The Path to Republican Revival

Commentary Magazine ^ | August 17th 2009 | Peter Wehner and Michael Gerson

[Jbny]

At some point about five years ago, America became a “One-Party Country”—and the party in question was the GOP. Such, at least, was the conclusion of Los Angeles Times reporters Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten in the book they wrote under that title following the 2004 presidential election. Bizarre as their claim may sound today, it stood on solid ground. In November 2004, George W. Bush had won re-election with the largest number of votes up to that point in American history while racking up the seventh Republican win in the previous 10 races for the White House. Republicans, moreover, were in control of the Senate by a margin of 10 seats, and of the House by a margin of 30. To complete the sweep, they also boasted a majority of the nation’s governorships and a plurality of state legislatures.

[parsifal]

Here’s one link. Very succinct in its explanation. There are numerous others. Simply google “myths about tort reform” and start reading. You will change your mind.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0122-11.htm

parsy, who says quit buying into the insurance companies BS.

[MNJohnnie]

So you went to a far hard Left website to get your information on Tort Reform? Better check your sources better in the future Parsy. This is about as credible a website for infomation as the National Enquirer

Snide posts, arrogant overweening self regard for your own inflammability and sources your facts from transparently hard leftist propaganda mills. You really ARE a Moveon.org plant aren't you Parsy?

[Cheetahcat]

So many here will never accept this but they needed to talk to more voters and would see how much this ended up hurting republicans. And it wasnt just ‘the liberal treasonous MSM’ that caused this like Levin and Hannity claim on their shows because things looked bad on FNC too until after the surge. (The surge seemed to repudiate the GWB messages that everything was on track prior.)

I agree and if that Idiot Bremer left the Iraqi Army intact this thing would have been over a long time ago, then add the Amnesty Framication and bingo you have the Whitehouse filled with Rats. Those 10+ Million Conservative voters that Bush and Co drove away made the difference.

[Grunthor]

“Regardless of whatever people may have as social beliefs the majority of people don’t want the government involved in their lives.”

I am one that does not believe that “limited government” and the “social right” have to be mutually exclusive.

[Grunthor]

I am one that does not believe that “limited government” and the “social right” have to be mutually exclusive.

[Beagle8U]

“Yes. The current law. That’s the part the insurance company shills don’t want to tell you about. “Frivolous” lawsuits tend to not go very far.”

They may not go far if they are defended against, but that costs money to defend.

When anti-gun RATS file a thousand suits against a gun maker they only have to win one. Every stinking one of them has to be defended.

If you ever get sued, try not showing up in court to defend yourself and see how it turns out.

[parsifal]

Well....from the article:

“Finally, among major proximate causes there was the economic crisis of late 2008. By September, the GOP’s presidential candidate, John McCain, had clawed his way into a statistical dead heat with Obama and was even leading in some polls. But then came the collapse of the investment giants Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, the freezing of credit markets, wild fluctuations on Wall Street, and fears of an imminent depression. As the party most closely identified with Wall Street, bankers, and capitalism, the GOP was inevitably held accountable.”

Let me translate. McCain didn’t lose because of his conservative view, lite or full strength. He lost because the GOP was identified as the Wall Street party. Which it has been. Which is something I have been b*tching about for years. Which is why I finally left the GOP after 30 years.

But you go on and do your thing. Link the GOP to the stupid ideas of the anarcho-capitalists. You know, minwages are socialism , wage and hour laws are socialism, child labor laws are socialism, worker’s comp laws are socialism, and the stop sign on the corner is socialism.

And when the GOP is sunk beyond all recovery, perhaps a few blue dog democrats like me can preserve conservatism and civilization in this country.

parsy, who says you ain’t doing your homework

[MayflowerMadam]

Chill. Take the pill. The blue pill. The red pill. Whatever it takes to keep your head from exploding. Sheesh.

[Uncle Ike]

Here’s the link to the CommonDreams.org homepage....

Veerrrrrrrry interesting reading - if you’re a ‘progressive’ troll...

http://www.commondreams.org/

[nathanbedford]

Here is the money quote from the analysis that is significant because, although the other reasons cited by the author for the Republican predicament might well be true, the ones expressed in these two quoted paragraphs are the most important and, alas, largely irremediable:

A second problem is demographic. Obama took the presidency with the help of a “coalition of the ascendant” (the phrase is the analyst Ronald Brownstein’s): young people, Hispanics, and other growing elements of American society. One of those elements is white voters with college or postgraduate degrees, among whom Obama prevailed handily. By contrast, McCain enjoyed a decisive plurality among -non-college-educated whites—a segment that accounted for 53 percent of the overall electorate as recently as 1992 but that now stands at only 39 percent.

