Morton Kondrake is not the sharpest pencil in the box, by our lights, but he knows a festering political problem when he sees one. And this week he identified one in the person of Rush Limbaugh. And Sean Hannity. And Laura Ingraham.
They are right-wing radio talkers, of course, and Kondrake is putting them on notice. The headline of Kondrake's column in today's Tulsa World put it plainly: "GOP job No. 1: Fire Rush Limbaugh."
Kondrake points out that right-wing rants have been bad for the Republicans. The blabbers, he write, have whipped "the GOP base into frenzies—over immigration, brain-damage victim Terry Schiavo and same-sex marriage—that have branded the party as troglodyte."
The result, he continues, is a Republican Party out of tune with a major demographic shift, all those Americans who can be identified as "Latinos, young people, the well-educated, moderates, working women, first-time voters, and 'seculars.'"
Houston, we have a problem.
Kondrake even quotes Karl Rove on the problem. If the GOP keeps losing Latinos, Rove said, the party "will find it hard to regain the majority."
Step 1 in the Republican rehabilitation, Kondrake says, is to fire "Limbaugh and his ilk as the intellectual bosses of the GOP." The blabbers should be ignored, Kondrake argues.
Amen, Brother Mort! We're with you all the way.
2 comments:
I swore I wasn't going to comment anywhere for a couple of months, but I have to admit, that one kind of got me.
Got me because Kondrake--and you, of course--are only the umpteen-millionth people to suggest, more or less, that the way for the GOP to start winning elections again is to behave more like Democrats, despite having just run the one of the most Democrat-like candidates we could find in the Republican Party, only to watch him lose. It would have shocked me, of course, had you not agreed with him, because--of course--you think Democratic positions are better positions.
Truth be told, I care about winning elections. Who doesn't? But not at the price of core principles. If you genuinely believe in your core principles, and you are losing elections, your only resort is to make converts, not turn into your opposition, because if you do that, there's not any point in running candidates for office anyway. You might as well just let your opponents run uncontested and save yourself the money and hassle.
See you next year.
The Democrats succeeded in expanding their base by embracing past values that speak to current-day concerns and problems, rather than attempting to win Southern whites and their ideological brethren, the true base of the GOP.
It didn't hurt that the GOP was too drunk on past success to see that they were in trouble or change their tactics.
I don't think the GOP is going to come back by sticking with what lost the elections for them. They had better come up with ideas that might actually benefit Americans rather than continue to harp on their manipulative God, guns and gays non-issues.
The Democrats have adapted in the west. There, successful Democrats embrace gun rights, yet make a more populist appeal. They could not have made converts on gun control.
(Personally, I would prefer stronger gun control, but compared to everything else going on, it is relatively unimportant.)
Younger people are not favorably disposed to gay bashing. I expect the GOP will wake up to this eventually. Once they see the light, they will probably overcompensate by being the first party to run an openly gay candidate for President. Lord knows, they seem to have a deep bench in that area.
Past GOP "principles" in a vacuum of effective governance are now a luxury even Southern whites increasingly can't afford. Pragmatism is the order of the day.
Post a Comment