"Republicans are so much the party of individualism and freedom these days that they are no longer the party of community and order. ...
The Republicans talk more about the market than about society, more about income than quality of life. They celebrate capitalism, which is a means, and are inarticulate about the good life, which is the end. They take things like tax cuts, which are tactics that are good in some circumstances, and elevate them to holy principle, to be pursued in all circumstances. ...
The emphasis on freedom and individual choice may work in the sparsely populated parts of the country. People there naturally want to do whatever they want on their own land. But it doesn’t work in the densely populated parts of the country: the cities and suburbs where Republicans are getting slaughtered."
"The core Republican beliefs in less government, lower taxes, more liberty and greater security in a dangerous world united people as different as Mark Hatfield and Jesse Helms during my years as leader of the Senate. Those same beliefs carried Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1980 and 1984.
Those beliefs still have power today. And if the American people perceive overreaching or underachieving in the Obama administration and among its allies in Congress, the Republican way may prove very attractive again in very short order.
It's happened before."
"You can’t have a successful political party without centrists. Happily for Republicans still smarting from last week’s defection, you can have a successful political party without centrists like Arlen Specter. ...
This doesn’t mean that Republicans should be happy that their tent is shrinking toward political irrelevance. ... e Lincoln Chafees and Olympia Snowes aren’t the answer. What’s required instead is a better sort of centrist. ... the Republican Party needs its own version of the neoliberals and New Democrats — reform-minded politicians like Gary Hart and Bill Clinton, who helped the Democratic Party recover from the Reagan era, instead of just surviving it. ...
No equivalent faction — rooted in conservatism, but eager for innovation — exists in the Republican Party today. But to succeed, such a faction will have to represent something legitimately new in right-of-center politics. It can’t sound like Rush Limbaugh — but it can’t sound like Arlen Specter either."
2 kommentarer:
David Brooks hamrar hem den bästa repliken. Jag ser med skepticism mot de nyliberaler som uppvärderar globalisering, ekonomi och marknaden som det godaste i livet - så bör inte livet levas. Nej, sann högerideologi bör värna civilisamhället framför någon vulgärkapitalistisk girighetsmaskin. Det viktiga är att medborgarna ska kunna leva självständigt och fritt. Sänkta skatter kan bidra till det, men det är ingen extrem dogm som alltid måste följas. Verkligen inte.
David Brooks är inte republikan. Konservativ, ja, republikan? mer troligt independent.
En bättre titel hade varit "Tre konservativa om republikanerna".
Skicka en kommentar