Absentee ballot for the President of the United States

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I'm interested in what you think the GOP should transform itself into to survive. (not being sarcastic here, really). I don't think the "socio-economic" landscape of the U.S.A. will support a real conservative any more. As it is, the Republicans have to adopt the religious voters to have any chance of winning a democratic vote against the growing hordes of entitlement voters. And it won't get any better from here. If the Republicans adapt, it will be to become a different variation of Democrats, I imagine.

I think the future is RINO, the more radical right wingers need to be culled and the parties spin machine needs to be overhauled to present a more positive image. Both parties, and I'm including the Dems in this as well, need to take a more centralist approach, and cut the partisanship and brinkmanship. There needs to be a figurehead on both parties that is willing to work with each other to reconnect with the people, and put aside the more petty differences.
When people look up and they see a bunch of squabbling rich men playing chicken with the economy, it doesn't inspire confidence in the system, which in turn doesn't inspire confidence in the political future and encourages extremism.
They need to disassociate themselves with people like Glenn Beck, and organisations Fox News, which just put the average person off with their rhetoric, and lose the Tea Party, which will probably take over the role of the party of the deep right.

Now, this is just a European point of view, and my view of what the Republican party is could be disjointed by a lack of understanding of the American viewpoint, but when I hear traditionally Conservative voters say that they don't have much confidence in Romney, or McCain, or that Sarah Palin confuses them and worries them, then I think that it has lost touch with the less radical of its powerbase, which has greater numbers than the radicals and which could help it get into power if it would just reform itself a bit and stop giving perfect ammunition to its critics.

That's my view anyway, what do you think?