hog-wash.
Big-Tent is just code-phrase for dropping your principles.
Everyone is welcome in the GOP tent, as long as they are willing to live by the principles of self-reliance, self-responsibility, limited government, strong military, free-enterprise, and a strong moral code.
That’s a pretty big tent.
If you have problems with any of those issues, there is another party for you, it’s referred to the party of ME and is commonly called the Democrat party.
The “big tent” was the MISTAKE of the GOP.
You can NOT be all things to ALL people.
It doesn’t work.
Kemp was a tad to the LEFT.
What the GOP does NEED to do is PUSH CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY so people UNDERSTAND WHY it is SUPERIOR. Constantly watering DOWN the GOP to Demoncrat ideals is what has been DESTROYING the GOP. If you don’t agree with that, then become a Demoncrat. The GOP can NOT survive being Demoncrat light and tossing aside it’s CORE PRINCIPLES.
Okay, let me see if I have this right. We’re supposed to reach out to people who want us to do things that we know;
1. are wrong.
2. wouldn’t work, even if they weren’t wrong.
Its this kind of condescending (and ridiculous) stereotyping of his OWN supporters that soured me on Jack Kemp.
We get enough of this BS from our political opponents.
I see the point, but that plays into some myths about Republicans (and about Jack Kemp) that probably shouldn't have been encouraged.
He wanted the "big tent" of the Republican Party to cover the entire football field where he once starred as a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. The black linemen who blocked for him and the blue-collar workers who cheered for him should all have a place in the GOP.
Again, I can see the point about race, but most of those very stuffy old Republicans who looked down on the working classes, are now either dead or Democrats. A few may be living in gated communities, but (so far as I can see) Republicans look more like those blue-collar workers than like the old country club Brahmins.
Amazingly, the party is far more to the left now than in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s when we had majorities and/or the White House. The person who steps up on the national platform and refutes this concept the left is pushing that the party has moved right gets my vote.
The best strategy for the GOP is to be there when Obama and his Socialist policies self destruct. If they don't the GOP is dead anyway and there is no point in trying to turn into Democrats lite.
Did he ever shower with the illegal aliens that are moving into my neighborhood - my neighbors? I don't think so.
Well, I can see how Snowe should be the go-to gal for diversity. The black vote in Maine is a critical factor in elections.
I wouldn’t trust Cokie Roberts to get this right.
Hell, I think the Republicans should reach out to blacks, too—by treating them as human beings, not as votes to be bought. They will never be able to outbuy the Democrats. They should appeal to blacks on a basis of religion, family, and decent values. They should work with blacks to get their families together again. They should ask blacks if they really want to be known for gangsta rap and broken families.
A majority of black voters voted against gay marriage in California. That should be a wedge issue, too.
The issue at the core of the big-tent vs. principles debate is that the center of American social values has shifted left. In Kemp’s time, America was still fairly cohesive, shared common values (i.e., Judeo-Christian ideas) and a big tent policy embracing sound principles would have been easily adapted to a wide range of social strata. Today, that ain’t the case. The nation is fractured in more ways than a china teacup under a sledge hammer. To garner a wide spectrum today would be to dilute common values to the point of meaninglessness.
Taking a shower is one thing.
Taking an electoral bath is another.
That is a damed lie. Not even Obama voters favor amnesty for illegals:
A nationwide survey of actual voters reveals that Americans strongly support immigration enforcement, and that less than one-third of Obama voters favor granting amnesty to illegal aliens.
That entire Roberts' article is just a rehash of all the BS the libs and RINOs want to pawn off as an explanation of Republican losses in 2006 and 2008. It is precisely what those who wish the party ill want the party to swallow hook, line and sinker and act upon. Then things will be even worse.
More BS
We’re suppose to leave Reagan behind and pick up Jack Kemp’s philosophy on how to govern? The big tent is great but continuing to allow those whose purpose is to water down what conservatives stand for is to continue to create liberals operating as republicans. Where’s the two party system?
The black linemen who blocked for him and the blue-collar workers who cheered for him should all have a place in the GOP.
And who says they do not?
All you need to be a Republican is the belief in the Republican Party Platform.
If you do you are in. If you don’t why would you want to be in?
The current problem the Republican Party has is that it is not longer Republican and just a lite version of the Democrat Party.
So you have full fledged denmocrats in the Republican party and they feelnot entirely supported because the Republican party is only democrat lite.Well get the hell out and be a democrat.
I think the Roberts' know their article is a pack of lies, selective vision, and wishful thinking.
Above we see the face saving final paragraph from two who know their column is a hit piece aimed at helping the Dems by rehasing all the nonsensical explanations and recommendations for the Republicans they know will harm the party further if its dumb enough to follow the advice of the likes of McCain, and Graham, Powell, and Carville and the multitude of admitted libs who are offering their analysis, including the esteemed Roberts couple here.
Yeah, I have to listen to Cokie Roberts and her husand, lifelong democrats lecture me? Why did’nt they write this article in 2004 when there were tons of Republicans in NY politics?