Posted on 11/02/2009 9:53:49 AM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
The race in New York’s 23rd Congressional District highlights the concerns many Republican voters have about their party leaders.
At a time when 73% of Republicans believe their party's representatives in Congress have lost touch with the GOP base, 11 county leaders in upstate New York picked a nominee for Congress who supported the Democratic president’s stimulus package, his health care reform plan and “card check” legislation designed to make union organizing easier. All three items are overwhelmingly opposed by Republican voters - and even by Republicans in Congress.
The decision by county GOP leaders to nominate such a candidate seemed almost designed to provoke the party’s core voters, and it did.
A Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, entered the fray and picked up endorsements from many leading national Republicans. Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, urged voters to stick with the party’s official nominee. He said a decision by local party leaders was good enough for him, but most Republican voters don’t have such confidence in the party leadership.
This past weekend, the official Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race in the face of falling poll numbers and lackluster fund-raising. Then she endorsed the Democrat.
As a result, the New York 23rd Congressional District race will end up being between a Conservative Party candidate and a Democrat. In many ways, that pairing reflects the reality of national match-ups more than the typical partisan competition. There are more conservatives than Democrats in America, and there are more Democrats than Republicans.
One reason for this is that while Republican voters overwhelmingly consider themselves conservative, only 56% of conservative voters consider themselves to be Republicans. In other words, nearly half of all conservatives nationwide reject the Republican Party label.
This means that Republicans looking to broaden their party’s outreach cannot ignore the need to attract a large number of conservative voters along with some political moderates. Of all the non-Republicans in the nation, 31% consider themselves at least somewhat conservative while 37% say they’re political moderates.
The sweet spot for Republicans are core issues that unify conservatives while dividing more moderate voters. One such issue is health care where conservatives are united in their opposition to the plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, and 37% of moderates are opposed, too.
Looked at from that perspective, nominating a GOP candidate who supports the president’s health care plan is likely to drive away more voters than it attracts. The same logic applies to the stimulus package, card check and other such proposals. That’s just what happened in NY-23. Nationwide, 42% currently support the health care plan working its way through Congress.
It should be noted that Democratic Party dynamics are entirely different.
While a plurality (44%) of Democrats are politically liberal, nearly as many (35%) are moderate. So Democrats must make compromises within their party before reaching out. Also, the pool of available non-Democrats is very heavily on the moderate side.
Just nine percent (9%) of non-Democrats are even somewhat liberal while 29% are politically moderate. These non-Democratic political moderates are absolutely essential to Democratic candidates. That’s why Democrats are eager to suggest that situations such as NY-23 indicate a GOP rejection of moderates in favor of extremists.
Interestingly, while Republican voters say their congressional representatives are out of touch, a plurality (47%) of Democratic voters view their members of Congress as roughly in the same place they are ideologically. Just 27% say the average Democratic member of Congress is more liberal than the average Democrat, while 19% think the average Democrat in Congress is more conservative.
Ping!
No, this means conservatives need to execute coup d'etat to the GOP and invite the "moderates" to go below decks and start pulling strongly on the oars. The course has changed.
Gonna be sweet watching the talking heads explode tommorrow night. Axelrod and his minions are probably going to turn in early 2nite to rest their fat mouths for all the claptrap they will be spewing tommorrow night.
Yep.
Excellent Post! The time for a Conservative Coup d’etat is now. We will never again satisfy ourselves to vote for a John McCain caliber candidate who rejects Conservative Values.
RamS
With a Hoffman win, the conservatives neutered Newt and made him a non-contender from here on out. Good work!
Oh, this is rich. Rasmussen is telling the Republican party what strategy they need to undertake in light of poll numbers.
Of course, they get it wrong. Repubs do not need to “attract” conservatives to the party of Lincoln. They need to clear out the vermin that befouled the place they once owned.
Rasmussen’s prescription is a little like saying that the horde of mooching houseguests who took over their kind host’s home and trashed it should scoot over to make room on the now-urine soaked coach so the disgusted and betrayed homeowner might fill the fridge and pay the light bill.
NY-23 indicate a GOP rejection of moderates in favor of extremists.
_____________________________________________________
They begin by saying that the most prevalent political philosophy is conservatism and they pronounce that position to be extreme.
I am also very leery of the term ‘moderate’. I don’t think that word means what they think it means.
Newton Gingrich did like the old Carol Burnett song “make a fool of mayself over Dede.” For Carol, at least it was John Foster Dulles.
Where are the resignations of those RNCC members at the root of the NY23 cluster?
I’m a new guy. This article, and one of the posts got me to join in. Everyone knows that a moderate is a liberal that has been robbed.
Welcome to FreeRepublic. The best place for conservatives on the web.
“This means that Republicans looking to broaden their party’s outreach cannot ignore the need to attract a large number of conservative voters along with some political moderates. “
Horsehockey.
It means that we’ve gotta go find that other 27 percent of Conservatives and hook up with them. We can do it in the R party or we can do it elsewhere.
If the Republican fence sitters don’t like it, they can watch us in the rear view mirror, and watch themselves circle the drain.
“Only 56% of Conservatives are “Republicans”)”
If more consrevatives did the work of actively joining and infiltrating organizations, whether the Republican party of other organizations, they could WIN THEM BACK for conservatives.
btt
Welcome home!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.