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False Choices
Matthew Yglesias — Ross Douthat and David Frum argue about whether the GOP needs to do better at targeting relatively prosperous educated professionals (Frum) or economically struggling cultural conservatives (Douthat). Ross frames the dispute: But for the national party, Frum is right that there are real choices to be made. If you follow the Douthat-Salam model, which Reihan has dubbed “lower-middle reformism,” you’re going to be crafting a message aimed at the place where the non-college educated and college-educated categories ...

Get Rid Of The Rich Republicans!
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — They're social liberals, anyway. Ross considers the next Republican coalition: A party that restores its reputation for competence and policy seriousness, as the Republicans desperately need to do, will win back voters across the income and educational spectrum, no matter what specific positions it takes. But insofar as there's a choice to be made, I think building a coalition of social conservatives and social moderates from the middle of the income and education distribution makes much more political sense than trying to hold together a coalition of social ...

GOP Moving Forward Potpourri
Sound Politics — ... blame: A pair of defeats as resounding as '06 and '08 have a thousand fathers, no matter how much every right-winger would like to assign paternity to someone else. Which means that the best thing, by far, for the American right would be for every sect within the conservative temple to spend some time in self-examination before it turns to flinging blame. True. No branch of the conservative movement or the Republican Party can consider itself blame free. 5) Douthat again, this time on the path forward : A party that restores its reputation for competence and policy ...