Posted on 02/14/2009 7:21:51 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Ageneration ago, the great majority of the most educated Americans voted Republican. The elder George Bush, for instance, defeated Michael Dukakis among college graduates by 25 points. But that advantage has been eroding, and last year Barack Obama became the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson to win a majority of American voters with four years of higher education.
This is no small bloc, especially within white America, where Republicans do best. Almost one-third of white Americans hold a college degree, up from one-fifth in 1990. Republicans cannot win without this growing group. To recover them, we Republicans need to do four things:
1 We must develop economic policies that are more relevant to today's middle class. Adjusting for inflation, college graduates earned less in 2006 than they did in 2000. The culprit: rising health care costs. Until Republicans can offer hope on this issue, our economic message will bypass those whom it would otherwise most benefit. Most Americans do not want government-provided health care. They could, however, be receptive to a market-oriented system -- if we can intensify competition between private providers to slow the rise in health-care costs.
2 We need to modulate our social and cultural message. Not jettison. Not reverse. Modulate. For example: We are a pro-life party, but every Republican platform since 1980 has gone much further, calling for a federal constitutional amendment to ban all abortions in all states under almost all circumstances. We don't mean it. We don't act on it. Yet we keep saying it.
That's just one way in which we're confusing voters. We don't intend to police every single one of the millions of deathbeds in America, either. So why did we obsess over Terri Schiavo? We don't believe in sectarianism, yet some candidates in 2008 seemed to cross that line.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Mr. Steele is blowing his options right out of the gate if he doesn’t clamp down with serious reforms (defund Specter, Collins, Snow) and show some teeth. Unless that happens, the country clubbers will continue to run the show by offering @sshat moderates like Jeb Bush and others. IMO, Sarah needs to seriously consider a third party run. If she does, several things happen ;
1. Conservatives will have a home. Fact is, they don’t at this time. For several decades we’ve all been in thralldom to CC pubbies and (to some degree) we’ve known it. However, it was the only game in town so we have served it well - treason and betrayal at the top is not our fault. My personal suggestion for Sarah’s new party name would be: The No-Bull Moose Party.
2. A focused message and solid party agenda will serve our cause than any ‘big tent’ ideals ever could. I think that on-target information and positions can even punch through MSM static and gub’mint anti-1A “reforms.” It will also allow the pubbies to serve as a foil or contrast of institutional ineffectualism and compromise in the face of an imminent, concerted and well-armed enemy.
3. Even losses will solidify and grow a conservative party message. Losers like Michael Medved and long-time pubbies will decry this suggestion, but the reality is that the time is too late and our current party system too weak to meet the crisis. Think Titanic at 1:00 AM and imagine some fool trying to minimize individual actions and tell people that ‘authorities are going to bring help.’ Conservatives are, by definition, individualists and dilution of our principles to save them is not only illogical but positively anathema to them. Clarity of ideals and value of Liberty, set forth in consistent ways, will rally followers and heretofore party dolts to the real core of Americanism.
4. With a growing bank of solid conservative material, traditional barriers like race, gender and faith could be swept aside in a tidal wave of obviousness. For example, in the last election, my local races featured two black women against RAT candidates. In both races, the MN GOP declined help because the races were losers so money would be misspent. In conservative circles, we have a whole army of women, minorities and multi-faith candidates. A ticket composed of Palin/Jindal for example. In fact, the case for sexism and racism endemic in the RAT party could finally be brought home by minorities alone.
5. Conservative money would flow in torrents precisely because we’d know it was being used as meant. Even if I back a loser, I still know my principles are being sent forward. With the pubbies, every dime spent goes into an increasingly compromised RAThole. Sooner or later, bigger monies from businesses and institutions desiring greater liberty would be withdrawn from the main game in town (i.e., the RATs and the pubbies).
6. As things continue to deteriorate, this option only gets better and better for Americans seeking direct action and straight talk. Conversely, as things worsen, our Marxist enemies in the RAT party can only sharpen their focus and alienate more traditional RAT minions because the true nature of the RAT party becomes impossible to embrace. Consequently, things become more and more untenable for the bogus parties in the middle trying to pretend they’re something they’re not. If a conservative contender emerges from the status quo first, the new territory is theirs to define and command.
A great point.
I wish those we elected actually meant it. They don't. None of them, and yes I do mean the last three Republican presidents.
