The backbone of the GOP

I love election time! The fact that after 200 years we are still using the same electoral process gives me such pride. So many countries have changed their electoral process in the past 100 years, the fact that we are still firm in our convictions that the founding fathers set up gives me such a defining sense of pride.

I developed a passion for it in 6th grade when we did a mock election with all of the fifth and sixth graders. I carried the electoral votes for Texas (I got really lucky). The candidates had to really butter me up to get my 34 electoral votes. It taught a 6th grader so many lessons about politics and elections. Ever since then my passion has truly lied in the same area, political science, history and economics. All are intertwined.

As I am trying to follow the election process now from a foreign country I am constrained to see everything from the internet. I have to be aware the different biases that each major websites carry. I did see a debate from Michigan and I was shocked to have seen that the Republican part has lost touch with its rich roots in the middle-class families. These roots run deep starting with Alexander Hamiliton followed by Abraham Lincoln and even up until Reagan.

I would think that every republican would start by putting themselves at the kitchen tables of middle-class families with ambitious kids. Their first questions would be: What are the barriers to their mobility? What concrete help do these people need to realize their dreams?

At this economic debate in Michigan this week, there was no talk of that. Instead they addressed, free trade, lower taxes and reduced spending. They talked a lot about the line-item veto and the Chinese currency. But there was almost nothing that touched concretely on the lives of the ambitious working-class parents who are the backbone of the GOP.

Sometimes the candidates seemed more concerned with massaging the pleasure buttons of the Club for Growth than addressing the real concerns of the middle class. They talked far more about cutting corporate taxes, for example, than about a child tax credit for struggling families.

At other times, they sounded as if they were running for a ceremonial post. The person who is elected president will need concrete proposals, but the GOP contenders scarcely have them. Mike Huckabee has some sketchy plans. John McCain answered one element of middle-class anxiety on Thursday with his new health care plan. Others seem to have decided concrete proposals are for geeks.

It has lost intimate contact with the working-class dreamer who longs to make good, the very backbone of the GOP itself.

Instead, this ground is being seized by a Democrat. Hillary Clinton has specific policy programs for members of the aspiring middle class. This shows great understanding and insight on her part. As she attains these essential votes she is positing herself very well for 2008. Under the Clinton plan, if a family making up to $60,000 a year put $1,000 into a new 401(k) account, they would get a $1,000 matching tax credit. The plan would create millions of new investors. Struggling families could choose mutual fund options and participate in the capital markets. They'd be encouraged to move away from a month-to-month mentality to a saving-for-the-future mentality.

Clinton's plan poaches on economic values that used to be associated with the Republican Party. This is why I think nowadays you can’t vote for a party, you vote for a person. Moreover, it undermines the populist worldview that is building on the left of her party. Instead of railing against globalization and the economic royalists, Clinton gives working people access to Wall Street and a way to profit from the global economy.

She will just have to secure the electoral votes of the correct states, such as California, Texas, Florida and of course, Ohio. Once representing Texas, I understand how imperative it is to secure it. I am not making a stance for Hillary. I truly don't think I will vote for her but I am just wanting to state my observations. I have not decided as of yet who will receive my vote.

Added on January 7, 2008. I am not supporting Hillary this was just an observation. I will not support Hillary.