Two unnamed Republican pollsters/strategists talk to Charlie Cook.
They make two points which to me make sense. First, there's this:
"...[Harming the Republican brand has been] the shallowness of our policies. Republicans are a whole lot better at being against things than at being for things. That's a problem if you're in the majority. On topics that the center really cares about, such as education and health care, we do one of two things. We either avoid them like the plague and are scared to talk about them or, if we say anything at all, it is to propose a tax cut or a tax credit."
So what do we do? Our strategist goes on to say this:
"Here is another point from the post-election data: People really don't want to pay higher taxes. So, on the one hand, they want to have government address their problems and on the other hand they don't want to pay for it. This should be our niche: find solutions to problems like education and health care that spend government funds more efficiently, without spending more. That sounds much more like a winning strategy to me."
Makes sense. Another strategist, though, then goes on to make a point with which I disagree. He argues that Republicans should:
"...stop being [misguided] on immigration. We are alienating huge parts of the electorate, we are turning our primaries into single issue 'hate' contests and ignoring the single fastest growing bloc of voters in the country."
Wrong. Illegal immigration remains an important issue to a lot of people. It's only going to become a bigger issue in the years to come, as I'm certain that the Obama administration will relax enforcement of our immigration laws, and thus we'll have even bigger influxes of illegals into this country. And the fact is--and even recent, legal immigrants can be gotten to understand this--that a country must control its borders, that people must obey a country's laws, and that it isn't good for wages and it isn't good for our job situation to have persons here illegally making those situations worse. We must not demonize those here illegally or speak unduly harshly of them. We must find solutions to this problem that involve both enforcement of our laws and humane solutions. But we can't simply abandon the illegal immigration issue or abandon the principle that we must control our borders. We'd look ridiculous in doing so.
