The Republican Party emerged victorious from this month’s gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. The way the party stuck firmly by its fundamental ideology and the confidence it showed in winning the elections offer important lessons for the pan-green camp ahead of next month’s mayoral and commissioner elections.
First, a party must have confidence that it can win an election. Like President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), US President Barack Obama was also elected with a significant margin of votes last year. The momentum gave the Democratic Party a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Despite these upsets, the Republican Party did not despair or give up hope. Instead, it remained confident that it could win gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and other local elections.
Ahead of the elections, Rush Limbaugh, the conservative host of the US’ most popular radio show, said with confidence that the Republicans would win in the two states.
The color of the Democratic Party is blue and we could therefore say that it is the “blue camp” of the US. For eight years, Virginia had been in the hands of the blue camp, while New Jersey was even more of a deep-blue stronghold, much like Taitung County.
The conservative media is one reason the Republicans were able to take deep-blue territory. Since Obama’s election, the right-wing media has kept up strong attacks against him, led by Limbaugh and Fox Broadcasting. They not only criticize Obama but show no mercy in their criticism of “compromisers” within the Republican Party.
Limbaugh and Fox’s Glenn Beck not only attack compromisers within the Republican Party — represented by Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate — but also strongly criticize any weakness shown by the newly elected party chairman, Michael Steele.
Their efforts attracted a significant group of voters with clear ideals to the party. By the second half of this year, the right wing had managed to build up high morale and self-confidence both through the media and in different localities.
These were the two main factors behind the Republicans’ victory in the two gubernatorial elections.
The second lesson that the pan-green camp can learn from the Republicans’ victory is even more important. After losing the presidential elections last year, the Republicans did not compromise in the face of the Obama government’s policies or take a middle-of-the-road approach. Instead, they emphasized the party’s basic ideology and took a strong stand against the Obama administration’s interference in economic policy and what they called the “socialist” development toward universal medical insurance, while upholding republican ideals of small government and the free market.
During last year’s presidential election, McCain took the middle path and lost miserably. In the gubernatorial elections, none of the Republican candidates asked McCain to stump for them because he is a sure-fire way to lose votes.
In addition, Limbaugh and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, another staunch conservative, proved to be the strongest agitators helping the Republican Party win the gubernatorial polls.
The pan-green camp is facing a problem in terms of which ideology to employ in the year-end local elections. It is unclear what the camp’s ideology is.
Although the elections will deal with some local issues, as in the US, political ideology comprises most of the debate.
The pan-green camp must discard its unclear, middle-of-the-road policies and clearly distance itself from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on China policy, Taiwan’s status and its future.
It must make its position on Taiwan’s sovereignty clear and launch a strong attack against the Ma administration’s pro-China and pro-Chinese Communist Party policies. It should have the courage to use slogans like “Say no to unification, protect Taiwan” and to employ these ideals to build consensus and improve its public image. At the same time, it must avoid empty slogans like “Show concern for disadvantaged groups” and “Work hard for your constituents.”
If Taiwanese lose Taiwan, their own free home, they will end up slaves — just like the Chinese. Only by promoting the ideal that the public is the master of the country will the pan-green camp stand a chance of winning the year-end elections.
Cao Changqing is a writer based in the US.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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