Reply #8: The consensus in Freeperland is go more conservative [View All]

Many wrote about "starting to act like Republicans again" and some commented to the effect that their candidates will have to run against McCain as well as having to run against the Democrats.

This quote from Gingrich (prior to yesterday, but after the Louisiana loss) is very interesting:

<<Gingrich, who was pushed out as speaker following GOP losses in the 1998 midterm elections, advocated “an emergency, members-only” meeting of House Republicans in order to hash out a new reform agenda before Memorial Day. He also called for a “complete overhaul” of the NRCC.

Gingrich said that if the GOP leadership would not go along with his plan, “then the minority who are activists should establish a parallel organization dedicated to real change.” He offered nine policy proposals designed to achieve that goal, including repealing federal gas taxes, reforming the Census Bureau and declaring English as the official language of the United States.>>

(http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10138.html)

I see two things there. One is that Gingrich is proposing, essentially, a GOP counterpart to the DLC; I read "parallel organization" as a party-within-the-party, much as the DLC has become. The key difference being that the proposed GOP counterpart is going to attempt to separate the most right-wing elements of the party -- not the centrists. The second thing is the English-as-an-official language idea; this signals that the right wing of the Republican party would essentially be done courting the Hispanic vote and, instead, pander to the closed-borders crowd. This would signal a break from the Bush family, who go to great lengths to speak Spanish in campaign events and try to present themselves as Latin-friendly at every opportunity.

Color me dense -- anyone want to explain Census Bureau reform?