'PEOPLE LIKE ME..."

“PEOPLE LIKE ME…”
Exit polls for the 2012 Presidential Election contained five questions for voters covering the economy, health care, employment and the like . Mitt Romney was viewed favorably for the first four but lost the fifth 82% to 18%. That question was “who cares most about people like me”?

I believe that the 2012 election was won by Barack Obama and lost by Mitt Romney, the GOP and Conservatives on that issue alone.

American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks recently wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Republicans and their faulty moral arithmetic”. In this article Mr. Brooks cited further polling prior to the election that indicated only “ 33% of Americans said that Mitt Romney ‘cares about people like me’. Only 38% said he cared about the poor.“

Mr. Brooks went on to cite research from NYU sociologist Jonathan Haidt that declared that“care for the vulnerable is a universal moral concern” and “that citizens across the political spectrum place a great importance on taking care of those in need and avoiding harm to the weak”.

Brooks goes on to urge Republicans and Conservatives to make the vulnerable and weak a centerpiece of their concern and not cede a false moral victory in this arena to radical left wing progressives who demagogue the issues vital to poor people without truly helping them.

Conservatives in particular are defined constantly by the left as racists, sexists, homophobes, bigots and worse who, hate peace, the poor, the old, the disabled and the sick. The left gets away with these lies because Conservatives don’t define themselves very well to communities that have become the political serfs of the Democratic party. They also have in far too many instances, written off these communities of voters where they do not believe they have any reasonable expectation of success on election day.

The left wing media echo this identity message coined by the most radical and divisive elements within the Democratic party. It is a message designed to divide us as a people and not unite us. It is designed to destroy the melting pot and replace it with a PC inspired cult of diversity. We have become tribalized into victim groups…separated by race, gender, religion, age, income, sexual preference and every other kind of identity barrier they can devise. The ultimate goal is to exchange individual rights for collective ones, redistribute income and shut down any debate about grievances real or imagined within the new balkanized, divided United States. This has become the new normal and it is a major reason why the radical left has de facto become the status quo in far too many parts of the country.

Conservatives are now are the rebels and the freedom fighters just as they were in 1775. We are in reality the alternative to this new false status quo.

We have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking our message to those who have been convinced into believing we are not on their side. We have ideas, policies, ideals and programs to make the American dream a reality for each and every person in the nation. We have solutions that will save the social safety net for both the present and future generations. We have solutions to reduce taxes and make government more efficient and effective. We have solutions to make people more free, more healthy, more productive and more wealthy. We are not the enemy of anyone save only those who in reality, do not want these things for the people of this country.

Before the 2014 Congressional elections and for every election thereafter, Republicans and in particular Conservatives must take their message of individual rights and equal opportunity to people and groups they have stopped talking to. They must not leave any one out and they must back up their words with action so that in the future the phrase “people like me” means only “we the people of the melting pot” where color, age, gender or any other artificial division has been rendered obsolete when it comes to our shared identity as Americans. All it takes is the will to walk into those places we have avoided, keep on walking, keep on talking and not let those who would divide us to succeed.




ERLANDSSON