"More Cowbell" and other Animated GIFs used by GOP

GOP Social Campaign Gets Animated Over GIFs

Excerpt:

For Republicans’ digital strategy, repetition is key. Leonardo DiCaprio throws cash in a wastebasket while Emma Stone shrugs. Taylor Swift takes a golf club to a vintage AC Cobra. Will Ferrell bangs on a cowbell. And so they go, over and over again, as short, repeating images pressed into service for House Republicans’ social-media cause. House Republicans have deployed these moving images, known as GIFs—an acronym for “graphics interchange format”—on issues ranging from food labeling to immigration, trying to win over young voters. They launched the first ones in 2013, attacking the Affordable Care Act with a GIF of House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) saying “Are you kidding me?” while his head bobs and weaves, and bobs and weaves. The GOP has used GIFs in legislative fights ever since, one repeating image at a time. “We’re using GIFs to communicate our messages more creatively,” said Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.), who is leading a campaign dubbed GOP Labs to train lawmakers on social media. She says the GIFs help the GOP reach younger audiences and “illustrate complex issues in a more fun and innovative way.”

Comment: I used to have an animated GIF editor (Paint Shop Pro). Had much fun with it. GIMP (open source) has an animation editor.

Below is the More Cowbell SNL skit:

Note to the Minnesota Republican Party

Minnesota Republican Party gets eviction notice over missed rent; official says talks ongoing Excerpt:

Minnesota's debt-plagued Republican Party has been served with an eviction notice for its party headquarters after failing to pay its rent payments since August. The party's landlord filed the notice last week in Ramsey County court and it is scheduled to be heard next Tuesday. Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Pat Shortridge told party members in a memo Thursday that officials are trying to renegotiate the lease to get one that better fits space and cost needs. The GOP has 21 months remaining on a lease with Hub Properties Trust for space a block from the state Capitol. Shortridge revealed that the rent hadn't been paid in eight months. The Minnesota GOP owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to various vendors

Comments: Please don't ask me to to support the Minnesota GOP until you get your fiscal act together. You are a disappointing joke. And I am a Republican!

Missing from the Republican plan is a clearly articulated vision for the future of America.

How the Republicans Can Win in November--and Still Lose the Republic

Excerpt:

The message of the American people in primary elections from Alaska to Kentucky and from Delaware to Utah has not been, "We want the same old Republican ideas." Quite the contrary, most Americans (including a majority of Republican voters) have made it abundantly clear that they have no use for a "third Bush term." Even so, Americans also intuitively understand that, like it or not, if the Democrats continue to control both Congress and the White House, the America that they have known and cherished-the America of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, of Pilgrims and pioneers, of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Reagan, of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution-will vanish forever.

The Republicans, of course, recognize this dynamic and are eagerly waiting in the wings to re-ensconce themselves in powerful chairmanships and, one cannot help but speculate, to reestablish themselves as the dispensers of federal beneficence in the form of government contracts, earmarks, and entitlement spending. In other words, if history is a guide, it is reasonable to expect the Republican to abandon their rhetoric about limited government, lower taxes, and traditional values and revert back to business as usual as soon as the election is in hand.

But business as usual in Washington for the better part of eight decades has included the piecemeal dismantling of the Constitution-or at least of those parts of the Constitution that impose meaningful limitations on the power of the federal government. The mandate in the Democrats' healthcare law requiring every American to purchase health insurance-or face a hefty fine-is only the newest accretion of a long train of abuses and usurpations of Congress's legitimate authority.

Members of Congress from both political parties routinely minimize or altogether fail to consider the long-term damage they cause every time they choose to transgress constitutional boundaries. And though it may be theoretically possible to restore our system of limited representative government as long as free and fair elections continue, such a restoration at this late stage has become a monumental task. One legislative transgression has led to another-debts have accumulated across generations, entitlements have grown beyond any sane hope of sustainability-and over time the boundaries of congressional power have been all but obliterated.

We should not then, perhaps, be surprised that the Republican Party, in its "Pledge to America," fails to signal a categorical departure from its own history of disregarding constitutional limits and expanding entitlement spending. Certainly, the Pledge, if followed, represents a step away from the brink-a return to fiscal discipline, self-restraint, and free market solutions. Unfortunately, these steps, while laudable, are insufficient to halt America's long-term slide into a debilitating form of socialism.

Missing from the Republican plan is a clearly articulated vision for the future of America. Americans are not in the mood for business as usual; they (overwhelmingly) know the country is off course and want someone to lead them back to prosperity, and dignity, and greatness. And if the Republicans hope to accomplish anything with their new majority other than to preside over the dismantling of the republic, they must learn to appreciate this aspect of the American psyche.

