In the aftermath of the election, there is a lot of soul
searching going on among the ranks of the Republican Party. I am particularly amused by the advice
on how to revitalize the Republicans being offered by pundits who would never
in a million years be caught dead actually voting for them. “If the Republicans want to become
viable again, they have to embrace the Democratic Party platform.”
Most of the analysis has focused on identity politics. The Republicans appealed to older,
married whites, who are a shrinking share of the population. The Democrats appealed to single women,
African-Americans, Asians, and especially Hispanics, who are a growing share of
the population. So the standard
advice is that the Republicans will have to give amnesty to illegal
immigrants. The dilemma for the
Republicans is that is they help expand the Hispanic population, and Hispanics
tend to vote Democratic, they are hastening their own demise.
I have also noticed that exactly no one has suggested that
the Republicans try and expand their appeal to African-Americans. I think the assumption is that
African-Americans will vote as such a monolithic bloc for the Democrats that
any efforts to court that demographic are wasted. If this is true, it would explain why neither party is doing
anything on those lines. Why would
the Democrats waste political capital on people who are going to vote for them
no matter what?
Personally, I would like to see a shift away from identity
politics, and back into the arena of governing philosophy. The Republicans are the party of
smaller government, the party that celebrates self-reliance. The Democrats are the party of bigger
government, the party that celebrates compassion. Those are pretty clear fault lines. Properly articulated, I think thet
Republicans can make a pretty good case that the government powerful enough to
give you everything you want is powerful enough to take everything you have.
1 comment:
I believe that both parties should govern in a way that is best for this country. It is more complicated than small government and self reliance or larger government and more compassion. In my opinion, finding the correct formula would be moderation in all these areas to find the best balance to move this country forward. We have to have safety nets for the poor with channels for them to be educated and possible ways to move up the ladder to economic success or else we move into the look of a third world country. We need the best business policies to encourage entrepreneurship and business growth. We must develop policies that maintain fiscal responsibilities...this means cutting government budget and raising taxes to get us out of debt...we all will share this pain...and putting watchdog regulations in place to ensure man's greed will not take us over the fiscal cliff again...and they will if left to their own demise...history has proven this. I am sick of identifying the needs of this country by one party or the other...how about identifying this country with the brilliant leadership needed to do whatever necessary to keep our country GREAT! I understand it is complicated, but when did this country ever shy away from a tough job! Let's move away from party divisiveness and move toward unison in solving our problems.
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