Courtesy of AP
Jeb Bush spoke at the Ronald Reagan Dinner at CPAC on Friday.
Jeb Bush spoke at the Ronald Reagan Dinner at CPAC on Friday. (Courtesy of AP)
This past weekend at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), conservatives gathered to assess their losses in the last election cycle.
One of the recurring pieces of advice given by the politicians and thinkers who spoke at the convention was to stop being the party defined by what it is against instead of what it is for. Newt Gingrich called for Republicans to stop being the “Anti-Obama” party. Jeb Bush took it a step further and called for Republicans to stop being the “Anti-Everything” party. Gingrich’s comments were particularly poorly received, as being the Anti-Obama party has defined the GOP, the conservative movement and indeed even CPAC over the last four years.
The GOP rode into power in 2010 as being the anti-Obamacare party. It worked. Kind of. Once. They won the House of Representatives by a large margin, but fell short in the Senate, ultimately giving them very little power.
They expected that the same anti-Obama fervor would provide them another wave two years later, and we all know how that went. They lost seats in the House, the Senate and failed to win the presidency too. It isn’t enough to be just against something. There has to be something new and exciting about a party’s platform.
To quote Jeb Bush, “Way too many people believe Republicans are anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker and the list goes on and on and on. Many voters are simply unwilling to choose our candidates even though they share our core beliefs because those voters feel unwanted, unloved and unwelcome in our