[neverdem]

It's not the best title, but I don't believe that is determined by the author. The parties need to complete the re-alignment of the Reagan Revolution, IMHO. Yellow and Blue dog dems should go to the GOP, and the RINO's should go to the donkeys. We should do it sooner rather than later.

[Paladin2]

Delay seemed to be the only one willing to play hardball. He was not part of the problem. Coulter just speaks the hard truth to power.

Brooks is an idiot, like Pelosi.

[LasVegasMac]

Yellow and Blue dog dems should go to the GOP, and the RINO's should go to the donkeys. We should do it sooner rather than later.

No, any sane person, anyone with a conscious, anyone with one 1-iota of concern for the well being of this country - should not vote for Hussain ObamaRama.

Come to think of it, it will take a fair bit of Jim Beam to get me to vote for McStain........

[MovementConservative]

Ann Coulter has added nothing to the cause. I am one of those people who quit the GOP this year. The final straw was when 100 GOP House reps voted for that bloated farm bill. These guys are not fiscal conservatives at all, more interested in power. They tolerate creeps, crooks and perverts in their ranks. The GOP may be done after this election. A more libertarian, limited government, strong defense party is where most of the country is I believe.

[Terpfen]

These writers came of age as official conservatism slipped into decrepitude. Most of them were dismayed by what the Republican Party had become under Tom DeLay and seemed put off by the shock-jock rhetorical style of Ann Coulter. As a result, most have the conviction — which was rare in earlier generations — that something is fundamentally wrong with the right, and it needs to be fixed.

So, the Times believes the right is broken. Am I supposed to be surprised?

[thecabal]

Douthat and Salam write admiringly about the New Deal. They mention Roosevelt’s economic policies, but they also emphasize the New Deal’s intense social conservatism. Self-conscious maternalists like Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins ensured that New Deal programs were biased in favor of traditional two-parent families.

Um, how about no. This young conservative doesn't like the tone of this one bit. Sounds like more Third Way BS.

[CutePuppy]

it’s hard-work conservatism, which uses government to increase the odds that self-discipline and effort will pay off.

...this vision of government-enhanced social mobility.

Say what?!

Tom DeLay was way too busy with shaking down K-Street and "buying" the contributors and electorate with government spending to see how far that / he and Hastert / strayed from the vision of Contract with America and small government conservatism, which led directly to disastrous consequences of 2006 (it was not "Iraq").

Ann Coulter is not a government or elected official, she does what she needs to do to sell books, so her "rhetorical style" has no more to do with "official conservatism" than Pat Buchanan's and has absolutely no place or relevance in this piece.

David Brooks of New York Times is ... well, David Brooks of New York Times and has no authority to speak about "official conservatism" about which he has no notion, but is pushing to define now as "Sam's Club conservatives" the same way Democrats invented "soccer moms".

And any "conservative", "Blue Dog" Democrat can be either defeated or forced to "convert" into Republican in this election cycle with simple questions - "Did you vote in 2007 and are you going to vote next year for Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker?" and "What good does it do us if you say you will vote against Nancy Pelosi liberal agenda, if you can't force her not to table ours?"... Use Nancy and Harry and make it just about numbers in House and Senate - game over.

[sergeantdave]

“this vision of government-enhanced social mobility.”

Is this like a soviet five-year plan? Does a dacha come with it?

(Click to play Russian National Anthem. Best played at 3 in the morning with windows open.)

http://www.du.edu/langlit/russian/anthtxt.html

[Sherman Logan]

Liberals have a way to address these inequalities — the creation of a Denmark-style welfare state. Conservatives have offered almost nothing.

I don't know whether I would agree with their prescriptions, but this is an excellent diagnosis.

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

First of all, I automatically discount and dimiss 90% that comes from that fish wrap, the NY Slimes.

Secondly if someone from the Slimes is pushing for an agenda which will theoretically help the Republican Party, you can rest assured that the opposite is called for.

Lastly when these writers (purport according to Brooks) to attack Delay and Coulter, that's about all I need to know

Next.

[Impy]

Blue dogs are fairly leftist.

[Amelia]

I wonder if the book will be more acceptable here at FR when it's advertised by Rich Lowry at Townhall.com instead of David Brooks at the New York Times?

[wo fat]

bookmark

[Ben Ficklin]

So now the GOP is going to be the Populist Party?

Big laugh.

[fightinJAG]

Liberals have a way to address these inequalities — the creation of a Denmark-style welfare state. Conservatives have offered almost nothing. The G.O.P. has lost contact with its own working-class base. This is the intellectual vacuum that “Grand New Party” seeks to fill.

I'll probably take a look at this book, but I surely hope these guys did not publish their proposals without digesting all the data in Charles Murray's The Bell Curve.

Not just whatever hype and op-edding surrounded The Bell Curve, but actually contemplating the implications of the data.

There definitely are sweeping changes in policy, approach and analysis required. But first of all one has to get the nature of human nature right.

We can help the poor and get the hell out of the way of everybody else if we first figure out and are honest enough to understand what is doable and not doable and make our policies accordingly.

[fightinJAG]

They tolerate creeps, crooks and perverts in their ranks.

Unfortunately, both parties are composed of human beings.