“So why did we obsess over Terri Schiavo?”
Because she was a vulnerable human being that was starved to death in AMERICA with the aid and consent of the court system.
What an ass wipe.
McCain was the most terrible candidate the GOP could have possibly had in 2008..
He’s white bread boring, a worst public speaker than GWB (well almost)
Older than dirt. At odds with Christians and conservatives...
Frumpy, ugly yellow smile... sickly....
And the WORST thing about McCain is that he is the ultimate WashingtonDC insider.... when the country was looking for the exact opposite.
Seriously: If the GOP would have put up a half decent candidate, Republicans would have the White House today, not Obama.
McCain killed all Republicans down the line, right down to local council candidates.
“So why did we obsess over Terri Schiavo?”
I think he meant that this happens often in this country. Daily. Yet, Terri Schiavo is the only one that we seem to care about. Why is this? Did anyone attempt to pass a law requiring that patients in any state are required to receive food and water? We had a Republican Congress and a pro-life Republican president, yet there was no change in the policies that allowed Terri to be starved to death. Why not? Do we care about the sanctity of life, or did we just use Terri Schiavo?
How is this argument logical?
John McCain was the GOP nominee who lost in this election. John McCain is not a so-con. John McCain is far from being a so-con. In fact, the only time John McCain was competitive, poll-wise, in this election was when he picked Sarah Palin, who is (at least) more of a so-con than McCain is.
I am sick of listening to people make this untrue argument because they happen to dislike the influence of so-cons in the GOP.
If you want to make the argument that so-cons should pipe down that's fine - make the argument. But don't lie about this election to do it.
Honestly I think it’s too late. This country is so immoral, this world is so immoral it would take a miracle to turn it around. The damage that has been done and is being done will have to take divine intervention. I don’t think to turn it around is humanly possible. It would take too much time.
The only thing I feel we have accomplished in the past few years is an end to partial birth abortion and not allowing embryonic stem cell research. Now that will be wiped out with the stroke of a pen. The world is aware of the children and women sex slave industry and very little has been done about it and it’s getting worse. Now they say it’s happening in Mexico and the southern parts of the US and it is not being talked about. I for one am beginning to think that the stimulus package and the crooks on wall street and the CEO’s that all pales in comparison to the immorality that is going on. And it goes on and on....
“Conservative money would flow in torrents precisely because we’d know it was being used as meant. Even if I back a loser, I still know my principles are being sent forward.”
I guess Canada is the only place leftfor Frum to write from
Agreed. There is no reason why we need to field such miserable examples. As long as pubbies do, they ain’t our party. Simple as that.
I am really getting tired of Beltway insiders like Frum, Kristol, and Barnes telling me that people like me are the problem with the party.
Support driving down salaries with cheap labor and no one will vote for you. That part is correct!
Most Americans do not want government-provided health care. They could, however, be receptive to a market-oriented system -- if we can intensify competition between private providers to slow the rise in health-care costs.
That concept will never sell if you keep providing free medical care to every illegal in the world that walks into an American hospital and then tell the American citizen he has to pay for his and theirs.
I think he was driving at the conflict between foot soldier and pubbie leadership. Fact is, the division exists and if he doesn’t bring the elite to heel, we don’t need them.
Perfectly spot-on. I felt deeply for the Schiavo family, but thought it was absolutely insane for the US Congress to pass a law that essentially effected just ONE person. This is not what the founders had in mind.
This should have been the beginning of a serious dialogue about end-of-life issues. Instead, in devolved into a poorly thought out mercy mission for one person.
Most things that come out of Frum's mouth are idiotic. But, he does have a point with respect to losing certain demographics. Losing the under 30 set and the college-educated demographic by such wide margins is very, very disturbing. It doesn't bode well for the long-term viability of the GOP. Steele and the other GOP leaders have to begin to address this.
We ain’t shopping for perfect. If I recall, some of the Marines that raised the flag on Tarawa had some serious problems. Don’t matter - what they did caught our minds and held them as symbols of our belief. For that, imperfect vessels serve just as well . . .
God give us men. The time demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and willing hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And dam his treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking.
— Josiah Gilbert Holland. 1819-1881
I’m not certain when the GOP has ever captured the under 30 demographic. In 2008 though McCain came up a loser in almost all categories; despite being the spitting image of what backstabbers like Frum always claim to want.
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