The long, long campaign season in Texas and the US is finally over and the people voted for the status quo. President Obama will be back. Harry Reid will be back as leader of the Senate. John Boehner will be back as leader of the House. Texas is still red statewide. The Texas Senate is still dominated by Republicans but remains short of a super-majority. The Texas House is still dominated by Republicans but no longer has a super-majority. Harris County still has more Democratic voters than Republican.

So what was all the fuss about? Why did the country spend billions of dollars and millions of man-hours if we were going to end up right where we started?

Hey, democracy is messy. Which is why it is rarely long-lived in historical terms. As Plato said:

Democracy … is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. —PLATO, The Republic

Lots and lots and lots and lots of people are commenting on the national election, so I doubt there is much that I could add that would be insightful or interesting. I will say that it is far too early to start pointing fingers or coming up with final solutions to the “problem” if you are a Republican. if you are a Democrat, go ahead and gloat – you haven’t necessarily earned the right to gloat it but you did win the election and it is human nature to celebrate victories. When both sides calm down, perhaps we can begin to understand the whys and wheres of the election. Until then, those of us that claim to be Christian need to pray and ask that our leaders, ALL of our leaders, be given the wisdom to lead this country in such a way that we are able to spread the Good News to the rest of the world. For those of us that do not claim that particular faith or any faith at all, perhaps a time of reflection would rest your soul and prepare you better for the battles ahead. Because battles do loom and if we do not choose civility, we are by default choosing war.

On the state level, the Republican message of low taxes and low regulation continued to resonate with the voters and will continue to resonate with people from other states. We can expect more people to vote with their feet and move here, hoping to realize dreams that have been taken from them in states with a different governing philosophy. This growth will continue to be a challenge for our legislature as they cope with basic infrastructure needs as well as the coming burden imposed by the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as we like to call it. We must improve our transportation funding – we can no longer afford to move gas tax money to education. We must improve our public education system – we cannot wait longer. We must address our increased need for water – without water, what else matters? We cannot change philosophy and simply raise taxes – that would defeat us in the long run. As we head into another legislative session that will require hard choices to be made, we need to make certain that we have the right leadership in the House – and that battle has already started. Think long and hard before you choose someone to support because that choice is key to continuing and growing the “Texas miracle”.

And last, we get to Harris County. An awful lot of people have looked at the top lines of the election results and have decided that we Republicans had a terrible time of it. In point of fact, we had a very good showing, given the circumstances. That isn’t an excuse or a way to avoid critical analysis, it is a fact.

Fact is, we are outnumbered in Harris County. That’s just the plain truth. Were it not for Democrats not caring too much about non-presidential year elections, we would not have had the kind of success that lulled some of those in our party into thinking that we were “entitled” to win county wide or that winning county wide was a given. We are not and it is not.

Given that we are outnumbered and that the Harris County Republican Party is not much more than a DBA for a few political consultants to make a comfortable living, it is remarkable that Republicans did so well. The party actually helped this time. Party Chairman Jared Woodfill was open to ideas and made a concerted effort to help. He pushed a plan that did work in small areas but would have had much greater success if he had listened to us for the past 5-6 years. I wrote about that plan back in July:

He (Jared Woodfill) then went through a presentation outlining the party’s strategy to get out the vote for November. I won’t reveal the super secret details but they hark back to the plans that were supposed to be used in 2010 but weren’t for whatever reason. It is a solid, back to basics plan that centers around precinct chairs. Which of course begs the question: why haven’t there been more efforts to recruit and retain precinct chairs?

But he did try. And that plan did work in precincts with strong precinct chairs that were willing to pitch in and work it – Sen. Patrick’s SD-7 area is proof of that. But Harris County is huge and we cannot win sweeps in Harris County any longer if we only depend upon SD-7. Without question, SD-7 is still the model but it is only that – a model. We need to spread that model. But that topic is for another day.

In addition to the party helping, there were an awful lot of groups helping separate and apart from the party. People frustrated with the party decided to do something, much as in 2010. Felicia Cravens and her band of misfits continued her relentless efforts to reach voters. Robin and Jim Lennon at the Kingwood Tea Party did the same. In the Southeast corridor, the Bay Area Republican Women, San Jacinto Republican Women, Clear Lake Area Republicans, and Clear Lake Tea Party worked together. The Greater Houston Pachyderms and Downtown Houston Pachyderms provided a weekly outlet for candidates. Commissioner Steve Radack arranged to pay for a building, enabling four westside Republican Women’s groups to come together. Texas Victory Chair Ed Emmett put together a terrific phone banking operation headed up by SuZanne Feather and John Biundo utilizing both HCRP assets and Republican Women groups. All said, it was a heck of an effort with tremendous results. As I wrote, after early voting, we were in great shape and the results bore that out.

But a lot of people are saying the opposite, that Harris County Republicans had a terrible day. I feel their pain because I too wanted most of our judicial candidates to win and certainly the high profile positions of Sheriff and County Attorney. In fact, I think that losing the County Attorney’s race is the most significant race we lost but again, a post for another day. None of those losses negate the fact that Harris County Republicans had a very good election.

We won District Attorney. Granted, that was a gimme and were it not for a disgusting primary, we could have had that sweep we all wanted but that also is fodder for another day. We won Tax Assessor Collector. We won nine District Court judicial races, two County Court benches, and eight out of ten Appeals Court benches. We turned out 59,536 more straight ticket voters than we did in 2008, virtually tying Democratic straight ticket voters after losing that battle by 6.5{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} in 2008.

