Posted on 11/08/2009 10:14:42 PM PST by indianrightwinger
What Coattails? Why right-of-center candidates are succeeding in the age of Obama. By Yuval Levin | NEWSWEEK
Published Nov 7, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Nov 16, 2009
All year, leading Democrats from the president on down have argued that the Republican Party is in the midst of a catastrophic civil war. You know the story. Successive election defeats have narrowed the GOP's ideological range, and now an open struggle is afoot for control of its voice and agenda. Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, it seems, are out to destroy Republican moderates and commit the party to a radical course sure to relegate it to irrelevance. Only a move to the left can save the Republicans.
And, in fact, the new president and Congress had a real opportunity to divide the Republican Party. A moderate stimulus bill that offered a short-term boost and included a meaningful tax-cut component, for instance, might have won a very significant number of Republican votes in Congress last winter and launched a damaging internal GOP battle over the proper role of the opposition. Some restraint on taxes and spending in general, and on health care and energy policy in particular, would also have divided congressional Republicans and left the direction of the party in doubt.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
I say we take our chances and stay the radical course.
what’s the summary of the article? I dont want to give Newsweak a webcount.
Summary: The dems are going too far left and getting the electorate all wee-wee’d up, and thereby giving the GOP an opportunity to renew its message of fiscal conservatism and limited government and attract voters.
I see this article, from a notoriously leftist magazine, as a subtle plea to the Democrats to throttle back their agenda or risk losing power.
Thnx for the summary. This is Newsweak..u sure they didnt mention this is all Bush’s fault?
Yuval is an awesome conservative.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuval_Levin
He also writes on National Review.
More on Yuval here:
http://www.eppc.org/scholars/scholarID.84/scholar.asp
I don’t think the Dems can throttle back. The inclination of most conservatives (to my constant displeasure) is to try to make peace with the center, but the inclination of most leftists is to engage in increasingly daring “revolutionary acts” that objectively demonstrate one’s purity.
Nope. Apparently “it’s Bush’s fault” isn’t a big vote getter anymore.
what’s the summary of the article? I dont want to give Newsweak a webcount.
That the Democrat narrative of a GOP collapse, and waning of conservative influence, is a myth.
That the DNC’s radical left policy directions have been on balance more likely to unite GOP/conservative factions than divide them.
That the DNC lost an opportunity to widen GOP divisions by presenting acceptable bipartisan legislation which would have peeled off GOP moderates.
That the DNC runs the risk of losing more ground if it does not get a grip on reality, and recognize that the hard left push is losing people.
I think that covers it.
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