Sen. John McCain and President Bush wave to supporters in Phoenix, Ariz. on May 27, 2008. (AP/Charles Dharapak/File)
Is the Republican Party in peril?
Conservative thinkers and political historians think the GOP could be at the end of its historic 40-year grasp on power.
By Ariel Sabar | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ August 30, 2008 edition
ST. PAUL, MINN.
The GOP opens its convention here Monday as a party in peril – hurricane or not.
Hobbled by an unpopular president, a disillusioned and divided base, and low poll ratings on almost every domestic issue, the party of Nixon and Reagan and Bush may well be at the end of a historic 40-year grasp on power, say conservative thinkers and political historians.
Republicans lost both houses of Congress in 2006. They were defeated in special elections this year in congressional districts that in some cases hadn’t elected a Democrat since the days of Lyndon Johnson. And they are at risk of deeper losses on Capitol Hill in November.
Republican leaders in some states have struggled to recruit candidates for local office. GOP voter registrations are down. And there are signs of a generational shift that could play out over several election cycles: Nearly 60 percent of voters under 30 now identify themselves as Democrats, more than tripling the party’s edge over the GOP in that age group since 2000, according to the Pew Research Center.
The man set to accept his party’s nomination Thursday, John McCain, is a maverick disdained by the conservatives who turned Barry Goldwater’s lonely cry against big government into a shrewd, sprawling, and well-funded movement. Whether Mr. McCain is the future of the party or a placeholder during a time of soul-searching hinges on the November election.
Cause for both hope and some hand-wringing among Republicans this year is that Americans like McCain far more than they do the party itself.
He distanced himself even further from the GOP establishment Friday with his vice-presidential pick. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a young, outside-the-beltway choice with a record of taking on entrenched interests.
Even so, many Republicans are bracing for a period of exile. A debate is already under way over its future, with conservative visionaries from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on down arguing about what it will take for the Grand Old Party, its best ideas now spent, to stage a comeback.
“The party’s in pretty bad shape – it’s gone wrong in so many areas,” says Mickey Edwards, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma and the author of the new book “Reclaiming Conservatism.”
“If the Republican Party is not thoroughly repudiated in this coming election it will only be to the extent that John McCain and some of the other Republican candidates have managed to distance themselves from what’s happened over the last eight years,” he says.
Their gathering in this Midwestern city offers a fresh chance for Republicans to make their case to a skeptical nation.
The GOP convention begins just four days after Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination at a Denver football stadium thronged by some 84,000 cheering supporters, some of whom waited in a line six miles long to hear his speech.
But if the Republican convention here goes as planned, the spotlight will, for a change, be all McCain’s. And that is both a risk and an opportunity.
“The peril is trying to compete with Obama, because they can’t Out-Obama Obama,” says Nancy Beck Young, an American political historian at the University of Houston.
“McCain needs to focus on his own compelling story” as a decorated war hero, she says. “He needs to remind people why they liked him in 2000. The maverick, bipartisan McCain needs to come out, and the Bush-loving McCain needs to take a vacation between now and November.”
Mr. Edwards, the former Oklahoma congressman, goes further.
“This is his chance to come out and do something inspirational so you have Republicans jumping up and down in their seats and cheering,” says Edwards. “He needs to have people walk out of the Xcel Center with a mission – that we want this guy to be president. And I don’t think he’s there yet.”
The modern Republican era traces its roots to Senator Goldwater’s 1960 book, “The Conscience of a Conservative,” an anti-Communist, small-government manifesto that still serves as a kind of bible for ideological purists.
Goldwater, an Arizona Senator, lost his bid for the presidency in 1964. But his ideas soon fueled a larger reaction against what critics saw as the excesses of the New Deal, the Great Society, and the social movements, antiwar protests, and inner-city riots of the late 1960s.
Tapping into the cultural anxieties of working-class whites and Southerners, the party began to shed its image as a country club for Northern elites and big business.
“The modern right rose out of a widespread concern that pluralistic, cosmopolitan forces threatened America’s national identity,” American University Prof. Allan Lichtman writes in a new book, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement. “Anti-pluralism, in turn, gave the right a mass base and a passion that economic conservatism lacks.”
Richard Nixon called the disaffected Americans “the silent majority” and captured the presidency in 1968. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan brought the conservative movement to its apotheosis, winning landslide elections with support from a coalition of fiscal conservatives, defense hawks, and socially conservative blue-collar voters who came to be known as Reagan Democrats.
Reagan delivered on much of the conservative agenda: He cut taxes, built up the military, moved federal courts to the right, and helped bring an end to the Soviet Union. Though Bill Clinton would win the White House in 1992, the GOP took the House of Representatives two years later for the first time in four decades. Republicans called it a “revolution.”
The disputed 2000 election, settled by the United States Supreme Court, was a shaky start for President George W. Bush. But the Sept. 11 attacks momentarily united the country, vaulting his approval ratings to 90 percent in October 2001.
