The Party of "Yes, We Can"

by Dr. Ellen Brandt

As promised in our last story, we want to explicate briefly once more just what we hope to accomplish through our Party of Yes efforts on the Internet and in social media.

We're reiterating this agenda, because after the quite extraordinary and brand-new kind of activism addressing both the GOP presidential debates and their format and the need to strike back against an out-of-control "Mainstream Media," a large number of Republicans seem to be coming around to views which Robert, Ellen, and the Party of Yes have been urging our fellow GOP'ers to adopt.

So once more, the main tasks before us:

***** Push the existing "Mainstream Media," especially on the Internet, to treat the Republican Party, its candidates, its activists, its commentators, and its Base of members - every bit as large and respectable and influential as the Democratic Party's membership Base - with seriousness, humanity, decency, and "gravitas," according to the GOP's central place within American politics and American life.

We will devote the next article in this series to some practical suggestions about how to do this, preferably with the full support of the RNC and the full roster of GOP presidential candidates and their campaign staffs.

***** Focus especially on establishing a more active and comprehensive "Big Tent" Republican presence within social media, including growing our LinkedIn and Facebook Groups and gently persuading some other existing Groups, which claim to be Republican in outlook, but which paint a limited, strident, or unattractive portrait of GOP thought, to expand their horizons and welcome the full spectrum of Republicans into their narrow arenas.

***** Set up a dedicated Party of Yes Internet site, if possible in conjunction with the RNC and other important Republican oversight groups. We'd also be delighted to assist the RNC in making its own existing Internet forums easier to use and more welcoming to GOP'ers of all stripes, if they'll let us.

***** Try - hard! - to persuade the RNC, the (few) parts of the "MSM" in GOP or neutral hands, and influential GOP think tanks and advocacy groups to embrace as an important "outreach" constituency the fully one-half of Republican voters who are age 50 and over.

Our "Gray Base" within the GOP is in no way a liability, as so many Democratic Party operatives and publications have been telling us. In contrast, it is a significant asset for and to the Republican Party, with over 2 in 5 Americans now age 50 or over and close to 50 percent of all US voters part of our "Gray" population - not only in 2016, but also in the future presidential cycles of 2020, 2024, and 2028.

We will likely publish quite a few additional stories on the GOP's (wonderful, helpful, incredibly important) "Gray Base" over the course of the upcoming election year.

***** In addition to persuading the existing "Mainstream Media" to work towards eliminating its bias against Republicans, our ideas, and our candidates, the Party of Yes believes that the GOP needs to create a wide and inclusive "Alternative Mainstream Media," especially on the Internet, consisting of publications and social media sites geared towards Republicans and our interests.

No better use can be made of GOP funds and influence in this historically important - indeed, crucial - presidential election cycle than actively and diligently working towards transforming what is considered "Mainstream" and making sure that Republicans and Republican ideas and agendas are as well-represented within Media channels as are Democrats and their ideas and agendas.

***** We had hoped all of the GOP presidential candidates and their staffs would quickly choose to join our new Party of Yes Groups at LinkedIn and Facebook and utilize them as "base camps" within social media to give interviews, contribute to opinion pieces, and circulate their ideas within social media under our aegis.

That has not happened yet, but we still hope it will happen as this election cycle proceeds.

***** We also wish to use both the LinkedIn and Facebook Groups and the future dedicated Party of Yes site, as useful "base camps" for GOP candidates and activists from state and local constituencies.

We maintain that the majority of existing GOP sites, even those run by the RNC, have been somewhat difficult to use, nowhere near well-known enough - certainly not utilized enough! -  and perhaps not yet inclusive enough to stimulate the enthusiastic activism of Republicans across the Party's nationwide political spectrum.

Making a dedicated Party of Yes site a key focus in efforts to set up an "Alternative Mainstream for Republicans" would be useful, we believe, not only because the Founders are champing at the bit to get this effort rolling, but also because we believe the Party of Yes moniker and what it stands for are finally being understood and accepted by many leaders and activists within the Party.

Republicans, not the Other Major Party, have now unfurled the true "Big Tent" and are happy to welcome all constituencies.

Republicans, not the Other Major Party, are demonstrating that we shun the narrowly "politically correct," in favor of respectful, but also vibrant and forthright discussion and debate on key issues facing our nation.

Republicans, not the Other Major Party, are striving to give a Voice that is heard to every individual and every group within our fold, rather than permitting a tiny cadre of arrogant "thought leaders" and celebrities, anointed by fiat,  to tell the rest of America what to do and how to think.

We Republicans - here and now -are the revivified and reignited Party of Yes. And the Party of "Yes, We Can."