thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
|
 Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:58 pm Post subject: Emerging Republican Minority |
 |
|
| Quote: |
Remember how the 2004 election was supposed to have demonstrated, once and for all, that conservatism was the future of American politics? I do: early in 2005, some colleagues in the news media urged me, in effect, to give up. �The election settled some things,� I was told.
But at this point 2004 looks like an aberration, an election won with fear-and-smear tactics that have passed their sell-by date. Republicans no longer have a perceived edge over Democrats on national security � and without that edge, they stand revealed as ideologues out of step with an increasingly liberal American public.
Right now the talk of the political chattering classes is a report from the Pew Research Center showing a precipitous decline in Republican support. In 2002 equal numbers of Americans identified themselves as Republicans and Democrats, but since then the Democrats have opened up a 15-point advantage.
Part of the Republican collapse surely reflects public disgust with the Bush administration. The gap between the parties will probably get even wider when � not if � more and worse tales of corruption and abuse of power emerge.
And public opinion seems to have taken a particularly strong turn in favor of universal health care. Gallup reports that 69 percent of the public believes that �it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health care coverage,� up from 59 percent in 2000.
The main force driving this shift to the left is probably rising income inequality. According to Pew, there has recently been a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans who agree with the statement that �the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.� Interestingly, the big increase in disgruntlement over rising inequality has come among the relatively well off � those making more than $75,000 a year.
Many Republicans still imagine that what their party needs is a return to the conservative legacy of Ronald Reagan. It will probably take quite a while in the political wilderness before they take on board the message of Arnold Schwarzenegger�s comeback in California � which is that what they really need is a return to the moderate legacy of Dwight Eisenhower. |
From the NYTimes (behind a wall). |
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
