there it is again, clo.
if they pursue the middle class electorate, they will lose their funding.
if they pursue the funding, they have to adopt policies that lose the middle class electorate.
for myself, i think they have to find new leaders. not folks who are intransigent, or who just want to put lipstick on their current policies. folks with different ideas. practical ones.
in their shoes here's what i would do.
respect the will of the people. let obama increase taxes on the wealthy and stimulate the economy. but do so arguing you have reservations. that you think this will lead to government expansion and waste. that you are concerned by deficit growth and you plan to balance budgets and adopt good housekeeping style economics. then adopt an efficiency doctrine, rather than the absolutist small government dogma. work on the tax code. establish a pragmatic reputation.
this allows republicans to have something sensible to say in four years. a responsible seeming party. a party that the right-leaning rich will still support because they have no place else to go. instead of trying to protect a random line drawn by grover norquist. and really, it preserves a lot of who they wish to be, without sounding loopy and intense and dogmatic.
unfortunately, i don't think the current gop organism is capable of this.
| 