Comments on: Frum(p)

By: Tea Party Vs Dinner Party | Cold Fury

Tea Party Vs Dinner Party | Cold Fury — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:07:46 +0000

[...] with similar arguments for shutting out the conservative base of the GOP in favor of elite opinion. As noted previously, this particular call to disarm was delightfully thrown on history’s ash heap less than three [...]

By: Canadianvodka

Canadianvodka — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:42:40 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH4LovZeowo

You have to love this, though.

By: Stephen Green

Stephen Green — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:20:16 +0000

JohnW –

It certainly couldn’t hurt…

By: Beef on Weck

Beef on Weck — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:57:45 +0000

Loved this post. Great work.

By: JohnW

JohnW — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:38:15 +0000

I think there’s just one big, glaring problem with these postmortem analyses – a sizeable percentage of the electorate does not vote on issues, but on image and feeling. I don’t know how big that percentage is, but how do you reliably court their vote? Run conservative/libertarian supermodels?

By: Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:39:32 +0000

We we reading different articles ?

I took Frum’s point to be that the GOP needs to spend less time worrying about the social conservatives and Reagan Democrats, and more time worrying about the fiscally conservative/socially liberal voters who used to vote Republican but have started drifting away from the party.

Consider this:

A generation ago, Republicans dominated among college graduates. In 1984 and 1988, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush won states like California, Pennsylvania and Connecticut – states that have been “blue” for a generation. (America’s least educated state, West Virginia, went for Michael Dukakis in 1988.)

Those days are long gone. Since 1988, Democrats have become more conservative on economics – and Republicans have become more conservative on social issues.

College-educated Americans have come to believe that their money is safe with Democrats – but that their values are under threat from Republicans. And there are more and more of these college-educated Americans all the time.

So the question for the GOP is: Will it pursue them? To do so will involve painful change, on issues ranging from the environment to abortion. And it will involve potentially even more painful changes of style and tone: toward a future that is less overtly religious, less negligent with policy, and less polarizing on social issues. That’s a future that leaves little room for Sarah Palin – but the only hope for a Republican recovery.

Since I’m more likely to consider myself part of the fiscally conservative/socially liberal college-educated crowd, I’ve got to wonder how the GOP thinks its going to win elections on a national basis if it ignores people like me.

By: jimmy

jimmy — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:43:28 +0000

Wasn’t there once a death knell for the Republican Party after Watergate? The reign of Jimmy Carter lasted 4 years as his ineptness was revealed. When all the promises that Obama has made don’t come to fruition in about 6 months (i.e., troops coming home from Iraq) his own supporters will begin to desert him. Add in the stupidity of Reid & Pelosi and a few gaffes from Biden and Republican doom & gloom might not last all that long.

By: Stephen Green

Stephen Green — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:51:49 +0000

Will, once again you’ve nailed it.

The future of the Republican Party does NOT lie in Washington, where the “leadership” has undermined every conservative and libertarian principle once dear to the GOP.

More importantly, I’ll never see his name again without picturing the parenthetical P.