The Republican Party in Flux

In the autopsy currently being conducted on the broken body of the GOP, perhaps those who wish to see a quick resurgence will take a few moments to considere where the party was when it was riding high the last few years.

In the wake of 9/11, we gained many new people who trusted the GOP more than the Dems to get us through the tough times. They looked to Bush as a strong leader and thanked the heavens that Al Gore was not the man in the Oval Office. I call these peolple 9/11 Republicans. They voted for the GOP in 2002 and for Bush again in 2004. Then things changed and the GOP didn't see it coming.

During the last two years, those new converts saw a Republican party--or to be fair, some factions--that took the mandate given them by voters based on fighting terror and used it instead to battle gay marriage and other liberal social policies.

The 9/11 Republicans watched a GOP that involved itself with the Schiavo case, gay unions and ethics scandals. They saw this happening and realized that while they supported the President on terror issues and keeping us safe, they couldn't bring themselves to support the party as a whole on the other issues and voted Democrat.

It's time for the GOP to realize who we are that support them. Alot of the right-leaning blogs feels as I do that the social issues can wait unitl we deal with the serious issues of the Iraq war and the greater War on Terror. I honestly don't care if two guys want to enter into a civil union, as long as the field is equivalent with regad to divorce laws as they are for hetero's. The stem cell issue is important, as is the environment. But these issues mean nothing if we are attacked again and repeatedly.

The GOP has to take into account what is important to voters and put the social issues where they belong, on the back burner until we start making more progress in the WOT.

Michael Smerconish has written a piece along these lines today.