GOP should rewrite playbook

by J. Warren Tompkins

An article in the Oct. 12 edition of the Wall Street Journal detailed how the National Republican Campaign Committee is trying to use Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the proverbial “albatross around the neck” of Democratic candidates. A poll cited in the piece shows Pelosi with a 44 percent unfavorable rating.

That’s all well and good, but it didn’t work in 2006 and it didn’t work in 2008. Just about every poll you look at these days show bad markings for Congress in general and the Democrats in particular. The two latest polls on Congress both show disapproval hitting the 60 percent mark. A Rasmussen poll of 3,500 likely voters had a 43-39 Republican lead in a generic ballot for the House.

These are signs that the national party shouldn’t be adding an anti-Pelosi page to its playbook, but rewriting it altogether. The reason Republicans are moving up in the polls and Democrats moving down them is that the public saw what it got with a Democrat-controlled Congress coupled with an Obama presidency – liberal policies coming from out-of-touch, liberal politicians.

If it hasn’t been one thing, it’s been another with Washington liberals, not the least of which is their big-government, “I know better than you” health care plan they’re trying to force on a nation that doesn’t want it. Then there’s cap-and-trade, a scheme made up to look like a way of protecting the environment, when it’s really just more taxes and more bureaucracy. And we can’t forget the bailouts, in which it seemed that Ft. Knox got raided to give money to people who made bad business decisions.

These examples, and more, are why the voters are increasingly fed up with the way liberals have been running the country. And let’s face the facts folks – the Democrats aren’t the only one’s at fault. We gave them the opportunity to retake the White House and Congress because our Republican leaders fell flat on their conservative promises.

That’s what needs to be addressed in the 2010 House campaigns. Voters aren’t angry with individuals. They’re angry at the system as a whole. People are tired of empty promises and big government agendas being put before private industry and working families.

People already don’t like the policies that have been coming out of Washington, and they know why. It should not be a problem for a Republican in a competitive district to say, “My opponent, if sent to the House, will raise your taxes, help stunt the economy and misspend your money. How do I know that? Democrats in Congress have been doing it already, and show no signs of stopping.”

But…and this is the most important part…Republicans must take the next step too. We must offer real ideas to our nation’s most pressing problems. We have to promote ideas that reward private industry and entrepreneurship. Republican candidates must carry the banner of free enterprise and remove regulations on the American sprit.

The playbook for victory next November should be built on opposing big-government policies while promoting ideas that will put America back to work. The 2010 election cycle must be about ideas, not personalities.