Keys to GOP Rebound: Latino Outreach, Social Security Reform

The Democratic conquest of central Orange County is a painful microcosm of the national Republican defeat. To county residents accustomed to GOP dominance, Democratic control of two legislative seats and one congressional seat is still hard to believe.

How to roll back this incipient Democratic resurgence? Our answer has national as well as local implications. The changes transforming Orange County mirror those working across the nation. How the GOP in America’s most Republican county responds will set an example for the party at large.

Local Democrats gained because their people were energized and ours weren’t. How, then, to motivate our dispirited party? Certainly, the impending rush of liberal legislation from Sacramento will help ignite activist fires, but simple reaction is not enough. While a specific policy agenda needs formulating, more immediately important is rededicating ourselves as the party of freedom.

We must not flinch from our conviction that government is too big, spends too much, taxes too much and controls too much. We must continue championing individuals as the best judges of their own self-interest, whether in raising their families, educating their children, choosing medical care or planning for their retirement.

Republican leaders must reject the seductive fraud that government is our partner in wealth creation, which is like describing a tapeworm as a digestive aid. The creative dynamism of freedom--not planning by government “experts”--is the wellspring of prosperity, and our leaders must recover the nerve to defend that truth without apology.

The 1998 elections proved voters won’t rally around an uncertain standard. Timidity does not inspire trust. The capitulation by our congressional leadership to President Clinton on tax cuts and spending restraint demoralized Republicans across the country--and candidates in Orange County helped pay the price.

The antidote is not halfhearted shuffling toward some ill-defined “middle” but vigorous, prudent and coordinated advocacy for policies built on the twin pillars of freedom and independence. Such was the case with welfare reform, and we succeeded in substantially advanced limited government despite fierce opposition from entrenched liberal interest groups. I’ll limit myself to two specific recommendations for my party. The first is to make Social Security privatization a centerpiece of our agenda. While risky, it is faithful to our tradition of individual freedom and limited government, strongly appeals to my generation and is practically impossible for the Democrats to co-opt.

I doubt there is a single person within 15 years either way of my age--34--who thinks Social Security is anything but a compulsory Ponzi scheme destined for bankruptcy. Republicans must advocate updating Social Security to a nation of investors. The percentage of American households owning stock has risen rapidly, from 21% in 1990 to 43% in 1996.

Most Americans intuitively understand that having the freedom to invest the portion of their income devoured by the payroll tax would empower them to build a much bigger retirement nest egg. In entrepreneurial, individualistic Orange County, privatization would resonate across socioeconomic lines.

It is a positive message of opportunity based on belief in Americans’ ingenuity and good sense. Its proven success in other countries reduces Democratic opposition to arguing Americans are suckers who cannot be trusted with their own money.

My second recommendation concerns outreach to Latinos, who are 27% of the county population and growing. Rolling back Democratic gains in central Orange County hinges on bringing a competitive percentage of Latinos into our party. This does not require changing our philosophy.

Freedom and equality are universal principles, and surveys show the views of Orange County Latinos differ little from those of the general population. Outreach must be conducted on different levels, but our lack of a continuous, off-campaign presence in the Latino community needs immediate rectification. Unprecedented numbers of Latino immigrants are applying for citizenship, yet the Republican Party only enters the process at its culmination, manning voter registration tables outside the swearing-in ceremonies.

Instead, our party should be involved as a helping hand throughout the naturalization process by operating free citizenship centers providing English instruction, citizenship classes to impart the principles of America’s founding, family assistance and other services to assist assimilation into American life. Rather than wooing Latinos from afar, we could communicate the Republican message through actions and daily, face-to-face contact.

The mere existence of these centers would help discredit xenophobic elements of our party as representative of the GOP and constitute a powerful refutation of Democratic demagoguery that Republicans are anti-Latino. A cure-all? No. Still, these recommendations would do much to restore morale and demonstrate we are America’s most Republican county not only in terms of numbers but in belief and action as well.