Puzzled GOP seeks answers

John Merli
Published: November 25, 2008

It’s always fun to give people free advice, especially when they clearly don’t want it. But like some other things that are free, whether that advice is worth considering depends on its source and the
ultimate wisdom of the person giving the advice.

In this regard, I personally offer a relatively weak source and no more wisdom than anyone else, but it seems the Republican Party is looking for ideas to reboot itself after one of the most dismal national
and statewide elections in its storied history. Merely the trans-colorization of Virginia from bright red to royal blue earlier this month was enough to put some GOP sympathizers in a deep depression, but
there’s hardly room for such inward negativism these days (especially when the upcoming holidays will traditionally provide ample opportunity to be depressed on a whole range of levels).

The party of Lincoln is not really seeking ideas from the public-at-large on how to restore itself, and that could be a mistake. If for no other reason than as a blatant public relations gimmick, it might not
hurt if the GOP at least pretended to be interested in what we Virginians (both the real ones and the rest of us) thought about their dilemma, which is a fairly simple one: Their candidates cannot get
enough votes to win. For a political party, especially, this is not a good thing and they know it.

For now, both the state GOP party here in the commonwealth and its national organization are choosing to look within themselves for aid and comfort. Already the few GOP governors that are left have
met and (except for somewhat grudgingly giving Sarah Palin another opportunity to ponder her own future out loud) came away with little to show for it. As one state executive, Utah’s Jon Huntsman Jr. (I
am not making that name up) said the other day, “Right now we are devoid of ideas.” Go figure.

Well, here’s some of that free advice that is conveniently as applicable at the county level in Prince William as on the state and national levels: Get beyond the notion that the people who rule the world
are white, middle-aged, and (if they know what’s good for them) conservative. There’s nothing wrong with any of these traits (having “committed” all three of them myself on occasion) but they no longer
call the shots for the rest of the population.

Some Republicans have to come to terms with this fact, which, demographically, will only become more obvious in the decades ahead.

Likewise, just as some of Prince William’s illustrious local politicians in recent years had sought (with obvious success) to be as non-inclusive of others as the law would allow — and to divide-and-
conquer an electorate with skills that would make any schoolyard bully proud — suddenly they were forced to watch in horror this month as their worn out attempts at leadership got rejected (at least in
spirit, if not in any local contests). I think historians will someday simply refer to this mass rejection as being “slapped upside the head big time.”

Advice or not, it’s both sad and funny to consider the dire circumstances the GOP finds itself entangled in these days. Funny because the party’s occasional holier-than-thou approach against the
opposition (which, let us remember, led to some of the most vile attacks on an opposing party’s presidential candidate in memory) did achieve a certain degree of non-inclusion. Only it was the GOP that
got excluded by the voters. And sad, too, because as they will soon whisper at small holiday gatherings of middle-aged white folks like me, and others — some of my best friends are Republicans.

John Merli has been a Prince William County resident since 1984, and a Potomac News columnist since 1985. He has worked in the media for more than 30 years. E-mail him at .