The Republican Party, in both its North Carolina and nationwide incarnations, has an image problem.
Nationally, this has been proven by the party’s losses in the 2012 elections. In North Carolina, the problem shows in the fact that only 34 percent of residents approve of the Republicans in the legislature, and in the Moral Monday protests that have expressed outrage against the policies of the Republican-dominated body.
Significant portions of the Republican Party’s wounds are self-inflicted. Mitt Romney infamously asserted that because 47 percent of Americans pay no income taxes, “I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility or care for their own lives.” Right here in North Carolina, Republican Speaker of the House Thom Tillis once said that he wanted to “divide and conquer” people who are on welfare. With these comments, prominent Republicans cast poor Americans as the enemy; a lazy and useless collection of people who need to be, quite literally, “conquered.” Pair this with the fact that Republican policies lately have been aimed purely at cutting benefits, and it is little wonder that Republicans are increasingly seen as an out-of-touch party representing the interests of only the wealthiest Americans.
This situation translates into terrible political results for Republicans – they trail Democrats by 28 percent in which party does a better job of “showing compassion and concern for people.”
This, however, does not have to be the case. The issue of growing government is a real one. It is also clear that prescriptions of ever-increasing government assistance are not the best ways to help America’s least wealthy citizens.
Transfer spending by the U.S. government in 2010 was almost 100 times more than it was in 1960, a mind-boggling expansion of government in a period of only 50 years. Yet the poverty rate in the U.S. remains at about the same as it was in the 1960s.
Republican leaders like Paul Ryan have used the 50th anniversary of the launch of the “War on Poverty” to start reclaiming the issue for the Republican Party, but there is more that can be done.
Rather than focusing on cutting existing benefits, Republicans need to focus on promoting the things that can permanently alter the poverty situation. Reforming the tax code, promoting work requirements for welfare and expanding educational opportunity are old ideas, but they are as relevant as ever, and they should be the focus of the Republicans in the months to come.
President Obama is expected to focus on income inequality in his upcoming State of the Union, but Republicans can claim this issue for themselves. If these policies are combined with a new narrative explaining how Republican ideas can lift people out of poverty rather than casting the poor as the enemy, the Republican Party can help America’s poor, and transform the issue of poverty from a political liability to an advantage in the process.
