Powell fires back

[Minstrel]

Yes, it does, when that Democrat has the most liberal voting record in Congress. Obama opposes just about everything that the Republican party stands for, and his election is going to take the country away from Republican principles.

The Republicans don't stand for supposed Republican principles. Bush sure made government smaller and was fiscally conservative, wasn't he?

A fiscal conservative doesn't currently have a party. Powell strikes me as likely to be a social liberal and fiscal conservative. If you want to drum all those types of people out of the Republican party due to a desire for Christian ideological purity, have at it. The Republican party will simply continue to be marginalized. You don't win elections by shrinking your party more and more.

Of course, I do see your problem. A strong Republican party (one that embraced limited government [oops, no crusades against gay marriage] and fiscal conservatism but discarded religiously-driven troglodyte social policy) is one you'd have no use for. You don't want the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan...you want the Republican party of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.

 

[Denny Crane]

The Republicans don't stand for supposed Republican principles. Bush sure made government smaller and was fiscally conservative, wasn't he?

A fiscal conservative doesn't currently have a party. Powell strikes me as likely to be a social liberal and fiscal conservative. If you want to drum all those types of people out of the Republican party due to a desire for Christian ideological purity, have at it. The Republican party will simply continue to be marginalized. You don't win elections by shrinking your party more and more.

Of course, I do see your problem. A strong Republican party (one that embraced limited government [oops, no crusades against gay marriage] and fiscal conservatism but discarded religiously-driven troglodyte social policy) is one you'd have no use for. You don't want the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan...you want the Republican party of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.

Hispanics were once a republican voting bloc, counterweight to the black voting block for the democrats. As a group, they're religious right material. Republicans drove them from the party, too.

California went for Reagan in 1984, 57% to 41%. In 1988, for Bush 51-48. It's now a flyover state for republicans. Yet a moderate republican can win the governor race.

 

[Minstrel]

Hispanics were once a republican voting bloc, counterweight to the black voting block for the democrats. As a group, they're religious right material. Republicans drove them from the party, too.

California went for Reagan in 1984, 57% to 41%. In 1988, for Bush 51-48. It's now a flyover state for republicans. Yet a moderate republican can win the governor race.

I agree. There's definitely a road map for a successful Republican party.

As far as Hispanics go, while I agree that they can be a swing voting bloc or even Republican as a group, I would say it is the older generation of Hispanics that are "religious right" material. They're increasingly being replaced by a younger generation which is a lot less driven, socially, by religion. Recent polling, for example, finds that Hispanics are no more likely than whites to be against gay marriage, whereas perception has been that they are more religious on average and more anti-gay-marriage. That's one reason, I think, that Hispanics are increasingly being turned off the Republican party...the Republicans' perceived draconian policy on illegal immigrants upsets Hispanics, old and young, but there's increasingly less "religious-osity" to counter-balance that.

 

[Denny Crane]

I agree. There's definitely a road map for a successful Republican party.

As far as Hispanics go, while I agree that they can be a swing voting bloc or even Republican as a group, I would say it is the older generation of Hispanics that are "religious right" material. They're increasingly being replaced by a younger generation which is a lot less driven, socially, by religion. Recent polling, for example, finds that Hispanics are no more likely than whites to be against gay marriage, whereas perception has been that they are more religious on average and more anti-gay-marriage. That's one reason, I think, that Hispanics are increasingly being turned off the Republican party...the Republicans' perceived draconian policy on illegal immigrants upsets Hispanics, old and young, but there's increasingly less "religious-osity" to counter-balance that.

During the Regan years, Hispanics were religious right types though neither of those two groups were what the party was about. You can be religious and not like high taxes and big government ya know. What the religious right did for republicans was counterbalance the unions; feet on the street, fundraising, get out the vote.