WASHINGTON — After losing control of Congress, Republicans are trying to put together a winning m... Q&A: Senator hopes to
WASHINGTON — After losing control of Congress, Republicans are trying to put together a winning message to regain power. Jim DeMint, recently rated the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate, believes voters punished his party for straying from the conservative path.
The South Carolina Republican heads a loose coalition of the Senate GOP's conservatives known as the Steering Committee. Their mission is to keep their party true to the principles of less government, lower taxes, fewer regulations on business and individual rights.
DeMint, a former marketing executive, also said he thinks conservatives need to keep their message simple and pursue bloggers and other alternative media to reach potential voters. For example, a posting to the video Web site YouTube helped DeMint skewer Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid, who initially fought a DeMint proposal to limit the use of congressional earmarks to direct federal money to lawmakers' pet projects.
Seated beneath a painting of Ronald Reagan — the Republican political patron saint — DeMint talked about how he plans to sell conservative beliefs.
Answer: The truth is the people who are going to decide elections in '08 and in the future are a lot of people who don't think a lot about politics. They generally don't think in political terms. They tend to think in terms of their own life, what they see working in their own lives. We need to speak to them in terms they can relate to.
A: What conservatives offer is really more. Less taxes, less government is a means to an end. The end is really more prosperity, more security, more freedom. The things Americans really want.
A: I think for activists, that's what we call throwing red meat. There's probably a role for that, but that's not going to win elections. Most Americans, the majority of Americans, are looking for a more civil debate that relates to what they deal with every day and their hopes for the future.
A: We're recognizing that the mainstream media is generally going to talk in sound bites and basically has trained us to talk in sound bites. Increasingly, alternative media such as the blogs are setting the pace. We can talk in paragraphs, at least, rather than sound bites.
A: What we know is if we go back to basic principles of the individual, free markets and volunteerism, we know those things work. As long as we keep our focus on policies that facilitate those things working, we can have confidence that we're right because we're supporting the things that work.
A: I think there are some very real socialists here in Congress who want more government. My definition (of socialism) would be government ownership and control. If you look at the government controlling retirement accounts, health care, education and heavy regulation on business, to me that's a socialist agenda. I think most members of Congress believe in (individual power, private sector and volunteerism). I think a lot of Democrats do. I just think we've failed to convince them these things really work for constituencies that sometimes are left out — the poor, minorities, the elderly, the disabled.
A: It's a voucher program that we've had for years. It empowers people. It doesn't empower government. There is a way for government to empower people and to use taxpayer funds to actually create more capable individuals. The GI Bill creates more capable individuals, which allows them to participate in free markets and they become better citizens and volunteers. That's a conservative idea.
A: The thing I liked about him as Steering Committee chairman was he wasn't afraid to make waves and liked to stir things up. I wasn't necessarily agreeing with all his policies. If there were someone I wanted to be more like, it would be Ronald Reagan. He was optimistic. He talked in big pictures. He was able to sell things on a broader stage.
A: What I want to do over the next couple of years is to force our presidential candidates to take a lot of the right ideas and policies to these debates and to focus on big issues of individual health insurance, funding our Social Security system and not spending that money, looking at a more competitive America and a tax code that works for everybody.
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