When asked about the future of the Republican Party, most name people like Marco Rubio, Allen West, Paul Ryan Niki Haley, Pat Toomey, Kelly Ayotte, Ted Cruz and many others from the 2010 wave. Mitt Romney who is the current nominee barely gets a mention. He is viewed more as a transitional figure to this new Generation X version of the Republican Party. These 30 and 40 year olds came of age under Ronald Reagan. Their Conservatism is Capitalist based and forward looking. This is a rejection of the grouchy, culture war obsessed and anti-Young people Bush Error Republican Party (88-08).
The Gen X Republican Party is not into stupid culture wars nor seek to create a New Jerusalem which is really a Progressive/Collectivist concept. They seek to expand economic opportunity for all Americans and created a society based on Individualism as the founders intended America to be. They are inclusive and seek to broaden the GOP’s base with a message of economic opportunity and a better tomorrow. This is a return to the pragmatic problem solving Republican party of the Eisenhower-Nixon-Reagan era (52-88).
In interviews with the 30- and 40-somethings, questions about what’s next for the GOP and what Romney stands for often prompt answers that gloss past their 2012 standard bearer and inevitably reveal a determination to return Republicans to their perceived roots in a more ideologically muscular future.
The two bookends, Reagan and Ryan, represent a party that is unmistakably moving from George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism to a new Republicanism that sounds a lot like the old-time religion but with fresher packaging. To use the language of their youth, these children of the 80s want to dispense for good with New Coke and return to Coca-Cola Classic.
“Sometimes we may think we’re being compassionate by creating a new program or agency but in fact we’re getting in the way,” said 41-year-old Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
The irony is that by tapping Ryan, Romney himself, long mistrusted among conservatives, hastened the transition to the new guard and may have ensured that his own legacy draws from his ticketmate’s ideas.
“There’s no doubt that by doing that, win or lose, Paul Ryan’s ideas will lead the party,” said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker of Romney tapping the House Budget Chairman and Wednesday’s featured convention speaker.
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He’s also, Republicans acknowledge, a bridge between the baby boomers who’ve dominated politics for the past two decades and the Reagan-inspired youth.
“Romney makes an ideal segue,” said Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), a 38-year-old freshman who’s likely to seek statewide office in the near term. Gardner noted that Romney did for Ryan what the former Bain CEO had done in his corporate life. “His whole career has been about bringing new people, young people into his operation and really that’s exactly the role he’s playing now.”
Mitt Romney is the last of the old guard Rockefeller Republicans. By picking Paul Ryan, he realizes that a new GOP is being born. He has turned his back on both the Republican elites and Culture warriors. Romney has cast his lot with the Generation X Republican Party. Clearly he realizes that Republican Party based on economic opportunity for all Americans, Individualism and pragmatic problem solving will be a much more formidable political entity.
Watching Rick Santorum’s speech was like watching a rerun. His calls for a Religious-Collectivist Utopia was a relic of the Bush Error Culture War GOP. It was a message of the past and one that thankfully, the majority of Republicans have rejected. Watching speeches by Ted Cruz, Brian Sandoval, Nukki Haley, Arthur Davis and Chris Christie was glimpse of the GOP’s future. Win or lose, we are seeing the birth of the Generation X Republican Party. This version of the GOP will likely dominate American politics for the next few decades, the same way the Eisenhower-Reagan GOP dominated from 52-88. This is really a return of the GOP to realism and the rejection of a Religious-Collectivist Utopia and of stupid nation building adventures.
The Republican Party is going back to the future and I for one am happy about it.
Tags: Culture Wars, Generation X, Utopia
