How Can The GOP Regain The Majority And The Presidency

David Frum's new website New Majority is exploring that issue and has an interesting interview with Rudy Giuliani on the subject. It is three parts but the segments are pretty short.





Ace has a lengthy post on this that I agree with, Rudy thinks the GOP needs to deemphasize social issues like abortion and gay marriage and instead focus on fiscal and national security issues. He is not saying we should abandon our socially conservative values only that they should not be the primary plank we run on with out having good strong ideas on the issues that drive a majority of voters.

Ace breaks it down into soft versus hard issues that can be argued with facts and figures and proven by history and where people's minds can be swayed one way or the other. The people that care about the social issues one way or the other are not going to be swayed by argument since those issues are generally set in stone and aren't winnable arguments for either side. Most swing voters don't really care about the social issues as political platforms but they do care about fiscal policy, law enforcement and national security and a lot of times hardlines on social issues can scare off voters.

The GOP can't exclude social moderates and still expect to win elections except in a handful of states and that is no way to regain a majority. I have a strong libertarian streak that believes government should stay out of our private lives as much as possible and adhere to what is set down in the Constitution as to what its duties are and legislating morality is not one of them. As Rudy says we cannot win back majorities by narrowing our voter base to only those that are socially conservative. I know social issues are at least the third or fourth position I look at when evaluating a candidate. I want to know their positions on taxes and spending first and foremost and where those spending priorities lie since those issues most directly affect me the taxpayer.

Anyway go read Ace's post since he does a better job summarizing it than I, he is the chief moron after all.