Then his popularity started a long, steady decline. The Iraq war divided the country, particularly after claims about weapons of mass destruction proved false. Bush’s support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants alienated Southern conservatives. The religious right, a voting bloc that twice helped elect him to office, fractured amid a growing sense that Bush had failed to deliver on a range of cultural issues.
Meanwhile, fiscal hawks watched with dismay as government grew and deficits soared. Finally, say political analysts, the administration’s response to hurricane Katrina exposed an ill-prepared bureaucracy staffed by political appointees, like Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with few qualifications for the job.
“When did Bush lose his mojo? I think Katrina was the turning point,” says Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, author of “The Age of Reagan.” “Even after the Iraq war, he had just enough credibility left, because Democrats were seen as so weak on defense and national security. “But 2005 [the year Katrina hit] was a disaster for Bush. He seemed to be ineffective, and his subordinates seemed to be manifestly incompetent. You had an X-ray into how the administration was working – and not working.”
(It is cruel timing for Republicans that hurricane Gustav is forecast to reach the Gulf Coast on the opening day of the GOP convention.)
By this past April, Bush’s approval rating had hit an all-time low of 28 percent, according to Gallup, a level of popularity about the same as Jimmy Carter’s during the oil crisis and Nixon’s after Watergate.
In an August Gallup poll, just 17 percent of Americans said they were “satisfied with the way things are going in the United States.”
Voters told pollsters this year that they even saw Democrats as stronger on a signature GOP issue – terrorism. Further, an analysis in August by the Center for Responsive Politics found that US troops overseas had donated six times as much money to Obama as they had to McCain, a Vietnam prisoner of war whose father and grandfather had been admirals.
The setbacks have left many leading conservatives predicting a Republican winter.
“Disaster,” the conservative commentator Laura Ingraham declared earlier this year on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor” during an interview with Mr. Gingrich, the former House Speaker.
“If we don’t break out of business as usual in the next five or six months,” Gingrich concurred, “we’ll simply lose.”
Talk radio and conservative magazines like The National Review and Human Events have brimmed with anguished debates over the meaning of McCain’s nomination. McCain backed campaign finance reform and immigration measures loathed by conservatives, voted against Bush tax cuts, and rarely talks about his Christian faith.
The conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has labeled McCain a “liberal” who jeopardizes “the American way of life as we’ve always known it,” according to news accounts. In February, right-wing commentator Ann Coulter told Fox News she’d sooner vote for Hillary Clinton than McCain, whom she branded a “Democrat.”
But other conservatives see McCain, however imperfect, as Republicans’ best chance in a year when voters across the political spectrum have lost patience with the charged partisan acrimony of the Bush era.
Some 53 percent of likely voters in an ABC News/Washington Post poll this May said they thought Democrats would do the best job “coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years,” compared with just 32 percent who thought Republicans would.
But voters seem far more sanguine about McCain himself. Before a modest bounce for Obama following the Democratic convention, recent polls showed them virtually tied.
“No regular Republican would be tying or slightly beating the Democratic candidate in this atmosphere,” Gingrich wrote in a May article in Human Events. “It is a sign of how much McCain is a nontraditional Republican that he is sustaining his personal popularity despite his party’s collapse.”
A key problem for the party, say some conservative critics, is that it has in many ways failed to transcend the debates over gay marriage, abortion, gun rights, and other wedge issues that had helped secure years of GOP victories.
“There was a kind of intellectual fatigue,” says Yuval Levin, a former healthcare aide in the Bush White House who is now a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington. “It was dangerous in the sense that not enough of our political leaders were aware there was a problem. You’d ask people why Republicans did badly in 2006, and they’d say, ‘Well, there were the corruption scandals, the war.’ Conservatives were reluctant to say, ‘We need to think hard about what it is we’re offering the country to face the challenges of the moment.’ ”
What those challenges are and how to face them is a pressing issue for conservative thinkers, who have been busy turning out articles, books, and other prescriptions for renewal.
Gingrich argues that cultural polarization – a chief tactic of former Bush adviser Karl Rove – has run its course. “The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to run an anti-Obama, anti-Reverend Wright … campaign they are simply going to fail,” he wrote in Human Events, alluding to the Illinois senator’s controversial former pastor. “This model has already been tested with disastrous results.”
In his new book “Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again,” David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, urges Republicans to scrap their reflexive advocacy for tax cuts and deregulation. Particularly in difficult times, he asserts, Americans want competent government more than small government. “There are things only government can do, and if we conservatives wish to be entrusted with the management of government, we must prove that we care enough about government to manage it well.”
One of the most talked-about books of the genre is “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.” The authors, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, young editors at Atlantic Monthly, assert that while the GOP has learned to speak to the cultural concerns of working-class whites, it has failed to address their economic unease. They propose a mix of wage subsidies for the working poor, a bigger child tax credit, and steps toward a universal healthcare system rooted in the free market.
While an old guard sees a return to a Reagan-era conservatism as the only salvation, a few conservatives, however paradoxically, see rebirth in a vote for Obama.
