Then how can the left accuse the GOP of being the party of rich folks...if the richest cities and states all vote Democrat??
The Republicans Should Shed All Pretense, Become the 'Party of the Rich'
Republican Elephant (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)
In his newly released autobiography,
The Friedkin Connection, Academy Award winning director William Friedkin observes toward the end that the “camera knows when an actor is faking it. When he doesn’t
believe what he’s saying.”
As someone in the profession of coaxing believable performances out of actors, Friedkin clearly knows of what he writes. And what he writes brings with it important lessons for the political class. Politicians can strike man-of-the-people poses while expressing a desire to help the poor, but if they don’t believe their rhetoric, voters will know it.
The above is particularly true amid present GOP soul searching. Having lost an eminently winnable presidential election to a failed president in Obama, the Republicans are a Party desperately seeking a message, image, and probably both.
Not surprisingly, many are saying that the Republicans should soften their ways. If the Republicans show the compassionate side of capitalism while not being so rigid in their pro-growth ideology, some say this will expand the tent on the way to electoral success. No, it won’t. The Republicans should run as fast as they can from ‘me-too’ politics. Better yet, Republicans should embrace their “Party of the Rich” label.
They should because whether true or not, the Republicans are
seen as the Party of the Rich. Because they are, attempts to shed the label (Mitt Romney in jeans talking up his newfound love of ‘cheesy grits’ was particularly objectionable) with regular guy imagery always come off as dishonest. Worse, they lead to bad policy outcomes. Lest we forget, it was the Republicans of recent vintage who gave us the prescription drug benefit, Sarbanes-Oxley (there Bush 43 wanted to ‘crack down’ on supposed lawbreaking companies), bailouts of automakers in struggling Detroit, not to mention that Republican politicians regularly vote for extensions of unemployment benefits so as to appear compassionate. Notable here is that amid the GOP’s lurch left, the Democratic Party has in many ways emerged stronger than ever.
In short, the GOP’s attempt to be the party of the common man has backfired. With good reason. Not only have the policies not worked, but the pandering ignores that the “Party of the Rich” label is an aspirational one. It’s a good brand. People like exclusivity earned in a meritocracy, and if the Republicans embrace self-made achievement through policies explicitly geared toward the rich, they’ll be far more appealing. When it comes to giving things away, the Republicans will never be able to match up with the Party across the aisle which is expert at wealth redistribution.
The Republicans Should Shed All Pretense Become the Party of the Rich - Forbes
