The GOP And Pizza

Whether or not the Republican party redeems, rebuilds or reforms itself is of utterly no consequence to us.

Frankly, both the party of big government (the GOP) and the party of Soviet-style collectivism (the Democrats) are beyond redemption as far as we’re concerned, and the sooner we can stick a pitchfork into both of them, the better off this country will be.

Anyway, some people do still care about the future of the Republican party, particularly now that it looks like Democrats have gone “a bridge too far” (or several bridges too far) under the leadership of President Barack Obama.

One of these people is Jonah Goldberg, who writes a column for the National Review Online.

Referring to the aforementioned Democratic overreaching, Goldberg writes …

This has given the GOP an opportunity many Republicans feared just a year ago might not come for a generation.

Now comes the hard part: seizing the opportunity. Fortunately, I’m not a political consultant. But if I were giving my two cents — and whaddya know? I am! — I’d tell the GOP to look not to Reagan in 1980 or Gingrich in 1994, as so many pundits suggest.

I’d look to Domino’s in 2010.

You may have seen the commercials or the YouTube video touting the iconic pizza-delivery chain’s reinvention. But if you haven’t, Domino’s new campaign can be summed up easily enough: “We blew it.”

Focus groups and consumer surveys revealed something pretty much everyone outside of Domino’s has known for years: Their pizza stinks. It tastes as if aliens tried to copy real pizza but just couldn’t capture its essence.

In their four-minute video (search YouTube for “the Pizza Turnaround”), executives, employees, and chefs at the company confront their harshest reviews head-on. They talk about how much it hurts to hear that their product “tastes like cardboard” and is worse than microwave pizza. But they admit the truth and commit themselves to starting over with more flavor, better crusts, and cheese that doesn’t taste like discount weather caulking. Domino’s says that the American palate has improved, and they want to update their recipe to take account of that fact.

The appeal of the campaign should be obvious: honesty. Domino’s admits they lost their way, and they want a second chance. They’re confronting the criticism head-on rather than denying it.

A second chance?

Please.

Both the Republican “Revolution” in 1994 and the Democratic wave of 2006-08 were full of lofty ideas, but they were immediately co-opted by the Washington establishment, leading to broken promises, disillusionment and – ultimately – electoral reverses.

Republicans were going to rein in spending and pass term limits – but they didn’t.  Obama was going to give tax relief to the middle class – but now the middle class is likely in line for a tax hike.

Bottom line? Change you can really believe in cannot (and will not) come through the two-party system.

In fact, the need for a pro-taxpayer party (one that would welcome fiscally conservative Republicans and Democrats) is about a century overdue in this country.

Whether that’s the Tea party or some other entity, we don’t know, but American needs another voice … and fast.

Let’s hope we get one before another “Revolution” in Washington deprives us of additional liberties (and additional tax dollars) …