Comment: Frankly the Republican party has been a disappointment. I don't have much hope for a political solution for America.

They "morphed with Democrats into one party called the Demopublicans"

What on Earth Happened to the New York GOP?

Excerpts:

A dozen years ago, Republicans held a majority of New York's statewide elected offices and controlled the state Senate. Now they are a hapless minority. What happened?

...

"Republicans morphed with Democrats into one party called the Demopublicans," says Rob Astorino, who last November defeated an incumbent Democrat with 58% of the vote to become county executive in tony Westchester County, which includes Scarsdale and White Plains. "Voters couldn't detect much difference and didn't see most Republicans as a vehicle for reform and change."

Comment: Enter Carl P. Paladino.

The Tea Party: "The yardstick, and the clock"

The populist movement is more a critique of the GOP than a wing of it.

Excerpts:

So far, the tea party is not a wing of the GOP but a critique of it. This was demonstrated in spectacular fashion when GOP operatives dismissed tea party-backed Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. The Republican establishment is "the reason we even have the Tea Party movement," shot back columnist and tea party enthusiast Andrea Tantaros in the New York Daily News. It was the Bush administration that "ran up deficits" and gave us "open borders" and "Medicare Part D and busted budgets."

...

I see two central reasons for the tea party's rise. The first is the yardstick, and the second is the clock. First, the yardstick. Imagine that over at the 36-inch end you've got pure liberal thinking—more and larger government programs, a bigger government that costs more in the many ways that cost can be calculated. Over at the other end you've got conservative thinking—a government that is growing smaller and less demanding and is less expensive. You assume that when the two major parties are negotiating bills in Washington, they sort of lay down the yardstick and begin negotiations at the 18-inch line. Each party pulls in the direction it wants, and the dominant party moves the government a few inches in their direction.

But if you look at the past half century or so you have to think: How come even when Republicans are in charge, even when they're dominant, government has always gotten larger and more expensive? It's always grown! It's as if something inexorable in our political reality—with those who think in liberal terms dominating the establishment, the media, the academy—has always tilted the starting point in negotiations away from 18 inches, and always toward liberalism, toward the 36-inch point.

Democrats on the Hill or in the White House try to pull it up to 30, Republicans try to pull it back to 25. A deal is struck at 28. Washington Republicans call it victory: "Hey, it coulda been 29!" But regular conservative-minded or Republican voters see yet another loss. They could live with 18. They'd like eight. Instead it's 28.

For conservatives on the ground, it has often felt as if Democrats (and moderate Republicans) were always saying, "We should spend a trillion dollars," and the Republican Party would respond, "No, too costly. How about $700 billion?" Conservatives on the ground are thinking, "How about nothing? How about we don't spend more money but finally start cutting."

...

The second thing is the clock. Here is a great virtue of the tea party: They know what time it is. It's getting late. If we don't get the size and cost of government in line now, we won't be able to. We're teetering on the brink of some vast, dark new world—states and cities on the brink of bankruptcy, the federal government too. The issue isn't "big spending" anymore. It's ruinous spending that they fear will end America as we know it, as they promised it to their children.

So there's a sense that dramatic action is needed, and a sense of profound urgency. Add drama to urgency and you get the victory of a tea party-backed candidate.

Comment: I appreciate Noonan's analysis. The Republican party has failed to reign in government. When in power, they act like Democrats

Regaining Republican ideals

The Republican Revival Will Start in the States

Excerpt:

Mr. Barbour is fanatical about the need for the GOP to "to do the hard work to build strong and self-reliant" state and local chapters of the party that are in such disrepair. "Now is our chance when we're out of power to build back up from the bottom, to have a participatory, inclusive process for letting people get involved in our party. Barack Obama proved something that I've seen time and time again: if you'll give people a chance to participate in politics they'll knock your door down. And the Democrats did a whole lot better job of that than us this time."

Another worrisome trend he mentions is the youth vote. "We've got young people who voted for Obama by better than a 2-to-1 margin. The data is very clear, that when people vote in their first two presidential elections for the same party, more than 80% of those people are going to stay with that party for the rest of their life, barring some big event that changes it."

This gives the GOP four years to learn to communicate with the iPod generation. The party, he says, must figure out how to tap new media and new messaging to reach out and touch 20-somethings.

...

In the end, he advises, Republicans can only win if they rediscover the power and voter appeal of innovative and reform-minded solutions to the nation's ills. "If we're going to have a party that gets the White House back before we fall totally into socialism, we need to persuade voters that our market-based solutions work, and government mostly doesn't. And we're going to have to apply these principles to a whole new set of policy challenges."

