Other battles the Right shouldn't fight...

I wrote earlier that the Right should accept that the perception battle over Gitmo has been lost and that it should change tactics.

Here are a few others issues on which the perception battle has been lost, and other tactics would be more successful in winning elections:

Income tax cuts....give up on cutting income tax rates under the current system...they will always be "tax cuts for the rich."

The Right should opt for one short term goal and one long term goal on taxes:

Short term:

Cut payroll taxes.

Long term:

Reform the tax system.

Move toward a two tiered flat income tax. Not the Fair Tax or any kind of consumption tax. Lots of folks have love it, but it inherently unconservative, and is not a winning issues. Why? It calls for every taxpayer to be sent a check each month to cover the taxes on food and medicine....one more time...the government is going to send a check to every American taxpayer every month. If this is not an invitation to fraud and abuse, I cannot think of a better one. Ronald Reagan is spinning in his grave.

It also doesn't work. I was at a not-for-attribution seminar with a senior Treasury official two years ago. In a room full of influential conservatives he said "You don't want to hear this, but the FAir Tax won't work...the numbers are just not there. "

Not to mention that a 23 /24/ 25% sales tax cannot be sold to the American public, no matter how many times you expalin it or how much Neal Boortz rants about it.

Gay marriage:

Now I'm not really sure what role the State has to play in marriage. Marriages were not regulated or sanctioned by the State for most of Western history, and when they were it was primarily for tax reasons.

Let me pose an example from real life. A couple separates. They go through counseling at their church, synagogue, whatever. The priest, pastor, rabbi, imam grants them a divorce in whatever terms it is granted in their particular denomination. But due to whatever circumstances, their divorce is not granted by the State for another year.

Are they free to begin dating (or otherwise engaging in conduct limited to single people) when their religious denomination (to whom they pledged their fidelity) says it is OK or when the clerk of the county in which they lives says they are "divorced?" Would you rather base your decision on your God or your County Clerk?

If the GOP is going to continue to fight this battle, it should focus it on attacking the judiciary.

Is opposition to gay marriage a short term winner at the ballot box? Of course, but it it is better argued and paired with an attack on a judiciary that disregards the will of the people...

....which also works for...abortion.

What many folks don't realize (in particular liberals who love everything about Europe) is that abortion became legal much later (and is still far more heavily regulated) in Europe.

And Europe has never experienced the bitter partisan and religious divides that we have for one simple reason...in each and every European nation, the decision to legalize some form of abortion was made either by the national legislature, or by national referendum.

The solution (and proper political perspective on both of these issues) is to take them out of the hands of the courts, and put them in the hands of the state legislatures. Swing voters who not are not dogmatic about these issues (which pretty much defines a swing voter) would respond well to this argument, especially in Congressional elections.

And neither of these positions precludes outlawing either abortion or gay marriage...it just requires taking control from the courts and returning it to the states and the people.

This position also provides a significant boost for House candidates (although less so for Senators.) GOP House and Senate candidates should aggressively argue for the over turning of Roe v. Wade and pair it with an argument that this is a state issue. I'm not convinced that any states would actually completely outlaw abortion. South Dakota's legislature, with a strong Christina Right faction in the electorate, failed to pass the nation's most restrictive abortion law in its last session.

Again, on none of these three issues am I arguing that the GOP should change its central position...but it needs to change its tactics.