A Conservative Crisis Of Followership: David Frum

merrie

5-8-2008 12:05 AM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color:#e5e5e5;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ced886bb-863d-48ce-a4b5-c21c852be4c3/A7265910-709F-4602-8281-56D30888ED16/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49cd717a-1b85-11dd-9e58-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49cd717a-1b85-11dd-9e58-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1" style="font-size: 11px;">www.ft.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49cd717a-1b85-11dd-9e58-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1"><P>Mr McCain could be the perfect candidate for this new mission. He is less bound by old orthodoxies than almost any other national Republican. He fought Mr Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, the former defence secretary, on Iraq strategy, and has been proved right while they have been proved wrong.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49cd717a-1b85-11dd-9e58-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1"><P>Unfortunately, Mr McCain has been a maverick on issues that matter least to voters: campaign finance reform, tobacco, climate change. On the ones that matter most to voters – healthcare, economic management, immigration – he has positioned himself with party orthodoxy and against the voters.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49cd717a-1b85-11dd-9e58-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1">If the Democrats win the presidency in 2008 (as most polls suggest) and gain seats in both houses of Congress (as most experts predict), they will have scored their most decisive victory since 1964. In 1992 the Democrats won the presidency but lost seats in Congress; in 1976 they won the presidency but gained only one seat in the House and none in the Senate.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/A7265910-709F-4602-8281-56D30888ED16/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

tags:

mccain, climate change, amnesty, campaign finance reform, tobacco, tax issue, median wages, war on terror

merrie says:

So, 2008 is not 1988. The problems are different and so must the solutions be.
The Reagan themes do not carry the power they once did. The conservative voting majority is not a majority any more. To compete and win this year Republicans have to adapt and change, not revert and revive.

The country has changed since 1988. Polls capture a shift to the left on economic issues. The once decisive tax issue has faded altogether, and no wonder: 80 per cent of Americans now pay more in payroll taxes than in federal income taxes. Americans care less about taxes than healthcare and fuel prices, issues where Republicans offer few solutions and speak with something less than passionate urgency. Americans are expressing a new pessimism about upward mobility and their children’s chances of leading a better life – an understandable reaction to the stagnation of median wages since 2000. Even on the signature issue of the war on terror, Americans are turning away from Republican ideas.