The best people to do that, he insists, are the governors. He reminds me that in the 1990s it was governors like John Engler of Michigan, Fife Symington of Arizona, and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin who led the way on supply-side tax cutting, welfare reform and economic development. I ask him if there are any future Ronald Reagans out there in the states. He mentions Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, Jim Douglas and, of course, Sarah Palin. "This has to be a bottom-up rebuilding process," he says. "Republican solutions are going to flow from the states, not from Washington."

Comment: Note mention of Bobby Jindal!

Tim Pawlenty: "We cannot be free if we are a debtor nation"

Tim Pawlenty: A Modern, Not a Moderate, Party

Excerpt:

... when we talk about the national debt, it is not freedom and we are not protecting and advancing freedom when we handcuff our children and our grandchildren to wagon loads full of debt - $35,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States of America. We are choking in debt. We are swimming in debt. That's $10 trillion in debt, not including the entitlement programs. We cannot be free if we are a debtor nation. We cannot be free if our federal officials are worried about what the Chinese might do in terms of withholding and enabling our debt, if we don't bail out the banks.

And that's part of what's going on. Part of the reason that the federal government is so scared about the financial systems collapsing is because they're worried that the Chinese and others are going to stop investing and buying our debt, and if they do that, things will collapse. How did we get to this point in this country where we have the Chinese financial investments dictating or influencing our federal policy? That is not freedom. We are not free if we are in debt. The average American is $20,000 in debt in credit cards. We are not free if people who are disadvantaged cannot grab the keys to opportunity, because their school system is so bad that they don't graduate from high school, and even if they do they need remedial education and they don't have the education or the skills to access the economy of today and tomorrow, and they get marginalized into society as a ward of the state.

That is not freedom for them, and it's awful for us. It's bad economically. It's bad morally. It's bad socially. Freedom is about school choice. Freedom is about improving performance pay in schools. Freedom is about having the school system look more like an iPod than a 1940s industrial one-size-fits-all assembly line. Freedom isn't having the government take over the healthcare system, so your decisions are made by bureaucrats instead of between patients and doctors; freedom isn't having lunatics threaten the state of Israel and say they're going to wipe it out and tolerate that as some sort of a need to accommodate lunatics in foreign policy. We have lost our way.

Freedom starts with ending the culture of debt. This has been erased from our memory, but I think one of the things we should do is demand a constitutional requirement to balance the federal budget.

Comment: HT: Pawlenty Speech at Horowitz Freedom Center. A stand on fiscal responsibility is essential to the future of conservatism.

Jim DeMint: They corrupted the brand

GOP senator: McCain betrayed Republican principles

Excerpts:

"We have to be honest, and there's a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I'm afraid I even have to mention John McCain," he said.

...

1. "McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver's seat," DeMint said. "His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn't fit the label, but he was our package."
   
2. [on Bush] ... "corrupted the party brand by expanding the size of government and engaging in wasteful government spending"
   
3. [on Stevens] ... DeMint said he would introduce a Senate resolution next week to boot Stevens out of the Republican caucus
   

Comment: I think he is right!

Ron Paul calls Republicans to return to roots

Commentary: GOP should ask why U.S. is on the wrong track

Excerpt:

Opportunity abounds for anyone who can present the case for common sense in fiscal affairs, for protection of civil liberties here at home, and avoiding the senseless foreign entanglements which have bogged us down for decades and contributed so significantly to our fiscal and budgetary crisis.

During the debates in the Republican Presidential primary, even though I am a 10-term sitting Representative Member of Congress, I was challenged more than once on my Republican credentials. The fact that I was repeatedly asked how I could be a Republican when I was talking a different language than the other candidates answers the question of how the Republican Party can slip so far so fast.

My rhetorical answer at the time was simple: Why should one be excluded from the Republican Party for believing and always voting for:

• Limited government power
  
• A balanced budget
  
• Personal liberty
  
• Strict adherence to the Constitution
  
• Sound money
  
• A strong defense while avoiding all undeclared wars
  
• No nation-building and no policing the world
  

How can a party that still pretends to be the party of limited government distance itself outright from these views and expect to maintain credibility? Since the credibility of the Republican Party has now been lost, how can it regain credibility without embracing these views, or at least showing respect for them?

I concluded my answer by simply stating the Republican Party had lost its way and must reassess its values. And that is what needs to be done in a hurry.

Comment: A voice crying in the wilderness that should be heeded!

The Future of the GOP: 2 views

Excerpt:

the Republican coalition, if it still deserves that description, is increasingly constricted, with little space for growth. Not only is the GOP's power largely confined to the South, but the party's complexion displays an unhealthy pallor.

It is, in a word, white -- in an era when America is becoming more diverse, colorful and multiethnic. Nine out of 10 McCain voters were white, in fact, while the supporters of Obama had that more fashionable rainbow look: Out of 10, six were white, two or three were black, one was Hispanic, and the rest were Asian or "other" (perhaps biracial, like the president-elect himself).