“Of all the obstacles to a revival of genuine conservatism, this absence of self-awareness constitutes the greatest,” Andrew Bacevich, a conservative Boston University historian wrote in March in The American Conservative magazine. “Recognition that the Iraq War has been a fool’s errand – that cheap oil, the essential lubricant of the American way of life, is gone for good – may have a salutary effect. Acknowledging failure just might open the door to self-reflection.”
Gloomy about their prospects this November, some right-wing thinkers see at least one silver lining: the legacy of four decades of conservative dominance on the era’s most successful Democrats. Bill Clinton was a centrist who reformed welfare and backed free trade; Obama advertises his appeal to Republicans (”Obamacans,” in his campaign lingo), and he backs a range of policies that mix free-market ideas with government regulation.
“What is remarkable about the cautious, unimaginative campaign speeches of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is how much they bear the stamp of conservative intellectual debates that preceded them,” Daniel Casse wrote in April in the conservative Weekly Standard. “These liberal Democratic presidential aspirants coyly demur on tax increases. Their discussions of foreign policy invoke American credibility. They talk about efficiency in government. Yes, conservatives know these are poll-massaged, manufactured personas; yet surely they reflect how much of the conservative flavoring has seeped into the Democratic drinking water.”
[Editor’s note: The original version misstated when the GOP lost the Senate.]
Comments
2. Rich | 08.30.08
I feel this article was on the mark…two days ago. The Palin choice makes it irrelevant. She solidifies the base, provides hope for real change, excites independents, intrigues women, and will win the election for the Republican Party.
3. George | 08.30.08
The article is still on point. The Palin selection makes no diffeance. The American voters will still reject the Ideas of the Mccain platform. Even with Palin , trickle down economics will still be in place. Even with Palin Mccain will seek force before dipolomacy. Even with Palin , there will be no political will by Mccain to look out for the ” little guy”. Even with Palin on the tickit Mccain will continue to malign out allies , and weaken our military through repeated and unnessacary deployments.
Not to mention there will be more consevative judges on the supreme court doing everything they can to take rights away from Americans. It would even be worse under Palin which is highly likely considering Mccains age and health issues. I doubt real Hillary Clinton supporters share much in common with Sarah “Buchannan ” Palin
4. Jim Bromer | 08.30.08
The declaration by the Republican Party and the McCain campaign that the convention might be postponed if Gustav hits the Gulf Coast was a gamble that the Republican Party cannot afford to pay. There is no way that the convention could be postponed for more than a day and it is unlikely that that McCain would do even that. The Republican brain trust was wagering that the hurricane will play nice in which case they would not have to show that they mean what they say and live up to their off-the-cuff hype. If Gustav hits the Gulf coast hard, the Republican’s would get more mileage by expressing their awareness and concern over the problem than they would by postponing the convention. The inability to deal intelligently with possibilities that go against their presumptive political and ideological framing of the issues seems to be one of the major reasons that the contemporary Republican Party is finally starting to lose its grasp on the American electorate.
5. Tillie | 08.30.08
My parents taught me to be proud of being an American. We were everything traditional. We went to church, celebrated Christmas and tolerated those that were different. Mom stayed home and raised 5 kids and dad worked as a mechanic for the municipality. I was a bra burning democrat when I became of age but my more conservative bearing grew as I aged. I long for the old days.. where you were paid for the work you did. You paid the doctor for the work he did and you gave what you could to help those less fortunate.
I don’t believe in what the democrats are offering! They are way to liberal for me! They want everybody to have everything without having to work for any of it. The democratic left hate anything that is not liberal like them!
Yet the GOP is missing the mark too, they don’t believe in anything it seems.The Republicans need to be able to validate my ideals and yet recognize the differences between other diverse groups. They need to recognize why I am an American and still accommodate how modern America society has changed.
I believe in Palin and McCain I believe they have my interests in mind but Obama promises too much that I know he will be unable to deliver. I don’t think he much cares about my needs since he can’t even relate to where I am coming from.Plus the Nancy Pelosi crowd simply scares me to death. I can’t trust them at all!
The GOP is needed to temper the Liberal left but in a new and modern way. Maybe McCain and Palin will be that example we are craving for!
6. Rich | 08.30.08
My gut tells me we just witnessed Obama’s political Pearl Harbor. Hands-down Democratic win if they keep McCain in the box on his VP pick. Shunning Hillary and selecting a DC-insider for VP provoked McCain to be imaginative and daring. The result will awaken a jaded mass of independent, women, Libertarian, and Republican voters that will carry this election. Yesterday was the beginning of the end for Obama in ‘08.
7. Gary B | 08.30.08
The idea that women, especially former Hillary supporters, would vote for McCain just because his VP choice is a women, is really sexist and a total insult to women. My female friends are much more thoughtful than that.
That idea is just so condecending to women. What am I missing in thinking how absurd it is that people would allow a VP choice with her credentials, to possibly take over the most powerful job in the world. Also, Barack Obama needs to emphasize more that being “pro choice” does not always mean you are “pro abortion”, People can feel that abortion is not a good option and still feel that a woman has the right to make that decision about her on body and not be told by someone else what they can or can not do with their own body.
