From Fox News Channel:
For those of you who haven’t heard this, P.U.M.A. is “Party Unity My —”. You can get what they are all about by the clip above. This, of course, was before Hillary’s speech last night, but I’m sure that didn’t change his mind.
One thing I’ve noticed in all of this as I watch interviews with various “Hillary” Democrats, both those who are turning their backs on Obama and those who are supporting him, is the lack of policy reasons why they are for/against Obama. Most of it seems emotionally driven or at least driven by a sense of duty. See, I grew up in a Democrat family. Almost everyone of my family members is (or at least was) a Democrat. Why were they Democrats? Because they always had been Democrats. Their parents were Democrats. Or, in the case of my mother, the first person who registered her to vote was a Democrat and she feels loyal to them.
You see, even though I live in “Fly Over Country”, or “Middle America” as I’ve heard it called lately, I actually live in a very Democratic area. My hometown was dominated by the General Motors assembly plants and thus the labor unions controlled everything. I can remember spending time during holidays at union parties that were thinly veiled political rallies; although, of course, I was too young to realize it at the time. Only as I got older did I realize that most of those in attendance were being duped into attending a political event that 95% of them couldn’t have cared less about.
Even though the GM plants are mostly gone now, thanks in part to the actions of the union in my opinion, the Democrat stranglehold mostly continues. To me, the problem with this isn’t just that the Democrats are in control and I disagree with their policy issues. If voters want to vote Democrat, that is their right, of course. The problem is that when you talk to these Democrats and find out what they believe, most of them do not agree with the Democrat party when it comes to the issues. When the topic of politics comes up with those I have enough of a relationship with that I can ask these questions and I know they are Democrat, I’ll ask them what makes them a Democrat. A vast majority of the time the answer is something like this: “My father was a Democrat and he’d roll over in his grave if I voted Republican.” Or: “I’ve always been a Democrat.” Very rarely do I hear: “Because I believe in…” Or: “I am in favor of…” What is really interesting to me is that if you press them on the issues, at least here in the Heartland, most of them will respond with “Republican” answers. For example, ask them about taxes and they want them lower. Ask them about abortion, they usually are at least for limiting it in some way if not making it completely illegal. Ask them about gun control and most of them want to keep and bear arms.
Now ask a Republican why they identify themselves as such and most of the time you are going to hear something like: “I believe in limited government.” Or: “I believe in personal freedom.” Or: “I am pro-life, anti-gun control, anti-taxes, for small business, or any number of issues.”
Now back to this P.U.M.A. thing…
It took these voters feeling abandoned by their party to get them to start questioning their politics. Now is the time for the GOP to stand up and say “Look at what you believe in and compare that to us. If doesn’t matter to us if you are male or female, black, white, hispanic, asian, or any other race. We stand on principle. Come join us and let’s make this country a better place for all of us.”
Given correctly this message could win over enough to turn the Democrat controlled congress over to the GOP along with a GOP president. We just can’t squander that opportunity like we did before.
