So I'm a 23-year old conservative, and my opinion doesn't mean much, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents regarding how I think the Republican Party can get back into power. Looking forward to plenty of comments, as well as constructive criticism- liberals have done a great turnaround the last few years, so I'm sure there's a lot you guys can point out that I'm missing.
- We need a leader- not necessarily a right-wing conservative, but a qualified, successful leader (two examples are Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani). It'll take a while, but we'll get one eventually- I just hope sooner rather than later.
- We need to stay away from gay marriage. If asked, we should be honest about our opinions, but public opinion is against us on the issue, and most conservatives (including myself) who are against believe it's the 50th or 100th issue facing the country. Why should we concentrate on a losing issue that's not going to solve the greatest problems facing the nation, especially when it's nearly impossible to say, "I'm against gay marriage, but still think a gay person is no less of a valuable person than I am." It's how most conservatives feel (right or wrong), but it's incredibly difficult to get that across effectively.
- We need to change our rhetoric. In particular, we need to do so in three areas: illegal immigration, race relations, and the role of government.
Regarding immigration, we need to get the Hispanic vote, and we won't do it by talking like Tom Tancredo. Many or most illegal immigrants are here to work, not take our welfare, health care, etc. We need to stop talking about a wall on the border (it just alienates people, and it's not practical), and we need to streamline the legal immigration process while stopping the drug cartels, gangs, and other criminals that want to cross the border. We also need to show Hispanics, who tend to be socially conservative, how our view on immigration is better for them (it's hard, especially given our reputation, but I think it can be done).
Regarding race relations, we need to show the black population how affirmative action is bad for them- talking about how bad it is for whites is an old, tired argument that just makes us look racist and otherwise prejudiced. We need to show stats like Stuart Taylor did in the February 28th edition of National Journal, which stated (among other things) that over half of the black students in law school drop out because they are not qualified for the classes. We need to show how this helps maintain negative race relations, as whites will feel they are being ignored for a less-qualified candidate (see the Supreme Court case going on right now regarding firefighter standards), and blacks will feel whites are trying to keep them down (see Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc.).
Lastly, we need to stop saying "small government." Though the current economic crisis was caused largely by government intervention (and some under-deregulation), the general population feels like Republicans caused it. Whatever we conservatives may think, we have to think about how the populace views us. We need to change the rhetoric to "effective government" and show how we can use government more effectively than liberals and Democrats (I know, I know, you probably think that's impossible). The time for privatization of Social Security, for instance, is definitely now now.
- We need to get the intellectuals back. Republicans have always been anti-elitist, but we scared away the intellectuals who form the core party ideals. With due respect to President Bush, Senator McCain, and Governor Palin, they are not intellectuals, and there are only so many Joe the Plumbers out there. We need to bring back the William Buckleys of the world.
- Opportunities arise periodically, and we must take advantage. For example, right now is a great opportunity for conservatives to help with race relations, the education system, and showing the weakness of powerful unions. The D.C. School Voucher debate has conservatives defending empirical data showing education for poor minorities improving against the powerful teacher unions and Democrats in Congress. This is a great opportunity (and the CATO Institute and The Heritage Foundation are taking full advantage) for us to show how we have the better ideas for fixing our terrible educational system through vouchers, getting rid of tenure and teachers unions, and for improving the education of poor minorities, who will thereby become more productive citizens in society.
Obviously everything I have written above is only my opinion- as I said, I welcome everyone's comments, and I hope that I can learn from what people say.