A third long-term challenge is geographical. Over the past five presidential elections, Brownstein writes, Democrats have built a “blue wall” consisting of 18 states and the District of Columbia; these account for fully 90 percent of the electoral votes needed to win the presidency. In addition, Democrats control most of the Senate seats from those same 18 states, as well as more than 70 percent of the House seats, two-thirds of the governorships, every state House chamber, and all but two of the state Senates. In the Northeast, Republicans now hold just 18 percent of U.S. House seats and only one-seventh of U.S. Senate seats. Some parts of the country are nearly devoid of Republican -representation.

These two paragraphs are actually presented in the correct order. The geographical blue wall constructed by Democrats and described in the second paragraph which makes any Republican challenge for the White House or control of either house of Congress at best daunting and, at worst, virtually impossible, is caused by the demographics described in the first paragraph.

In politics demography is destiny. The second consideration about demographics is race. In America all politics is not as Tip O'Neill said, "local," rather all politics is racial. If the Democrats can obtain 90% of the black vote, that yields 10% of the voters. If they can obtain 80% of the Hispanic vote, that yields them roughly 10% of the vote. If they can obtain 70 to 80% of the Jewish vote, that yields them to 2 1/2% of the vote. If they can obtain 80% of the gay vote, that yields them to 2 1/2% of the vote. The problem is that they can and do consistently obtain these percentages of these racial/ethnic groups. If one adds these groups up the percentage totals 25% on election morning before the Democrat candidate even gets out of bed.

Within a few years America will be a majority nonwhite nation. Those demographics are destiny for the Republican Party and those demographics tell us why as the author writes , "Democrats have built a “blue wall” consisting of 18 states and the District of Columbia; these account for fully 90 percent of the electoral votes needed to win the presidency. "

These are absolutely chilling statistics. If conservatives on these threads want to be serious about survival, nevermind revival, of their political philosophy we ought to direct our attention to coping with these realities. For example, all the problems of our Rinos are symptoms rather than causes of our current pitiable state. It is not something in the water in the blue wall states that makes Rinos of Republicans.

It is also true that if we put all three legs of Ronald Reagan's Republican school under the party, social conservatism, fiscal conservatism and national defense, the best we can hope for is to get to a point where if we have a tremendously appealing candidate and we make no mistakes we can eke out a national victory for the White House by counting the votes in Ohio were some other key state. In other words, if we do everything perfectly we might win if the stars are in alignment and the Democrats make a few mistakes. Otherwise, the Democrat enjoy the bulge of demographics which will justify James Carville's prediction -unless something intervenes to change the demographic reality.

Parenthetically, it is appropriate here to note that Barack Obama is rapidly changing America into a country divided in twain with nonwhites voting against whites. Obama's latest Rasmussen strong approval versus strong disapproval ratings show that his position has deteriorated to the point where non-African-American voters strongly disapprove of him by a ratio of 2 to 1 (41 -- 22). It does not take an actuary or a bleeding heart liberal to understand that he is pushing America toward a house divided.

It does no good now to look over our shoulder, but the Bush years in which he allowed the infiltration into this country of so many illegal immigrants have probably spelled the eclipse of the Republican Party for decades.

So if we want to change the world we must burnish our conservative image, find a candidate with the charisma of Ronald Reagan, and work like hell. In the meantime, some really fine minds must undertake to turn the demographics around by devising a true message for Hispanics and women, especially single women.

[Liz]

THIS JUST IN There's a reward out for anyone who can determine what Gerson and the rest of the pukeneos do for a living-----with a bonus if you can find out who signs their paychecks. No one has yet figured out if the pukeneoes have any visible means of support...... other than infiltrating the US government, putting out agit-prop, incessantly pontificating on foreign policy issues, squatting in the Repub Party, and kicking us so/cons to the curb (they must get a bonus when they kick so/cons to the curb).

Oh wait---I just remembered (snicker)...... Dickster Perle IS going into the oil business in Iraq. Nice that US tax dollars and the blood of young Americans made the region safe for Perle's business ambitions, wasn't it?

Pukeneos have no visible means of support---but they get paid handsomely to squat in the Repub Party, hoping to destroy it from within. (That ain't gonna happen.)

