the Liberals.
Austria saw the same thing a few months before Ontario. Its center-right Peoples Party had been in second place to the center-left Social Democrats for several election cycles and both had run centrist campaigns. This time, however, the Peoples Party’s new dynamic 28 year old leader Sebastian Kurz took the party the farther right it has ever been, taking hard line positions against illegal immigration, for tax cuts, against encroachments on national sovereignty by the EU, and a host of other issues. Kurz’ hard charging conservatism won his party a smashing landslide and he became the world’s youngest prime minister. What about the Social Democrats and their centrist policies? They fell from being the largest party to third largest, as the Freedom Party, to the right of the Peoples Party, beat the Social Democrats into second place.
Then there is the Czech Republic’s election this year, where centrist politics bombed for the Social Democrats, which went from being the largest party and holding the Prime Minister’s office to being sixth largest. Coming in first was a populist nationalist party led by a billionaire dubbed the “Czech Trump”. Coming in second was the staunchly conservative Civic Democrats of former President Vaclav Klaus, and tied for third was a new populist nationalist party that advocated banning Islam in the country and holding a referendum to leave the EU. The other party tied for third was the anti-establishment populist left Pirate Party.
Running proudly as real conservatives works. Wimping out with a centrist approach is a recipe for failure.
Let’s understand what “socially moderate” is code for these days. In years past, abortion was the big social issue, but in the last few years that has changed. Now it is homosexuality.
Look at what your NCGOP staff has done. Homosexual candidates have been recruited to run for the legislature as Republicans. A gay activist conference has even been held at NCGOPe headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. We supported the repeal of HB2. We are making a socially moderate party,, no matter what our silly old platform has to say.
Being socially moderate means letting the homosexuals have all the rights they want, even if at the expense of the rights of everyone else. Let them use whatever bathroom or locker room they want. Who cares about the privacy of everyone else. If they demand a Christian florist, baker, or photographer to participate in a same sex wedding that their Christian beliefs say is a blasphemy, so what. Government should force them to do so. Who cares about religious freedom. It is the feelings of the homosexuals that matter.
This is where friend Woodcox wants to take the NCGOPe,, and I agree. This “socially moderate” language is just code for gay rights these days.