Ye of little faith

Let me be the first to say that I do not share Dana Goldstein's optimism that so-called "values voters"--once the wind in Republican sails--have now become the party's anchor.

Was it really only two years ago that Democrats were beating themselves up over "values voters," those working class Americans who voted against their own economic interests because they were so grossed out by gay people and in love with fetuses? Back then, many progressives believed we could never again rise to the majority without making serious compromises on the key civil rights issues of choice and LGBT equality. But this week, in an article about Republicans' lack of faith in their own presidential aspirants, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney and John M. Broder reported that it's now Republicans, not Democrats, who fear the grip divisive social issues have on their party's presidential prospects.

Read the whole Times article, though, and you'll see that what worries certain members of the GOP is not just the constrictive choke of the religious right (mentioned near the bottom) but a realization that the GOP has done very poorly at everything. And while it's good to know that there are a handful of Republicans out there who can view their party self-reflexively, it hardly means that those same Republicans think that the right solution is to trash their (extremely substantial) base and start from scratch when it would be just as easy to appease those voters on social issues while waiting for the economy to pick up and the war to end. My evidence for this? Many of the southern Republicans quoted in the article are cultural conservatives themselves.

Comments

[Dana]

Fair enough, I admit I picked the graf of the article that was the most fun. But I'm still struck by the sea change since 2204-2005. Also of course, the frustration with McCain/Giuliani/Romney is that they are correctly perceived by the GOP base as fake social conservatives and pander-ers. Which they are. So I'm heartened by the fact that it's no longer our side with the authenticity problem.