At least one high profile Republican has gone public with his wishes that Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich stop speaking on behalf of the GOP, and step aside for younger, more progressive party members to lend their voice.
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Republican Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina was asked by ABC News earlier this week if he thought it was good for Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh to be seen as “THE” voices of the Republican party, and his answer was clearly NO!
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“While somebody may have been at the top at one point, to really keep an invigorated political system you’ve got to have new voices stepping in and step in to the plate in giving their opinion and probably every time you have some of the senior leaders continue to lay out their case or belief it probably usurps the voice of new leaders who’d be coming in,” Sanford said. “I think it’s very very important you allow new voices to be part of the equation enunciating some of the same principles he’s laying out.” He also added the Republican party is currently in “the wilderness” and it may be some time until it finds its direction. “There’s a fairly significant tug of war of ‘Where we go next?’” Sanford said. “Do we broaden the tent with technology and outreach and other things, and that’s the way out of the wilderness, or do we go back to some of the principles that got the party started in the first place. So there’s going to be, I suspect, a lengthy debate… probably until the time of the Republican nominee in the next presidential cycle. We’re going to be exploring and kicking that issue around, I suspect, for a while.”`
Meanwhile, a recent Gallup Poll found that most Republican voters have no idea who the actual spokesperson is for the GOP. When asked to name the “main person who speaks for the Republican Party today,” Republicans across the country named three men: Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and Dick Cheney. 47% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents could not even come up with a single name in response to the question. USA Today discovered “the dominant faces of the Republican Party are all men, all white, all conservative and all old enough to join AARP.” “We cannot be a party of balding white guys,” former Republican Party national chairman Ed Gillespie told the paper. “We have to have a broader appeal.”
I’m a Nate Silver “FiveThirtyEight” fan myself and I tend to dismiss most other polls including those conducted by Gallup. However, I can’t deny that there seems to be trend across most polls regarding the current state of the GOP. NONE of it bodes well for that party.Personally, I think the GOP is DEAD; finished as a credible political party_ and won’t be returning to its original state_meaning PRE-Nixon days_ever.Most intelligent and SANE folk have RUN for the hills and all that appears to be left of the Republican Party (leaders and followers) is a consortium of mostly Older, White, Unintelligent, Disingenuous, Angry, Backward-looking, Power-hungry, men _with NOT a reality-based clue among the lot.This is 2009_NOT 1909 _Or 1959 _Or even 1999. The fact that America and Americans are “Changing”_and those “good ole boys” are “losing” their power and status to a Younger, more diverse, more Educated, and more Inclusive… Read more »