8. Steve | 08.30.08
I’m registered independent. What drives my vote is, who will 1) balance the budget; 2) keep the nation safe; 3) stop inflation; and 4) conserve (!) the environment.
Note to all Republicans: I have no interest in preventing gay people from marrying, in Federal legislation commanding that a brain-dead woman must be kept on life support against her husband’s wishes, in letting my neighbor own an AK-47, or in banning the teaching of evolution in biology classes.
I’m voting this election, and I’m voting Obama / Biden. You guys had your chance and second chance, and you made such a colossal, spectacular, horrifying, insane mess on all fronts, in such a short time, that I can’t envision myself ever again voting for a Republican. I plan to live a long time, and I ain’t never coming back.
9. George | 08.30.08
I have been, for most of my adult life, a conservative Republican. My support for the GOP has waned during the 2 Bush administrations as Republicans ceased being Reaganites. Today’s GOP has schizophrenia. They seem to be racing to the Left on social issues while simultaneously trying to re-embrace their old mantle as the party of Northeastern, wealthy, corporate elites.
I personally detest John McCain for more reasons than I can list, but most especially for his lax attitude towards containing the illegal immigration disaster. Two days ago McCain was as unacceptable to me as the Obama/Biden ticket, which is WAY too far to the Left for me to ever accept.
I had planned to vote for Bob Barr, but now am strongly considering voting for the Republican ticket since McCain did something I never expected him to do by picking a solid, conservative, independent, reform-minded Republican for his running mate. I like what I see in Sarah Patin and think she adds real strength to this ticket. It was a master-stroke and it WILL peel away a lot of independent, centrist women - no matter what the die-hard feminazis of the Democrat party say.
10. John | 08.30.08
Interesting article. Barry Goldwater definitely ushered in a revolution of ideas. I would argue that the ideas are still valid. However, the politicians in the Republican Party failed to follow through. A few that come to mind are the failure to provide small BUT effective government and failure to show any fiscal restraint.
I am a proud independent…even in Pennsylvania where I am prohibited from voting in the primary election because of party rules. But, I believe McCain is perfect. He has the experience…he is a bit of a maverick and independent…he understands that this is a dangerous world in which you do not negotiate or appease dictators such as Ahmadinejad. He understands that global warming IS a concern. His choice of Palin is perfect…another independent/maverick with strong fiscal restraint credentials.
Obama is certainly a unique politician. He seems to be different than the old order Democrats and willing to reach across the aisle and compromise. But, I simply feel he is not the right candidate at this time. Being that he is young, and hopefully kept safe, he will most definitely be on the political scene for many years to come.
11. Joseph | 08.30.08
Sadly, I must concur the Republican party may indeed beyond repair. In no way, shape or form does it resemble the “shining city” Ronald Reagan spoke of. Like a malignant tumor that has spread throughout the body of an unsuspecting host, the Republican party has been infected by corruption from big oil and many other sources. From a historical perspective the amount of corruption is at its highest level in US history.
A new party that contains the following attributes would be highly desirable:
1. Ethical
2. Fiscally conservative
3. Morally conscious and inclusive of all faiths (not just Christians).
4. Environmentally pro-active and progressive about protecting ALL LIFE on this planet.
5. Promote free thought and entertain new ideas that are rational and benefit the nation and the world.
These five basic pillars actually make up pieces of each of our national parties (Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican). Each complement and feed from each other. If you leave any one of these pillars out of the equation then the success of our government and the health of our nation and its place in the world are at risk.
Most recently I have been very pleased to see religious Christians shout the same calls for environmentalism that up until now has been promoted by those in the Democratic and Green parties. This intellectual unification along environmental lines is very promising.
We need to keep this momentum going. I call this “Progress”, and Americans from all walks of life have made valuable contributions. No one party has a monopoly on all ideas. Perhaps a new party could be called the “Progressive Environmental Party” or something that embodies the noted values.
12. Timmy coffee | 08.30.08
The seeds sown by Pat Buchannan have reached maturity. Now we have Buchannan Girl as Johnny Mc’s Vp. The Republicans desire another election about guns, gays, and abortion. They are building the bridge back to the 19th century. Unlimited access and no regulation of firearms is great until your three elementary school children are killed in a mass slaughter on the school grounds. Banning abortion is great until your mother conceives (when life begins?) due to having been raped in the restroom of the local Wal-Mart. It’s great to cut taxes for everyone and demagogue infrastructure maintenance (pork barrel?) spending until your entire family is killed when an interstate bridge collapses. It’s great as a Christian-nation to despise and demonize the other religions of the world until we need assistance in stopping terrorists. Ms. Palian is the type of extreme right-wing ideologue that is found in every community. In Memphis, Shelby county we have Marilyn Loeffel types who want to impose their self-absorbed and hateful ideologies on their communities. This type of vulgar nonsense is unacceptable in a national election. We have serious national problems which need to be addressed after the last 16 years of neglect. The only thing conservative about the current Republican Party is a desire to conserve the American aristocracy (the ability to have seven houses or more?) and the romance of the Salem witch trial era.
