The Republican Party has finally gotten to reinvent itself. I'm so proud.

[PanzerJaeger]

The party is struggling to find its footing again after the Bush years. The GOP may seem ascendant now, but that is only because Obama is screwing up so horribly. Hopefully a strong performance in November won’t engender complacency. There is still a lot to figure out. There are libertarians, evangelicals, neocons, and many others vying for support and control.

Hopefully the party follows the McDonnell/Christie template - fiscal responsibility, smaller, more efficient government, lower taxes, and a distinct disinterest in wedge issues. That casts a big net and I think most right-leaning people plus many independents can get behind it. Rove also needs to come out of retirement to work on messaging... his predecessors have not matched up.

We'll know where the party is headed for sure when someone rises to challenge Obama. As of now, imo, Pawlenty>Romney>Gingrich>Palin. Empty right-wing rhetoric (as much as I enjoy it ) isn't enough, people want credibility and management skills. The former governors of Minnesota and Massachusetts have plenty.

[Xiahou]

We'll know where the party is headed for sure when someone rises to challenge Obama. As of now, imo, Pawlenty>Romney>Gingrich>Palin. Empty right-wing rhetoric (as much as I enjoy it ) isn't enough, people want credibility and management skills. The former governors of Minnesota and Massachusetts have plenty.

Eh, I think Romney is almost as big a flip flopper as Kerry was. His rhetoric often runs counter to his actions. The only thing you can count on him to say is what will get him ahead politically. Smart guy, but I don't trust him.

[PanzerJaeger]

Eh, I think Romney is almost as big a flip flopper as Kerry was. His rhetoric often runs counter to his actions. The only thing you can count on him to say is what will get him ahead politically. Smart guy, but I don't trust him.

He also hasn't been able to come up with a plausible difference between what he did in Massachusetts and what Obama has done in terms of health care. It doesn't completely discredit him in my eyes as the people of the state he was governing wanted it by a pretty wide margin, but it definitely doesn't help either.

What do you think of Pawlenty? He seems to check all of the boxes, but I haven't wikied him yet to get the dirt.

[a completely inoffensive name]

It's not a reinvention when it's the same people in key positions within the organization. This is simply a re branding unless these new candidates take charge from the neoconservatives that have been talking on Fox News since 2000.

[Skullheadhq]

The Republican party reinvented itself? Are they liberal again?
Also, what's the hate against trade unions in America? Without it you'll probably be in the same working conditions as in the Industrial Revolution.

[Lemur]

Also, what's the hate against trade unions in America? Without it you'll probably be in the same working conditions as in the Industrial Revolution.

In fairness to Republicans, we Americans have really screwed the union thing up. I know, I know, it works fine in Japan and South Korea and Germany, but somehow we got the whole union concept upside down. I'm not sure how we did it.

Most of the things we thank unions for are now matters of law (no 90-hour workweeks, child labor, etc.), so maybe our unions just got lost once they won. Or something. I don't really know, and haven't studied the subject in depth. But I do know that other countries make the union thing work, and we don't.

[jabarto]

so maybe our unions just got lost once they won. Or something.

Not quite. I know it's common for people to assume that unions just phased out because they weren't needed anymore, but the fact that productivity has skyrocketed over the last 40 years while wages have largely stagnated turns that theory on its head. The real reason unions don't hold much sway is because they've had their power forcibly stripped from them by conservative leglislation; i'ts not like America has some unique trait that stops unioins from being doable like they are everywhere else.