“Translation: The Republican Party needs to become even more liberal so they are dead for good.”
That is certainly a valid translation, and one no doubt meant by the mainstream types in the media and education propaganda organs.
I look at it another way: The Republican Party needs to become a viable alternative to the current left-socialist democratic party, and then grow on that basis. In order to accomplish this, we need:
1. To become the Party of fiscal restraint, and promote that government be limited, not limitless.
2. To agitate and promote those fiscal ideas in our population, starting by coming out with a clear message and infiltrating the propaganda organs in our own “Long March” to accomplish them.
What we should NOT do is get bogged down in making personal issues campaign issues, and by that I mean we should not espouse SOCIAL conservatism. Right now, we can only hope to win if we fight ONE fight at a time. Personally, I consider myself a social conservative; I am a Christian, pro-life, opposed to gay marriage, and want family-oriented activities (usually in context of church or youth sports organizations). If we make them public issues, we will lose the more important fight, which is over the economic and military health and vitality of our nation. If we lose that fight, the social issues don’t matter.
Follow the money. Shrink government by starving it of money. Everything else we want will flow from there.
Oh, let me guess, we have to abandon all of our core convictions, our religious beliefs, our values, our conservatism, turn our backs on Reagan...
then we’ll have a chance to succeed.
Ask McCain how that worked.
Very well put. IMO, the Republican party shouldn’t even abandon socially conservative positions, but it shouldn’t make them the focus of its message. They encompass a small minority of what most politicians actually do, so politicians should keep their focus on fiscal issues, and let other organizations (such as churches) promote the conservative message on social issues.