Powell: GOP 'polarization' backfired in election

CNN Political Ticker ^ | December 11, 2008 | Staff

[yoe]

The Republican party must stop "shouting at the world" and start listening to minority groups if it is to win elections in the 21st century, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.

In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria for Sunday's "GPS" program, President Bush's former secretary of state said his party's attempt "to use polarization for political advantage" backfired last month.

"I think the party has to take a hard look at itself," Powell said in the interview, which was taped Wednesday. "There is nothing wrong with being conservative. There is nothing wrong with having socially conservative views — I don't object to that. But if the party wants to have a future in this country, it has to face some realities. In another 20 years, the majority in this country will be the minority."

Powell, who crossed party lines and endorsed President-elect Barack Obama just weeks before the election, said the GOP must see what is in the "hearts and minds" of African-American, Hispanic and Asian voters "and not just try to nfluence them by… the principles and dogma."

"I think the party has to stop shouting at the world and at the country,"Powell said. "I think that the party has to take a hard look at itself, and I've talked to a number of leaders in recent weeks and they understand that." Powell, who says he still considers himself a Republican, said his party should also stop listening to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

"Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?" Powell asked. "Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"

[yoe]

.........Zakaria's full interview with Powell will air Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on CNN.

Powell's inflated ego is sadly in need of a shot of real American conjecture. He is one of the elites who can no longer hear or perhaps doesn't want to....some what of a political social butterfly these days..........

[ComputerGuy]

Lemme see, Powell, you vote for 0bama because he’s half-black, and only because he’s half-black. Then you admit it.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Colin Powell...and his type...are the reason why the GOP lose elections now.

This push to liberalism, to anti-American coddling of illegals, and the pandering to foreign alliances...is what is crippling the GOP.

The loss by John McCain is proof positive that any GOP camapaign that isnt run on conservative, pro-American priniciples...is sure to lose

[Cringing Negativism Network]

RACIST.

Who cares what racist Powell thinks anymore?

[SolidWood]

"Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?" Powell asked. "Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"

*gasp* I wouldn't trust Collin's instincts.

[Sharrukin]

I am guessing that Colin Powell has joined the ranks of the token conservatives who will be allowed to represent conservatism in the MSM. He joins such illustrious personages as Peggy Noonan, “Princess Oogedy Boogedy” Kathleen Parker, Sally Quinn, David Gergen, Chris Buckley, Andrew Sullivan, and David Brooks.

I for one welcome out new “conservative” overlords!

[Mr Ramsbotham]

If I sell out, can I get a Cadillac too?

[Darkwolf377]

I respect Powell, but reading his quotes in the excerpted section has my head spinning. He is flailing around trying to be perceived as saying something about reform, but it amounts to a lot of hot air. He says there's nothing wrong with having conservative principles (gee, thanks!), but we have to "listen to" groups whose political ideas have zero to do with the concepts of conservative governing.

It's the worst of W's "compassionate conservatism" crap (and I like W more than most here seem to)--the idea that "listening" and basically all agreeing to be liberals is somehow a "third way".

What utter garbage. Obama won because he said NOTHING of consequence other than "We need change," and the mass of voters parroted that silly message right back and agreed with it as if they'd thought it up themselves. There was no "backlash" against conservative principles--they weren't even discussed much in the campaign, and certainly weren't on the ballot.

[Man50D]

A perfect example of the increased socialization of the GOP. Those in the GOP need to wake up and accept the fact the GOP has not represented Conservative values for a long time and should not support the party in any future elections but instead support a party reflecting Conservative values.

[Maelstorm]

What kind of crap is this? Lesser instincts? What in the hell does the Democratic party appeal to? Embracing weakness, cowardice, dishonor, sexual deviancy of all types, religious phobia, cynicism towards the unborn, and the elderly and while peddling to the base instinct of envy and ugly classism and rather than rejecting racial,gender, and ethnic classification instead would have every societal decision hypersensitized to such considerations.

Lesser base instincts is what the Democrat party feeds and thrives on while wrapping hopelessness in lip service to hope. Faithlessness in odes to unity and the greater good. What Powell and those have proven is that they in their old age have lost the ability to reason and proves that a heart is not a good substitute for a brain.

[Mad Dawg]

What I am learning from this defeat is (1) (Without wishing to seem self-congratulatory) being conservative takes courage; (2) there is a political class which develops among those who spend a lot of time in DC which, whether it calls itself conservative, "progressive", or anything else, is elitist, oligarchical, and against the people.

I think this latter class is a result of a trend which probably began with Wilson and blossomed under FDR, a trend of taking problems which belong in the neighborhood or the state and moving them to DC and rendering them so complex (and their alleged solutions even more complex) so that their essential stupidity is masked and the public begin to think that only "professionals" can understand or deal with them.

[nathanbedford]

Colin Powell has actually done conservatives a very great service in his remarks which unfortunately will probably go largely unremarked as our attention gets diverted to Rush Limbaugh.

