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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: C. Edmund Wright

I am in full agreement with you, sir. I do think it takes both sides to make the “Compleat Conservative”, if you will.


81 posted on 12/13/2013 10:38:07 AM PST by Colonel_Flagg (Some people meet their heroes. I raised mine. Go Army.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Over 90 percent of the Republicans we elect are phonies and qualify for your “liar” label.


82 posted on 12/13/2013 10:38:11 AM PST by Nextrush (A BALANCED BUDGET NOW AND PRESIDENT SARAH PALIN)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

True about the NJ, and this author particularly…having said that, the specific BS in this piece aside, there are legit discussions we need to have among ourselves involving this…..


83 posted on 12/13/2013 10:38:28 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: kobald

“They’ve been dead to me since the Derbyshire fiasco.
What fiasco? “


John Derbyshire wrote columns for NR. He was a bit of a flake but sometimes had a good point. One of his best columns (and the one that got him sacked from NR) dealt with race, crime and situational awareness. Jonah Goldberg, the NRO editor who makes Barney Fife look resolute, thought the article was “raciss” and sacked Derbyshire.


84 posted on 12/13/2013 10:38:40 AM PST by steelhead_trout (MYOB)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

But you still over reacted to kobold….too emotional and not intellectual enough...


85 posted on 12/13/2013 10:39:32 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: kobald

Fiscal conservatism and social conservatism are two sides of the same coin. Sorry, but the are are mutually inclusive.

Just as with the opposite — the welfare state needs, and contributes to, immorality and decline of the family. You can’t separate those, so why do you think you can separate fiscal conservatism and social conservatism??


86 posted on 12/13/2013 10:40:24 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Nextrush

Well no doubt higher in PA and some other areas….but I would hope not 90……then again, what one is in the real world….and what they become 20 years later in DC….are two different things.

But my point is this: Tom Ridge’s problem is not that he is a “fiscal conservative”…his problem is that he’s a damned liar and a moderate…...


87 posted on 12/13/2013 10:40:52 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

The flip side is the government mandating that taxes of everyone must go to support their socially liberal agenda, and their side is winning. Sodomite “couples” will now be eliglble for all kinds of taxyer-funded goodies, thanks to the GOP’s, at best, “see no evil” approach to social conservatism.


88 posted on 12/13/2013 10:41:36 AM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: steelhead_trout
After, all, what generation was more liberal than the baby boomers back in the 1960s? Sexual revolution, drugs, let it all hang out etc.

The reality was that they voted republican by 52% to 46% in 1972 and were the age group that was most supportive of the Vietnam war.

89 posted on 12/13/2013 10:42:33 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: JediJones
The culture has been brainwashed with a new definition of morality where “discrimination” is the ultimate sin.

More and more, I suspect that the only solution is a great social upheaval that either realigns morality with pragmatism or renders the current "morality" irrelevant. The most likely upheaval is economic. People don't protest for gay rights when they haven't eaten for a week. High-minded notions of "morality" are replaced by more urgent matters.

90 posted on 12/13/2013 10:43:46 AM PST by matt1234 (Hitler blamed the Jews. Obama blames the Tea Party.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
There is a difference between believing in morality and virtue and wanting the government to get involved in mandating what it is and how we must do it.

Sounds nice but how is that practically applied? That we believe same-sex marriage is wrong, but don't ask the government to require marriages to be opposite-sex? That we believe abortion is wrong, but allow the government to mandate that abortions are covered in health insurance?

To be laissez-faire on these issues, the government cannot provide any different taxes or benefits for married people vs. single people, and has to get out of the business of providing marriage licenses. And they can't pass any laws restricting abortion in any way, other than defining whether the baby can be murdered before or after the umbilical cord is cut.

The bottom line is the government has to define marriage and define when life begins. The only question is who will set the definition and what will it be. The platitude that the goverment "shouldn't be involved" is meaningless, and essentially the position the left has on abortion. I don't think the left would mind having the government ignore and not recognize the institution of marriage completely either.

91 posted on 12/13/2013 10:46:05 AM PST by JediJones (The #1 Must-see Filibuster of the Year: TEXAS TED AND THE CONSERVATIVE CRUZ-ADE)
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To: kobald

The fiasco when they fired him for telling the truth about the flip side of “The Talk”. And there was more truth, backed with sourced statistics, in his “The Talk”, than there has ever been in the other fantasy version (where black kids are being targetted by racist whites and in fear of their lives from whites every day of their lives. Statistics show just the opposite).


92 posted on 12/13/2013 10:46:16 AM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: GeronL; MeganC; cripplecreek; RKBA Democrat

I’m a millennial and the gop has officially lost me by trying to he just like Progressives

If I wanted that I would vote for the dum’s

I would say the gop is tone deaf but the truth is they have become the second party of government


93 posted on 12/13/2013 10:46:37 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: Trailerpark Badass

I know, I was agreeing with a previous poster who brought up NR about something.


94 posted on 12/13/2013 10:47:10 AM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: Kazan

Yes, the dems are always looking out for us, just to make it fair.....

Sheesh, only the GOPe would take advice from the enemy and run with it.


95 posted on 12/13/2013 10:50:11 AM PST by esoxmagnum (Turtles don't win fights, they just turtle up. Victory belongs to the aggressor, not the turtle.)
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To: kobald
social conservatives need to recognized that social goals must be achieved through social means (i.e. persuasion) rather than political means (i.e. coercion).

Coercion would be Supreme Court decisions like Roe vs. Wade.

All these issues are state issues and the people of the state should be deciding them, not judges.

Opposing judicial tyranny is a winning issue regardless of the age group of the voters.

96 posted on 12/13/2013 10:50:29 AM PST by Kazan
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To: KC_Lion

“I would say the gop is tone deaf but the truth is they have become the second party of government”


Of course. Actually, we have a de facto ONE party state. The party has 2 wings a leftish wing called “democrat” and a rightish wing called “republican.” The two wings differ mostly on social, below-the-belt, issues, but on the important things like size and role of government, foreign policy etc., they’re both more or less on the 50 yard line, to put it in football terms.


97 posted on 12/13/2013 10:50:54 AM PST by steelhead_trout (MYOB)
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To: Night Hides Not
concede

concede

concede

My bad! ...multi-tasking at work to help provide for all those takers.

98 posted on 12/13/2013 10:51:26 AM PST by TexasCajun
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To: KC_Lion

bump


99 posted on 12/13/2013 10:52:45 AM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
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.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

Social conservatism is vital to our society but it is foolish to allow the Monica Media to use it as a trap for conservatives. When the gotcha questions are asked, the candidates need to push back and accuse the Dems of changing the subject from the issues.

RR never shied away from social subjects but he never allowed himself to get pigeon-holed by them.

100 posted on 12/13/2013 10:55:33 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (Obamacare: You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.)
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