Bronco_Beerslug
05-26-2006, 06:42 AM
Sounds like a great idea to me!!
-------------------------------------------------------
GOP should terminate the Christian right
In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan made a pact with the Christian right, opening the anti-tax, anti-government, pro-defense GOP to the opponents of abortion rights. The coalition between economic and social conservatives animated his 1980 triumph and made the ensuing 10 years into a Republican decade.
But ever since, the Republican Party has paid the price for its coalition with the advocates of bedroom regulation. The Christian right has so alienated women that it has opened up a gender gap that often swells to more than 20 points, crippling Republican candidates.
The upset victory of Arnold Schwarzenegger in California shows what the Republican Party could do if it broke with the pro-lifers and abandoned their intrusive efforts to regulate private behavior. Moving to the center on the social issues, demonstrating a libertarian commitment to privacy, the actor/governor held the gender gap to less than 10 points, winning 43 percent of the female vote. Schwarzenegger won the top job in the solid Democratic state of California by carrying the women’s vote, a feat that would have been impossible had he embraced the social agenda of his party.
Schwarzenegger also abandoned other elements of his party’s national platform as he ran in one of America’s most liberal states. His environmental positions were so progressive that he drew the support of many of the state’s leading ecology advocates, particularly for his vocal support of hydrogen-fuel-cell cars. Rounding out his move to the center, he refused to fall into the anti-bilingual-education trap and appealed explicitly and effectively to Hispanic-American voters.
Despite his opposition to allowing illegal immigrants to have driver’s licenses and the fact that a Hispanic — Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante — was running against him, the Republican was able to win close to 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. Indeed, his lack of racism and his ecumenical appeal won him the backing of 17 percent of the state’s African-American voters, well above the performance more typical of white Republican candidates.
The Hollywood muscleman could only have won in a recall election. The unique nature of the contest made it possible for a moderate of his stripe to run. The blunt fact of Schwarzenegger’s victory is that he could never have won the Republican nomination had the election been a normal one with the usual primary process. He would have died the same death at the hands of the party’s true believers that Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan did in the 2002 election.
The primary electorate would have found Schwarzenegger’s moderation unacceptable and would have chosen nominees who could not win in the election.
The California Republican Party simply will not nominate anyone who can be elected and cannot elect anyone it nominates.
Had Schwarzenegger faced Tom McClintock in a Republican primary, his moderate positions would have handed victory to his right wing opponent, and the Democrats would still be in power in Sacramento.
It is about time that the Republican Party realizes that the Christian right is doing to it exactly what the radical black Rainbow Coalition of Jesse Jackson did to the Democratic Party in the ’80s — making them unelectable. Their embrace is the kiss of death. It is not that the religious right is wrong. Right or wrong, it gets in the way of so much good that the Republican Party could achieve if it were not in the Christian right’s grasp.
Will the Republican Party escape from the embrace of the pro-lifers so that it can nominate candidates like Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice? Likely not. Those who see each election as an opportunity to hold candidates to litmus tests on key social issues are not likely to relinquish their hold or relax their vigilance.
The fact that this way lies defeat seems not to matter. The example of Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely make no impression as they proceed to drum out of the primary anyone whose views are sufficiently centrist to permit them access to the majority of women voters in the general election.
Dick Morris is the author of Off With Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks, and Obstructionists in American Politics, Media, and Business.
http://tinyurl.com/jrvy8
-------------------------------------------------------
GOP should terminate the Christian right
In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan made a pact with the Christian right, opening the anti-tax, anti-government, pro-defense GOP to the opponents of abortion rights. The coalition between economic and social conservatives animated his 1980 triumph and made the ensuing 10 years into a Republican decade.
But ever since, the Republican Party has paid the price for its coalition with the advocates of bedroom regulation. The Christian right has so alienated women that it has opened up a gender gap that often swells to more than 20 points, crippling Republican candidates.
The upset victory of Arnold Schwarzenegger in California shows what the Republican Party could do if it broke with the pro-lifers and abandoned their intrusive efforts to regulate private behavior. Moving to the center on the social issues, demonstrating a libertarian commitment to privacy, the actor/governor held the gender gap to less than 10 points, winning 43 percent of the female vote. Schwarzenegger won the top job in the solid Democratic state of California by carrying the women’s vote, a feat that would have been impossible had he embraced the social agenda of his party.
Schwarzenegger also abandoned other elements of his party’s national platform as he ran in one of America’s most liberal states. His environmental positions were so progressive that he drew the support of many of the state’s leading ecology advocates, particularly for his vocal support of hydrogen-fuel-cell cars. Rounding out his move to the center, he refused to fall into the anti-bilingual-education trap and appealed explicitly and effectively to Hispanic-American voters.
Despite his opposition to allowing illegal immigrants to have driver’s licenses and the fact that a Hispanic — Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante — was running against him, the Republican was able to win close to 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. Indeed, his lack of racism and his ecumenical appeal won him the backing of 17 percent of the state’s African-American voters, well above the performance more typical of white Republican candidates.
The Hollywood muscleman could only have won in a recall election. The unique nature of the contest made it possible for a moderate of his stripe to run. The blunt fact of Schwarzenegger’s victory is that he could never have won the Republican nomination had the election been a normal one with the usual primary process. He would have died the same death at the hands of the party’s true believers that Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan did in the 2002 election.
The primary electorate would have found Schwarzenegger’s moderation unacceptable and would have chosen nominees who could not win in the election.
The California Republican Party simply will not nominate anyone who can be elected and cannot elect anyone it nominates.
Had Schwarzenegger faced Tom McClintock in a Republican primary, his moderate positions would have handed victory to his right wing opponent, and the Democrats would still be in power in Sacramento.
It is about time that the Republican Party realizes that the Christian right is doing to it exactly what the radical black Rainbow Coalition of Jesse Jackson did to the Democratic Party in the ’80s — making them unelectable. Their embrace is the kiss of death. It is not that the religious right is wrong. Right or wrong, it gets in the way of so much good that the Republican Party could achieve if it were not in the Christian right’s grasp.
Will the Republican Party escape from the embrace of the pro-lifers so that it can nominate candidates like Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice? Likely not. Those who see each election as an opportunity to hold candidates to litmus tests on key social issues are not likely to relinquish their hold or relax their vigilance.
The fact that this way lies defeat seems not to matter. The example of Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely make no impression as they proceed to drum out of the primary anyone whose views are sufficiently centrist to permit them access to the majority of women voters in the general election.
Dick Morris is the author of Off With Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks, and Obstructionists in American Politics, Media, and Business.
http://tinyurl.com/jrvy8