The Republican Party has a new study out with recommendations out about what the party can do better. By some strange quirk of fate, John Locke Foundation’s weekly speaker today was Mark McNeilly, a lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill, who talked about rebranding the GOP. McNeilly’s presentation is well worth having a look at and quite informative.
A bigger challenge for the GOP may be implementing its recommendations. The Republican Party proper is far from the only force that shapes the course which the Right takes. How do those highly influential conservatives who make their money by talking and writing — and for whom controversy almost always sells and that don’t have to worry about actually running campaigns and winning elections — respond to these recommendations? The party may believe it needs to do things like embrace comprehensive immigration reform, focusing less on social issues and creating an environment of intellectual curiosity to win. But that might not mean much if the usual sources of controversy don’t play along.
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2013 At 12:48 am, hoylejd Said:
Thank you for the links.
While I think that comprehensive immigration reform is important to the future of the GOP, or at least to the future of the not-Democrats… Are there (social) aspects of immigration reform which could be left to states? Immigration is one of those issues which has both economic and social aspects. Perhaps states could decide how “friendly” they want to be to illegial immigrants who become legal (or how much they respect the rule of law/contracts as a foundation for our society).
My understanding is that there are economic, social, and national defense issues. Are there any other issue “categories”? Immigration almost makes it into the national defense issue category too.