Right on the money.... Sometimes, even Dick Morris is correct.
On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Bruce Majors <[email protected]>wrote: > The New Republican Right*By* *Dick > Morris*<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/?author=Dick+Morris&id=14458> > > A fundamental change is gripping the Republican grass roots as they animate > the GOP surge to a major victory in the 2010 elections. No longer do > evangelical or social issues dominate the Republican ground troops. Now > economic and fiscal issues prevail. The Tea Party has made the Republican > Party safe for libertarians. > > There is still a litmus test for admission to the Republican Party. But no > longer is it dominated by abortion, guns and gays. Now, keeping the economy > free of government regulation, reducing taxation and curbing spending are > the chemicals that turn the paper pink. > > RECEIVE NEWS ALERTS > SIGN UP Dick Morris RealClearPolitics Tea Party election 2010 > > It is one of the fundamental planks in the Tea Party platform that the > movement does not concern itself with social issues. At the Tea Parties, > evangelical pro-lifers rub shoulders happily with gay libertarians. They are > united by their anger at Obama's economic policies, fear of his deficits and > horror at his looming tax increases. Obama's agenda has effectively removed > the blocks that stopped tens of millions of social moderates from joining > the GOP. > > As a byproduct of this sea change in the Republican Party, GOP grassroots > activists are no longer just concentrated in the South. They are spread all > throughout the nation, as prominent in Ohio as in Alabama, in New York as in > Georgia, in California as in Nevada. > > The Tea Party's focus on fiscal and economic issues finds deep resonance > among voters of all stripes, united as they are in economic hardship and > disappointed as they all are by Obama's economic program. This antipathy to > federal policies is paving the way for vast Republican inroads in normally > solid Democratic turf like New York state, Massachusetts, California and > Washington state. > > Fighting over abortion has become a cottage industry in America. As useful > to the left as to the right, both camps have used the issue for 30 years to > demand orthodoxy of their constituents and fidelity from their electorates. > No longer does the pro-life/pro-choice debate hold voters in blue states > hostage to the Democratic Party, bound and determined to swallow as much in > regulation and taxation as their liberal candidates offer if only to protect > Roe v. Wade. Nor does it hypnotize Southern or rural conservatives who grant > their Blue Dog congressmen a pass on Election Day as long as they are right > on life, guns and gays. Now these Blue Dogs are paying the price for their > betrayal of fiscal conservatism and find that they can no longer assuage > their angered base by way of ads showing them with firearms. While social > concerns still exist and are held deeply throughout the country, economic > and fiscal issues have gripped the hearts and minds of Republican voters and > candidates, pushing the social questions aside. > > This preference for economic and fiscal questions over social issues is not > a top-down decision of the Tea Party leadership. There really is no Tea > Party leadership. Those who conduct its affairs are mere coordinators of > local groups where the real power lies. The entire affair is a grass > roots-dominated movement. I was shocked to learn that the > teapartypatriots.org umbrella group, to which more than 2,800 local > affiliates belong, has a total payroll of $50,000 per month, with only seven > paid staff members, some of them low-level at that. This group, which > embraces more than half of the self-described Tea Party groups in the U.S., > leaves up to each local organization how to proceed and what to do. It is a > bottom-up movement. > > The determination to focus on fiscal and economic issues, to the exclusion > of social questions, wells up from below as individual members vent their > concerns over ObamaCare, stimulus spending and cap-and-trade legislation. It > is around opposition to Obama's agenda, not Roe v. Wade, that the movement > is organized. It is a new day on the Republican right. > Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and > President Bill Clinton, is the author of "Outrage." To get all of Dick > Morris’s and Eileen McGann’s columns for free by email, go to > www.dickmorris.com. > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at > http://www.PoliticalForum.com/<http://www.politicalforum.com/> > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
