Posted on 11/26/2012 9:51:06 AM PST by LucianOfSamasota
Last week, I pointed out that there is no such thing as a natural social-conservative skew among Latino Americans. But that leaves open a rejoinder, expressed by several readers: The GOP doesn’t need to get all of the Latino vote, just its fair share. That’s true, and I should have made my point clearer. In the wake of the election, some social conservatives have tried a new version of the old Silent Majority argument, contending that Republicans can continue to make their candidates pass litmus tests on abortion and gay marriage and still win national elections if only it taps the natural social conservatism of Latinos. Exposing that illusion was the point of the numbers I presented.
This time I will explicitly offer a broader argument and then give the numbers. My thesis is that the GOP is in trouble across the electoral board because it has become identified in the public mind with social conservatism. Large numbers of Independents and Democrats who are naturally attracted to arguments of fiscal discipline, less government interference in daily life, greater personal responsibility, and free enterprise refuse to vote for Republicans because they are so put off by the positions and rhetoric of social conservatives, whom they take to represent the spirit of the “real” GOP.
I use Asian-Americans as an example of how powerfully this antipathy can alienate a naturally conservative voting bloc. Let it be clear: The causal link with social conservatism is asserted here, not proved. But the GOP had better take the hypothesis seriously.
Let’s start with data from the Current Population Survey from 2003 on some key socioeconomic indicators for adults ages 30–49. (The CPS first started identifying Asians separately from other ethnic groups in 2003).
(Excerpt) Read more at aei-ideas.org ...
So we measure greatness by time now? There are many countries far older than the U.S that I wouldn’t consider great by any standard.
EVERYTHING I believed about politics since the election has proven to be beyond my powers of understanding. Silly me. I used think it was all about the economy, stupid.
1. Pro life
2.Pro Family
3.Pro Traditional Marriage
Since the conservative position on these matters has constituted what western civilisation has defined as 'Moral' for millenia I would like to know why anyone who holds these positions is suddenly a radical?
I keep hearing pundits and politcal consultants talk about how we on the right keep moving more and more to the fringe. Where's the movement? I haven't changed my position on any of the above issues in my life. I've always been pro life, pro family and have always believed that marriage was the civilizing and moral foundation of our society. Always! If you would have suggested to a man 100 years ago...say in 1912...that his great grandchildren would be ridiculed for being against abortion and against homosexual marriage he would have looked at you as if you had 2 heads! But those of us who hold those time honored and NATURAL ideas are now radical right wing extremists!
What a world!
When I lived in San Francisco, I knew Asians who wouldn't drive to Sacramento - they were sure they would be ambushed and murdered on the way by the KKK. Do the Democrats play up these ludicrous stereotypes for political advantage? Of course, and why not? They know Republicans will let them go unanswered.
If the Republicans were an actual small government party, they could do much better, but until some of the base realizes the best way to advance social conservatism is to allow people the freedom to practice social conservative beliefs and to limit Big Government's spending and legislation in the service of social liberalism, not to take over the tools of Big Government and use them against people they don't like, the party is going to keep shrinking.
It was your shoes man ~ you must have kept telling them “You believe that I ought to put a boot in your butt” ~ they want them by the door, not there!
another problem is the “old pharts” who are in charge of the local republican clubs. I remebmer going to a meeting and seeing a group of politically incompetent retireees in charge of one club. Those buffoons could not win a one horse race.
Start out by recognizing the multi-generational quest of any people, to preserve their core values; to build on those core values. Emphasize on the social issues, that under our Constitutional formulation, those are issues to be addressed--save only for sound money & the free market--by the people acting as sovereign states; pointing out that the Constitution confers no functions on the Federal Government that go to how people actually regulate themselves in their individual communities; that all such questions are left to States, guaranteed a republican form of Government, but certainly not a Federally controlled, or an egalitarian (Jacobin or Socialist) society.
William Flax
That's a good question.
Funny, but I never thought of Asians as moochers and slobs. But I guess the numbers don't lie.
Centralized power is the norm throughout the world. Its hard for people to conceive of any other model.
Thats why people who look like natural conservatives vote for centralized power. They are naturally conservative in the common meaning of the word and won’t risk limiting the power of the center.
