Posted on 11/13/2008 1:58:58 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
In the battle to shape the future of the Republican party, many have suggested a move to the center. In a recent interview, for example, John McCain’s campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, said, “The Republican party wants to, needs to, be able to represent . . . not only conservatives, but centrists as well. And the party that controls the center is the party that controls the American electorate.”
Also, David Frum wrote that the GOP must move away from its traditional positions on issues such as abortion and the environment, and adopt a style and tone that is “less overtly religious, less negligent with policy, and less polarizing on social issues. That’s a future that leaves little room for Sarah Palin — but the only hope for a Republican recovery.”
The critical assumption here is what political scientists call the “spatial model.” According to the spatial model, there is a continuum running from left to middle to right. Along this horizontal axis are policy preferences with conservative positions anchoring the right, liberal positions anchoring the left, and “moderate” or “centrist” positions in the center. Public opinion is distributed on this continuum such that there is a bulge in the middle, reflecting where most voters are located, with the number of voters shrinking as one moves toward the right- and left-hand sides.
If this is true, adopting policy positions in the middle is the only way to victory — after all, that’s where the bulge is. If we move too far to the right, there are too few voters there, and we wind up with the Goldwater landslide. John McCain’s defeat has also been attributed to his running too far to the right, compared with his opponent.
This seems to make sense. But what if the spatial model is wrong?
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
This is a rerun of every election.
Social conservatives get incorrectly blamed for all losses.
McCain is a socially liberal Neocon RINO and he lost because no one likes him.
The Republican Party needs to return to principle and give people concrete reasons to vote Republican instead of just the usual “Democrats are worse” line.
There’s a reason to click for the editorial sidebar. This was one of them.
Duncan Hunter in fixin’ to surge.
The Center is what the Left calls itself when it wants to disguise things. Other terms are: Moderate, Independent, and Main-stream.
I like the point he made at the end - the trick is to find a candidate who can move the center to your side, rather than to move the candidate toward the “incoherent” center.
I don’t understand.
When you posted, you had options for "Click to Add Topic." It appears that you added Culture/Society, Government, Philosophy and Politics/Elections. You could have added Editorial. Most conservative sources usually post commentary that deserves placement in the Editorial Sidebar. They usually don't make stories that would qualify for the Frontpage or Breaking News sidebars. Sidebars are there to highlight stories before they sail off to cyberspace.
Agreed.
The author is wrong. Obama ran to the right of McCain on economic issues.
McCain lost because President Bush has, for 8 years, been unable to articulate the reasons for his decisions like Reagan and/or satisfactorialy explain away his failures like Clinton. Had GWB’s skills and fortunes been better these last 5 years, whoever was running on the Republican ticket would have been able to beat the demoncrat candidate...even with the failing economy. The people only wanted “change” because what we have been getting is non-stop, unchallenged Bush bashing which began to take on the ring of ugly truth.
If your goal is personal power, this might be the way to go.
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