Is Palin really the grandmother of her youngest child?!This is tragic.
13. Joe | 08.30.08
What drives my vote is, who will”
1) balance the budget;
Not mccain, not obama. They both vote to increase the size of gov’t spending and gov’t deficits.
2) keep the nation safe;
Not mccain, not obama. They both want to keep troops in 100+ countries which spreads us too thin to protect OUR COUNTRY.
3) stop inflation;
Not mccain, not obama. They both vote for deficits spending which is financed by borrowing. Borrowing and printing $ devalues the money and promotes inflation.
4) conserve (!) the environment.
Not mccain, not obama. Both want more troops in Afghanistan and will keep troops in 100+ countries. War is environmentally destructive.
Check out Chuck Baldwin or Bob Barr, as both will reduce war. Reducing war will save money and reduce inflation, while protecting the environment via less war.
14. William O. Beeman | 08.30.08
I feel terribly sorry for Sarah Palin. She may do well, against all odds, but it is clear that she is a kind of Potemkin candidate. She has all the surface credentials to placate the right-wing, and almost no substance. Her pick was insulting to her and to the Republican party. Look at what happened to Dan Quale. He became vice-president, but was a national joke ever after. Palin’s first potatoe moment will brand her as incompetent, and there are plenty of folks gunning for her (no pun intended, given her pro-gun-rights position). She seems to be ultra-conservative on every issue, and in fact a parody of the worst excesses of single-issue right-wingers. This coupled with her lack of administrative experience is a formula for disaster. She kind of looks like Geena Davis, but that is as close as she should ever get to the oval office.
15. Franck | 08.30.08
Rich you say: “[Palin] solidifies the base, provides hope for real change, excites independents, intrigues women, and will win the election for the Republican Party.”
Can you cite one example in history when a VP nominee won the election for either party?
Particulary a candidate with only two years experience as a governor of a state with a population of less than 600,000 — that’s lower than the population of Austin, Texas, by the way — and a few years as a mayor of a town of under 10,000.
A heartbeat away from the presidency? I don’t think so, she’s even less qualified to serve as Commander in Chief than George W. Bush if such a thing is possible.
16. Faolan | 08.30.08
Any measurable amount of trust is gone. It may not be that Obama is the best choice for the Presidancy, there are reasons for and against him, but I personally don’t think it will matter. It wouldn’t even matter if Mccain said all the right words and did all the right things. People do not trust the republican party. Too much has happened on a consistent basis for most people to give that trust.
Not that the democrats are any better overall in my opinion. Or even that bad on the other hand. But it’s been quite some time since they’ve been on the throne that they definitely seem more trustworthy by comparison.
Add in the fact that Obama has the Color Issue on his side, a commendable charisma, and the ability to press the right buttons to promote an ideological revolution I would find it very surprising if Mccain won.
But ****, that’s just how I see it.
17. McCaingonewild | 08.30.08
Great article on How are party is just in Limbo. Republican never really wanted McCain or they would have choose him in 2000, when he as 8 yrs younger. You know he can’t serve more that 4 yrs, because of this age and brain. We’ve choosen the wrong leader again. Bush was a mistake, he didn’t any experience, but Cheney and Rumie called the shots. I think the Dems have someone who will excite the government/America again. Get American on the right track…Bush/Cheney has just been phoney and NOT for the Average American. We see it, We feel it. Will I vote my party, can’t and will give the otherside a chance..
18. Rich | 08.30.08
Franck — I’m not tracking, but here it is a different way, since many are comparing academic resumes…I’m not sure you can pay for Palin’s education: sending her oldest son to war, taking care of her youngest son with a disability, and running the largest state in the USA while attacking a state rife with political corruption…hmmm…I think she is more in touch with the American public, tougher than anyone gives her credit, and will make a better #1 or #2 for that grounding judgment. Without a doubt, she understands sacrifice and selflessness better than any career politician, ivy league profiteer, or lawyer. Franck - I don’t have an example, this is a first…she is more qualified than Obama, Biden or McCain to run this country…the fact we have her anywhere is worth turning out to vote - for someone…because it’s not just silver spoon politicians any more - it’s one of us…btw, as an AK resident, you may not get it: she has a border with Canada, shares contested fishing waters with Russia, runs the National Guard, works with over five different tribes of native Americans, runs one of the most prosperous oil fields in the states, and as all Alaskans, is sensitive to our beloved environment…she could be president tomorrow, and perform well above average.
