PJ Media

Taylor: PJ, so we are clear. I was a Reagan Democrat, so I know from where I speak.

OK, then, what makes YOU a Clinton/Obama Democrat now? Values or self-interest?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m guessing values. If you left aside partisanship, would you even *think* of encouraging the idea that people ought to put aside their values and vote according to their self-interest?

I think the Bush Administration, and even more the pre-2006 congressional Republicans, abandoned a lot of the values that attracted Reagan Democrats. And I think that as a result a lot of Reagan Democrats are abandoning the Republican Party. That is all as it should be, but the driving force remains values, and I think you do those swing voters a disservice by implying that their values are for sale.

I’d be delighted to have you explain why I’m wrong, but I think it would be a miscalculation to assume that the Reagan Democrats who were attracted to centrist Clinton were motivated by some sort of self-interest that makes their support easily transferable to the more liberal Obama. I think the RDs’ disillusionment with the Republicans is real and transferable (and values-based). But that’s not the same thing. In my view, unless Obama plans to win without the Reagan Democrats, he can’t afford to blow off their values and count on their support because of their self-interest. And he especially can’t afford to give them the impression that that’s what he’s doing.