|
created over 4 years ago | Tagged: |
Sandyclaus
|
As expected, the collapse of the Republican brand in the 2006 and 2008 elections has brought out any number of theorists from the woodwork -- offering their take on the proper prescription to heal what ails the GOP.
Given Davis's reputation -- and the current morass in which the GOP finds itself -- we were intrigued to come across an essay penned by the former Virginia member titled "The Way Back."
In it, Davis convincingly make the case that the alleged takeover of the party by social conservatives has worked to its electoral detriment.
Writes Davis: "We talked to ourselves and not to voters. We became more concerned with stem cell policy than economic policy, and with prayer in schools rather than balance in our public budgets and priorities. Not so long ago, it was easy to paint the Democrats as the party of extremists. Now, they say we're extremists, and voters agree."
Davis's other major indictment of the GOP? The wholesale rejection of attempts to court black and Hispanic voters. "We've long-since given up on the African-American vote," he writes. "We're forfeiting the Hispanic vote with unwarranted and unsavory vitriol against immigrants."
Davis has a high-profile supporter in this point -- President George W. Bush. At a press conference on Monday, Bush said that for the GOP to make a comeback its "message has got to be that different points of view are included in the party. ... If the image is we don't like immigrants, then there's probably somebody else out there saying, well, if they don't like the immigrants, they probably don't like me, as well."
While all six of the serious candidates for the chairmanship insist they are blue-blooded conservatives, there are clearly differences of emphasis among the group.
The "pragmatic" wing of the party is represented by Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Anuzis' message is built on the necessity of reaching out to voters -- particularly in the suburban Midwest -- who have abandoned the party since Ronald Reagan left office; Steele, an African American, talks constantly about the need to find policies that speak to minority groups and, in doing so, grow the party.
The "ideological" wing is represented most prominently by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and, to a lesser extent, by current chair Mike Duncan, South Carolina party chairman Katon Dawson and former Tennessee party chair Chip Saltsman.
None of the six candidates -- with the sort-of exception of Steele -- are known to a national audience. But, the pick still carries huge importance for a party that is currently lost. A direction will be chosen in two weeks times. But will it be the right one to restore Republicans -- eventually -- back to majority status?