19. FredO | 08.31.08
Is the Republican party in peril? Which Republican party? The one of father’s generation? The one that demanded fiscal responsibility, and that demanded that government stay out of our private lives? The one that cooperated with the Democrats to enable of generation of returning soldiers to secure college educations that in turn helped fuel the postwar boom in science and technology? That Republican party expired with the election of Ronald Regan who preached smaller government while quintupling the national debt, who talked tough about beefing up the military to deal with the Soviet threat while he slashed funding for the VA, and wasted our national wealth on impossible star-wars projects. The Republican party of today appears to be possessed of a willful ignorance of science, (especially biology), technology, the cultures of foreign nations, changing economic power in the world, ethics, and just generally of the importance of governing wisely. It has been more zealous in it’s pursuit of bringing down the former democratic president than of bringing in the mastermind behind 9-11. We are at a tipping point here folks. The global economic and environmental frameworks are changing, and I am afraid we don’t have time, money or passion to spare on take-no-prisoners political infighting, and forcing our fellow Americans to adopt our own religious beliefs. I sincerely hope that next generation of Republicans form a base for a more thoughtful, careful, and sane Republican party. We are going to need that kind of Republican party.
20. Ben | 08.31.08
As a concerned British citizen, my American wife and I are watching the developments of the election from the UK with a growing level of alarm.
I think that the choice of Palin as VP shows to me exactly what the Republican party is all about: politics. She is a choice intended to gain votes in the election without any forethought into what would happen if she and McCain actually get in. Likewise the war on Iraq, putting on a show of aggression without thinking through the politics, and Bush running his 2004 election campaign on the premise that you don’t want to change your Commander in Chief in the middle of a war.
Obama recognised his weakness in his knowledge about foreign policy, and so chose a VP who had experience in that field, so that between they can cover all the bases. Palin is a desperate choice by a desperate man, and I hope that there are enough Hilary voters out there who remember that she was a Democrat first and a woman second.
p.s. I’m surprised McCain didn’t cover all his bases by choosing an African-American woman…or would that be too obvious?
21. Harry | 08.31.08
After reading these comments, I feel I must be the youngest person here. I am just turned 20, but have had a deep fascination with politics, though many of my colleagues remain disinterested unfortunately. As I never grew up under any previous Republican president then Bush, I can say with some validity that my generation has become disenfranchised with the GOP, and even politics in general due to the policies of Bush. He may have effectively lost my entire generation, which surprisingly Obama has been able to excite. Cynicism runs deep right now, and Sarah Palin simply reinforces the cynicism we have with politics in America now.
And for my female friends which have grown up feeling virtually no sexism in their lives, having Palin on the ticket doesn’t seem to particularly excite them as “breaking the glass ceiling”.
22. Lulu Cestmoi | 08.31.08
Well… feom my point of view, Palin is a master move from McCain. She has government experience. Neither McCain, Obama or… Who was the other guy? 
have.
She is a woman, a mother, a spouse, a coach, a citizen, a manager. So most people can see her as “one of us”. Can you say that of McCain, Obama or… well, the other guy.
She has appealed the feminine vote that went to Clinton during the Dems primaries. Well. It doesn’t mean that women should be more o less smart than me.It is a question of achievement. Go women, go!
She is also a maverick, as McCain is. They may have been wrong a number of times (who isn’t?) But they have demonstrated that they can bipartidism can sum when it is necessary, not just be dum opposites.
Finally, Palin has principles. She lives in accordance with them. You may agree with her or not. But everybody must recognize that if somebody is going to be elected for that high responsability, is much better if he or she has strong values. And, of course, this is something that Sarah Palin has. And of course neither McCain, Obama or… Who is the other guy? do.
As someone said, McCain will only stay for 4 years. So my vote is for the 2012 President of the USA: Sarah Palin.
23. Jennifer | 08.31.08
Palin was just announced as Republican VP and there are people who just have closed their minds about her. That is sadly unfortunate because she is the kind of person who change the GOP from the good ole boy kind of party to one that will be much more in tune to the changing world and evolving Americans.
24. Bruce | 08.31.08
FredO is right on track. During the past 8 years, the Republican Party has demonstrated that it can be as dirty as the Democratic Party. Like two hogs at the trough. Two nasty political parties who live off lobbyists to the detriment of America.
The Democrats can keep their Hillary voters. Except for her position on abortion, Palin is a breath of fresh air. She represents what the American voter wants and needs. A person who is not bought and sold by special interest groups. She will win this election for America - in spite of the Republican Party.
25. Jack | 08.31.08
The Republican Party did have ideas at one time, but it also had an agenda that was not publicized. The ideas for public consumption - small government, low taxes, fiscal conservatism - were, like the use of wedge issues - abortion, gay rights, etc. - designed to win elections and power. The real agenda turned out to be bloated spending, massive deficits, no bid contracts to themselves, turning government agencies over to incompetent party hacks like Brownie, the K street project and using the bloated military to secure oil and other business advantages. Once the real agenda became painfully obvious even to some of the true believers, the GOP that has existed for the last 40 years was surely doomed. The Bush administration simply proved once again the old adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
26. Gaston | 08.31.08
I grew up as a small govt Republican a la Nelson Rockeffer & Gerald Ford. Unfortunately the Republican party has left me & hijacked by extremist, Southern Evangelical Right Demagogues, declaring war on science, immigrants & involve the federal govt in American private lives; the right for a woman to choose or one right to choose a partner to live with. The modern day GOP reflects the narrow minded, intolerant view of the Jerry Flawells, Pat Robertsons, Dr Dobsons, Rush Limbaughs, Ann Coulters, while America is becoming a truly multicultural, multiracial country.
