You're Advising the Republicans....

[Mint]

Step one: Drop the mindless social conservative rhetoric that alienates many New England and coastal voters. Many of these people are moderately libertarian, and as long as the Democrats build a new 'Solid South' in those two areas you will be hard pressed in the future to win elections. The Mormons and the rednecks will vote for you anyway, just as the South voted for Al Smith in 1928.

I agree to an extent. The Republicans should try to be a big tent again on social issues, but I see their dilemma here: if they go too far they will implode. Maybe a states rights position is the best they can do, as repugnant as I personally find it that's still a massive improvement over what they're favoring now.

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I disagree. Other than a small, increasingly isolated fringe represented by people like Tancredo most Republicans are not arguing against immigration.. Although a majority of the American public actually feels that we have too much of that (a source of growing friction). They are at most arguing the law should be upheld, a position which even many hispanics are for. The Republicans do need to reach out to minorities more (some policies like vouchers help), and tone down all the code words they've historically used to win though. That isn't a viable strategy. But I'm not holding my breath here.

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I agree for the most part. However, while Clinton was pretty much a moderate economically Kennedy was a totally different animal. Let's not forget much of the great society, price controls, etc. were his ideas.

[Mint]

I want to comment on one thing in particular:

Kennedy was a totally different animal. Let's not forget much of the great society, price controls, etc. were his ideas.

He also cut the top tax bracket from ~90% during the Eisenhower years to under 75%, which is a larger per capita tax cut than that delivered by Ronald Reagan.

That's just one issue though. Going by that I could argue Bush is an economic liberal.

[Mint]

My advice would be a fifty state strategy.

Why would you want to campaign in states outside "Real America"?

There is no such thing as "real America".

It's called sarcasm.

I don't think conservative positions on things like crime, welfare, immigration, etc. are necessarily prejudiced obviously. There are logical arguments to be made for deterrence, self reliance, etc. However, it's pretty obvious that a lot of people who hold those position do so out of resentment OR want to appeal to people who feel that way. That's the strategy that people like Atwater, Rove, etc. have employed.