Posted on 11/10/2008 12:27:03 AM PST by Glacier Honey
GOP a dying breed in New England
Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., gives his dad John Sr. a hug before... 13 hours ago
Loading... Must Read?Thank You Yes 39HARTFORD, Conn. — A generation ago the Republican Party was the dominant political force in New England, populating the region's congressional delegations with moderates like Connecticut's Lowell P. Weicker Jr. and Rhode Island's John Chafee.
But today's GOP, led by a more socially conservative wing of the party, is finding votes harder to come by.
Voters on Tuesday cast out Connecticut's veteran Rep. Chris Shays, the last New England Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sen. John Sununu was voted out in New Hampshire, leaving that state's Judd Gregg and Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe as the only Republicans among the region's 12 senators.
Shays' loss to former Goldman Sachs executive Jim Himes marks the first time since 1969 that southwestern Connecticut will be represented by a Democrat in the House.
"I felt that we were going to win this, I really did," Shays told supporters. "I felt that people were so good to me, they were so nice to me. But they were deciding they were going to go the other way."
New England's decision to "go the other way" in recent elections is a dramatic transformation for a region considered a Republican stronghold a generation ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at comcast.net ...
The Democrat party has changed its spots several times over the last 150 years. They are now the zesty party of change and compassion for the needy and hard done to. They used to be the party of the old south, the party of privilege and slavery. Actually of course, they still are - its just packaged more effectively. Through hand outs and a harnessing of envy and jealousy, the slaves now embrace their servitude. If its effects weren’t so horrible their cleverness would be admirable.
I’m originally from Willimantic ( left in 1971 ) , but have been back many times since I left . Now in JAPAN . From what I saw in Hartford , Willi , and elsewhere when back , the majority was looking for government ( or other ) handouts . I was back last year ( for a day ) , and there were Cadillacs and other high priced cars parked in back of St. Paul’s soup kitchen !
Ahhh - yes - (I’m from Fairfield, CT - Fairfield county includes, Greenwich, Westport etc.) I love the attitude up there - j/k that’s why I left :) I just figure that if Obama spreads the wealth or takes cues from the likes of Huey Long then he will decide if people have too much - whether that’s money, cars, homes etc. So once the New England elite start getting their cadillacs and their mercedes taken away - they may not be too happy! Then they can stand in line at the soup kitchens w/out cars like normal poor people!
You may very well be right that moderate republicanism is not the answer. But I’m not so sure that the US population, as a whole, isn’t moving away from conservatism as well. After all, the GOP may have fielded a moderate candidate, but they sure didn’t field a moderate VP - and the evidence suggests that Palin may have frightened off some of the swing voters that the GOP needed to win the election.
If this is so, then conservatism is going to have to be packaged a great deal more effectively than has been done recently.
Which Americans are you talking about here? It's not like Obama won a 50-state landslide. If the conservative Republicans have turned their back on the moderates, it's not without cause. We're been there for them on issues of concern, but when it comes time for them to take one for the team, they're stabbing us in the back.
Being in power is bad for your popularity :)
The simple fact is that the Dems have almost total control now of national political and fiscal direction. That means that when things go wrong they have to shoulder all of the blame for it. And things are going to go wrong.
If this is so, then conservatism is going to have to be packaged a great deal more effectively than has been done recently.
I agree with that statement. Reagan, in addition to his principles, was a supremely talented communicator. Of course, he that was a skill he developed through his experience in radio, movies and television.
Obama, for all his faults, is a much better communicator than McCain, and probably better than all other politicians on the national scene today.
The new americans mostly, but older ones are still pretty disenchanted too.
No Obama didn’t win a landslide, but November 4th was a pretty impressive drubbing nonetheless. He made deep inroads into what were solid red states.
I recently read that Indiana went read - there were 10K more votes to be counted and they were from conservative counties but nobody will touch the electoral map since it is after the fact. I also feel that deep down like in NC, OH and other places that there was some voter fraud. We also didn’t count any military votes which is horrible and there are tons of minorities that the GOP needs to start packaging a message to. I find it odd because Californians voted against gay marriage and they were minorities voting for Obama that did this. Most hispanics and even black voters agree w/ social conservativism but they vote Democrat because that’s what they were told to do - we need to change this somehow!
read = red
Obama is a superb communicator, particularly with a set speech. He has managed to tap into a deep feeling of unease in the American psyche that translated into lots of votes for “change”. Of course, the exact nature of that “change” has not been specified.
A triumph of emotion over reason.
Perhaps that should be the starting point. Emphasise the social conservative message as opposed to the fiscal one.
After all, the GOP may have fielded a moderate candidate, but they sure didn’t field a moderate VP
yes but all the polls were showing mccain was doomed until he picked Palin. If mccain picked Tom Ridge, even biden would get larger crowds
Reagan was the winning formula. can we bring it back instead of playing around with compassionate conservatism or bringing back teddy R?
Check out the book The Big Sort by Bill Bishop. according to Bishop — and backed up by research — is that the dynamic that takes place when groups become isolated is one of increasing radicalism and inability to compromise. Those groups eventually implode.
Political groups across the spectrum on the internet are regularly purged to maintain that dynamic. If conservatives can’t buck that trend, then they’ll implode.
I don't think conservatism is dead in New England, it just seems that the committed portion of it is too small to win elections, i.e. 30-35%. The middle in that region needs a galvanizing issue to make them form a coalition with the right.
If, say we were talking about the South, and they had no more Democrats in the house of representatives, they would be talking about "what's wrong with the South" in the same way they have been talking about how solid the South has been in the past for Republicans as far as the electoral college is concerned (until this election, of course). Because we are talking about Republicans in New England, it's "What's wrong with Republicans" rather than "What's wrong with New England". You will never get the storyline you instinctively feel out of the mainstream media, it's always going to be through their lens.
One last thing about Rinos and inclusiveness. I actually am not so against having Rinos in the party in certain circumstances, but I think that it's telling that some Rinos appear to have gone after Sarah Palin with such gusto, in such an underhanded way. I know the democratic party would not tolerate that sort of behavior, but we tolerate it on our side.
Using social conservatives as the face of the party and exploiting cultural wedge issues has been a disaster for the GOP, who has been bleeding voters for the last 4 years.
New England can come back to the fold again (especially with the disaster thats coming in the next 4 years economically), but the GOP must reposition itself to its Reaganite roots, and subdue the Falwell elements.
Conservatism cannot die because it works!
You do realize that this is completely ridiculous?? The reason McCain lost is that his "moderation" turned off enough Republicans that they didn't turn out to vote. This is proven conclusively by the post-election analysis of voter turnout. If Palin hadn't been on the ticket, it would have been much worse. As it is, she helped a lot----but not enough to over come having "moderate" McCain as the standard bearer. That, plus McCain's unwillingness to actually campaign on Obama's shortcomings, was the explanation.
As an escapee of the Peoples Socialist Republic of Mass, I beg to differ. These folks have no concept of Conservative Platform as the party get weaker and NEA school systems get stronger all the way up through the University Level, in those states.
Go their and watch the Cable their, it is pablum, Talk Radio? forgetaboutit. It is real hard to find all the talkers, and if they were their the ladder climbers like my relatives show their panache by reading the NY Slimes and Listening to Pravda I mean NPR.
Quite frankly, GWB shouldn't have liberated Iraq, He should have sent soldiers in to teach a course on Conservatism at the Community College Level and liberated the North East States.
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