A Neocon's Admission: Good Reasons for The Vanishing Republican Voter

"

the trend to inequality is real, it is large and it is transforming American society and the American electoral map. Yet the conservative response to this trend verges somewhere between the obsolete and the irrelevant.

"

[Meanwhile...]

Wealthy Americans live in a world in which things work.

In case you missed it:

Excerpts from David Frum's New York Times Magazine editorial 9/7/08:

pervasive economic unease ... is capsizing the Republican Party ... Republican economic management ... has not yielded many benefits for middle-income America.

Meanwhile, the argument over same-sex marriage has become worse than a distraction... [a cruel, sadistic joke perhaps?]

...[C]onservatives need to ask ourselves some hard questions about the trend toward the Democrats among America’s affluent and well educated.

[Seven] of America’s [ten] best-educated states are strongly “blue” in national politics, and the others (Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia) have been trending blue. Of the 10 least-educated, only one (Nevada) is not reliably Republican.

Republicans have been badly hurt in upper America by the collapse of their onetime reputation for integrity and competence. Upper Americans live in a world in which things work. The packages arrive overnight. The car doors clink seamlessly shut. The prevailing Republican view — “of course government always fails, what do you expect it to do?” — is not what this slice of America expects to hear from the people asking to be entrusted with the government.

...low-skilled immigration enriches upper America, lowering the price of personal services like landscaping and restaurant meals. And by holding down wages, immigration makes the business investments of upper America more profitable. 

Of course Frum's primary concern is about the Republicans "losing" POWER and wanting to "win" again. He's actually not that concerned about income inequality as a moral or social justice issue (not even just basic 'fairness'), nor does he mention the growing disparities over the past 30 years which began in the Reagan era. Only Bill Clinton and Robert Rubin (his Secretary of the Treasury) slowed it somewhat (remember, the republicans were in power in the Congress from 1994—2006!) and made America work better again for working people and families as well as for those who had the tools and skills for success. They made it work well for MOST, not just the top 10 percent!

The biggest reason to read the piece is that it's an especially valuable set of facts about why NOT to vote for McCain and the Republican Party this year or any time in the forseeable future.

The complete online NYT Frum piece is here.

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