Red New England?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The only way New England flips to the GOP is if they become the left-wing party on all issues.

Sure, kicking the Socons to the curb might help a little. The GOP might win Plymouth County occasionally. But the truth is that New England is fundamentally, on a deep level left of center on economics too. People seem to have the erroneous idea that most of New England's voting patterns is due to Rockefeller Republican WASPs switching to Ds. They seem to have forgotten the Irish, and the mill towns, and all the various working class immigrant demographics that have historically transformed the area, and given it a permanent leftist tinge.

As well, there's the false idea that gets floated around about "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" Republicans. While their elected officials on the GOP side might've been more fiscally conservative than socially conservative, I highly doubt Lowell Weicker stands out as some grand libertarian. Nelson Rockefeller, the f#cking namesake of the term "Rockefeller Republican" could hardly be called right-of-center, and in fact probably had more fiscally liberal than socially liberal policies due to his "tough on crime" stances and opposition to the anti-war movement.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Until the GOP drops the religious right, its gone.

The GOP doesn't have to drop the religious right, they just need to stop putting so much emphasis on social issues and governing by hostage crisis.

George HW Bush was a pragmatic conservative who won the last GOP landslide and carried much of the Northeast by convincing margins. That's what the Republican Party has to return to: pragmatic conservativism. We don't have to drop the Religious Right or become the Democratic Party. Just stop being ing insane about everything.

Winning elections and being conservative are not mutually exclusive.

I think this pretty much nails it.

No, the Democrats were BARELY out of the age of being the party of the South.  Hell, Carter even brought it back for a little while.  New England, and the Northeast as a whole, votes for the Democrats because they are seen as more liberal.  And that's that. 

[Rockefeller GOP]

Until the GOP drops the religious right, its gone.

The GOP doesn't have to drop the religious right, they just need to stop putting so much emphasis on social issues and governing by hostage crisis.

George HW Bush was a pragmatic conservative who won the last GOP landslide and carried much of the Northeast by convincing margins. That's what the Republican Party has to return to: pragmatic conservativism. We don't have to drop the Religious Right or become the Democratic Party. Just stop being ing insane about everything.

Winning elections and being conservative are not mutually exclusive.

I think this pretty much nails it.

No, the Democrats were BARELY out of the age of being the party of the South.  Hell, Carter even brought it back for a little while.  New England, and the Northeast as a whole, votes for the Democrats because they are seen as more liberal.  And that's that. 

Nice simplified version of history, but most of us don't accept the myth that New England has just always been liberal and the two parties have just switched places over time ... mostly true because it's stupid and false.

[Mr. Illini]

While there are moderate center-righties in New England who have been voting Democrat because the Republicans have gone of the deep end, saying that bringing them back presupposes that there are THAT many of them that they could turn these huge New England Democratic margins into Republican victories, which is ridiculous.

If the GOP would go back to the party of HW and Dole, they could turn NH into a real swing state, ME into a lean D state, and guide MA and CT over to the right a little bit. However, one of the main reasons these moderate GOPers are voting D now is because NE is overall a very liberal area, and their progressive tradition is enough to make it so that the only way it can go red is for the GOP to be the liberal party.

Which makes this debate moot.

[Rockefeller GOP]

While there are moderate center-righties in New England who have been voting Democrat because the Republicans have gone of the deep end, saying that bringing them back presupposes that there are THAT many of them that they could turn these huge New England Democratic margins into Republican victories, which is ridiculous.

If the GOP would go back to the party of HW and Dole, they could turn NH into a real swing state, ME into a lean D state, and guide MA and CT over to the right a little bit. However, one of the main reasons these moderate GOPers are voting D now is because NE is overall a very liberal area, and their progressive tradition is enough to make it so that the only way it can go red is for the GOP to be the liberal party.

Which makes this debate moot.

Again, you start with the premise (which is nothing more than wishful thinking and revisionist history) that the GOP has EVER been a "liberal" party.

[Mr. Illini]

While there are moderate center-righties in New England who have been voting Democrat because the Republicans have gone of the deep end, saying that bringing them back presupposes that there are THAT many of them that they could turn these huge New England Democratic margins into Republican victories, which is ridiculous.

If the GOP would go back to the party of HW and Dole, they could turn NH into a real swing state, ME into a lean D state, and guide MA and CT over to the right a little bit. However, one of the main reasons these moderate GOPers are voting D now is because NE is overall a very liberal area, and their progressive tradition is enough to make it so that the only way it can go red is for the GOP to be the liberal party.

Which makes this debate moot.

Again, you start with the premise (which is nothing more than wishful thinking and revisionist history) that the GOP has EVER been a "liberal" party.

While I would argue that the parties were more ideologically diverse at that time, there was a point at which I would say the GOP was overall more left on the spectrum than the Democratic Party was.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

The notion that New England only votes Democratic these days because of nebulously-defined 'social issues', and doesn't have in fact very strong economically leftist and interventionist traditions that have pretty conclusively won out against the countervailing traditions in most parts of the region, and would be open to voting for Republicans again if only they would moderate on gay marriage/abortion/marijuana/whatever, is specious, to say the least.

Precisely.  State Republican parties up here (sans New Hampshire) almost always run socially moderate-to-liberal candidates for statewide offices and they still have a hard time.

People simply don't vote on social issues to the extent that the media would have us believe.  If you're running as a Democrat in most areas of New England, yes, you won't have an easy time making it past the primary if you're pro-life or oppose gay marriage, but that aside, these issues are not the most important to voters in the grand scheme of things.

I think it's totally absurd the way this forum uses social issues to categorize the regions by their political leanings.  No, the Democrats aren't going to suddenly have a lock on the South again by being more socially conservative and the Republicans won't do better in the Northeast by doing the opposite.