Everyone seems to be focused on the renewal of the Republican party. They are going to focus on taxes, not be distracted by complicated social issues, be led by the young people to victory.
It has been tried before, and only been marginally successful.
It is true that in 1980 the Republicans, buoyed by social conservatives, elected an adulterer to the White House. That evidently was a great moral victory of Christian values over the immoral pagan majority.
The result, of course, was an increase in the federal public debt from a little over 20% to about 50% of GDP. This again was apparently a great victory of the fiscal conservatives over the liberal forces of evil.
Of course the election was lost to another adultery based Christian, but for some reason this adultery was wrong. But at least we would have though the fiscal conservatives would be happy since the public debt fell to about 40% of GDP.
They weren't and were really happy when they elected a man who conveniently became a born again Christian when he decided that politics was his future, after a lifetime of abusing drugs, and in his words, supporting terrorists. We would have expected fiscal conservatives to fire him, as he expanded government and obligated the country to massive long term expenses, such as payments for the disabled in the military, added layers of bureaucracy, increase government handouts through Midcare Part D, and a massive disregard for state rights through NCLB. Yet they reelected him.
When the Black Man was put in the White House in 2008, there seemed to a general consensus that something was really wrong with this country. In response a Seattle, Washington resident, Keli Carender, a young adult, Oxford educated, performance artist created a buzz on YouTube and jump started the tea party.
Arguably the result was that in 2010 a few crazy people were put into congress, a few seats that probably would have been won by Republicans were lost, and due to those crazy people, Democrats won the White House again.
What were these young peoples master plan. To avoid divisive social issues. How did that work for them. It did not. Because the money and social issues are too intertwined.
The money is control, and social conservatives need control. While it is ok to give tax breaks to pedophile priests and ministers, it is not ok to provide health care to women and children. While it is ok to kill children abroad, presumable non christian children, demanding that we fund nutritous school lunches to too much.
So why is this good news for liberals? Because conservatives are proving their inability to function. What is one of the biggest clues for a non-functioning personality? They do the same thing and expect different results.
Today, the young republicans are again saying that they will renew the Republican Party by avoiding social issues. But how can they? When the prime mission of so many campus Republicans are social. To shut down Planned Parenthood. To allow guns on campus. To make everyone become a christian.
When Conservatives are willing to give up the idea that they can control what other people do by controlling the purse strings, they will probably be able to regain power. Until then the threat will be fleeting.