Quote Originally Posted by VictorCharlie View Post
A lot of moving away from religious nuts is better recruitment of candidates. More than anything it is all about how you package the message. The gay marriage issue needs to be less about gays and more about how gov't shouldn't play a role in marriage. Marriage is a religious ceremony and those institutions can choose who takes part but any two consenting adults can sign a contract to be viewed as a single entity in the eyes of the law. Let them know their religion isn't under attack and let the gays know they will have equal treatment. Now there just isn't a good way around abortion. I really don't feel like it is a make or break issue as long as dumb asses like akin and murdouch quit talking about rape and shit. A great move for the GOP would be to head off the Dems on contraception by moving to make it over the counter but that is probably a bridge too far. I'd personally love to see the party splinter but the power brokers know that once you get away from the two party system you are marginalized. The GOP is going to have to break with Norquist to a certain extent if any compromise on the "fiscal cliff" is going to happen.
Bush won a lot of Hispanic votes because he'd been fairly pro-Hispanic as a Texas governor and hadn't come out against amnesty -- he'd basically hinted in the 2000 election campaign that he'd provide a path to citizenship. When he tried to pass a path to citizenship bill after he got re-elected people like Rush Limbaugh led a revolt against it and the GOP base made so many calls to DC that the congressional phone system crashed. Every GOP rep/Senator was told they'd be primaried if they supported the bill and it died an instant death. If the GOP head honchos back a similar plan en masse and give the base no choice the base will revolt and a significant enough number to matter won't tuen out to vote in future.

They can't touch abortion/gay marriage either. If they lose evangelicals they're completely fucked. And they can't give up on tax cuts for the top1% /corporations or they lose the Enron wing of the party and almost all their funding and without serious funding you can't get elected.