Will GOP Follow Lindsey Graham Model -- Or Die?

CQ Politics ^ | 4/29/2010 | Mort Kondracke

[tanknetter]

But consistent -- sometimes ugly -- opposition to immigration overhaul, resistance to climate change remedies, hostility toward gay rights, incendiary language at tea party rallies and waging primaries as ideological purification rituals all represent long-term threats to the party.

The biggest issue facing Republicans and Conservatives in the long-term is the fact that 50 years of Democrat development and exploitation of racial identity politics has reached the point of conveying a very distinct advantage to them not only at the national level, but also in enough Congressional Districts and states to make GOP retention of control exceedingly difficult.

If you poll the Black community on issues (rather than party affiliation and voting issues), they break something like 60/40 for the Dems. But they vote monolithic for the Dems because they've been condition, over the course of generations now, to not vote issues but racial identity.

If you poll the Hispanic community on issues, they actually break for the GOP by a slight majority ... being Roman Catholic and very conservative on issues such as abortion, etc. But they are now really beginning to vote monolithic for the Dems because they've been conditioned to not vote issues but ethnic identity.

Graham's solution is cr*p: he essentially advocates giving the special interests what he believes (not necessarily what they believe) they want in order to win votes. It isn't going to work, because they're still being conditioned to vote identity rather than issues.

There HAS to be much better outreach directly into racial and ethnic minority communities by the GOP and Conservatives, speaking to them in their own language (by that I don't mean Spanish or Ebonics, but in a decidedly non-paternalistic manner) about why the culture of dependency WILL hurt them in the long-term.

Unless the GOP is able to overcome the Dem's identity politics strategy, it's really doomed to lose and be relegated to a permanent, minority, regional Party. All you have to do is look at the numbers to see that growth among Hispanics is the factor that has the potential to lock in permanent, majority rule by the Dems.

[tumblindice]

And 150 years ago: `A house divided against itself cannot stand.’
I see the GOP going the way of the Whigs when the new Republican party addressed an issue that had been shunted aside for almost 200 years: slavery.
We can’t continue like this—with open borders & our armed forces spread across the globe, legalized infanticide, a government willing to accept Islamists and convert us to a command economy.

[RatRipper]

“Will GOP Follow Lindsey Graham Model — Or Die?”

That, Morty, is a mal-formed question. . . a question incorporating a false premise. If the GOP follows the Grahamnesty path, they WILL die . . . sooner rather than later . . . because folks like me by the millions will tell the GOP to bite it.

[RatRipper]

“Kondracke has always been a Dem. He’s Eleanor Clift without the pig face.”

Funny!!!

[wardaddy]

former New Republic Writer along with Krauthammer and PJ O’Rourke and Fred Barnes

NeoCon nest with Mort sorta straddling the fence between lib-lib and Neo-Con

slightly to the right of Leiberman

he’s big on abortion hence stem cell because of his wife’s fatal disease battle with Parkinsons

much like Krauthammer is on abortion too for similar reasons...his: spinal injury from shallow pool dive

interesting history that bunch

but little social conservatism hence the label

[expatpat]

Sure, let’s do what a Dem tells us to do........

[rigelkentaurus]

...Split the country, assign the US debt to the liberals, and form a legitimate Constitutional republic. I would even be willing to take all the assets the Federal Government has, all of the current debt, account for all the assets we are taking with us and take our pro-rata share of the debt. If we are back to a Constitutional basis of limited government and an expectation of self reliance, we would explode with economic growth, productivity and pay off our debt in a couple of decades with less tax burden we have today.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

Always take advice from a liberal to republicans with a massive grain of salt.

[NYCslicker]

I agree.

I think the answer is a sort of political creative destruction, where a group of conservatives and others that share their interests, step up and get very very honest about policy and the consequences of policy.

The first step is to not accept all the moderates and compromise.

Lindsey Graham, Connie Mack, and their ilk need to be defeated and/or expelled from the party or both.

[chris_bdba]

Liberals just give the best darn advice don’t they? *sarcasm*

[KosmicKitty]

I think the problem with the GOP is it has drifted too far from its Conservative base & become the dummyrats lite.

Moving further left will be the GOP’s demise.

[Oldpuppymax]

TRANSLATION: Will RINOS win the day and make ME and my friends happy, or will republicans actually represent the American people and kick our asses in November??!!

[fieldmarshaldj]

Mort, you ignorant slut.

[darkangel82]

Obama lackeys with their heads full of talking points couldn’t write something this stupid. Off-the-railroad-tracks FAIL for Mort.