We always hear from the mainstream of the Republican leadership that you
need to win the independents by persuading them. The result of that
seems to be that the GOP leadership believes that a principle of politics is that you move to the independents to persuade
the independents. You make your thoughts similar to the independents' thoughts. The Reagan counterargument has always been to persuade the independents to come to
the conservatives.
This sounds remarkably similar to Steve Jobs's
description of how to move the computer marketplace. Even as a liberal,
he leaves the GOP a lesson by analogy. He believed that you needed to find a message
about computers and software that drew people to your product.
Jobs did
not try and play Microsoft and find pieces and parts that IBM used to
build the first PC. He made his own product. He did not always make the
rest of the tech world happy to see the way he did it. His consumers
were often pleased with the results of his late career products.
The Republican Party needs to learn a
lesson from Jobs. Make your own product. Do not imitate your competitor. Rise and fall on your own merits.
Don't compromise on refusing tax rate increases. Give up on matters that make your product stronger. Push Romney's caps on deductions and let the taxpayer choose the deductions he chooses. (It is not as good as really low rates. There is too much incentive to spend money on tax advisors to save this year's taxes, rather than on growing businesses and wealth for future growth.)
Push strong national defense. Period.
Fight Islamic terror and expansionism. Period.
Push for strong healthcare through encouraging abundant medical practices in small doctor-owned practices and by removing governmental involvement in all healthcare. Make Medicare a voucher system.
Push for educational reform by encouraging private and parochial schools over public union-run schools.
With those messages, there is no way you will look like you are hobbling together a PC-clone computer or Democrat-clone platform. You will be your product. Rise and fall on your own merits.