========================================================

And now------The Winner of the 2008 Best Election Night Performance Award in the category of:
"Neos Know Nothing About this Republican Disaster."

Smirkin' Billy Kristol (McC campaign mastermind)

"Thank you very much. But I could not have done it without the help of all the
punkeos--David Frum, Michael Gerson, David Brooks, Richard Perle.....and
my Dearest Daddy."

"Sniffle---my Dearest Daddy (who was Giuliani's foreign policy advisor) said,
"The historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism is.....to convert the
Republican Party and American conservatism in general, against their
respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to
governing a modern democracy."

"Sob."

"I especially want to thank punkneo Douglas Feith for faking documents on his
home computer so we punkneos could dupe the president."

"Without Doug we would not have been able to transfer trillions of US dollars
into the Mideast, into the pockets of war profiteers, which enabled Richard Perle
to startup an oil business in Iraq with his cut."

Kristol smirked: "Making Iraq safe for Perle's oil business with US tax dollars was truly a noble punkneo effort."

==============================================

AFTERTHOUGHTS The 2008 political entrail readings showed the crucial conservative base stayed home. Too bad the pukes "forget" to tell McC that would be one outcome of the punkneo-RINO bi-partisanship. Be aware that many senior neocons are rank opportunists who squatted in the Repub Party for their selfish stealth purposes-----they are actually former Trotskyites that flew the coop when Stalin executed their hero.

AS FREEPER TADSLOS COGENTLY POSTED : "People forget that candy-ass Kristol, and his crony, metro-sexual Brooks are the original makeover artists for McCain post-2000. They are McC's original groomers and media switch operators.....obsessed with religious cleansing of the party. Kristol at his most smirkiest---urging McCain to fire his 2008 staff, to start all over at the 11th hour, as McC's numbers tanked. Shows how how ill-conceived, advised, equipped and poorly managed McC's campaign was. But then, what else to expect from a Republican candidate made up of neopunks Kristol and Brooks."

Watching Kristol smirking and squirming in his Fox seat election night as McC lost was a consolation prize to this abortion of a losing 2008 election cycle.

[parsifal]

I picked one that hit the main issues quick and in english. Over the past week or so, I have also provided this link, but it takes a little more reading:

http://honolulu.injuryboard.com/medical-malpractice/tort-reform-myth-the-legal-system-causes-high-malpractice-insurance-premiums.aspx?googleid=262696

But, don’t trust me. Do your own research. It’s simple. Try to find out something before you start hopping on the tort-reform bandwagon. Go to google. Type in “myths about tort reform” Start reading. Be honest and open minded when you read it. You will change your mind. If you are very honest, you will come back onto FR and say something like this, “Geeeeesh, I can’t believe I have been parroting a bunch of insurance company BS all these years!”

Here’s the kicker. I used to believe this BS just like you.

parsy, who used to be a parrot

[sickoflibs]

He took support from almost everyone in 2002 (except some liberals) and drove away most everyone except a small core of die hards. Talk radio went after him on amnesty and bailouts but those were after 2006 disaster, 2007+2008. Prior to 2006 was mainly Iraq, energy prices, deficits, and congressional corruption. He did other bad things but they were smaller.

[parsifal]

Get off the troll crap. I will celebrate my 11th birthday on FR tomorrow. I am “progressive” on economic issues just like that famous Republican president, Teddy Roosevelt.

I happen to think the conservative movement, particularly in the GOP, has been hijacked by the libertarians when it comes to economics. So I really view myself as “conservative” on economic issues, but everybody calls it “progressive.”

And you know, rather than call names, why don’t you put as much effort into some research on “tort reform”.

parsy, who has been here 10 years and 364 days

[parsifal]

I know how it turns out. I will write more later. I have a client coming in.

parsy, who has to work for a while.

[onedoug]

Not with my money.

[ken21]

a republican president has to communicate often with the american people.

to not do so, results in the mess we’re in now.

[MNJohnnie]

Come on Parsy, be brave and come out of the closet.

Just admit it, you are proud FDR style Democrat who really believes the Govt should manage all forms of economic activity in this society via regulation and law. Anything that does not conform to that dogma of unlimited Govt control, you label "Anacho-capitalism".

[Lakeshark]

Parsy, who appears to basically be a socialist......

Parsy who does not seem to believe in free enterprise....

Parsy is already out of the closet.

[Beagle8U]

I know how it turns out too...default judgment!

Until the loser pays the defendants attorney fees the frivilous lawsuits will never end.