Be Afraid, GOP!
When Peggy Noonan is critical of Republicans it is not time for the Republican leadership to take some time out and thoughtfully consider options to repair the base. On the contrary, it's time for Republican leaders to run out into the streets, throw up their arms and scream, "What have we done?"

I doubt that will happen. The GOP is quickly proving itself just as capable of losing elections as the Democratic Party. Check out Ms. Noonan's piece in the Journal:

Republicans inside and outside Washington are right when they say Republican leaders take a daily pounding in the press. They do. They're right when they say this causes attrition. It does. They're right when they say history handed the Republicans a unique challenge in 9/11 and after.
But it's also true that the administration and the Congress are losing their base, and it isn't because of the media. Republicans on the ground love to defy the MSM. When the media dislike their guy, they take it as proof their guy is good.

Of all the bad poll numbers for the Republicans, I think the worst is the right track/wrong track numbers, which continue to trend downward. A majority of the American people think we're on the wrong track. How can this be when the American economy is in a boom? When the Dow Jones Industrial Average is approaching its all-time high, when annual growth is almost 5%, when unemployment is low, and so is inflation? (People don't talk much about inflation anymore, but in the 1970s and early '80s it was the thief in the night that kept America sleepless. They could almost feel the worth of their savings going down with each tick of the clock. It was more disruptive, more damaging to a sense of security, than street crime. It is a an unnoticed achievement that it has been so low so long.)

How is this possible, indeed? Ms. Noonan concludes,

The oddest thing about Republicans and Democrats in power is that they always know the technical facts, always know about fund raising, always know what the national committee is saying about getting turnout. But so often they don't know the message or even have a message. Which is funny, because they're in the message business. They're like shoemakers who make pretty shoeboxes but forget to make the shoes.

Party leaders say they're aware they're in trouble, aware of a sense of stasis in the country. They are going to solve the problem, they say, by passing legislation. They're going to pass a budget. And they're going to pass an immigration bill, too. People will like that.

But no they won't. The American people are not going to say, "I am relieved and delighted our Congress passed a budget." They will be relieved and delighted if Congress cuts spending. They would be relieved and delighted if Congress finally took responsibility for the nation's borders. They won't be impressed if you just pass bills and call it progress.

Party leaders are showing a belief in process as opposed to a belief in, say, belief. But belief drives politics. It certainly drives each party's base.

One gets the impression party leaders, deep in their hearts, believe the base is . . . base. Unsophisticated. Primitive. Obsessed with its little issues. They're trying to educate the base. But if history is a guide, the base is about to teach them a lesson instead.

If Howard Dean wrote this you'd dismiss him as a hack. When Peggy Noonan writes this, it is time to sit up and take notice.
- posted by Base10 @ 10:44 AM