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To Attract Millennials, GOP Must Dial Back the Social Conservatism
National Journal ^ | December 9, 2013 | Charlie Cook

Posted on 12/13/2013 9:51:29 AM PST by kobald

Fifty-six percent of Americans ages 18-29 disapproved of the Affordable Care Act, the poll found; when it was worded as “Obamacare,” the disapproval was 1 point higher. And less than a third planned to buy health insurance from an exchange...

..President Obama’s job-approval rating had dropped to 41 percent, about the same as the president’s approval rating among the population as a whole, with 54 percent disapproving. The poll also found that a surprising 47 percent of millennials would recall Obama if they could; 46 percent would not. For a group that has been among Obama’s staunchest supporters, these numbers must be awfully dismaying for the president and his supporters...

..At the same time, any conservative or Republican looking at these same numbers with hope of support for limited or minimalist government must confront other findings that show that while this generation has a healthy--or unhealthy, depending upon your perspective--view of government, millennials also have a profound streak of libertarianism. Specifically, the conservative positions on social and cultural issues that have come to be dominant in the Republican Party in recent years run precisely against the grain of this new generation that is maturing politically.

One national conservative leader recently told me about visiting campus chapters of a national, very conservative organization and canvassing these conservative student activists about issues. Within their ranks, he could not find any that opposed same-sex marriage. Among younger conservatives, the perennial applause line of wanting “government out of our lives” now extends to every room in the house and the ob-gyn’s office as well. The GOP’s strict opposition to abortion and same-sex marriages, along with its other unambiguous conservative positions, severely jeopardizes any progress that conservatives and Republicans can hope to make from their skepticism of the effectiveness of government...

(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservatism; elections; freedom; liberalism; smallgovernment; socialliberalism
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To: Trailerpark Badass
There is only one side in this war using coercion, and it ain't the "social conservatives."

Exactly. The left uses judges force social change on the masses as it did in Roe vs. Wade. Obama and the Democrats used the ACA to force religious employers into including contraception in their healthcare plans. Democrats and their judicial allies are forcing Christians to provide services for gay weddings that violate their religious freedom. California and New Jersey have eliminated the rights of parents to seek out reparation therapy for their homosexual children.

Making the case for freedom and against that sort of coercion is a winner for the Republican party, no what the age group of the voter.

101 posted on 12/13/2013 10:55:35 AM PST by Kazan
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To: kobald

Actually Millenials are a 50-50 split on abortion. Perhaps even leaning Pro Life. On the rest he is correct.


102 posted on 12/13/2013 10:56:14 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: steelhead_trout; GeronL; RKBA Democrat

Spot on

Hence the term RKBA Democrat came up with

The Uniparty


103 posted on 12/13/2013 10:56:20 AM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
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To: Kazan; TexasCajun
All these issues are state issues and the people of the state should be deciding them, not judges.

Thanks for posting. I was trying to post similar comments, but was unable to put my thoughts into words.

Like TC, I'm multi-tasking at work today, and have had a few bumps in the road...lol

104 posted on 12/13/2013 10:56:44 AM PST by Night Hides Not (The Tea Party was the earthquake, and Chick Fil A the tsunami...100's of aftershocks to come.)
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To: KC_Lion

The Unibrow Party


105 posted on 12/13/2013 10:57:34 AM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: JediJones

Practical application is sometimes difficult….and not the same for every issue or every season so to speak: The other dynamic is winning the argument first, then win the election on that basis.

The first thing to do is limit government, incuding how government forces churches and the Boy Scouts to accept alternative life styles within their private organizations…..etc….including funding of abortion.

The second is to win the debate in the arena of ideas, instead of trying to only win “elections” based on these issues. We will NEVER EVER stop abortion until we convince people it is MURDER…..as long as they don’t believe that, it being legal or not will not change anything.

As to many of your arguments, tax policy is involvd, but so many so con onlys refuse to get involved with issues like FAIR TAX and so on…when really, those tax and property issues do address the social issues in application.


106 posted on 12/13/2013 10:57:40 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: kobald

The waters of fiscal responsibility will not spew forth from a cultural sewer.


107 posted on 12/13/2013 11:00:11 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
You can have economic and fiscal conservatism without social conservatism…it’s just not as sound of a philosophy without the social aspect - and does not function as well.

Not in reality.

In reality, everyone in America can vote, and the left will always own the great majority of the social liberals, social liberalism is fertilizer for producing more and more democrat voters in ever increasing numbers.

The more the left prevails in social liberalism in law and culture, the more impossible it makes it for the existence of conservatism, that is what this article is about, it is calling for dropping the last bit of resistance to social liberalism.

