In 2016 Republican registration in California was 29%–Today it is 24%–and the California Republican Party refuses to do any registration. How do you win if you have no voters? The Massachusetts GOP has 10% registration and almost no office holders—we are headed in that direction.
We need all voters. What is the Republican Platform?
- Quality education for all—school choice. Democrats want kids held hostage in government schools owned by unions.
- Public safety—Republicans want safety in the streets and in the homes. Democrats want us locked up in our homes while opening the prison doors to let career criminals out to make more victims.
- Sue in Federal Court on civil rights violations to get a Master appointed by a Judge to take over our election process and clean the voting rolls of the dead and those who moved out of State
REPUBLICANS NEED TO WIN ELECTIONS IN CALIFORNIA
By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views 2/17/21
Vince Lombardi, the great professional football coach, was correct when he allegedly said: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”
California Republicans need to heed Lombardi. It’s time, especially on a state-wide basis, that Republicans started winning elections.
Currently, California, on an executive level and a legislative level, is overwhelmingly Democratic. More Republicans can help break the Democratic monopoly.
Since 2002, Republicans have had only two victories in state-wide elections. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger won the governorship in a special election. Schwarzenegger, a movie actor and body-builder, won re-election as governor in 2006.
For Republicans to win state-wide office in California, some compromises must be made. Even if a Republican candidate does make some compromises, winning is better than losing.
If making compromises means that a Republican candidate is called a “Republican in Name Only” (a “Rino”), so be it. If a Republican candidate has to be somewhat moderate to win, then one could argue that a moderate candidate who wins is better than an extremist candidate who loses.
Here are some platform planks a state-wide Republican candidates could follow:
EDUCATION
California’s public school system used to be one of the nation’s best. Now, except in certain (often high-income) public-school districts, most schools offer an unsatisfactory education. A Republican candidate for state-wide office ought to support charter schools, which are public schools that lack the bureaucracy and union membership that characterizes traditional public schools. Charter schools offer parents a choice between a failing public school and something better.
Traditional public schools are, in effect, a monopoly. Parents needs to have choices in education, and there’s nothing like competition to make all schools better.
Even vouchers, which are tickets to a free year of education — public or private — at a school of parents’ choice, would be preferable to the existing system.
CRIME
For too long, criminals have been getting away with law-breaking. Some businesses do not ever try to arrest and prosecute criminals. Currently, there is a movement to eliminate bail for low-income criminal suspects. If an individual accused of a crime does not have the funds to post bail, he should be given mandatory community service as a substitute. Failure to perform such service would mean an automatic jail sentence.
QUOTAS (OFTEN CALLED DIVERSITY)
Californians, like people in other states, keep hearing about “affirmative action,” a system that fills public-school admissions and public-employment using such criteria as race, religion, sex, and creed. What’s wrong with having one and only one criterion: merit. However, there must be no discrimination in a merit-based system.
SOCIAL ISSUES
A winning Republican candidate can say that personal and legal behavior are none of the government’s business. Specifically, issues like same-sex marriage and abortion are to be decided by consenting adults, not government.
HOUSING
Housing in California, especially in coastal regions, is very expensive. For example, a house that cost $25,000 in 1960 may now cost $2.5 million or more. Rather than have government mandates for new housing, just let the market work. Individuals in California who cannot afford housing will move to other states or other countries, where housing is affordable. There is no need for government involvement, such as state orders telling a local community that it must build extra housing, especially for low-income people.
TRANSPORTATION
California’s freeways are overcrowded. The state can build more freeways using modest taxation or the purchase of bonds to relieve traffic congestion. Moreover, ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft should be allowed to operate without government interference.
SILICON VALLEY
Silicon Valley, which basically extends from San Francisco to San Jose, has helped make California, if the state were a separate nation, the world’s fifth largest economy. Silicon Valley, despite some limited government help, is based on the ideas of creative entrepreneurs. Leave these entrepreneurs alone unless they become monopolies and engage in price-fixing.
Japan and Germany have produced excellent economies, but both nations lack the entrepreneurial spirit that has made Silicon Valley great. No other nation has produced a Steve Jobs, a Mark Zuckerberg, or a Sergei Brin/Larry Page, respectively the founders of Apple, Facebook, and Google.
In the future, there will be new entrepreneurs as long as government does not get in the way. America now has to compete with China, a dictatorial and repressive state. China, which has a few great entrepreneurs, many of whom are under Chinese restrictions, will ultimately be no match for the Apples, Facebooks, and Googles of the future.
If one looks at American history, one will see such names as Samuel F.B. Morse, the Wright brothers, and Alexander Graham Bell. These entrepreneurs respectively invented the telegraph, the airplane, and the telephone. One should not forget Chester Carlson, an American who invented xerography. All of these individuals changed the world forever. And let’s not forget that they all were Americans.
TAXATION
Taxes are too high in California. The state has the nation’s highest sales tax, the nation’s highest, or second highest, gasoline tax, and the highest top bracket for any state’s income tax (13.3 percent). A Republican running for state-wide office ought to favor a limit on taxation and a limit on state spending.
CONCLUSION
California needs new thinking. The California Democratic Party, with its ties to organized labor and the welfare state, has become obsolete. Republicans for state-wide office can offer new ideas.
And with new ideas, California Republicans might find that, as Vince Lombardi said: “Winning isn’t the thing; it’s the only thing.”
