This is getting to be a familiar refrain…for all the talk about the GOP needing to move more to the right, it is hard to see how much space there is on that side, as opposed to the middle:
After the 2006 election losses Republicans did some soul-searching. They held conferences, gave speeches, and went on talk shows. They concluded: we were not conservative enough.
Again, in 2008, Republicans took losses across the board. They got a fraction of the Hispanic vote, lost their last New England congressman, saw more western Senate seats flip to the Democrats and watched their share of the electorate drop to 28.7%. They lost the independent vote by 8%. Yet once again you hear the call to return to “conservative roots” or to adhere more strongly to “core principles.” That seems to miss the mark — by miles.
Let’s be clear – the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans did indeed abandon timeless conservative principles such as fiscal discipline and limited government. They turned off a lot of conservatives and deserved, in my mind, to get something of a comeuppance for it.
Still, the theme that seems to be developing among the reformist wing is that even a return to a limited government/fiscally conservative governing model will not be enough to win back independent voters.
More from Rubin:
The only place where Republicans are flourishing in national elections is the Deep South. There is reason to fear that if Republicans do not alter their present course they will be relegated to a permanent minority in Congress and be stuck below the 200 electoral vote mark in presidential elections.
Given all that, it is hard to see how “returning to core values” enhances the Republicans’ appeal. If that phrase is code for “limited government,” it seems to lack an audience. At present, there is not much clamoring for fiscal austerity, at least not at the expense of other issues.
The challenge for Republicans is to maintain a distinctive alternative to liberalism but appeal to a broad cross-section of voters, both ideologically and geographically… It is not an impossible task but it will be that much more difficult if Republicans maintain a tone of class resentment, paranoia, and vitriol and adhere to policy positions which are either extraneous or offensive to large segments of the electorate.
That last part is a bit much, perhaps – I don’t think limited government is “offensive to large segments of the population.” I think we do struggle with explaining how a limited government approach works better. You can’t veto SCHIP health insurance for kids without some kind of alternative that can be explained in a paragraph. The real challenge is developing clear, coherent policy alternatives that are consistent with our governing philosophy.
We also need candidates who can campaign effectively for them, but that is for another day…
