[MizSterious]

I’ll continue to pray for a CONSERVATIVE revival. If, by “Republican” they mean RINOs, count me out of the revival.

[Darren McCarty]

Then they blew it in a choke job worthy of the Giants vs the Angels in 02. Corruption. Spending. Poor communication.

[MNJohnnie]

Usual GOP Establishment babble. "Oh we must move to the center to win"

This is just a tired rehash of the same dogma that gave us McCain as our candidate in 2008.

No, Obama did not win by "building a coalition of ascendancy" he built a empire of lies. "Tax cuts for 95% of Americans, And end to our dependence on Foreign Oil, a Post racial President...etc etc etc". He simply lied his way to power then went to DC and ruled exactly the way those of us paying attention KNEW he would. He ran right and is ruling Left.

Now the scrammed" Independents" are waking up to the fact that he is exactly what we told them he would be and they are deserting him. His polling numbers are in free fall with no indication that he is smart enough to change course to arrest that fall.

[MayflowerMadam]

The GOP needs to publish a plan for healthcare reform that will actually work and won’t take away Americans’ freedoms. It seems that GOP is sitting back criticizing, but not offering any alternatives. Isn’t John Shadegg, with colleagues, working on something? We HAVE to be pro-active here. Now.

Tort reform has to be a main component. BUT we have to quit saying the phrase “tort reform”. Most people don’t know what it means and their eyes glaze over because it sounds legalese. They stop listening. Maybe replace with “frivolous lawsuits” or similar so people actually get it.

Then, once the Plan is written... have Sarah present it on Facebook. It seems that Palin Power is alive and well, and extremely effective.

[Alberta's Child]

I think the 2004 presidential election was very much mis-read by political observers.

Yes, George W. Bush had won "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" . . . but the reality is that he would have lost to one of the most mediocre human beings on the planet were it not for a margin of less than 120,000 votes in Ohio.

And the Republican Party was able to prevail in that election and maintain majorities in both Houses of Congress only because the consequences of their most disastrous policy decisions (the Iraq War, Medicare prescription drugs, and amnesty for illegal immigrants) wouldn't be felt for another two years.

2006 was a far better indicator than 2004 of the GOP's long-term prospects on the U.S. political scene.

[ex-snook]

The path back is on Main Street not on Wall Street. Voters since 2006 have told the GOP they were on the wrong path. Those that don’t listen will stay the course on the wrong path.

[Grunthor]

LThe Path to Republican Revival”

Screw REPUBLICANS. I’ll take conservatives, thank you very much!

[Josh Painter]

Wow, a long-winded article by two neocons warning that social conservatives will be the death of the GOP. How original, not to mention stupid.

- JP

[dalebert]

from the party that gave us John McPain

[PLD]

I agree I will pray for conservative revival but not Republican..When they get rid of the RINO’s then we can call them republicans again but the liberals have taken over it all..including republicans..The true conservatives are smart enough to see what has happened..So remember RINOS we will be watching you very carefully..

[dalebert]

they still think they are going after liberal votes....lol

[Kenny Bunk]

There is no difference between the two parties except this:

Most of the people who run our daily lives are not elected, but appointed. The Democrats, most of whom are not stupid enough to reveal what their true ideology is for electoral purposes, appoint people who are absolutely required to pass muster with the official Democrat Party leadership, which is very far left and intellectually akin to European Socialism, and actual Communism, in some cases.

The Republicans who through some miracle actually achieve elected office, have no ideology, but will appoint far more "conservative" people to appointed posts. This is not to appease the Republican Party Leadership, which is just as bereft of any philosophical underpinning as the average Republican office holder. However, if the Republicans have any sort of ballast, it is the common sense of many of its supporters among the practical, more functional, and normative segments of society. Hence, A GW can appoint an Alito ... instead of a Sotomayor.

Both parties have reached and indeed gone beyond the point of weakness of democracy as pointed out by the ancient Greeks: i.e., they both use public money to support their supporters as a means of attempting to stay in power. The Democrats, in all fairness, are one hell of a lot better at it than the Republicans. The Republicans deserve no credit, because they have a tendency to accept minority status in return for a share of the goods and permanent incumbency.

The Republican Party has made a Devil's Bargain. Their only feasible platform, "We're not as bad as the other guys in a slim majority of cases." That's not exactly a recipe for leadership of the nation.

2010 will tell the tale.

[Paul Ross]

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.

And W immediately governed as if he was as liberal as Barney Frank. From pushing for globalism (NAU, Law of the Sea, Illegal Amnesty, Phoney Free trade that gutted America's industry, pooh-poohing the immense deficits, misusing taxpayer funds with foreign aid, funding global warming ideologues (to the tune of $79 billion) They went progressively leftward non-stop.

And we all know what that did. The center could no longer hold, because there was no conservative counterbalance anymore to any extent in the public sensibility. Bush's "compromise" (actually more likely his real positions) undercut conservatism directly...and to the degree that too many talking heads in the Party had annointed W as one of us, that left the philosophy leaderless when he proved to be a phony.

[sickoflibs]

FROM ABOVE :”The reasons for the vertiginous decline are both proximate and long term. At the top of the list, surely, is the Iraq war—a venture that, at the outset, had garnered the support of more than 70 percent of the public and strong majorities in both the Senate and House. But that support quickly unraveled. The Bush administration never fully recovered from the revelation that Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and many Americans came to believe, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that the administration had “lied” the country into war. Add to this an Iraqi insurgency the White House did not adequately anticipate and an occupation strategy poorly conceived and poorly executed, and one had the makings of massive political erosion. By the time Bush embraced a new and successful counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, it was too late for Republicans. The public had grown bone-weary of the war and blamed both the president and his party.”

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.)

[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.

[onedoug]

Not with my money.

[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".

[MNJohnnie]

Interesting food for thought as usual NB. I will have to ponder your post for a while.

[MNJohnnie]

That the ticket Paul, ignore the fact that you have been prove 100% totally wrong about Iraq war by events. Instead mindlessly keep screaming the same fringe political dogmas you have always clung to rather then learn even the simplest fact that challenge your neo Isolationist dogmas

[MNJohnnie]

Curious when we will actually see some thoughtful, rational commentary from you. So far all you have done is scream insults at the other side. You have yet to produce even one rational response. Better remove the redwood tree from your own eye before posting any more garbage posts Parsy.

So rather then posture as if a victim, perhaps you can put your insulting, self regarding posting style on hold and produce a rational factual defense of your "blue dog Democrat" views. So far all you have done is post over and over these absurdly childish. name calling, simplistically ignorant comments

Parsifal, post 31 Its not really “move toward the center” as much as it is “re-move head from hindquarters

These guys are friggin idiots and their simplistic little solutions do nothing except prohibit the GOP from doing anything if it does return to power.

Post 32. Most people on FR don’t have a clue what “tort reform” means either which is why they are all for it. “Tort reform” is one of the most anti-conservative ideas to come down the path in ages. Replacing an American jury of 12 ordinary citzens with what, a gov’t answer. Proponents of “tort reform” usually don’t know a thing about the law.