Of course, Obama's sweep of African-American voters is hardly surprising. They have been the most reliably Democratic part of the voting population for nearly 80 years. But he also drew two-thirds of Hispanic voters as well, improving on the record of Democrats in the past two presidential elections and his own record in the primaries. Those groups represent the demographic future -- and the Republicans so far have no prospects or plans as the nation enters a period of ethnic change.

Equally ominous for the Republicans is the powerful Democratic preference of young voters, now expressed forcefully for the third national election in a row. Many political scientists believe that adult voting patterns tend to be established before age 30, which if true could lock in a new generation of Democrats. Again, it is not surprising that young minority voters supported Obama or chose Democratic candidates down-ticket, but they attracted a big majority of young white voters as well. Obama defeated John McCain by 10 points in that group, contributing heavily to the overall 2-to-1 Democratic margin among voters under 30.

Thanks in no small degree to the incompetence and corruption of the Republicans who have held power over the past decade or so, almost 40 percent of voters now call themselves Democrats. But just as important is the diminishing burden attached to the "liberal" label, which has been used to such great effect against Democrats over the past three decades.

Perhaps the most revealing post-election data on that question came from within the defeated McCain campaign. In an interview with Roger Simon of Politico, the Republican candidate's speechwriter and friend, Mark Salter, disclosed that in the campaign's own internal polling data, 60 percent of Americans regarded Obama as "liberal." The campaign thought that would be enough to defeat him, which is why it hammered on the "left-wing" themes.

Baiting the liberals didn't work this year. Disgusted with the Republican right, voters wanted something different and weren't afraid to look leftward. That is what "realignment" means.

G.O.P. Dog Days?

Excerpt:

Sure, the election results had been bad — but they weren’t devastating. Obama wasn’t winning the popular vote by double-digit margins, as some polls had suggested he might. Republican losses in the Senate and House were substantial but not catastrophic. Obama was ahead of John McCain by about the same margin with which Bill Clinton defeated George Bush in 1992, and he would be taking over in January with similar Congressional majorities to Clinton’s in 1993.

Well, Newt Gingrich was able to lead a Republican takeover of Congress only two years later. And after his victory in 1976, Jimmy Carter had even larger Democratic margins in Congress. Ronald Reagan trounced him four years later, bringing with him a G.O.P.-controlled Senate and an era of conservative governance.

What’s more, this year’s exit polls suggested a partisan shift but no ideological realignment. In 2008, self-described Democrats made up 39 percent of the electorate and Republicans 32 percent, in contrast with a 37-37 split in 2004.

But there was virtually no change in the voters’ ideological self-identification: in 2008, 22 percent called themselves liberal, up only marginally from 21 percent in 2004; 34 percent were conservative, unchanged from the last election; and 44 percent called themselves moderate, compared with 45 percent in 2004.

In other words, this was a good Democratic year, but it is still a center-right country. Conservatives and the Republican Party will have a real chance for a comeback — unless the skills of the new president turn what was primarily an anti-Bush vote into the basis for a new liberal governing era.

Comment: My concern is "the whiteness" of the GOP. We need to attract Hispanics and Blacks.

RELIGIOUS RIGHT R.I.P.

RELIGIOUS RIGHT R.I.P.

Excerpts:

... the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court rulings. Those earlier movements — from abolition (successful) to Prohibition (unsuccessful) — had mixed results.

Social movements that relied mainly on political power to enforce a conservative moral code weren’t anywhere near as successful as those that focused on changing hearts. The four religious revivals, from the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s to the Fourth Great Awakening in the late 1960s and early ’70s, which touched America and instantly transformed millions of Americans (and American culture as a result), are testimony to that.

Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed. The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?

...

Evangelicals are at a junction. They can take the path that will lead them to more futility and ineffective attempts to reform culture through government, or they can embrace the far more powerful methods outlined by the One they claim to follow. By following His example, they will decrease, but He will increase. They will get no credit, but they will see results. If conservative Evangelicals choose obscurity and seek to glorify God, they will get much of what they hope for, but can never achieve, in and through politics.

Comment: Transformational moral change only can be accomplished via the Gospel. The marriage of evangelicalism and politics is a failed strategy.

GOP base is "totally white"

Excerpt:

Let's think about the pictures that we saw of McCain-Palin rallies. Contrast that with the rallies of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The Republican party is stuck in a land of TV Land - 'Leave It To Beaver,' 'Father Knows Best,' 'Howdy Doody.' That America does not exist anymore. The Republican Party has got to do something because their base is totally white."

Comment: True