It’s time for Republicans to pivot on the role of government
To reclaim its Lincolnesque transformation, the GOP needs to fundamentally pivot on the role of government. Laissez-faire ideology has its merits, but cannot compete successfully with a population weaned on the welfare state, whose members are keenly attuned to their vulnerability in our volatile era.
By admitting that government is sometimes a necessary partner in nurturing and sometimes financing infrastructure critical for economic expansion, Republicans can offer their own vision of what growth-inducing services such as new roads—as opposed to the increased regulation and transfer payments and pension bloat peddled by Democrats—government can and should provide. This could appeal to Hispanics, Asians, and younger people who would be the prime beneficiaries of tangible investments.
As generational chroniclers Morley Winograd and Mike Hais have suggested, most younger people support government action to solve problems but generally dislike the kind of top-down solutions often supported by Democrats. As these voters age, seek to buy homes and start businesses, they might listen to a sensible alternative that does not seek to enhance the left-wing clerisy’s ambition to control all aspects of their lives.
It’s time for Republicans to break with the traditions of Goldwater, Reagan, and, particularly, Bush and shift to something more akin to the party’s roots in the mid-19th century.
Blowback
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Bite me…
rich801 on November 23, 2012 at 4:24 PM
Is it time for the GOp to stop being Republican and officially become Dem-lite?
katiejane on November 23, 2012 at 4:24 PM
Never mind that the country can’t afford to pay for all of that welfare.
hawksruleva on November 23, 2012 at 4:25 PM
Well I guess we could to the route that morsi is doing, pharoah for life and gets all he wants? bho would love that better than anything he could think of, king/dictator of the US! bho would have no need for d’s, r’s, or the courts if that happend!
L
letget on November 23, 2012 at 4:27 PM
Will someone please tell me how you Win by Surrendering?
jaydee_007 on November 23, 2012 at 4:33 PM
Sigh. Why must we “pivot” away from a straw man some Daily Beast writer has led himself to believe? Jeebus these people are obtuse.
JeffWeimer on November 23, 2012 at 4:33 PM
Methinks the GOP elite already has.
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 4:35 PM
Surrender is not a strategy:
What the GOP needs is principled leadership
INC on November 23, 2012 at 4:36 PM
Bugger off, progressive. You crypto-fascists were saying the same thing in 1912 — a hundred years ago.
rbj on November 23, 2012 at 4:36 PM
We will never be able to out buy the Democrats.
rob verdi on November 23, 2012 at 4:37 PM
This article is just plain goofy. Good grief.
…by telling Hispanics that Republicans like government funded roads. WTF…
Dongemaharu on November 23, 2012 at 4:41 PM
L.i.B.
Gulch housing: http://themetapicture.com/in-case-of-zombie-apocalypse/
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 4:46 PM
Isn’t Kotkin a lefty? Why would we take advise from him?
Blake on November 23, 2012 at 4:48 PM
It’s time for Republicans to prepare for the eventual collapse of the Obama regime. When it collapses and the free money stops flowing all the people taught that it’s always the fault of Republicans for anything that happens will come after Republicans … specifically whites.
Democrats have stoked racial hatred against whites for a long time but nothing like the last four years. Democrats will have blood on their hands.
darwin on November 23, 2012 at 4:48 PM
Indeed they should pivot. Towards liberty and a restoration of the Constitution. Highly unlikely though which is why people are saying L.I.B.
And enough with the Lincoln references enough. He lit the touchpaper for the War of Northern Aggression. We depose foreign leaders for lesser crimes…
CorporatePiggy on November 23, 2012 at 4:51 PM
No thank you
gophergirl on November 23, 2012 at 4:52 PM
The lefties are always full of advice for the GOP. So thoughtful and concerned of them isn’t it?
/s
Usually the advice is “Cave in, surrender, act like Dems.”
