Can Rubio Save The Republican Party?

February 8, 2016

Can Rubio Save The Republican Party?

The number of candidates in the Republican Field has the Party establishment a bit worried. A dinner party was held a couple of weeks ago ostensibly to discuss what the Ohio convention would look like if none of the candidates reaches the required 1237 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

How many political junkies are really falling for that spin? One doesn’t have to be a “James Carville” to know what was being discussed over the filet mignon. The quandary that Republicans face is not a contested convention; it is figuring out how to save the historic GOP and the two-party system from the malady that is the Trump campaign. And that was by far the most important topic discussed at the dinner party held by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for his 20 guests that together make up the “Who’s Who” of the Republican Establishment.

The oddity of Trump’s success as a candidate for an office that would make him the leader of the free world, frightens both Democrats and Republicans alike (and the Free World). Republicans know they cannot win national elections by relying on the vote of the “angry white man” demographic, and Trump’s message does not appeal to the demographics Republicans must garner support from in order to be a party that can win national elections.

For the past 8 years, Republicans have been courting the Latino vote. It is the only demographic that Republicans can peel away from the winning Democratic coalition. There has not been much courtship between African-Americans and the GOP. And the Republican attacks on Planned Parenthood have not endeared the Party to young women. The Latino demographic is socially conservative on issues like abortion and gay marriage, making them the only segment of the Democratic Coalition not completely at odds with the GOP.

Trump is the antipode of what a Republican Presidential candidate needs to sound like in 2016. If the GOP wants to remain a viable national party in the years to come, they cannot have their leading candidate spewing xenophobic insults at Latinos. Trump’s antics, his racism, his ignorance, and his unfortunate decision to interpose his crude and arrogant “Apprentice” TV personality into the Republican Primary process, might have extirpated years of hard work by The Republican Party to win over Latinos, who sympathize with a number of conservative principles. Trumps loud, obnoxious, shock and awe style of campaigning consumes Network TV’s earned/free media time and makes it difficult for the actual conservatives (Trump is not a conservative) in the Republican Field to get any traction with Latinos or even the electorate at-large.

The one conservative candidate that Democrats are truly fearful of is Senator Marco Rubio. Not only is the youthful Marco Rubio a moderate who can appeal to the “undecideds” in the general election, he is Latino. And his moderate conservatism is palatable to his fellow Latinos who might have voted Democrat in the past couple of presidential elections, but are socially conservative enough for Rubio to win over in this 2016 presidential bought. The fact that he hails from Florida is another glaring strength of a Rubio general election ticket.

A Rubio/(name of a prominent Evengelical/Tea Party candidate that won’t scare off moderates and undecideds) ticket would put the GOP within reach of taking back the executive branch. Republicans would officially become a big tent party with a winning national coalition that could usher Rubio into the Oval Office. As dreamy as this sounds to my conservative friends, a dream is all this scenario is right now. Rubio’s potential second place finish in NH could very well be his best showing in this 2016 Republican Primary. Real Clear Politics has Rubio down by 7 points in South Carolina—not 7 points behind Trump, but 7 points behind the second place Cruz. The story is the same in the most important Super Tuesday states: Rubio a distant third, Cruz a distant second, Trump a commanding lead.

Can Republicans still save their party from the embarrassment and ruination of a Trump Republican Primary victory? If New Hampshire and South Carolina thin out the herd enough for Republicans to coalesce around their best candidate–Senator Marco Rubio–then, yes, it is conceivably possible for Rubio to start competing seriously with Cruz and Trump on Super Tuesday and beyond. However, it is difficult to envision the Republican Party pulling off such a rational and winning strategy in the face of such an irrational election year in which the conservative ideology of the Republican Party is being replaced by fascism.

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Paul Adams MSM

I grew up in the Old Harbor Housing Development in the Irish American neighborhood of South Boston. Currently, Southie has gained fame for being the home of gangsters, powerful politicians, and as the toughest inner city neighborhood in America. It is the home of Speaker of the House McCormick; but it’s the home of three housing projects as well. It’s the home of Senate President Bulger; but it’s also the home of Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger—the most infamous gangster of our generation. I survived the streets of South Boston by learning to defend myself in a boxing gym with national champions and professional boxers. I still box to this day. I also am very blessed to come from a family that values education and demands top academic performance. Out of my Irish grandmother, who has her high school diploma, she had a daughter that put herself through nursing school as a single mom (my mother); out of four grandchildren, I went to Boston College High School founded in 1864 by the Jesuits as Boston College, and the girls went to Fontbonne Academy. Both are college preparatory schools run by the Jesuits and the Sisters of Saint Joseph, respectively. These Catholic orders inculcate their students with the belief that we are meant to be of service to others. Three of the four have Bachelors Degrees. One has a graduate degree, and I am a graduate degree candidate at Suffolk University in marketing. My BA is in political science. I ran a multiplicity of Boston campaigns. I managed campaigns and was field coordinator. However, as field coordinator, my role was that of a campaign manager. I developed the theme, message, and strategy. The candidate and I start off with a SWOT analysis, and go from their. It requires tremendous trust for a public official to put her reputation in your hands, to trust you with their deepest, darkest secrets, and to develop a working relationship, so that the candidate does not need to be a campaign manager. Not all candidates are political scientists who grew up in politics and knew that campaigning was one of their callings. I remember taking on a campaign managing role in one of my campaigns en medias res, and it was a campaign manager’s worst nightmare: I had an articulate, courageous, progressive candidate from a great Latino family, including a father who was a Boston Public School teacher. However, he knew not how to campaign. I proudly took over that campaign. That candidate went on to serve as the Boston Coordinator for Kennedy’s U.S. Senate bid. I ran a presidential campaign for a labor union, and I needed to utilize my Southie street smarts to come out with the win. I worked for the Obama ‘08 Campaign as a co-founder of South Boston for Obama. I then worked for him for a year in NH, where I got to meet and speak with him. I served in two branches of government. I worked for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (public defenders), and, as an Adams, who going all the way back to John Adams, believed that the keystone to free society was fair and proper representation under the law for all people, no matter the court of public opinion. I also worked in the legislative branch for a statesman named Senator Hart. I did constituent service work, which was so rewarding. I got to give back to a community that gave me the opportunity to achieve my dreams and goals. As an undergraduate at Suffolk University where I served as the President of the Pre-Law Association and graduated with a 3.4 GPA, I was honored to be given a scholarship to study the effects of fascism and communism on Central Europe after writing a paper about my own family’s tragic experiences in Poland during Nazi occupation. I completed an independent study with a brilliant political scientist, Kenneth Cosgrove, PhD., author of Branded Conservatives, opened my eyes up to the ways in which conservatives successfully utilize modern marketing techniques to win elections. They shifted the country to the right with their use of marketing strategies. I am currently an MSM (Masters in Science in Marketing) candidate at Suffolk University. I am proficient with Wordpress and Squarespace; Google Analytics; social media advertising campaigns; and other forms of marketing like STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning). This site will be the home of my new blog that will discuss politics and marketing. I hope my life experience and my education in these fields creates a healthy dialogue that can lead to higher truths.

2 responses to “Can Rubio Save The Republican Party?”

thebyu2011

February 9, 2016 at 2:34 am

Forgot I had an account here I haven’t used it in a very long time. Good article Paul. The Republican Party has no clear direction this election year.

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Paul Adams

February 9, 2016 at 6:19 pm

Thank you for the positive feed back. Are you someone I know personally?

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