We have to understand that what we call conservative isn’t. We are revolutionary, and even though the revolution has been around a while it has never really won. Because so many of us are social conservatives, we confuse revolutionary classic liberalism as being politically conservative when in reality it is not. There is nothing conservative about liberty in a world that does not value liberty.
Our blend of classic liberalism rooted in biblical values is unprecedented and exists no where else in the world. In the war between John Locke and Rousseau, Rousseau won everywhere but here and in fact he mostly won here too. John Locke hangs on with a stubborn few in this country alone.
I'm not understanding? We are losing because we aren't fighting for social conservative values? So what, do the social conservatives just get P.O'ed and go vote social liberal to spite themselves? Politics is a spectrum, not a pidgeon hole. You win by appealing to the greatest number of voters. Politics is not quantum either. You just can't jump from one side to the other without first transitioning the middle. Conservatives are losing because they keep pushing people to the other side. We should try pulling them from the other side.
Nazi Germany was never “great”. They were vile and amoral as the day is long. Murdering your way to the top simply doesn’t count as “greatness” by any rational measure. Now the german people themselves have a great historical legacy, but that aberation called Nazi Germany was just a brutish coup by criminals during a perfect storm, defiling and squandering what took centuries to build.
“The quality of a village is measured by the poorest, not the richest members’ is one description of one ethos.
I detect a pretty strong “social conservatism” in both Asian and Hispanic immigrant communities.
I very seriously doubt “social conservatism” is a reason for many Asian or Hispanic voters to reject the R party candidates.
Indeed, it could well be that the R party candidates would get more Asian and Hispanic votes if “social conservatism” were more noticeably a part of the R campaigns. For instance, “social conservatism” was almost completely avoided by Governor Romney... and look what happened to his candidacy.
OR maybe they just can’t get their mind around being just imposable to get Pregnant during a RAPE..
Or that it isn’t really an absolute imperative, for both teams openly PRAY IN PUBLIC to legitimize a High School game..
Or maybe they are just all G_DLESS heathens.. jus sayin’
But you've put you're finger on a huge part of the problem: the more time you spend in academia (either as a student or as a professor), the more liberal you become. Also--and this has come as a shock to white folks--racial identity is an amazingly powerful force in voting decisions. It's more powerful than values with most minorities. Asians see themselves as "outsiders," and Obama as one who can sympathize with them. Those judgments may be absolutely irrational, but they hold sway with a lot of voters, even those in the "cognitive elite." Racial ID and liberal indoctrination are important reasons Asians voted for Zero.
You make a good point, here. As for your personal references in the first paragraph, I certainly concur at least so far as Santorum is concerned. He clearly is not a true social conservative, nor a legal conservative, in his open disrespect for the rights of the States to disagree with his ideas on many issues. He is a disaster so far as actually convincing anyone of what he claims to believe is important. Normal people, who have not yet committed to ideological premises, are put off & alienated by fanatics, spouting platitudes on issues, rather than trying to actually convince by rational analysis.
Given the indoctrination of so much of the youth in the schools, we need to avoid those who have no clue as to how to persuade, but offer only a dogmatism that simply proclaims to the inexperienced voter, an offensive fanaticism.
William Flax
You may very well be right about that. Every group has their own unique values. And Asians cannot be neatly clumped into one vast group so neatly. Here in Southern CA we have many diffrent Asian ethnicities: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Cambodian, etc..-—all have diffrent values, traditions, and religious affiliations.
One thing in general has changed: In years past, a person’s socio-economic-status-—SES-— as well as family influence basically determined one’s party affiliation. These days, regular church attendence (with the exception of blacks and hispanics-—and now Asians too) is much better indicator of party preference than SES.
Asian-Americans are extremely socially liberal. They widely favor abortion and homosexual marriage. I’m surprised that anyone is surprised they overwhelmingly vote Rat.
maybe you only know Asian-America Republicans because Asian_ Americans voted Obama 3-1. That’s not a fluke, that’s a fundamental divide between us and them.
I live in the SGV. True the Christian section of Asian American community may tend to reflect Western values, however, the vast majority are not Christian open to moral relativism. My wife observed an Asian couple (professionals) attempting to steal valuable items from a vendor’s table. She managed to confront them politely and they coughed up the items before they could get away. I do see a lot of open cash boxes in the Asian small businesses. They pay what taxes they can’t figure a way out of. These people are not puritans and a lot are very adept at milking the system. They do like freebies.
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