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Despite Palin Resignation, The GOP Still Needs Culture Warriors
US News and World Report ^ | July 06, 2009 10:51 AM ET | By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Posted on 07/06/2009 3:07:59 PM PDT by lewisglad

Reihan Salam, an influential young player in the effort to revive the Republican Party, writes this weekend that Sarah Palin's resignation is another sign of the fading culture wars:

What does seem increasingly clear is that Palin's collapse represents the end of a certain kind of politics. If the culture war really is ending, culture warriors like Palin will fade from the scene.

I can hear many mainstream Republicans sharing Salam's sigh of relief. I think they're fooling themselves.

It's wishful thinking by the GOP's non-social conservatives, who want the party to double down on fiscal conservatism—especially now that Democratic spendthrifts are running the country—to regain its competence in governing and to step back from divisive culture war issues.

Rather than marking the twilight of the culture wars, however, the GOP's love/hate relationship with Alaska's outgoing governor illustrates a persistent conundrum for the party: The religious conservatives whom Palin represents are a Republican minority that can't be counted on to deliver the presidency or congressional majorities, and yet they constitute the most crucial part of the party's base.

Republicans can't win with them alone, but they can't win without them.

Successful Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush knew this. They mobilized the religious conservative base while managing to transcend it.

Sarah Palin is incapable of such transcendence. But no other Republican in the country touches her power to mobilize, to draw huge crowds. Without that, the Republicans may boast intellectual firepower, governing prowess, and smart messaging and they'll still be out of power. Who will sign up new voters, knock on doors, and make phone calls—who will counter Barack Obama's grass-roots army—in the lead-up to Election Day?

Lots of Republicans know this. It's why the 2012 Republican presidential field is dominated by unabashed culture warriors like Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich; softer, George W. Bush-style religious conservatives like Bobby Jindal and Tim Pawlenty; and wannabe culture warriors like Mitt Romney.

Palin's resignation isn't a sign of the culture wars' end. Her meteoric rise is a sign that they're still very much with us.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: culturewars; enemedia; gopcoup; hatinpalin; palin; palinresignation; reihansalam; rinopurge; usnwr
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1 posted on 07/06/2009 3:07:59 PM PDT by lewisglad
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To: lewisglad
What does seem increasingly clear is that Palin's collapse represents the end of a certain kind of politics.

Palin's collapse?....I need read no further....

2 posted on 07/06/2009 3:11:24 PM PDT by Niteflyr ("Just because something is free doesn't mean it's good for you".)
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To: lewisglad

Coulter’s article was illuminating about how people are looking for answers and it is right in front of them. This is another example of writers not comprehending what they read. Sitting here shaking head at some of what I have been reading about Sarah.

Some of these people in for a shock in the months ahead so their heads can explode once again.


3 posted on 07/06/2009 3:11:47 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (Mary Fallin - OK Gov/Coburn/Rubio - Senate 2010 ! Sarah for President 2012)
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To: lewisglad
Reihan Salam, an influential young player in the effort to revive the Republican Party

The problem is that there are folks at the GOP who listen to liberal moles like Reihan in the first place.

4 posted on 07/06/2009 3:13:23 PM PDT by SolidWood (Sarah Palin: "Only dead fish go with the flow!")
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To: PhiKapMom

Just gonna ping you here....and here you are.


5 posted on 07/06/2009 3:13:28 PM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: lewisglad
Successful Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush knew this. They mobilized the religious conservative base while managing to transcend it. Sarah Palin is incapable of such transcendence.

I smell misogyny...and typical RINO BS...

6 posted on 07/06/2009 3:15:24 PM PDT by Niteflyr ("Just because something is free doesn't mean it's good for you".)
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To: lewisglad
Wrong first word in the title: "Despite...." Article goes downhill from there. Newsweek, as usual doesn't have a clue, and doesn't know where to buy, borrow or rent one.

If the Newsweek editors and reporters had bothered to look at a map, and reflect on the careers of Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey before they ran against each other for President, they would have written an entirely different article.

Palin is not withdrawing from the battle. She is repositioning her guns, all the better to rake the enemy. And Newsweek, of course, is part of the enemy. LOL.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "A Map-Based Answer to the Palin Question"

7 posted on 07/06/2009 3:18:11 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob (www.AmericasOwnersManual.com)
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To: lewisglad

US Snooze and Slurred Report does it again!


8 posted on 07/06/2009 3:19:50 PM PDT by VanDeKoik (Iran doesnt have a 2nd admendment. Ya see how that turned out?)
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To: SolidWood

Mohammadan ?


9 posted on 07/06/2009 3:20:20 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: lewisglad

Gee! Michael Steele as RNC Chair is really working out great for the GOP-not.


10 posted on 07/06/2009 3:20:37 PM PDT by johnthebaptistmoore (Conservatives obey the rules. Leftists cheat. Who probably has the political advantage?)
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To: hoosiermama; SoCalPol

I think this country has raised a group of students who have ZERO reading comprehension and a lot are in the drive by media.

I was coming back to ping you and SoCal after I had a phone call.

Where do these people come up with this crap? She sure has a lot of people scared on what her future plans might be is all I can say.


11 posted on 07/06/2009 3:23:16 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (Mary Fallin - OK Gov/Coburn/Rubio - Senate 2010 ! Sarah for President 2012)
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To: Niteflyr

All these so called “conservative” pundits from inside the beltway must all be smoking from the same bag. I have never heard so many clueless opinions spouted by so many people that know so little about Sarah Palin and what is going on.

These folks not only don’t know anything, they don’t even suspect anything.

God save us from these idiots.


12 posted on 07/06/2009 3:23:46 PM PDT by yellowhorse (6 good horses, 3 good women (my wife, my momma and my sister))
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Bangladeshi named Salam. Yes.

I wouldn't mind if he were a real American Conservative. But he is a RINO enabler... I think he is a Mittster.

13 posted on 07/06/2009 3:25:11 PM PDT by SolidWood (Sarah Palin: "Only dead fish go with the flow!")
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To: lewisglad

The grassroots work will certainly NOT be done by lazy, self-centered pro-abort, pro-homosexual, anti-gun investment bankers. Social conservatives have an easily wieldable veto against any soulless materialist candidate. No GOP POTUS candidate can ever win without enthusiastic support from the social conservatives. That is as it should be.


14 posted on 07/06/2009 3:26:26 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: Niteflyr

Me either. What a load.


15 posted on 07/06/2009 3:28:06 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: lewisglad

I just ordered one of these bumper stickers for 99 cents, including shipping. It's at patriotdepot.com No, I'm not associated with the seller -- just seemed like a great deal, so I'm passing it along.

16 posted on 07/06/2009 3:29:45 PM PDT by webschooner
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To: SolidWood
"But he is a RINO enabler... I think he is a Mittster."

So just another liberal, party-destroying scumbag.

17 posted on 07/06/2009 3:31:46 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: PhiKapMom

Reihan Salam is a long time Mark Sanford Bot

Reihan, like the DC shooter thinks Neo Con is a bad name


18 posted on 07/06/2009 3:39:05 PM PDT by SoCalPol (Reagan Republican for Palin 2012)
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To: webschooner; PhiKapMom

Do you have that link for Palin supporters? What do they call it? Web may be interested.


19 posted on 07/06/2009 4:02:15 PM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: hoosiermama

Visit Team Sarah at: http://www.teamsarah.org

They are over 70,000 strong and looking for more.


20 posted on 07/06/2009 4:09:20 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (Mary Fallin - OK Gov/Coburn/Rubio - Senate 2010 ! Sarah for President 2012)
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