Generational Tensions

[cal04]

The sons and daughters of some iconic Republicans (Ike! T.R.!) are contemplating crossing the aisle
Susan Eisenhower is an accomplished professional, the president of an international consulting firm. She also happens to be Ike's granddaughter—and in that role, she's the humble torchbearer for moderate "Eisenhower Republicans." Increasingly, however, she says that the partisanship and free spending of the Bush presidency—and the takeover of the party by single-issue voters, especially pro-lifers—is driving these pragmatic, fiscally conservative voters out of the GOP. Eisenhower says she could vote Democratic in 2008, but she's still intent on saving her party. "I made a pact with a number of people," she tells NEWSWEEK. "I said, 'Please don't leave the party without calling me first.' For a while, there weren't too many calls. And then suddenly, there was a flurry of them. I found myself watching them slip away one by one."

Eisenhower isn't the only GOP scion debating if the party still feels like home. Theodore Roosevelt IV, an investment banker in New York and an environmental activist like his great-grandfather, Teddy, takes issue with what he says is George W. Bush's inattention to global warming (and Republican presidential contender John McCain's flirtations with the religious right). He's unhappy with the cost of the global war on terror and the record deficits incurred to finance it. Ninety years ago, former president Teddy Roosevelt attacked Woodrow Wilson's pro-democracy idealism, calling it "milk-and-water righteousness"; Roosevelt's great-grandson doesn't like how the current president is promoting values abroad, either. "I come from a tradition of pragmatic Republicanism," he says. "This administration has taken the idea of aggressively exporting democracy à la Woodrow Wilson and gone in a direction even Wilson wouldn't have considered."

The party might even be alien to Barry Goldwater, the 1964 GOP nominee who jolted the party rightward when he said that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Goldwater's youngest daughter, Peggy, who is active in GOP politics in Orange County, Calif., says she is a "moderate conservative," just as her firebrand father became later in life, irked by Republicans in Washington who embrace big government. "The government is taking on more than I feel they can handle," she says.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18507722/site/newsweek/

[ClayZ]

1. K and R

[katsy]

2. Wonder what will push them over the edge?

Will it be strengthening the middle class? Nah.

Will it be single-payer health care? Nah.

Will it be radical progressive taxation like the 60's, 70's in order to rebuild our infrastructure and invest in education etc.? Nah.

Will it be immediate withdrawal from Iraq and leaving the oil behind? Nah.

Will it be enforcement of anti-trust laws to stimulate competition and stop the rape of consumers? Nah.

Will it be adequately funding and enforcement of of agencies like the EPA, FDA and other consumer/environmental protection agencies? Nah. Smaller government doesn't allow for that.

Will any of these republicons come out in support of the fairness doctrine for the media? Doubt they'll bother their beautiful minds with such gibberish because they are in the know without that msm crap.

Will it be a policy of fair trade over free, unregulated trade? I don't think so being one works in international consulting and the other as an investment banker.

Don't get me wrong, it's vital to turn republicon voters. This is good news. But I'm bothered by the last statement of the article:

"Even so, Eisenhower and other lifelong Republicans say they haven't heard much yet from the leading Democratic candidates that persuades them. "I can't tell you how many Republicans I've talked to who are thinking along radical lines" about deserting in '08 if they hear the right message, says Eisenhower. "It's a buyer's market. Make my day."

All of our candidates speak to the issues I've addressed in my questions above. And these iconic republicons STILL haven't heard the right message? Well, maybe that's because the messages of our candidates address the concerns of average citizens and not THEM.

JMO, but the republicons we need to turn are ones that vote their pocketbook... the ones hurt by trade policies. The people whom, in all their glorious ignorance, can be turned because they have been hurt by losing their healthcare or jobs. Their numbers are greater than the iconic republicons and they will most likely stay with the Democratic party when sensible economic, trade and foreign policies kick in.

[valerief]

3. More tax breaks maybe? nt

[katsy]

4. That'll get their attention.

:thumbsup: