Back? Good...let's get to it...
Tony starts off rather well and he makes his point rather eloquently, but once he gets to this bit...
The claim that Republicans suffer a branding problem is at least partly a complaint that we lack a central thematic that draws us together as a singular political movement....is where I begin to beg to differ.
Prior to this point, Tony went through a lengthy explanation of how the modern Republican Party was pieced together during the 70's and 80's but totally ignores what happened the last eight years.
The "problem" wasn't the fall of the Soviet Union. The problem was that Republicans got lazy and governed like Democrats. Any other assertion is simply just making excuses for bad governance.
And I simply can not let this go unanswered...
That lack resulted in the election disasters of 2006 and 2008. A Republican Party that had long ago lost hope of winning urban and minority voters finally lost the suburbs and middle class as well. The result is that some within the party, and a great many more outside it, now think the only Republican hope left us is a massive philosophical repositioning.I am supposed to believe that Republicans LOST in 2006 and 2008 because the Soviet Union is no longer on the map? Seriously. Uh...no. That ain't it. Nice try though... If all that the GOP lacks is an external enemy, what does Tony call the Global War on Terror? Surely fighting terrorism is at least as important as fighting Soviets...
Moving on...
This, however, may be the smartest thing Tony says in the piece:
So Republicans did what Democrats do: We talked conservative during campaigns, but we governed liberal with big spending entitlement programs designed to buy selected chunks of the electorate. Predictably, a bidding war with Democrats only worked to shrink our base, it did little to add those whose allegiance we thought we could purchase.Exactly right. This is the problem that must be addressed in order for the Republican Party to get back on to the road to relevance.
The rest is just standard RNC boilerplate promises that we've all heard before about how this time it is going to be different. Don't talk about it...just do it.
