The efforts by a handful of conservative commentators to steer the Republican Party from its Beck-Palin trajectory continue. Here’s Michael Petrilli writing in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:
What’s needed is a full-fledged effort to cultivate “Whole Foods Republicans”—independent-minded voters who embrace a progressive lifestyle but not progressive politics. These highly-educated individuals appreciate diversity and would never tell racist or homophobic jokes; they like living in walkable urban environments; they believe in environmental stewardship, community service and a spirit of inclusion. And yes, many shop at Whole Foods, which has become a symbol of progressive affluence but is also a good example of the free enterprise system at work. (Not to mention that its founder is a well-known libertarian who took to these pages to excoriate ObamaCare as inimical to market principles.)
What makes these voters potential Republicans is that, lifestyle choices aside, they view big government with great suspicion. There’s no law that someone who enjoys organic food, rides his bike to work, or wants a diverse school for his kids must also believe that the federal government should take over the health-care system or waste money on thousands of social programs with no evidence of effectiveness. Nor do highly educated people have to agree that a strong national defense is harmful to the cause of peace and international cooperation.
He warns that the demographics don’t look good for the GOP – that, in addition to the party’s deficit among the young, blacks, and Hispanics, college-educated Americans are now trending Democratic as well. Unless the GOP changes, the country will leave it behind.
Petrilli’s column is worth noting not because it’s bad — it actually contains sound advice for his party — but because of how comically futile it is. Asking the Republican Party to renounce anti-intellectualism is like asking a fish to renounce water. The modern GOP eats, drinks, breathes, and lives know-nothingism. You might as well ask the Republican Party to disband.
I have no doubt that there are some moderate Republicans out there who cringe at the thought of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. I also have no doubt that there are plenty of independents who could be persuaded by a more moderate conservatism (or, failing that, fall for something that looks like it). And I should note that I’m pretty skeptical of the Democrats’ chances in November 2010 – the anti-incumbent mood combined with the narrower electorate in midterms seems to spell doom for Dems.
That said, the party that Petrilli dreams of doesn’t look remotely like the party that he actually belongs to. Here’s what the educated, independent voter thinking of becoming a Whole Foods Republican has awaiting them: a party now comprised of an all-time-high proportion identifying themselves as “very conservative”; whose majority thinks ACORN stole the election for Barack Obama; and whose rank-and-file honestly believe that Obama has a “secret agenda” to bankrupt the country and expand the government.
Having pegged so much of their party’s identity to a culture-war mentality pitting oppressive cosmopolitans versus red-blooded heartlanders, the GOP now finds itself stuck with the ones who brung ‘em. And the ones that brung ‘em don’t want to let anyone else in, unless they look and think exactly like ‘em.
Tags: ACORN, Barack Obama, Campaigns and elections, Conservatism, conservatives, Glenn Beck, Public opinion, Republican Party, Sarah Palin
Don’t underestimate the power of a “great articulator”. What the Republican party is missing is that person who can articulate a conservative agenda in a way that embraces the far right, while also folding in those in the middle who “view big government with great suspicion”.
It’s dangerous to think one party is so far down they can’t recover, particularly when the Democrats were in the same boat until someone who was a state senator in 2000 rose up the ranks faster than anyone thought possible. The same can happen for the Republicans, and I certainly hope that more and more Republicans are of the progressive variety, even if that is just in their lifestyle and not their politics. The political discourse would be a lot more rewarding.
Kristopher:
I hope you are right, but the big problem right now is that Republicans seem to be thriving with their small-tent, extremist message. Their long-term prospects are dim. They don’t currently have anything like the kind of “great articulator” you call for. But thanks to the terrible economy and the inherently controversial nature of the agenda that Obama ran on and is now trying to implement in the worst possible environment, the GOP is “reviving” even as it self-consciously seeks to move away from its own past positions and anything resembling the political center.
It’s no accident that “party renewal” efforts usually come at times of great political adversity. You’d figure after 2006 and 2008 more Republicans would be a bit more introspective. But everything I see suggests that Republicans have firmly convinced themselves that past defeats were totally attributable to excessive ideological flexibility, if not a betrayal of conservatism, and that the party’s current rightward trajectory is a cure-all.