Time to Make a Change

Andrew Sullivan links to a British Tory who is giving some good advice to his conservative cousins (read: Republicans) accross the pond, in the wake of the pounding we recieved in 2006 :

• It won't get better. It will get worse. And it will keep getting worse until you do something.
  
• You have to be very honest with yourself about what voters think. It may not be the same as what you think. Confusing these two things is very easy. Untangling them is vital.
• 
  Nothing should be unthinkable. Everyone makes compromises. Failing to compromise with reality is not an option.
  
• Core voters will forgive a winner a great deal.
  

There is a lot to unpack here, but it all makes sense to me. Right now, the GOP knows it's in deep doo-doo, but I think it's scared you-know-whatless to do anything. I also think many of the leaders are living in the echo chamber that is the conservative movement and not really understanding what the public thinks about various issues, being Iraq or global warming. Just because one might say we need to start thinking about pulling out of Iraq or that we need to tackle global warming doesn't make one a liberal. As for the core voters thing, I think on the whole that's true. There's a reason that people like Tom Tancredo or Sam Brownback are not front-runners even though they are in sync with the base.

Will the GOP listen? In time, I think they will because at the heart of it all, a political party wants to win. That said, I agree with my blogmate Pete Abel in saying in might take till 2010 or even 2012 for the GOP to get a clue.

But why listen to me? I'm just a nutty RINO...