Sorry, to say the GOP deserves its Waterloo.
27. Al | 08.31.08
Anyone who says the Republican party isn’t in trouble must be such a loyalist that they just don’t pay attention.
At the end of the day, the campaign itself will work for Obama, and here is why: it’s like a basketball team loaded with Seniors, and a 10-deep bench, going up against a freshman team with 6 people. The spunky underrated team can come up and bite the seniors, but over the course of the game, the Deeper, and more experienced as a team bench wears the spunky crew out.
Seriously…when McCain campaigns to try and get independents on his side…who is he going to use? Leiberman and Palin, that’s it. Obama has a Democratic Governor in Colorado, a Democratic Governor in Pennsylvania, a Democratic Governor in Virginia, a Democratic Governor in Montana, a Democratic Governor in North Carolina, a Democratic Governor in Ohio, a Democratic Governor in New Hampshire, a Democratic Governor in New Mexico…McCain has Republicans in Florida and Indiana…and in Missouri you have a popular Democratic Senator, and the Gubernatorial race is heavily leaning Democrat. Obama has the resources to take this race state-by-state, and I think in the end he will just wear McCain down.
28. rick | 08.31.08
At one time both parties worked together and compromised on issues. This is no longer happening and the country is very divided.Part of the blame lies at those who see issues very narrowly-it is my way or no way. Unless both parties work together on the serious issues that confront the nation,I see little chance of success no matter who gets elected in November.
29. Frank | 08.31.08
Ben from the UK asks: “p.s. I’m surprised McCain didn’t cover all his bases by choosing an African-American woman…or would that be too obvious?”
The name of Condoleeza Rice was often mentioned as a possible VP pick, although she herself apparently asked not to be considered. While no one would call her unqualified, the fact that she is so closely associated with the Bush administration would have been an important drawback.
Anyway, the Republicans were never going to win the black vote. The point of having somebody like Condi (or now Palin) is to reach out to white moderates such as the famous “Soccer Moms.”
30. Alice C. Smith | 08.31.08
Until Palin was picked, I had no plans to vote for either presidential candidate. Now I feel energized! I will vote Republican. I am a 71 yr. old woman. I feel 30 years younger now!!
A.S.
31. Phillip | 09.01.08
Is the Republican party in peril? If having a large group of disaffected political voters of both the ideological left and right meeting at the same time as the RNC convention means anything then I would say that yes the Republican party is in peril.
There are others running!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008
32. north dakota | 09.01.08
The article clearly outlined the errors of the republican party. Starting in 1996 and continuing for the next 10 years, the republican led legislature proved it was unable to govern. The contract wth America was a contract by, for and in favor of Republicans, not the american people. Deficits (our children’s future) ballooned out of control and made lies of their purported fiscal conservatism. They abandoned the bill of rights for freedom of religion (or freedom from religion) by pandering to the christian right at the expense of all other religious and non religious in America. They made small government and lower taxes their mantra while our crumbling roads, sewers, schools, health care systems, police departments, unchecked immigration and response to Katrina, paid for by taxes, showed the american people the result of their policies. It is the effect of their policies on the ground that are the reasons that the Republican party is in disfavor.
33. Denise W | 09.01.08
Turn the tables around a bit in your mind: What would Republicans think of Palin as a choice if she was chosen by Obama? I think they would see it as a gross misjudgement. We are at such a crossroads in our world now that we cannot afford to be reckless with our vote and stick to a party in a misguided tendency to be loyal to “the Party”.
34. Luis | 09.01.08
To the fellow that says Palin governs the largest state in the union. That maybe so but it’s also true that, that state is virtually devoid of people.
The population of Alaska is 670,000 people that’s half the population of the Bronx Borough in NYC. The Bronx has 194k people with Bachelor’s degree or higher while Alaska has 160k. That speaks very bad for the Bronx but what does it say about Alaska and the type of people that live and her competition in government?
At best her work and experience can be equated to the work and experience of the Bronx bourough president when it comes to affecting people’s lives. Is obvious that the only reason she was chosen for VP has to do with her gender.
McCain is a desperate mad man I have to say, he can die any day now. What’s wrong with him? He’s only met her once before. It took me 4 interviews to get my job at a small IT company, this is unbelievable.
She does not really inspire me, she’s no Ellen Brockovich and certainly no Hillary Clinton! No gravitas there for me, her education is not really impressive and she really reminds me of a cheerleader more than a VP.
35. Jaegs | 09.01.08
I’m an independent who has voted for Bush twice. The first time because I thought he would have the foreign policy savvy of his father and the second time because I thought he was close to ending the war in Iraq. I was terribly wrong on both accounts. I’ve always liked McCain because he didn’t tow the party line, reached across party lines and didn’t wear his religion on his sleeve. I also liked him because after being a victim of Rove’s tactics in 2000 he seemed above creating social division on small topics. But then he made his VP choice. To me the Palin choice smacks of simple minded political maneuvering. She has 18 months of serious political experience. Is this really his idea of putting our nation first? If this is the judgement John McCain is going to bring to the presidency, no thanks.
