GOP sees business vote slipping away

[babylonsister]

GOP sees business vote slipping away
Posted October 2nd, 2007 at 4:00 pm



For the last several decades, as nearly all political observers know, the two broad coalitions that make up the Republican Party are business interests (tax cuts, minimal regulation, free trade) and social/religious conservatives (anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-church-state separation, pro-gun). The two didn’t necessarily have much in common, but they were under the same GOP tent, and they tried not to step on each other’s toes.

Over the last several years, the business interests started noticing that they were losing. The modern-day Republican Party spent freely, turned huge surpluses into huge deficits, and stopped believing the government should pay its bills. At the same time, the same party shifted its rhetorical focus onto winning elections through social issues.

The obvious effect was driving away younger voters from the GOP, but as Jackie Calmes explained in a front-page WSJ piece today, Republicans are even driving traditional fiscal conservatives away in droves. (the piece is available to non-subscribers)

The Republican Party, known since the late 19th century as the party of business, is losing its lock on that title.

New evidence suggests a potentially historic shift in the Republican Party’s identity — what strategists call its “brand.” The votes of many disgruntled fiscal conservatives and other lapsed Republicans are now up for grabs, which could alter U.S. politics in the 2008 elections and beyond.

Some business leaders are drifting away from the party because of the war in Iraq, the growing federal debt and a conservative social agenda they don’t share. In manufacturing sectors such as the auto industry, some Republicans want direct government help with soaring health-care costs, which Republicans in Washington have been reluctant to provide. And some business people want more government action on global warming, arguing that a bolder plan is not only inevitable, but could spur new industries.

Some leading conservative voices from this wing of the party have grudgingly acknowledged that the GOP no longer represents their beliefs.

more...

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13089.html

[icnorth]

1. "Some leading conservative voices

from this wing of the party have grudgingly acknowledged that the GOP no longer represents their beliefs."

They can read the polls and know the GOP don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected in 08. The one fundamental belief conservatives hold dear is not pissing away their money backing a loser.

[tekisui]

3. This is why Bloomberg and Newt stayed out.

A Gopper will not be POTUS on Jan. 22, 2009.

[provis99]

2. the question is,

do we really want the support of these fiscal conservatives? The last thing the party needs is more rich whiners cozying up to the DLC. If they aren't welcome in the Republican party, tough. They aren't welcome in our party either.

[Trisket-Bisket]

5. We?

Speak for yourself.

[pretzel4gore]

4. gop=organised crime

they make the mafia look like pikers....
this 'brand identity' nonsense is just a variation on the basic theme. Elements of the Republican party have been conspiring against the American people for generations- and brutally exploited a significant minority's own worst instincts to wall off its thieving and murdering activities from examination by the other, partially thanks to the subornation of the mainstream mass media (something never mentioned in said media). Some of us @ DU have been saying this since pre 2k election. And the pigmedia keeps pretending that the fictions need criticism to remain healthy when the very exercise in futility needs nothing so much as '5 in the noggin' as foxnews put it