The Obstructed View

by Sam Osborne
 
The Republican Party of Iowa Central Committee and a forum of 75 activists and officeholders from around the state have been listening to some ideas from six contenders that would like to succeed Stew Iverson as GOP state chair.  
 
If one were to wish that the party continues its march into oblivion, best hope that they will be swayed by the absolutely neat on-message idea suggested by contender Paul Pate, a former Secretary of State and past mayor of Cedar Rapids .  As Pate sees it, the debacle suffered in the last election can be attributed to nothing more than a failure in trash talk.  Pate told the assembled faithful that “People are getting desensitized to it (the old Democrat tax and spend message) … What we have to do as a party is come up with that sound byte. That's what it comes down to: What is the sound byte for '09 and 2010?”
 
For internal and not external consideration, let me suggest a thought based upon words spoken by the first Republican to get elected to the presidency of the United States of America , Abraham Lincoln:  “We were once the party that ensured ‘that government of the people, by they people and for the people would not perish from the earth.’”
 
Two thirds of the American people don’t care what the Republican Party wants people to think about Democrats, or about a sound byte that might set everyone thinking nice thoughts about Republicans.  People care about their lives and the good state of the country in which they can enjoy the fruits of their labors. 
 
If Republicans cannot get past their favorite mantras and self-centered outlook, like other parties that got hung up on themselves, the GOP will fade into oblivion.  It was the Grand Old Party because Lincoln insisted in government of the people, by the people and for the people.
 
Republicans, the nation ain’t about you.  Your me-me-me conservatism has bent back around to byte you in your retreating arses.
 
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

Sam
Osborne, former college professor and business department chair,
Ellsworth Community College; former editorial writer and opinion page editor,
Iowa City Press-Citizen; and currently out to pasture drinking too much
coffee.   The Obstructed View will appear on these blog pages weekly, more or less.