REDISCOVERY OF COMMON SENSE

"But I never thought it was my style or the words I used...It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation - from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery...of our values and our common sense..."
- Ronald Reagan: Farewell Address, Oval Office, January 11, 1989

Values and common sense are not partisan themes, but instead represent intergenerational principles that nearly all Americans hold as self-evident. Recent elections have produced victories that transcended party affiliation and polling. New Jersey's Chris Christie, Virginia's Bob McDonnell, and Massachusett's Scott Brown succeeded in communicating American values and common sense in a manner easily understood and rewarded by their respective electorates. Florida's Marco Rubio and Michigan's Mike Cox are likewise engaging in constructive, solution-oriented campaigns in 2010.

Each of these leaders has well understood that burdensome issues met with well-reasoned solutions may be communicated without partisan rancor so that a greater percentage of family men and women can intelligently discern and decide whom to elect as a leader.

As leaders and advisors of leaders, we must spend less time doling out red meat speeches to our loyal perennial base, and devote more of our time listening to, researching, and developing comprehensive solutions to challenges facing Independents and those outside of our traditional party tent. If we fail to constructively address a broader range of concerns than those that have served as solid sound bites, then we will find the 2010 election cycle underwhelming.

Not every issue must be met with "us-versus-them" rhetoric. As leaders we must be willing to identify issues that are currently garnering support for our opponents and develop competitive, cost-effective and realistic solutions that provide real choices to attract Independent voters whose loyalties are to values and common sense...not to elephants and donkeys. Or you cleave to base-pleasing positions largely ignored by Independents and lose the increasingly Independent electorate to an opponent willing to provide those solutions.

Principles of values and common sense must always undergird our policies, but the needs of our electorate and of our nation at large must always guide the comprehensive solutions that spring forth from our policies.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Will you be leading a diverse electorate to victory and real family-focused solutions in that "shining city upon a hill", or will you be simply preaching to the choir in sound bites?

YOUR AUDIENCE: THE INDEPENDENT ELECTORATE

When the media spin is peeled away from the November 3, 2009 election results, one sees the unvarnished result in the seeming hodge-podge of results across the spectrum: the Independent Electorate spoke for themselves at the ballot box.

One can reconcile the seemingly diverse results of well-won gubernatorial victories by Bob McDonnell (VA) and Chris Christie (NJ), Michael Bloomberg's 3rd-term mayoral victory in the Big Apple, and Bill Owen's century-aged Democratic victory in the NY-23 congressional district within the context of voters choosing the candidates that they themselves perceived to be the best qualified to address their respective local, state and national issues.

Particularly in the Virginia and New Jersey contests, both victors sincerely and consistently engaged the citizens of their states in real dialogue so that they, as candidates, could develop broad-based plans to address their citizens' concerns. The 2010 gubernatorial contests in Texas (Governor Rick Perry) and Michigan (current Attorney General Mike Cox) reflect similar genuine family-focused, pro-free market solutions to the real challenges facing men and women, business leaders, and municipalities.  Particularly in Michigan, candidate Mike Cox continues his genuine, heart-felt mission of representing ALL citizens with his well-researched, comprehensive practical plan to rejuvinate Michigan on several critical fronts (see: http://www.mikecox2010.com/putting-michigan-back-to-work/).

The victors in local, state, and national elections in 2010 (much like 2008 & 2009) will be drawn from the men and women who propose comprehensive, practical solutions. The real challenges facing our nation's citizens know no partisan bounds. Unemployment, high taxes, lost health insurance, foreclosure, and crime cut deeply through Republican, Democrat, and Independent families, farms, and business alike. While bitter, partisan punditry may make for entertaining cable news shows, only REAL solutions that address REAL FAMILY & BUSINESS concerns will lead that ever-important Independent Electorate to pull your lever in 2010.

TODAY'S QUESTION: What are YOU doing to engage YOUR electorate personally to sincerely identify the pressing challenges and craft meaningful solutions that will ensure the resurgence family and business financial security?