As the Secretary of the California State Republican Party, it has become apparent to me that the CRP needs to have a precise, carefully worded slogan and statement of our core beliefs that need to be agreed upon and emphasized consistently throughout the coming elections.
The Democrats have cleverly used phrases such as “progressive,” “hope,” “change,” “onward,” and the like to describe themselves and their visions for the future.
We need to be equally as clever and we need to concisely state our goals and vision not only for the CRP but for the State.
I spent a weekend recently trying to do this and came up with 33 important Republican goals for the future of California and 34 policy prescriptions to make this State a better place in which to live.
I then tried to distill from these lists, an alternative to “Conservative” that could match the forward looking phrases of the Democrats. In addition, I tried to state four distinct themes that I believe make us Republicans and differentiate us from Democrats.
Here goes: I would focus on the words “Responsible Innovative Government.” I would then say that such a titled plan is “The 2020 Republican Plan to Revitalize California.”
I would focus on four main themes that state what a Republican California State government should be:
(1) Humanely Responsive to the needs of its citizens (“We Care“);
(2) Responsible to the oversight of the republican form of State and Federal government and the citizens of the State (“We are Watching“);
(3) Innovative and providing the proper, limited regulatory and legal framework to support the State’s highly innovative, entrepreneurial, business and commercial enterprises (“We need an innovative government for an innovate State“); and
(4) Efficient in that it seeks to provide the greatest benefits to the citizens of the State at the lowest cost (“We will only tax, spend and administer in the most efficient manner“).
That’s it for my initial thoughts on a theme for the CRP.
Please comment at the end of this article on your thoughts on the same. The Platform Committee of the CRP will be meeting in September and I am on that Committee and hopefully will be on the Drafting Subcommittee.
I would encourage any of you who will also be on that Committee or Subcommittee to focus instead not on our individual differences but to really try to focus on our similarities, our core beliefs, that can help us recognize those and then help disseminate those core beliefs to Republicans, Decline to State Voters and Disaffected Democrats to help us win back this State.
As always, I am here to serve my fellow Republicans and you can always reach me at rberholtz@gmail.com or at 858-205-5091.
All the best.
—-Randy
Comments 2
I love that you are thinking of something like this to get the CRP’s message across!
You are on the right track not using the word “conservative” since it doesn’t mean anything anymore, and no one would believe it about this party anyway.
However, these points don’t set the CRP apart from things anyone from any party would state, and point 2, “We Are Watching”, is creepy. Definitely dump that one.
Californians in the last 30 years have followed national trends, not led them for both parties. So CAGOP’s fortunes rise and fall with the national party. The toughest time will be these years as we have a President that specifically targets California as a punching bag. Californians won’t flock to a party that hates them.