A Way Out of the Wilderness for the GOP

[ScreamingEagle]

Republicans hold a weak hand in Washington but a stronger grip in states where voters have entrusted them with power. Performances there can boost not just the Republican image but bring the party back to power in Washington. More importantly, they can show conservative principles work. The "Red State Model" can, in the Wall Street Journal's words, "Drive Republican Revival."

Walter Russell Meade, one of our most brilliant thinkers, has written quite perceptively about the collapse of what he calls "the blue model." These are states that have been firmly in the hands of the Democratic Party and their allies (unions-especially public employee unions; special interest groups -- environmentalists among them). Together they have created a tax, spend and borrow model of governance that is leading to fiscal chaos. Policies have been adopted that have created a hostile business climate that has cramped growth and blighted the future of the middle class.

Prospects for these states are so dim there has been not just an exodus of their "best and brightest" (blue states are heavily dependent on taxing high-income people who have options to migrate to redder pastures) out of them, but a collapse in fertility rates, as well. When the future is bleak and the cost of living in the present is too high, people don't have children.

Liberals may caterwaul about a sustainable environment but seemingly couldn't care less about sustainable families or a sustainable future or a sustainable state.

These are states that are collapsing under the weight of liberal policies. While the fiscal condition of the Democrat-controlled federal government and blue state governments is horrendous, many Republican-controlled states are swimming in surpluses (there is a threat blue states will use their power in Washington to extract, courtesy of red-state workers, a massive bailout).

The archetype of this model would of course be California where "Progressive Failure is on Full Display" writes Californian Steven Greenhut -- but other states (Illinois, New York) are following down this disastrous path.

And therein lies an opportunity for the Republican Party.

cont...
Articles: A Way Out of the Wilderness for the GOP

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A number of faults in this ‘reasoning…’

The cost of red state ‘surplus’ comes at the expense of good schools, good paying jobs, and appropriate and needed public services. The poor quality alone of the education systems found in many red states such as Louisiana and Mississippi will be a sufficient motive for voters in blue states to continue to reject the GOP model.

A significant contributing factor to blue states’ financial woes is the expense of keeping red state residents supplied with food stamps, Medicaid, and other forms of public assistance – much the result of red states refusing to take care of their own residents.

Last, even if, for the sake of discussion, the OP article had some valid point, blue state voters will never abide a GOP linked to social conservatives, with their hostility toward gays and immigrants, and their advocacy of legitimate rape.

yet the Red States are thriving while the Blue States are stagnating....and heading toward bankruptcy....

 

[TheOldSchool]

Hold your horses there desperado...both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and the Governors office are all under Republican control in VA...

That doesn't sound like a blue state to me.

Fair enough. However both of VA's senators are Democrats.

VA was once as red as Texas is. It's been trending ever bluer. Not least because one of our governors (Mark Warner - D) saved us (I live there) financially.

VA will get bluer and bluer.

 

[Missourian]

Hold your horses there desperado...both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and the Governors office are all under Republican control in VA...

That doesn't sound like a blue state to me.

Fair enough. However both of VA's senators are Democrats.

VA was once as red as Texas is. It's been trending ever bluer. Not least because one of our governors (Mark Warner - D) saved us (I live there) financially.

VA will get bluer and bluer.

This brings us back around to, what is a red state and what is a blue state...

Hard to quantify.

I'd call Missouri a red state, but we have a democrat governor who I voted for.

Both houses of the legislature are republican controlled with divided U.S. Senate representation.

Illinois has a Republican Governor but both houses are Democrat controlled.

And what about Wisconsin...a Republican governor that survived a recall, and one house in Republican control and one controlled by Democrats, but nationally went blue.

It would be a difficult proposition to classify any of these states as one or the other.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Hold your horses there desperado...both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and the Governors office are all under Republican control in VA...

That doesn't sound like a blue state to me.

Fair enough. However both of VA's senators are Democrats.

VA was once as red as Texas is. It's been trending ever bluer. Not least because one of our governors (Mark Warner - D) saved us (I live there) financially.

VA will get bluer and bluer.

This brings us back around to, what is a red state and what is a blue state...

Hard to quantify.

I'd call Missouri a red state, but we have a democrat governor who I voted for.

Both houses of the legislature are republican controlled with divided U.S. Senate representation.

Illinois has a Republican Governor but both houses are Democrat controlled.

And what about Wisconsin...a Republican governor that survived a recall, and one house in Republican control and one controlled by Democrats, but nationally went blue.

It would be a difficult proposition to classify any of these states as one or the other.

True I'll agree to that. But damn was I annoyed at the OP

 

[AceRothstein]

Hold your horses there desperado...both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and the Governors office are all under Republican control in VA...

That doesn't sound like a blue state to me.

Fair enough. However both of VA's senators are Democrats.

VA was once as red as Texas is. It's been trending ever bluer. Not least because one of our governors (Mark Warner - D) saved us (I live there) financially.

VA will get bluer and bluer.

This brings us back around to, what is a red state and what is a blue state...

Hard to quantify.

I'd call Missouri a red state, but we have a democrat governor who I voted for.

Both houses of the legislature are republican controlled with divided U.S. Senate representation.

Illinois has a Republican Governor but both houses are Democrat controlled.

And what about Wisconsin...a Republican governor that survived a recall, and one house in Republican control and one controlled by Democrats, but nationally went blue.

It would be a difficult proposition to classify any of these states as one or the other.

Illinois has a Democrat Governor. He probably won't win another term.

 

[Missourian]

Fair enough. However both of VA's senators are Democrats.

VA was once as red as Texas is. It's been trending ever bluer. Not least because one of our governors (Mark Warner - D) saved us (I live there) financially.

VA will get bluer and bluer.

This brings us back around to, what is a red state and what is a blue state...

Hard to quantify.

I'd call Missouri a red state, but we have a democrat governor who I voted for.

Both houses of the legislature are republican controlled with divided U.S. Senate representation.

Illinois has a Republican Governor but both houses are Democrat controlled.

And what about Wisconsin...a Republican governor that survived a recall, and one house in Republican control and one controlled by Democrats, but nationally went blue.

It would be a difficult proposition to classify any of these states as one or the other.

Illinois has a Democrat Governor. He probably won't win another term.

You are correct...my mistake.

I thought Quinn was a Republican for some reason...probably the fact Blago had just gone to prison.

 

[RoadVirus]

With every day that passes and I see more government hatred being spewed by right wingers, I despise them more and more. Most of them are now basically grown cry babies, who are turning more radical by the day.

Mr. Pot...meet Mr. Kettle.

 

[RoadVirus]

Illinois has a Democrat Governor. He probably won't win another term.

Don't be so sure. That idiot won the last election thanks to Crook County. And because of it, he'll probably win again.

 

[emptystep]

Hold your horses there desperado...both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and the Governors office are all under Republican control in VA...

That doesn't sound like a blue state to me.

Fair enough. However both of VA's senators are Democrats.

VA was once as red as Texas is. It's been trending ever bluer. Not least because one of our governors (Mark Warner - D) saved us (I live there) financially.

VA will get bluer and bluer.

There is also the issue of the red who support the moderates and the red who support the fringe.