CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The GOP took a beating. Obama is the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to twice win both the Electoral College and popular-vote majorities. Democrats gained seats in the U.S. Senate and closed ground in the House. On the Republican side, neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan carried his home state.
I hope the GOP will regain its footing. Toward that end, my research department has developed suggestions for the Republican Party:
Accept the findings of science. Evolution, global climate change, usefulness of stem cell research and the HPV vaccination -- these are facts. Nonscience is nonsense.
Respect women. GOP candidates told us that women must be required to have medically unnecessary vaginal probes, that rape victims can't get pregnant and that when rape results in pregnancy, God's will has been done. Women were listening.
Tell the truth. Romney said Obama removed the work requirement from welfare, that Jeep was sending "all production" to China, and that his budget had no $5 trillion cut. Worse, Romney persisted in these dishonest statements, well after they had been revealed to be wrong.
Accept that government is necessary and does a number of things more effectively than could the private sector. The country is too large to be governed solely by independent states. Related to that, the GOP should dump Grover Norquist. His "no tax increase" pledge is unworkable. Anyone who signs it is unfit to govern.
Accept the fact that trickle-down economic policy has failed. We do not help the middle class and the poor by giving more money to the rich.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The GOP took a beating. Obama is the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to twice win both the Electoral College and popular-vote majorities. Democrats gained seats in the U.S. Senate and closed ground in the House. On the Republican side, neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan carried his home state.
I hope the GOP will regain its footing. Toward that end, my research department has developed suggestions for the Republican Party:
Accept the findings of science. Evolution, global climate change, usefulness of stem cell research and the HPV vaccination -- these are facts. Nonscience is nonsense.Respect women. GOP candidates told us that women must be required to have medically unnecessary vaginal probes, that rape victims can't get pregnant and that when rape results in pregnancy, God's will has been done. Women were listening.Tell the truth. Romney said Obama removed the work requirement from welfare, that Jeep was sending "all production" to China, and that his budget had no $5 trillion cut. Worse, Romney persisted in these dishonest statements, well after they had been revealed to be wrong.Accept that government is necessary and does a number of things more effectively than could the private sector. The country is too large to be governed solely by independent states. Related to that, the GOP should dump Grover Norquist. His "no tax increase" pledge is unworkable. Anyone who signs it is unfit to govern.Accept the fact that trickle-down economic policy has failed. We do not help the middle class and the poor by giving more money to the rich.Acknowledge that labor unions are people looking out for themselves and their families. Businesses and governments bargain for land on which to build their factories and offices, and for supplies, and for the cost of liability insurance and more. There is no good reason that workers' wages and working conditions should be off limits to negotiation.Recognize that U.S. demographics constantly change. Government exclusively by old white men is over. In January we will have 20 women in the U.S. Senate, 17 of them Democrats.Cooperate with Democrats in Congress. Shed the "Party of No" label. Speaker Boehner should replace Ayn Rand acolyte Paul Ryan with a more responsible thinker as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Boehner should relegate uncooperative members to lesser positions on minor committees. His message will be received. In the Senate, the GOP must stop its record-setting misuse of the filibuster to bog down the entire body.Move away from intrusive social policy. This year's official Republican Party platform said a fertilized ovum is a person, with all the rights guaranteed under the Constitution. But to the majority of Americans, rights of the woman come first, before the rights of what may be seen only with a high-powered microscope. Perhaps a fertilized egg has a soul. And as a matter or blind faith, that is a belief to be admired. But it is a metaphysical proposition, and the majority does not accept it.Stop the thoughtless hawkishness. The war on terror will not be won by dropping bombs. Rather, it will be won by guile, cleverness, careful infiltration of terror cells and spy work.Break free from the self-reinforcing circle-talk of Fox News, Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh. Stop genuflecting to a bloviating, thrice-divorced, drug-abusing, lazy, intellectually dishonest coward who termed a young woman a slut and a prostitute simply because she believes that birth control ought to be covered by insurance.When high-profile talkers ask for the president's birth certificate, when they say that he has gone around the world apologizing for America, when they say that he is a communist or is in thrall to a nutty Chicago preacher or has been influenced by Kenyan anti-colonialism -- call them what they are: loonies. Republicans, ask them instead for a positive plan to improve your life.Dr. Wyatt is a Gazette contributing columnist and a Marshall University professor.
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