108 posted on 12/13/2013 11:01:14 AM PST by ansel12 ( Ben Bradley-JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion".)
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To: ansel12

I am not agreeing with the premis of this author, which I’ve made clear in multiple posts…..so you and I agree on that….but I do welcome the disucssion….and FTR, you’ve not touched my argument in general. I don’t think you understood it, if you thought I was in any way agreeing with the conclusions of this author.

Re read, re try…..


109 posted on 12/13/2013 11:03:20 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: kobald

I WILL NOT DENY GOD OR HIS COMMANDMENTS FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO WIN A LARGER BLOCK OF GOD-LESS YOUTH... EVER!


110 posted on 12/13/2013 11:07:02 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! BETTER DEAD THAN RED!)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
Social conservatives win elections….but NOT when they emphasize the social issues. See Reagan 80,84, the CWA in 94, the TP election of 2010 - all of those were victories for social conservatives….who indeed emphasized issues of LIMITED GOVERNMENT.
Food for thought.

The Contract with America had only one social issue and it was just a small mickey mouse thing regarding adoption

In Red Missouri, A spending bill on Stem cells were fought as a social issue and the voters passed it.

A few years later in Blue New Jersey spending bill on Stem cells was fought as a fiscal issue and the voters defeated it

111 posted on 12/13/2013 11:07:41 AM PST by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: qam1

Not sure where you’re going with this……and the CWA was not a social document, for sure, but the prime movers of it were known social conservatives….which proves my case…..not sure what your case is.


112 posted on 12/13/2013 11:09:18 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: qam1

Are you really trying to use that Missouri and that NJ example to refute my premise? I hope you’re not……I’d hate to have to publicly tear taht down…..it’s too easy.


113 posted on 12/13/2013 11:10:24 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

I disagree with you, you can’t “have economic and fiscal conservatism without social conservatism” in America.

Not only will it be less functional, as you mention, but economic conservatism will disappear entirely, as social liberalism in law and culture breeds an ever more liberal and selfish voting base for the left.

You don’t agree with the author totally, but you do seem to be sharing some of his position.


114 posted on 12/13/2013 11:11:05 AM PST by ansel12 ( Ben Bradley-JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion".)
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To: kobald

By the time one reaches age 60 or so it is only natural to be a bit uncomfortable with the changes in society and how the younger generations are acting and dressing. In the 21st century, the rate of social change, driven largely be technological advances, has accelerated to an alarming degree exacerbating this problem dramatically. This trend will not slow down anytime soon.

How can someone who grew up in an age before malls, before personal communicators, before the internet, before computers; indeed, before digital consumer devices of any kind; before cable or even color television - relate to voters coming of age who have never known a time in their lives without instant access to the internet or without a cell phone?

Surfers know that there are two choices when a wave is coming at you: Ride it or duck dive under it and watch it leave you behind. If you try to fight it you will surely get hammered.

In my opinion, conservatives must concentrate on preserving individual liberty and limiting the power of the state. Societal evolution is beyond our control. Have confidence that our children and grandchildren will deal with the challenges of their time better than we did.


115 posted on 12/13/2013 11:12:26 AM PST by Chuckster (The longer I live the less I care about what you think.)
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To: ansel12

Well there’s a difference in how you are interpreting my statement and how I meant it.

In the utlimate ultimate ultimate sense, less functional and ultimate demise are much the same. I was talking in the temporal….becuse you might have heard, we have elections every two years and laws are passed every day, so temporal is the debate here.

I’ve no argument with your deeper philosophcal ultimate point at all, but there can be, in the short run, unbalanced conservatism…...


116 posted on 12/13/2013 11:14:03 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
HUH?

I thought I was agreeing with you

admittedly I had to cut my post short has too many @#E# people kept coming in my office

117 posted on 12/13/2013 11:16:08 AM PST by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
"The first thing to do is limit government, incuding how government forces churches and the Boy Scouts to accept alternative life styles within their private organizations…..etc….including funding of abortion."

The contest is between personal 'freedom' and and state uniformity. Words like 'choice' and 'rights' rule the field. The courts seem relentless, regardless of composition, toward leaning the constitution against individual restrictions.

118 posted on 12/13/2013 11:18:43 AM PST by ex-snook (God is Love)
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To: qam1

GOOD….I was not sure…..I am glad….sorry for misunderstanding….


119 posted on 12/13/2013 11:20:13 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: kobald

Surrender is victory! right?


120 posted on 12/13/2013 11:27:25 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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