For years now on these threads I have been asserting that Tip O'Neill had it wrong, all politics is not local, in America, all politics is racial. Colin Powell has just confirmed that for us on two levels. First, and least important, his slip in admitting elsewhere that he voted for Obama at least in part because of his race confirms what many of us have been saying for some time, Obama was elected only because he was black and would not have been elected had he been white. Powell provides anecdotal evidence of the racism of the black vote in America. Second, and this is truly significant, Powell is decamping the party that gave him everything for the party which will be the majority party because of race.

Powell is obviously laying the predicate here for his subsequent announcement that he will become a Democrat. What is significant is why he thinks the Republicans are in electoral trouble for a long time to come-and he is right. As Powell moves from the "white" party to the party of mixed race, he does so knowing that it is safe to do so. The election of a mixed-race president has preceded by a few years the demographic reality. Powell is intelligent enough to know that there is not the slightest chance that Obama will actually close the borders and freeze illegal immigration. He knows Obama and the Democrats will enfranchise on a wholesale basis immigrants who, for the most part now, will be of color, that is, Brown. So we are going to become a nation of color and there is no political means available to stop the demographic tidal wave which is impending over our political destinies.

This is usually the time in which the writer is obligated to state that his objection is not to the color of the voter but to his policies. I hear no objection from Powell about the policies or politics of either Obama or the people who elected him. I hear an obeisance not to the principles which moved Afro-Americans and other of voters of color but to the voters themselves and that because of their color. This is the essence of racism.

Why must I as a writer on this forum perform obligatory ritual disclaimers of racism on my part when Colin Powell is telling everyone that these groups must be pandered to solely because of their color or their race? Explicitly he says that principles of the conservative/Republican party must be put aside to accommodate what is in the "hearts and minds" of people of color. Why? For no reason other than that they will be in the majority. Is it fair to assume that Colin Powell thinks that white racism is legitimate today because whites are still in the majority? What about what is in my heart and my mind as a white person will that count when I go into the minority?

So long as more than 50% of the electorate votes because they are people of color or because they are guilty because they are white, principles, any principles even liberal principles if they have any, are irrelevant. Color and demagoguery conquer all. In playing this race card the Democrats are flirting with the death of democracy certainly of constitutional government and the rule of law.

In America all politics is racial -and that is a truism owing no thanks to conservatives.

[jla]

Only 10% more Blacks bothered to vote in this past Presidential election than previously, despite being urged to 'pull their pants up', despite being registered numerous times by ACORN, despite the ostensible reward of having their gasoline and mortgages paid for them. I can't recall what % of Hispanics went to the polls. I do know that 5-7 million Republican Christians & Evangelicals stayed home, who would not have if a "polarizing" conservative was at the top of the ticket.

So in a nutshell, Rush is right and Powell is sadly, indubitably, and embarrassingly wrong.

[papertyger]

To be, or not to be...

[rlmorel]

"...Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts..."

Oh. The "better" instincts he must mean are the ones that allow an innocent man like Scooter Libby to be raked over the coals and pilloried while you don't lift a finger or say a word, knowing full well he is innocent.

I respected him once upon a time for his military service. No more. What he did to Scooter Libby, letting an innocent man be prosecuted was despicable. He has no moral standing to criticize anyone.

[PalmettoMason]

I'm betting that ol' Colon is going to be taken to the woodshed today between noon and three.

I can't WAIT!

[Mad Dawg]

Colin as Hamlet as wussy.

A little McCellan thing going on here: I have this pretty army, you don't want me to get it all dirty, do you?

[Diogenesis]

Powell: "There is nothing wrong with being conservative.
There is nothing wrong with having socially conservative views — I don't object to that.
But if the party wants to have a future in this country,
it has to face some realities. In another 20 years,
the majority in this country will be the minority."

"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party
 over to the traitors in the battle just ended.
We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged
 to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support.
Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates
wouldn’t make any sense at all.""
--  President Ronald Reagan

[EBH]

"I think the party has to stop shouting at the world and at the country,"Powell said.

I think this is the line that really disturbs me. The last time I looked it wasn't republicans shouting down guests at college lectures, it wasn't republicans shouting at military recruiters, it wasn't republicans attempting to disrupt DNC convention, it wasn't republicans...you know what I am getting at.

They shout, interrupt, protest, and attempt to intimidate us. If we are responding it is generally through the only two media left open to us to say something. Talk radio and the internet, hell we can't even attend a lecture by a conservative speaker without extra security being needed. Folks, when do we call them what they are...fascists. When do we grasp that attempted intimidation of a guest speaker is a violation of the 1st Amendment? Is there a lawyer out there anymore that will prosecute based on their use of violence & intimidation as unlawful protest tactics?

Talk Radio hosts sound like they are shouting at you? No, they are speaking the truth and you, like a guilty child, you can't handle the truth.

Powell is setting up the "fairness doctrine." They are getting ready to silence free speech. It is coming. He is projecting onto the conservative base of the party that which is the tactics of the Liberal Left. I asked once before how do we stop this projection? WE can't even get our op/eds. printed.

If and when republicans, conservatives, right leaning peoples of the United States start shouting, protesting in the streets, and marching on Washington DC then you will realize we had been speaking softly.

[gotribe]

Colon Powell is so 20th century.