{"id":4729,"date":"2009-07-13T17:01:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/putting-the-grand-back-in-grand-old-party\/"},"modified":"2010-07-02T13:59:34","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T19:59:34","slug":"putting-the-grand-back-in-grand-old-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/putting-the-grand-back-in-grand-old-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the ‘Grand’ back in ‘Grand Old Party’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meet this site\u2019s newest columnist. She plans to write a weekly column about a timely topic: redefining the Republican Party. <\/p>\n

By Sarah Lenti<\/p>\n

When Heath and I discussed the possibility of me blogging on his site, I knew immediately what I wanted to kibitz about — redefining the Republican Party. No, the subject matter is hardly original. And, yes, it is actually probably a bit predictable for someone who has worked on several Republican presidential campaigns and then worked in a policy position for four-plus years.<\/p>\n

As a still youngish, fiscally-conservative female who was born in the North but (mostly) raised in the South; who was a Russian-studies major, but can\u2019t actually stand Moscow; who doesn\u2019t devour meat, but takes great delight in dining at up-scale steakhouses; I have my own strong opinions regarding the Grand Old Party. Go ahead, mock me — I am a Republican and I actually care about America, its greatness and our place in the world. And, yes, I have a lot of ideas as to the Who, What Where, When and How the Republican Party needs to rebrand and repackage itself.<\/p>\n

While I will be the first to admit that our current party status is not so \u2018Grand,\u2019 I refuse to sit along the sidelines with slumped shoulders as MSNBC<\/a> (and the likes) rip the party into oblivion. There are extremely thoughtful, conservative leaders out there who have real ideas and a real vision — if people would just take the time to listen (and, no, I am not talking about Sarah Palin<\/a>). <\/span>Over the next few months, I will highlight some of these people, and equally as important, their ideas.<\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s New York Times<\/a>, Adam Nagourney wrote about the \u201cart\u201d of the political comeback, which is timely. He wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical comebacks tend to come in two forms. The first is when a party stumbles back into power because of the mistakes by the other side. A classic instance came in 1976, when Watergate enabled Jimmy Carter<\/a> to win the presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second kind of march back to power, which takes longer but is more enduring, reflects a party\u2019s success in coming to grips with changing conditions — demographic, ideological or both — and in finding a leader who has mastered the new political terrain. Mr. Nixon<\/a> did this in 1968, and Bill Clinton<\/a> did it in 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans today seem to be fixated on the first form of comeback. Many in the party appear to be biding their time, waiting for Mr. Obama<\/a> to stumble in one or another of his ambitious plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the march back to power<\/span><\/p>\n

As to Nagourney\u2019s assessment, I could not disagree more. No truly thoughtful person I know — and let\u2019s leave all politics aside — wants President Obama to fail. This goes against the grain of being an American, respecting the democratic system, and embracing our struggle for excellence as a nation through hard work and the gift of unprecedented opportunity.<\/p>\n

I believe our party is, indeed, on the march back to power and to redefining itself along the way. No, we are not sitting and waiting for others to fall down — but quietly and slowly building from the inside out. And who is leading the march, you ask?<\/p>\n

Well, in time, you will come to recognize us. We are savvy, even thoughtful people. We are educated, even worldly. We are hardworking and not looking for a hand-out. We are green and, yet, still corporate-friendly. We are pescetarians<\/a> and vegetarians — and, all the while, happy to be affiliated with the NRA<\/a>. We are single, married, divorced and gay — and all of this is ok. We believe in a strong defense and will never apologize for it. We believe in individual rights, yet can still be champions of a happy family life. We are who we are, and it might surprise you.<\/p>\n

Read on in the days to come and feel free to agree or disagree. It\u2019s just one point of view.<\/p>\n

Lenti currently works as a policy consultant and advisor to Republican Party leaders, executives and candidates. She has worked in New Mexico and other states on presidential and congressional races and has a background in national security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet this site\u2019s newest columnist. She plans to write a weekly column about a timely topic: redefining the Republican Party. By Sarah Lenti When Heath and I discussed the possibility of me blogging on his site, I knew immediately what I wanted to kibitz about — redefining the Republican Party. No, the subject matter is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1196,181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-the-savvy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}