Republicans debate roadmap back to power

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, scoffed at calls for the Republicans to move left, which he said had followed Republican defeats in 1964, 1976 and 1992. And he suggested that some calls to update conservatism — by taking global warming more seriously, for instance — were essentially disguised calls to move the party to the left.

“They will be cheerfully ignored,” Mr. Norquist said.

Several conservative leaders said in interviews that they were heartened to have a bench of conservative politicians that they could look to in the coming years, mentioning names like Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina — as well as Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, whose selection as Mr. McCain’s running mate was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm among many social conservatives at the leadership and grass-roots levels.

And while there have been strong disagreements among talk-radio populists and veterans of the movement and conservative writers like David Brooks, Ross Douthat, David Frum and Reihan Salam, some conservatives said the disagreements helped keep the movement vital. Ms. Palin, in particular, has proved to be a polarizing figure within the movement, with some hailing her as a potential standard-bearer in four years, and others seeing her as appealing too narrowly to social conservatives.

Emerging fault lines
Some emerging fault lines were evident at the Republican Governors Association conference, which wrapped up here Friday.

Some called for keeping focused on social issues. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who praised Ms. Palin’s “unashamed embrace of bedrock conservative principles” and said she was “just getting started,” pointed to the success of ballot measures opposing same-sex marriage to show the continued potency of the such issues. “The defense-of-marriage initiative that voters supported in California, Arizona and here in Florida ought to be proof enough that conservative values still matter to the American people and are worthy of our party’s attention,” he said.

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Others called for moving beyond them. Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida argued that the party might extend its reach if it spoke more about the economy than about social issues. “Those issues are very important, but there’s a lot of issues that people care deeply about, that affect their lives in a real way, every single day,” Mr. Crist said. “If you’re going to be successful in this business, you have to win a majority. It’s not just a majority of Republicans, it’s not just a majority of Democrats, it’s a majority of the people.”

There was particular worry among some conservatives that the party had wounded itself by scaring off Hispanic voters, a growing force, with the divisive rhetoric that accompanied the debate over the nation’s immigration laws. And there was even the suggestion, made gingerly and reverently, that Republicans could not continue to make “Ronald Reagan” the answer to every question at a time when they are overwhelmingly losing the young voters who were children, or were not yet born, when he was president.

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That was the implication of Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who told the group of fellow Republican governors that Reagan was one of his heroes, and recalled being spat at by a hippie while volunteering for one of his campaigns. “But Ronald Reagan was president a long time ago,” Mr. Pawlenty said. “A lot has happened since then. So the challenge for us is how do you take the principles from the late ’70s and ’80s and apply them to the circumstances and issues and opportunities of our time.”

This story, "Among Republicans, a Debate Over the Party’s Roadmap Back to Power," originally appeared in the New York Times.

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