Wethal on November 23, 2012 at 4:55 PM
If the Republicans did this they would just lose their entire base and would be lucky to pick up 2 points from democrats. The truth is, Obama got blacks to turn out in such huge numbers that they were able to overwhelm Romney. They outperformed almost every poll expectations. And yet even with Obama claiming 95% of the black vote he still only won by less than 5 points. If it wasn’t for this Romeny would have won the election. Democrats have to consistently get this kind of turnout to win and Obama can’t run again. They clearly couldn’t do it in the last midterm election in 2010. Republicans don’t need to change everything about themselves for the pendulum to swing back.
Dollayo on November 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM
Who the fluke ran on Laissez-faire ideology?
xblade on November 23, 2012 at 5:01 PM
I don’t think more spending and higher taxation for roads and trains to nowhere is a winning message with conservatives, Joel.
Punchenko on November 23, 2012 at 5:12 PM
The South shot first.
Steve Eggleston on November 23, 2012 at 5:14 PM
Just the opposite is true. The only way to win a electoral contest against the left is to run on a libertarian platform which, by nature, eschews big government at every turn. In the near future, there will be only two competing ideologies that will be viable on the national level – the socialist vision and the libertarian vision. The socialist vision has the advantage of offering free stuff. But the libertarian vision has the advantage of offering liberty something which is also an easy sell. In a contest to appeal best to the self-interest of masses, free stuff, in the end, however, will probably edge out freedom. Europe has chosen that path.
The masses don’t yearn to breath free. They yearn to be cared for. Well, truth be told, they did yearn to breath free when the alternate was oppression with poverty as an added insult. That choice was a no-brainer. But now the alternative to breathing free is a benign big brother that redistributes the booty. Today, that is as intoxicating to the masses as breathing free was two centuries ago.
There is no sales pitch more powerful than We Will Take Care of You. So, I don’t expect socialism to ever be defeated as the default position of any technologically advanced, highly-populated society.
keep the change on November 23, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts and leftists giving advice.
Capp on November 23, 2012 at 5:18 PM
Er, it doesn’t seem to dawn on this guy that Bush already broke with the traditions of Goldwater and Reagan….
cthulhu on November 23, 2012 at 5:29 PM
Hmmm….winning message?
Roads yes.
Trains to nowhere, no.
Not all infrastructure spending is bad. It is silly to pretend otherwise.
Dreadnought on November 23, 2012 at 5:32 PM
Kotkin’s not a leftist.
Dreadnought on November 23, 2012 at 5:32 PM
Of course not. But Kotkin (and many others) are pretending that that’s exactly what we believe. That’s part of the straw man at the heart of the argument.
JeffWeimer on November 23, 2012 at 5:48 PM
After a northern blockade of a Southern port.
single stack on November 23, 2012 at 5:49 PM
What Laissez-faire ideology??
Maybe he meant Lazy Fairy ideology….but I don’t think he did.
Mimzey on November 23, 2012 at 6:07 PM
nuff said.
Next.
Mimzey on November 23, 2012 at 6:10 PM
Like we’re really going to take seriously such advice from leftists. I guess they just love us so much they can’t help but help us out.
Pfffft.
petefrt on November 23, 2012 at 6:29 PM
crossed that bridge long ago.
besser tot als rot on November 23, 2012 at 6:37 PM
Lol…does this fool actually think that Bush was a limited government/ small government politicians? They guy actually INCREASED the size of government, push the disastrous NCLB which gives the Feds more power, and push another prescription drug entitlement. Oh and let’s not forget creating the monster called DHS, and pushed the Patriot Act. Almost every single thing Bush did was give more power to the federal government.
MoreLiberty on November 23, 2012 at 6:49 PM
He’s not pretending, there are certainly are some conservatives who do believe that…case in point:
Dreadnought on November 23, 2012 at 8:21 PM
No it’s not enough said.
You are being misleading, either purposely or by accident. In that quote Kotkin was referring to the weather and the natural environment, not the California government, or attitude of its electorate:
http://www.joelkotkin.com/content/00555-california-collapses-obama-follows-its-lead
http://www.joelkotkin.com/content/00462-golden-state-crumbling
Dreadnought on November 23, 2012 at 8:26 PM