Yes, some of our judicial candidates lost, our sheriff candidate lost, our county attorney candidate lost and no one feels worse about that than I do because I know how hard they worked over such a long period of time. And I feel I let them down, just as surely as many of you do. We all ask, what could we have done differently and perhaps there are things that we could have done – if so, we’ll figure that out and try to do better. But at some point, we need to understand that we did a good job and accept that there are people on the other side that did a good job too.

One thing that we cannot do, absolutely cannot do is to not understand that we did a good job and start pointing fingers at others in our party. I’ve seen many, many emails, tweets, and Facebook posts that do just that. The most egregious example is similar to what I heard in 2010 after an overwhelming victory! Shortly after that election, Paul Bettencourt went on the air at KSEV and claimed that Harris County Judge Ed Emmett had done nothing to help the party – in fact the opposite was true! And then yesterday, I tune into KSEV and what do I hear? Sen. Dan Patrick blasting Judge Emmett, blaming him for the loss of judicial races. I was astonished and saddened by that, especially because it flat out isn’t true- yet another post for another day.

We cannot, absolutely cannot, assemble in a circle and start shooting, especially after an election in which we did very well!

And that brings us right back to the question I started with: why do we do this if all we get is status quo. And here is my answer:

That’s right, we do it for the future of our children and grandchildren. There is no other explanation for the vast majority of us that spend hours and hours trying to convince people that we must head in this direction or that one – volunteer hours I might add. Status quo is so much better than losing ground to an ideology we think is bad for the future. And that goes for both sides.

What we must understand is that the “other guy” does it for the exact same reason. They believe that  expanded government is every bit as important for the future of their offspring as we believe smaller government is. They believe that a strong safety net is as vital to achieving a strong America as we believe that reducing debt is. They are not simply trying to take something from us. They are not trying to bring us all down to the lowest common denominator. We simply have different ideas on how to get to the same goal.

How do we win on ideas? We have to change our rhetoric. We simply have to if we want to expand our party and get people to listen to our message. I’m talking only to Republicans: someone else will have to deal with Democrats and explain to them that when they call me a racist, or a “teabagger”,  or a bigot, I shut down and don’t listen to them.

• If we want more Latinos to listen to our ideas about free markets and opportunity, we must stop shouting at every opportunity about “them illegals”, or worse, as I see every single day from “conservatives”. Not every Latino is in this country illegally but most Latinos take offense at this. We can talk about people being in the country illegally, and the inherent problems that causes, without yelling and screaming and turning people away. We do not have to compromise any core beliefs to tone down this type of rhetoric.
• If we want more gay people to listen to our message, we can’t start the conversation with “you’re going to burn in hell, you deviant”. We do not need to change our platform regarding marriage – there are good arguments to be made that society should hold up traditional marriage as an ideal. But we need to recognize that there are real, everyday problems that gay people face – spousal benefits, survivor benefits, visiting sick loved ones – that we can and should address. There are also areas that they can help – would you rather have a child subjected to an abusive foster care system or to have that same child cared for by loving parents? It is time we had these types of discussions.
• If we want more single women to listen to our ideas, it doesn’t help when we start the conversation by calling them sluts.
• If we want more descendents of African slaves to listen to our ideas, it doesn’t help to have “conservative” talk radio hosts mocking them with fake ghetto accents talking about fried chicken.

We must change our approach to people because we need them to listen to our message. Our message is awesome – free markets, low taxes, and low regulation provide the most opportunity for their offspring to prosper – and not just financially. We must stop putting the expansion of our party into the hands of “Outreach Committees” – we must actually sit down and talk to people. Have real conversations with people that aren’t “like us”.  To have these conversations, we must become people with integrity and we must insist that our candidates and consultants be people of integrity. And we must actually meet people where they are, not where we hope they will come. A couple of examples.

I mentioned political consultant Phil Owens the other day by noting that in the unethical world of Republican consultants in Harris County, he stands out because he refuses to compromise his integrity. Believe it or not, this is held against him by the Harris County Republican Party “insiders”. They refuse to hire him, even though he successfully coordinated the revolt against Red Light Cameras and forced Mayor Annise Parker to so water down the “feeding ordinance” as to make it meaningless. He did this by forming broad coalitions across Harris County. And yet the “big guns”, the large expenditure campaigns, the large PACS, turn to the same old consultants that suck money down and lose half the time. All because he refuses to lie about people, call them names, or mislead voters. Of course, those are the very reasons that broad groups trust him enough to form coalitions. Want to quickly turn around the image of the HCRP? Hire him as the Executive Director.

As for meeting people where they are, I’ll use the church I attend, Ecclesia, as an example. The founders of this church had a vision – reach the unchurched. How best to do that? Start a group in the suburbs and steal members from other churches? Buy a stadium downtown and con people into thinking that if they just trust God, they’ll get rich? Or start up a gathering in a coffee shop in the inner city, welcoming anyone, regardless of their clothes or circumstances in life? If you answered the latter, you’d be correct. Sure, you’ll meet people that you don’t normally meet – you might sit next to a homeless guy, behind a couple in their biker gear, and in front of a gay couple. And you probably won’t have flags flying in your church because the message is about Jesus, only about Jesus, and always about Jesus. But guess what? You’re reaching the “unchurched”.

And believe me, Republicans need to get out and reach the “unchurched” – unchurched in this case being those people that have never had the opportunity to hear the unvarnished truth about the limitless opportunities that free markets, low taxes, and low regulatory burdens offer.

Getting out, talking to people, having real conversations, breaking bread together, that’s really what drives democracy. I like this quote from Simeon Strunsky in his book No Mean City:

People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on the buses and in the subway.

Want to know why Republicans lost nationally? Because we spent too much time listening to Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh and not enough time listening to our neighbors and explaining to them why we believe as we do.