The Future Republican is the Western Republican, according to Smitten Eagle — who, I assume, is a Western Republican:
There are three types of Republicans in the world:
- Northeastern. These are the Rockefeller Republicans. They tend to be internationalists and fiscally conservative. This movement is all but dead. They were compelled to leave the party by the much more socially conservative Southern Republicans. George H.W. Bush was a NE Republican.
- Southern. These are the social conservatives. They tend to support a strong national defense. Fiscal discipline is only a talking point. This movement is still alive, but was repudiated both in the congressional elections in 2006, as well as the general elections of 2008. George W. Bush was a Southern Republican.
- Western. The Western Republican is the Republican of libertarian leanings, generally favoring non-intrusive government in terms of social issues, and also favoring fiscal discipline. They tend to oppose nationalization of anything. They often, but not always, favor a strong national defense. Reagan was a western republican. This is the future of the Republican party, because the Western Republican can capitalize on the whims of the Independent Voter, who is usually fiscally conservative, libertarian socially, and for a strong national defense.
The Northeastern Republican was the type of Republican your grandfather was. The Southern Republican was just beat up in a brawl yesterday and is on life support.
The Western Republican is the Republican of the future.
I love Phil Fraering’s not-so-sanguine response:
So… maybe if we’d run Republicans from Alaska and Arizona instead of Republicans from the South at the top of the ticket this time around, we’d have made headway?
Kurt9 adds this:
Unfortunately, the libertarian-ish “western” republicans do not command much following outside the western states. The reason is that the “pioneering” culture that we think American culture is based on was only true for the western states (starting around the high plains). The East Coast, Mid-west (rust belt), and South never had this culture at all. The East and Northern Mid-west has a 170 year history of funky populist and political movements that have included everything from tee-totaling Christianity to fabian socialism. The South still is the cultural fallout from the attempted re-creation of the European feudal system by the Irish and Scottish settlers that originally settled in the South 250 years ago (along with chattel slavery).