So what changed in 2006 and 2008? Did the electorate suddenly demand a liberal social agenda? Were the Republicans pro-abortion, anti-school prayer and pro-gay marriage until 2006 and they suddenly changed?
Please cite me something where these teeming masses are demanding this. Hell, gay marriage is a losing issue in California for christsakes.
And your poll also shows a small minority that identifies as liberals. I don’t doubt that. My argument is simply in response to the argument in this and in many other threads that the GOP lost/is losing because they are too far right on social issues.
The swing voter who decides elections vote on the basis of their wallet. That voter was fine with right-leaning social postions when the GOP was in power and are equally fine with left-leaning social issues now. The GOP did NOT lose these elections because people feel that they are “too far right” and that won’t be the reason they lose the next election.
People awoke from their fear-induced terrorism coma and realized that the hard-right ideas they disagree with aren’t worth tolerating any more. And the Republicans squandered ever ounce of unearned political capital with a quickness. America was behind the invasion of Iraq until it was clear that the people in charge didn’t know what the hell was going on. People were all for hands-off economic policies until it wrecked the world economy.
And the message is bogus, anyway. Who was the last Republican who didn’t spend like a maniac? You can’t praise Reagan’s budgets while bitching about the deficit. You can’t keep hawking the same “small government” message from 1980 when there’s 3 decades worth of evidence that you’re full of crap when it comes to ruling on those principles. Either stop pretending like it’s a small government party, or repudiate the hypocrites who’ve marched in lockstep behind reckless government expansion.
It generally strikes me as surprisingly centrist for the fact there’s a large university here–we’ve got just as many wingnuts on both sides of the spectrum at PSU (or at least we had when I graduated at the beginning of this decade.)
Talk to any Philadelphians lately? I’m not so sure they agree!
I’ve only lived in this state for a few years, but from my perspective, Philadelphia has more in common with southern New Jersey than with the rest of PA. (Of course, they freak out if you say that out loud; I think in Philly they kind of consider themselves a world apart.)
PA definitely has it’s right-wing nutjob element, most of whom live in the Appalachian area and westward. People say Pittsburgh leans liberal, but I never see any strong evidence it.
Arlen Spector is popular enough statewide that I suspect he could run as an independent and win, but he doesn’t have the money and political apparatus to do that. I met him once and we talked for a while. He reminded me of my kindly grandfather.That made me feel good, until I remembered my grandfather is completely senile.
First of all, no one is “pro-abortion.” That is an inflammatory and borderline offensive term.
Secondly, you may be right about the public not being as tired of conservatism as is claimed, but then, how on-board were they with it to begin with? Bush won election the first time only by a court decision; he won re-election the second time by the narrowest margin for a sitting president ever. The Republicans were operating with a razor-thin majority in Congress for years, and acting like they had some mandate. That’s not true democracy, and I think the people reacted to that as much as anything.
I really doubt swing voters have no opinions on far-left or far-right positions. But they probably have a subtle clue that it really doesn’t matter, because things like gay marriage and abortion are just talking points for the two major parties to rile up their bases. Abortion? As easy to get now as before Bush was elected. Gay marriage? Obama has done nothing to support it since he was elected, and I suspect he never will. All the initiative is coming from the state level, and even Bush just talked about the issue–he never DID anything about it.
The one exception to this is gun control, which really does have political ramifications, and on which the two parties have staked out diametrically opposed positions in reality instead of just rhetorically. Then again, despite the headlines, Obama’s not exactly going toe-to-toe with anyone over this issue either.
True for the most part, though in 2004 Salt Lake City went for Bush, and in 2008 Oklahoma was entirely red (I’m pretty sure OK has some cities). However, there’s a difference between losing an area and being destroyed in that area; Republicans who win tend to lose the urban areas by relatively small amounts, and completely dominate the rural areas.
