Is The GOP Kitsch Or Clueless?
Written by Mark W. Davis
Appearing in "The Wall Street Journal" (Published 08/02/2008 :: Political Commentary)
The Reagan era was the last time the Republican Party had broad, idealistic appeal among America's youth. Subsequent cohorts -- Gen X and Gen Y -- have come to know the GOP by inarticulate voices and information irrelevant to their lives. This isolation of the Republican Party is only going to get worse as the GOP itself grows generationally irrelevant.
How big is the gap between the party and young America? Enthusiastic turnout by American youth in the Democratic primaries is consistent with last summer's New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll showing fewer than 40% of young Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party, while almost 60% have a favorable view of the Democratic Party. According to Democracy Corps, the left-leaning strategy group founded by James Carville and pollster Stanley Greenberg, the 50-million strong cohort of Americans 18 to 31 is larger than the baby boom generation. By 2015, it will comprise one-third of the U.S. electorate.
So how are Republicans reaching out to them?
I have on my desk a CD sent out this spring from the Republican House Policy Committee. Fat, 1970s lettering bears the title, "Freedom Songs." The cover image of the CD package is a sepia-tone photo of Teddy Roosevelt.
Open it up and you are treated to photos of Warren G. Harding staring into the horn of a crank phonograph, Herbert Hoover listening to a wireless, and a glum-looking Calvin Coolidge simply glowering at a camera. In an accompanying letter, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan writes that the CD includes "riffs by Dr. Russell Kirk," as well as "the pounding rhythm section of the Austrian School of Economics."
So while the Obama Democrats transform America's youth into a Facebook army, the Republican Party is offering this disc, Mr. McCotter writes, "as an alternative to an eighty story high stack of dry white policy papers."
Did I forget to mention it can also be podcast?
There is nothing wrong with advancing the public's understanding of Russell Kirk or the Austrian school. Ideas certainly do have consequences. But the packaging here, like so much else about today's GOP, makes me wonder if the party is trying to paint itself as kitsch or is simply out of touch.
Mr. Davis, a former White House speechwriter, consults for global businesses with the White House Writers Group.
How big is the gap between the party and young America? Enthusiastic turnout by American youth in the Democratic primaries is consistent with last summer's New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll showing fewer than 40% of young Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party, while almost 60% have a favorable view of the Democratic Party. According to Democracy Corps, the left-leaning strategy group founded by James Carville and pollster Stanley Greenberg, the 50-million strong cohort of Americans 18 to 31 is larger than the baby boom generation. By 2015, it will comprise one-third of the U.S. electorate.
So how are Republicans reaching out to them?
I have on my desk a CD sent out this spring from the Republican House Policy Committee. Fat, 1970s lettering bears the title, "Freedom Songs." The cover image of the CD package is a sepia-tone photo of Teddy Roosevelt.
Open it up and you are treated to photos of Warren G. Harding staring into the horn of a crank phonograph, Herbert Hoover listening to a wireless, and a glum-looking Calvin Coolidge simply glowering at a camera. In an accompanying letter, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan writes that the CD includes "riffs by Dr. