Posted on 04/21/2009 1:44:49 PM PDT by americanophile
Political commentator Fareed Zakaria told a University of Oklahoma gathering that the Republican Party needs to grow for the good of the country.
Zakaria, seen regularly on CNN and ABC News and the editor of all Newsweek international editions, was not simply playing up to his red-state audience.
He said the GOP is becoming a regional party controlled by a base dominated by radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, whose average listener is age 67.
Meanwhile, a majority of people younger than 30, working women, college graduates and minorities — all demographics on the upswing — voted Democrat in the last election.
Zakaria said the trend is pointing to a vocal Republican base that’s shrinking coupled with an emboldened Democratic Party that feels it no longer needs moderates from either party.
"We’re ending up in a 1½-party system, and that’s not healthy,” he said Monday at an OU President’s Associates dinner. "We need a two-party system, and that only happens if the Republican appeal expands.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...
Zakaria’s not really a Democratic ideologue either, so maybe he doesn’t want to see our country dominated by one—increasingly liberal—party.
Reach yes. But reach out to conservative democrats and not RINO republicans. Reagan did it.
The GOP has a big problem in that:
1. They strayed from conservative principles.
2. They are clueless in making a case as to why they are a better choice than Democrats, partly as a result of...
3. A media that is very sympathetic to Democrats.
4. Many Americans simply are clueless (ignorant or just plain stupid) when it comes to politics.
It will be interesting to see what happens come 2010.
I'm not sure about the 67 number, it seems high. But, you just have to listen to the people who advertise on Rush's program to understand that his listener base is definitely an older set - probably somewhere well north of 45 on average - lower in the rural areas and much higher in the urban areas.
I think the threat of becoming a regional party is true and can't be denied. The factual evidence is clear. The GOP is retreating to the traditional south. And, with losses in Virginia and NC, that may not even be true in 15 more years.
The GOP has problems. It's lost, perhaps for ever, in the far Western states, North West and New England areas. To think anything else is foolish.
“That’s the problem with the Republican party. They’ve been listening to internationalist CFR-type goons like Zakaria for decades.”
You're most welcome! And yes, when looking at the raw numbers -- without all the emotional hysteria of politics -- the Republican Congress doesn't do a bad job at all.
Also, when Bush gave the 2003 tax cuts, the federal revenue was only $1.7 trillion/yr. By 2006, after those cuts, federal revenue had jumped to $2.4 trillion, almost $2.5 trillion. We now bring in about $2.6 trillion and it's dropping down to $2.4 trillion.
I'm not sure about Jindal. I haven't seen any polling data on him broken out by demographics. But with Palin, her negatives are highest among the 18-29 voting block. She's not the answer to recapturing the younger vote. Sorry.
Demography is destiny. We need to reform our immigration polices as well as stop fighting on the battlefield dictated by the Dems. We are still a center right country. The Reps need to go after the Reagan democrats and embrace policies that recognize we are a post racial society. We should go after discriminatory polices like affirmative action and minority business set asides. The reality is the Dems are the party of bigots and racists who prey on racial, gender, and ethnic differences and encourage people to identify with these various groups rather than as individuals.
I do not have a solution for the shrinking membership of the GOP or independents who identify with the GOP. It is true that the face of the GOP is becoming more white male southern and mountain state oriented. Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado are all trending Latino and will vote mostly Democrat in years to come. It is a non-deniable fact of life. Big problem for conservatives.
I agree. The problem conservatives have at the moment, is that young folks recoil from us and our message. Rush Limbaugh is, to them, a tedious windbag. Sean Hannity is not worth their notice. (I tend to agree with them.....) The political pronouncements of the "Evangelical" movement play well to evangelicals, but the "young people" demographic is extremely suspicious of evangelicals, who they see (often with justification) as hypocritical, smug, and unreasonably judgmental.
We need a different way of reaching them in a way that makes them think, without being repulsive. Jon Stewart is a lefty, but he's actually a good model for how to fold a political view into an entertainment venue; and the old Saturday Night Live of the late '70s was actually a very effective means of showing the problems with Carterism. I'd bet that a good many young conservatives got their first nudge from SNL's send-ups of Jimmy Carter....
I think we also need a conservative medium that goes into real depth on issues; you'd be surprised at how many young folks are actually paying attention to NPR's news segments. We have no corresponding medium -- why not?
We also tend to forget that younger folks have grown up in an environment where "being mean" is among the greatest sins. We also tend to ignore that there can often be valid moral considerations behind what they consider to be "mean." And we must acknowledge that conservatives have done a good job of helping the media paint them as mean -- we often reject things out of hand, and thus ignore valid moral issues; when in fact we should address the issues more carefully, and present our views in a more palatable way.
For example, abortion is wrong -- we agree on that; but the other side of the argument usually focuses on the plight of the woman who is considering abortion, and says we're "mean" for opposing her "right" to abortion. Unfortunately, the "mean" argument has been extremely effective. So what do we do about it? First, we cannot retreat on the fact that abortion is wrong; but we need to recognize that the pregnant woman has problems, too; and that our solutions must also, somehow, address those difficulties in a manner that doesn't simply dismiss or condemn her problems.
IMO, the way to do that is to rediscover our principles on spending—I can’t imagine most young people are thrilled about paying $20 trillion in debt down the road.
We can certainly rediscover our principles on spending; but we cannot forget how Newt Gingrich led the Republicans to disaster on that point (e.g., the Medicare Reform mess back in '95). Where Newt failed was in assuming that he could simply say "we're reforming it," and that everybody would nod and accept it. He did not have a realistic assessment of where people were at that point, and Clinton took full advantage of it. We have to build and propagate a solid intellectual foundation so that people really understand our principles as something other than stunts.
Why in the hell do we need two liberal parties?
please. We wish.
Not coincidentally, that's the same demographic that forms the meat of Jon Stewart's and Stephen Colbert's viewership....
Zakaria is a lying America hater.
“YOU nor I should want ever to place ourselves into the coffin, reach down and grab the lid, and place it over ourselves as that is precisely what we would be doing should we decide to go a “Third Party”.”
Conservatives are in a coffin with the Republicans. After Hoover, the GOP was out in the cold, cold ground from 1928 - 1952. It’s not a matter of winning the first election, Goldwater did not win either. Conservatives have something to build on, Republicans don’t.
I'm not sure how we could still be a center-right country when the Speaker of the House and the President of the United States are two of the most left-wing, if not THE most left-wing politicians to hold those offices. Plus, the Dems won the Presidency with an inexperienced black candidate with a foreign name while also collecting very comfortable majorities in both the House and Senate. They have also picked up many gubernatorial seats and hold a majority of the governorships.
As for the Reagan Democrats, Reagan first came to office almost 30 years ago. The Reagan Democrats were a much older demographic then and an even older demographic now, with many that have already passed on.
I don't know exactly how the GOP will come back to the strength in enjoyed in the first half of this decade, but I'm confident that the Reagan Democrats won't be a significant reason why as they are a shrinking demographic - shrinking in number and shrinking as a percentage of the total electorate.
Yes. I think that's very accurate.
And younger voters may become more politicized as they find the job market more difficult and their tax bills rising as they are forced to support an overburdened social welfare system.
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