In politics you have two options: win elections and control the agenda or lose elections and cede the agenda.
At a time when the federal government is making some of the most important decisions our nation has ever faced, GOP leaders have not been able to come up with a real strategy that can motivate its moderate base -- the real majority -- needed to elect more leaders and enable a more balanced Republican representation in Congress.
Much hay has been made that the defection of Senator Arlen Specter was about winning -- and it was -- but he was also following 240,000 of his constituents who switched parties last year. The vast majority of these voters were pro-choice, fiscally conservative, socially inclusive Republicans who believed the Party had become too focused on an extreme social policy, and had strayed too far from its tenets of limited government.
The GOP leadership's response to Senator Specter was similar to this past election, when the Party lost the White House and both houses of Congress: reinforce its "conservatism." The election proved that their new kind of "conservatism," one which promotes big government intrusion, no longer wins. And yet, bolstering it continues to be the GOP leadership strategy for success?
Earlier this month, the GOP leadership announced the National Council for a New America -- a softer, gentler GOP that wants to hear new ideas and bring in coalitions of voters. However, the group's leading spokespeople are all white, socially conservative men. These are not the faces of "new ideas" that will help draw in a more diverse voting base.
The Republican leadership must look to see who in their Party is winning -- both elections and new voters. Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine both won their last elections with 61% and 72% of the voter respectively. Representatives Lynn Jenkins of Kansas and Leonard Lance of New Jersey are two freshman members of Congress -- people who won in one of the most dismal election cycles for the GOP. Though they may not agree with every moderate voter, or even each other on every issue, these leaders govern with the big-tent, limited-government ideals in mind. And they win.
Exit polling from the last election showed that the GOP lost in just about every demographic except for older white voters, predominantly in the South. Dig a little deeper and the numbers tell a much more dire story for the GOP. The Democratic base is growing while the proportion of swing and Republican voters is on the decline. In 2008, the Democratic base was 41% of the overall vote versus just 27% for the GOP. To compound this problem, the Democratic Party is capturing new voters: 54% percent of the under thirty vote in the last election. Further, polling released this week revealed that nearly 60% of independent women, one of the largest and fastest growing voting blocs, identify with the Democratic party versus just 35% for the GOP. These are gaps that cannot be ignored.
The majority of Republican voters care about jobs, having a government that does not waste their money and keeping their families safe. The GOP continually gives them more rhetoric banning abortion and stopping gay marriage. The disconnect between the leadership and the base is so wide that any effort to keep centrist, women and younger voters in the party is becoming impossible.
The GOP can only regain its political power by winning elections. And the Republicans who are being elected are doing so by embracing the real Republican majority. The party must follow their lead and create an incentive for fiscally conservative, socially inclusive elected leaders to stay Republican.
It may take a 3rd colossal defeat before they realize that they are their own worst enemies. Until then, they will try to show their bankrupt agenda down our throats and blame us for its failures. It's going to be ugly, but at least we finally have an adult running the White House.
i mean do you know how many people i talked to that felt completely fooled by the 2004 presidential election and either didn't vote or went and voted for Bush, once again.
they felt completely fooled, and hoodwinked, they felt stupid, that only made them hungry for more info during this election cycle, now this more informed voter made it their duty to spread the word on the rnc and their deceptions.
i KNOW I DID, IT BECAME A MISSION OF SORTS FOR ME TO BE SURE TO STAMP OUT THE FIRES OF THEIR BLATANT LIES AND BELIEVE EM THEIR WERE MANY, THERE ARE MANY THAT STILL FLOAT OUT ON THE AIRWAVES TODAY.
At the moment they are indulging themselves with faux scadals (ie Obama's birth certificate), conspiracy theories, tea parties, chronic Obama-bashing and rampant ideology that has nothing to do with reality.
They need to stop flirting with the likes of Rush Limbaugh and exert some control over their own image and agenda.
Essentially, they need to wake up to the new realities facing America.
thsi destruction is their and that of any on foolish to have been fooled by them to walk their party line, without dissent.
they understand reality, they want the rest of us to forget so thay can once again destroy our nation and repeal consumer protections, perpetuate the bubble bust economy to the devistation of millions of citizens.
The GOP will continue to bleed votes, just as the author states, until they figure out how to reign in the extreme right of their party. As long as they're the ones calling the shots, the GOP is going nowhere. It's a relic.
Caring about jobs and caring about the rights of workers are two different things.
Republicans will ALWAYS put management's corporate interests over workers rights every time.
Just see what happens every time minimum wage is raised... the Republican go ballistic!
"...a government that does not waste their money"... who are you kidding?
The Republican want to DESTROY gov, as in no Social Security, no heath care, no public schools, etc, etc.
The only Republican approved gov programs are Defense and police agencies.
"...keeping their families safe."
You mean keeping families in FEAR.
think abt it they are arguing against roe v wade, which passed inthe late 60's, when women were regulated to back alley abortions and dying on sidewalks if they had to deal with unwanted pregnancy.
now i am not defending abortions per se, but i do believe that since it is a medical procedure and puts the life of the woman in the hands of the physician, it is necessary to have laws that give guidelines as to what is acceptable and unacceptable in our supposedly civil society.
that's all. because beleive me to ban abortions would simply cause more women to die in back alleys and door ways. and upstairs corner bedrooms. too many people need alot more motivation than "Just Say No!"
get it.
The above are the basics for survival. Add fiscal responsibility to that and we will survive.
"Much hay has been made that the defection of Senator Arlen Specter was about winning -- and it was -- but he was also following 240,000 of his constituents who switched parties last year."
I stopped reading because you failed to even recognized that McCain was already selected as the Republican nominee by PA's primaries. Since PA has a closed primary system, any Republicans that felt like having a vote that counted for something would have switched to the Democratic Party. I'm sure that accounted for some of the party switching, however you failed to even recognize that.
I also took a quick scan of the rest of the article (sorry I lied about not reading the whole thing) and you seem to assume that because 72% of the population in Maine may vote for a more moderate Republican, that states in other parts of the US will also support moderate Republicans with such margins. Unfortunately (or fortunately, since I don't know enough about Maine to make a valid judgment), the not every state in the US has the demographics of Maine.
One thing I will agree with though, is at the end of your article concerning the rhetoric about banning abortions and gay marriage. It seems silly to base an ideology over limited government, and then have the government tell people who they can and can't marry, and whether they can or cannot have an abortion.
"contradiction in terms"