36. Really?? | 09.01.08
[I am a relatively conservative, 100% independent voter. Never voted Bush because he was suuuuuch an obvious ****. Would have voted for McCain in 2000 had the Bush team not swift-boated him by spreading lies about illegitimate children in South Carolina (…or have all you loyal Republican sheep forgotten about that?) But McCain seems to have lost his mind over the past 8 yrs, so I will likely vote for Obama, but won’t be all that happy about it.]
Case in point:
Sarah Palin? For real? You mean this Sarah Palin? http://www.flickr.com/photos/arishia_nishi/2810486367/?editedcomment=1#comment72157607024798001
Really?
Those of you who have so enthusiastically jumped aboard the Sarah Palin Express have lost your minds. I’ll be the first to say that we need to clear out all of the so-called “experts” in Washington who have enriched themselves while destroying the country, but have any of you actually looked at her resume? Here’s her “experience:”
1. captain of her high school basketball team (the fact that we are even told this should be some indication of how far they’re reaching with this one)
2. beauty pageant contestant (lost the competition, but won “miss congeniality”–are you serious?!)
3. briefly the sports reporter for local Alaska TV station (if you haven’t seen the video just search Youtube–it is priceless–and then picture her negotiating with a foreign leader)
4. president of local PTA
5. mayor of a town of 7000 people
6. Governor–for exactly 20 months now–of one of the least-populous, least-diverse states in the nation, where politics revolves around a single issue: natural resources (aka = OIL…hmmm, let’s see what happened the last time we installed a big oil player in the VP slot. oh that’s right, he held a secret meeting on national energy policy with the heads of all the major oil companies–we still don’t know what was said at that meeting becasue Cheney refuses to tell all us “little people” what he had in store for us. hint: its called the Iraq War)–oh but keep in mind, as Mrs. McCain and Fox’s Steve Ducey have pointed out, that although Sarah has absolutely ZERO foreign policy experience, Alaska is “very close to Russia.” Hm. Excellent point. Are these really the same people who have been complaining about Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience (which BTW, I agree with, but let’s at least be consistent).
From this we are told that “at least she has ‘executive experience’”–seriously, honestly, what does that even mean? So does the guy at your local car dealership…
37. Undecided Still | 09.01.08
I loved McCain’s VP pick. Right back attcha! For me, still undecided, it’s been energizing to see the professional and generous concession of Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention. She and others have raised the bar greatly, and everyone else is rising to the occasion. I like that we’re seeing everyone use their highest sense of right in selecting running mates and I don’t feel there are any lame ducks in this election. Each side “really wants it” - unlike our last Presidential election, when John Kerry intentionally sidestepped issues he could have scored with, and possibly won on. Bravo. Brava. It’s a real race.
38. Arlene | 09.01.08
I voted for Bush in 2000 and regret the choice. Obama has the leadership and judgment that we have been missing. Like Lincoln, Obama opposed a war when everyone was doing the popular thing and getting on the band wagon; like Lincoln he favors equality (this time its women’s rights and equal pay, during Lincoln’s day it was emancipation); and like Lincoln he recognizes the need for compromise and listening to arguments on the other side. McCain’s VP pick was off the hip and makes me wonder about whether he is psychologically stable. I certainly oppose Palin’s positions on family planning, sex education, creationsim being taught in public schools, and a disregard for the environment. Finally, I know I don’t want anyone sitting in the oval office with a quick trigger on a nuclear missle.
39. Phillip | 09.01.08
It is not a real race if the Diebold voting machines don’t tally the results correctly between Obama and McCain.
40. Phillip | 09.02.08
A political race can’t be a real race and contest if the Diebold voting machines miscount votes.
41. Melinda | 09.03.08
I was a Clinton supporter who considered voting for McCain, but his choice of Sarah Paley is troubling to say the least. This was his first major executive decision, and this was the best he could do? I am seriously considering not voting for either McCain or Obama. I will write in Hillary. We can still write it votes, can’t we?
42. Phillip | 09.03.08
To all voters considering the vote for Obama or McCain. Please inform yourself and investigate the credentials of the individuals who may make up the Presidential Cabinet of the candidates from either party. It seems that given this last administration that these individuals are the ones who more influence the direction of the nation rather than the figurehead president.
43. Deanna | 09.03.08
If any of my fellow Americans are happy with the way the Republican Party has run this country for the past eight years, then by all means, let’s vote another Republican in office so we can have four more of the same!!!!
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1. crwl | 08.30.08
McCain’s Republican campaign runs on how un-Republican he is, and he is tied with Obama?! Has the entire country gone mAD!? I’m not voting for either of these clowns. But I can’t understand why Republicans would vote for a Republican candidate who is trying his damndest not to be one. “Maverick” HAH. What a bunch of bull. Some say it’s the system that is broken, I blame it on the average American brain.