The future of the Republican party

The Wall Street Journal reports that Saxby Chambliss cruised to victory in the Georgia runoff election for the U.S. Senate winning 57.5% of the vote with 96% of precincts reporting.  The good news is that the Democrats will not achieve a filibuster proof majority in the Senate this year.  There is also a glimmer of hope in this for Republicans if they know what to look for.

Sen. Chambliss's victory -- a morsel of good news for Republicans in an otherwise bleak election season for the party -- comes nearly a month after he failed to win re-election outright by garnering more than 50% of the vote on Nov. 4 against Democratic challenger Jim Martin and a Libertarian candidate.  (My emphasis.)

Over the past few years the Libertarian party has grown enough in popularity for their candidate to have substantial impact on the Georgia Senate race.  The Republican party would do well to burnish its appeal to libertarian leaning voters as it strives to recover from this election debacle.  If the Republicans hope to capture any of the youth vote in future elections they are going to have to appeal to their libertarian instincts.  Greg Mankiw could see this almost as soon as the polls closed.

In this election, the young left the Republican party in droves.

Why? I am not enough of a political scientist to be sure, but recent conversations I have had with some Harvard undergrads have led me to a conjecture: It was largely noneconomic issues. These particular students told me they preferred the lower tax, more limited government, freer trade views of McCain, but they were voting for Obama on the basis of foreign policy and especially social issues like abortion. The choice of a social conservative like Palin as veep really turned them off McCain.

So what does the Republican Party need to do to get the youth vote back? If these Harvard students are typical (and perhaps they are not, as Harvard students are hardly a random sample), the party needs to scale back its social conservatism. Put simply, it needs to become a party for moderate and mainstream libertarians. The actual Libertarian Party is far too extreme in its views to attract these students. And it is too much of a strange fringe group. These students are, after all, part of the establishment. But a reformed Republican Party could, I think, win them back.

Mankiw wonders if the Republican party will be able move in this direction without alienating its social conservative base.  I'm wondering if party leaders are smart enough to realize that this is the direction the party has to go.

Comments

[CaptDMO]

So what does the Republican Party need to do to get the youth vote back?

Umm...Demand proved competence in promotion consideration? Teach unrevised history? Demonstrate unintended consequence? Explain Cause and effect? Explain to "Harvard" students (and professors) why the basis of all those parables, apologues, myths, and fables, developed to inspire children and other illiterates so long ago, remain just as poignantly applicable today?

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[CaptDMO]

And what about that recent Union Leader-sparked hoo-haw, right here in the NH GOP?

[ew]

I was glad to see the lefty illuminati avoided the super majority. I think that a lot of people who usually voted republican, voted for Obama in the presidential because they wanted to distance themselves from Bush

[Ol' BC]

A great number of those who voted for Obama didn't realize the that Democrats controlled Congress.