GOP Releases Growth and Opportunity Project

2.  Diversity

     The Grand (New) Party will highlight its diverse leadership and tap more such spokespersons for conservative ideals in the future.

3.  Media Engagement

     Republicans will become more media savvy and go onto media platforms where young people are attracted.

4.  Star Power

     Hollywood entertainers are powerful assets in the culture and should be engaged with what the party is promoting.

5.  Stop Living in the Past

     The Republican Party was once a strong force in national politics.  But Reagan-era one-size-fits-all marketing has outlived its usefulness.

6.  Digital Age Marketing

     The GOP must modernize and innovate its technology assets in order to stand a chance against Democrats' micro-targeting.  This is a major focus of the report.

7.  Less Infighting

     Although vigorous debate is always welcome, a shortened primary season should help prevent the party from wounding itself before national elections.

8.  Demonstrate Unity Earlier

     Staging an earlier convention should help demonstrate that the party can come together, unify, and coordinate at an earlier point in the elections campaign season.

9.  Don't Marginalize Potential Voters

     America needs immigration reform, but the party should emphasize that people of all backgrounds are welcome.  There is a reason that immigrants are attracted to America, and the GOP should constantly communicate to these prospective citizens what makes the country great and why the Republican Party is preferable to the Democrat Party.

10. Young People are the Future

      There are a number of recommendations for reaching out to young people, including an acknowledgment that the party needs to appear fresher and more sympathetic to people from all backgrounds.

11. Growth & Prosperity Should be Synonymous with the GOP

      America built the largest and most prosperous middle class in the world based on freedom and opportunity, not on central planning and stale statism.

12. All Americans Welcome in the Grand (New) Party

     The Republican Party will remain open to the concerns of all Americans and will work to address their wants and needs.  Instead of posing government as the solution to all of people's problems, the GOP will insist that the strength of America is not its government, but in its people.

All common sense steps to make the GOP a viable political party.  What disturbs me most right now is the constant in-fighting.  It is killing us.  The Democrats are winning, you know, from President Obama on down the line, as we allow them to divide us and watch as we disintegrate into the wilderness.  This plan is a step in the right direction.

The long primary season destroyed us.  We watched as Republicans used words and techniques against fellow Republicans running for the presidential nomination. The Democrats were delighted and used the attacks in their own ads.  Remember when some of the candidates - especially those loudest in their oath of allegiance to pursing economic freedom - attacked Mitt Romney's career success as "vulture capitalism" and the like? Yeah. That was a particularly low point in the primary battle.

The conservative party is the Republican party.  We are Republican voters because we believe in common sense solutions - those that promote personal freedom and success.  A person dependent on the government is not free.  We have to be better at communicating a positive message of fiscal conservatism, strong national defense, and building a self sufficient life through education and good personal choices.  Simply saying Ronald Reagan believed in the three legged stool approach to conservatism doesn't mean a thing in today's debates.  If you are age 51 or younger, you weren't old enough to vote for the man when he won his first term as president.

Putting a fresh, updated face on Republican political philosophy is not selling out.  It is not enough to depend on the past - we have to lead with a way forward, with a future.

Posted by Karen Townsend at 12:40 PM