Red Elephant: Sen. Ted Kennedy: 1932-2009

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Sen. Ted Kennedy: 1932-2009

My only interaction with Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) was non-political and occurred on a shuttle flight from Washington, DC to Boston over ten years ago. I found myself assigned a seat between Sen. Kennedy and Red Auerbach. As the two men had a lively conversation I interrupted and asked if they prefer I move so they could carry on more easily. Kennedy apologized for being rude and talking past me, to which I replied it was a pleasure and I'd rather stay and listen in. That got a laugh and I had a good time listening to these two giants chat like pals about the Boston Garden and the Celtics.

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What Is Red Elephant?

Red Elephant is here to wrest control of the Republican Party from the greed, avarice and hypocritical small-minded, short-term thinking that currently holds sway. Red Elephant is going to undertake the task of talking about how the GOP gets off the mat and becomes a relevant and viable political party again. Red Elephant asks the reader to set aside preconceptions and entertain the prospect of enlarging their own views on the state, nature and direction of the Republican Party. Red Elephant understands the difference between politics and policy. Red Elephant knows how to compile, interpret and use data. Red Elephant is inclusive. Red Elephant wants to win for the right reasons on the just issues.

The typical Nascar-watching, gun toting, psalm quoting, unforgiving and intolerant Republican base voter is not going to care much for the content of Red Elephant. If this voter segment was much larger, then the GOP could exist only for them and still have an impact on the direction of the country. But it isn’t. The GOP cannot win by continuing the “Southern Strategy” of the 1990’s and that’s a fact that can be, and will be supported by statistical, data-driven analysis in future Red Elephant posts.

Every demographic that the GOP needs to become viable again is leaving the Republican Party at a rate that makes the Colorado River in spring seem like a trickle. If the GOP is to regain the trust of just a small percentage of nearly every important U.S. demographic of this century: white, non-white, male, female, every age group in every geopolitical region, college and non-college graduates, heterosexual and homosexual, every income group, the married and single, first it must examine its own self. Red Elephant is going to make it very clear, with plain, authentic data and analysis, how the GOP should go about defining itself in order to achieve socio-political relevance and electoral victory.

Red Elephant will not allow the GOP to turn away from the future for the immediate satisfaction of catering to a small segment of the electorate that remains loyal as long as the Republican Party is the party of exclusion and intolerance. To continue down that path is to forfeit a proud political heritage as a proponent of civil rights and deny its own importance of providing the economic checks and balances that are the foundation of a two party political system.

The GOP has a future if it forgoes the nonsense of denying the possibility of consensus on the important issues of the day. Red Elephant believes that enough is enough and it’s time for the Republican Party to lead by example.

Red Elephant

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Sen. Ted Kennedy: 1932-2009

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What Is Red Elephant?

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