Are Republicans Doomed to Minority ‘Dixiecrat’ Status?

Pajamas Media ^ | November 13, 2008 | Jennifer Rubin

[AJKauf]

The only place where Republicans are flourishing in national elections is the Deep South. There is reason to fear that if Republicans do not alter their present course they will be relegated to a permanent minority in Congress and be stuck below the 200 electoral vote mark in presidential elections.

Emphasis on social conservatism does not appear sufficient to affect votes for federal offices, even in states where voters approve of socially conservative policies (e.g., Florida voted overwhelmingly against a gay marriage proposal but for Barack Obama). The challenge for Republicans is to maintain a distinctive alternative to liberalism but appeal to a broad cross-section of voters, both ideologically and geographically. Part of that is a policy challenge, but much depends on personnel....

[Defiant]

If immigration passes, yes. If not, we have a chance, if elections are fair. Obama will be an unmitigated disaster, but when we become like Mexico, it won’t matter. Mobs in the street rule in banana republics.

[mainerforglobalwarming]

I have no doubts that an amnesty bill will pass this year. The republicans will not have enough votes to filibuster it. If the illegals are fast tracked to citizenship, Obama and the dems will make greater gains in congress, regardless of economic conditions.

[Star Traveler]

You’ve got the wrong link. You might want to get it corrected...

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/are-republicans-doomed-to-minority-status/

[ABQHispConservative]

Answer is no. Conservatism has been clobbered because of moderate Republicans, which got on the bandwagon and took over the reins. We have to learn from that and never let them take over the reins. That means strong conservative elected officials, which will welcome moderates in the party, but never again yield control. Conservatives are, after all, the majority.

As conservatives we should also stop putting our heads in the sand at the mention of immigration. We have to engage all groups and through conservatism bring them into the fold of mainstream America.

But if we continue to hand-wring and run around asking “what went wrong” we’ll never start working.

[housedeep]

The way I see it currently, we have a generational issue that plagues us right now more than a geographical one. Looking at polling data from election day we can see markers-for instance here is an example from CNN polling:

Race played less of a role in the election than age, exit polls showed.

While Obama is projected to be the nation's first black president, John McCain would have been the oldest person ever elected to the nation's highest office.

Twice as many of those polled Tuesday said age was an important factor in their vote as those who said race was.

Among those factoring age into their vote, 78 percent went for Obama to 21 percent for McCain, exit polls showed.

This bodes well for us with so many young fresh Governors ready for 2012 and beyond!

The Hispanic vote was a big problem as well, but I think we can get that back into a majority before 2012.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

But of course...any illegal alien amnesty bill passes, it will be a sure loser for its supporters at the 2010 elections.

I will never vote for any politician who is so anti-American to vote to give special rights to illegal alien lawbreakers

As for this article....it has those liberal code-words “reach out” and “bipartisan”....any stuff like that and GOP does not get my vote

The GOP cant win if it bury its head up liberals arse’s

[basalt]

HARD FOR ANY PARTY TO WIN THE WHITE HOUSE 3 TERMS IN A ROW..RARELY HAPPENS...OBAMA WILL BE A JIMMY CARTER 1 TERMER...NO DOUBT

[Star Traveler]

It sounds like more garbage to move the Republicans closer to being Democrats...

In other words, “if we can’t fight them, we might as well join them...” LOL...

[FrankR]

"The only place where Republicans are flourishing in national elections is the Deep South. "

You'd better check that map again...there is an awful lot of red on it. The liberals dominated on the west coast and in the new england states...and florida.

And the jury is still out on how many dead people, pets, and cartoon characters voted that we don't know about yet.

[DOGHEAD]

I am a proud southerner and here is what has to happen for the Republican party to be re-established:
1. No more bailouts- Have the previous bailouts been effective?
Why should Americans support a bailout of billions of dollars to Ford and GM? The companies need to fail if they are not producing a product that people want to buy for the price they are asking. Too bad. They should have been developing electric/alternative fuel, high MPG cars instead of selling gas guzzling SUV’s.. They failed to see what was coming... too bad. Greed and stupidity got them there.

2. Same with banks- Greed and stupidity got them where they are. They were selling exotic forms of investments by the boatload. they knew these contained fraudulent loans.
but they didn’t care.—Too bad!

3. Just simply become the party of “Freedom”
let people choose between Freedom or socialism.
We can either have Freedom and responsibility or Socialism and control.

[N3WBI3]

This is much to do about nothing...

George Bush is an incredibly unpopular president, Obama was a well spoken man who ran a pretty good campaign (having the msm in his pocket did not hurt). The republicans had mose senate seats up for grabs than the Dems and were outspent by a huge margin..

With all of that the Dems managed 54% of the national vote and a hand full of senate seats. The GOP can use this time to refocus on what people sent them there for (to oppose big government) and I expect in 2010 to see the GOP, at worst, take back as many senate seats as it lost this time around and at best push the dems close to 50

[PhiKapMom]

Emphasis has to be placed on fiscal conservatism. We do not need any more social conservatives running that cannot answer economic questions and don’t care.

There are many fine conservatives that are both fiscal and social and that is who we need to find to run for office. Smart, intelligent, common sense conservatives that stand on principle.

You cannot run for office as a stringent social conservative only and expect to win in most areas. One ran in my House District and lost to the Dem who is also a conservative, pro-life person. The ‘my way or no way’ candidate is not going to win statewide even in a staunch conservative state.

The candidate that says social issues like abortion belong in my state and not the federal level, will attract votes. We saw what happened on gay marriage even in CA. We had a candidate that was pro-life but liberal on immigration. We need a national candidate that is strong in their beliefs but willing to have a dialogue and not immediately toss them overboard because you don’t agree with them.

Sarah Palin in her interview with Greta summed it up in the fact that she is 100% pro-life but it is about cutting the number of abortions and believes a lot of women agree with that part. Build from there changing one heart at a time instead of in your face.

[Dawebman]

[Texas_shutterbug]

The young aren't socially conservative. As long as we push a social conservative agenda, we are doomed.

It's time for churches to start changing individual hearts, and to worry less about social policy. We are losing both wars.

[Texas_shutterbug]

Then I trust you believe Reagan was anti-American as well?

[mainerforglobalwarming]

I hope that the illegals are fast tracked for 2010. But we could stop this nonsense, if conservatives had control of a major tv network. In a battle against marxist propaganda, we need an outlet for the truth. Just one network, NBC or ABC, would be all it would take to topple the obama administration.

[mainerforglobalwarming]

I meant to say are not fast tracked.

[ilgipper]

the young are never socially conservative. That comes with family and experience. We have to build on our fiscal and foreign policy concepts not abandon social conservatism. This election was about economic collapse and an unpopular war. The majority right now think Bush responded wrong to 9/11 and started an unnecessary war. I don’t agree, but that is the majority opinion right now.

[reagan_fanatic]

George Bush is an incredibly unpopular president, Obama was a well spoken man who ran a pretty good campaign (having the msm in his pocket did not hurt). The republicans had mose senate seats up for grabs than the Dems and were outspent by a huge margin

Bush was also an incredibly poor speaker. Neither he nor McCain had anything close to the oratory power that Obama used to get elected.

What is needed to pull the republican's asses out of the fire is an energetic, engaging figure who is able to speak forcefully and concisely, to connect to the American people. Bush and McCain were horrible at that.

A lot of lessons can be drawn from Reagan's two electoral victories - it's high time the republican leadership started paying closer attention to whom they select as the party's leader from now on.