The Republican party got itself stuck with an unsellable brand: conservatism. Nobody under 40 wants to be a conservative. It sounds like canned food, stale, old.
The Dems have brands like attractive brands “liberal” and “progressive”, which mean freedom and forward-thinking. Liberalism originally was the ideology of the Founding Fathers; capitalism, free speech, separation of powers, rule of law, democracy, minimal government, etc.
Socialist Party of America presidential candidate Norman Thomas in the 1940s:
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.”
That’s what happened, specifically after 1968. Socialists in the Democratic party have coopted liberalism. The Republican party at the same time through the southern strategy became the conservative party.
There’s now nobody left to defend classic, pro-capitalist liberalism. The Dems are socialists, Republicans are social conservatives, old southern white men.
That explains the success of a nutcase like Ron Paul and in general “libertarianism” with young enterprising urban people. And many young people supported Obama truly believing he was an enterprising kinda guy.
The Republican party needs to reclaim liberalism, true classic liberalism, and start labeling the Dems with the s-word.
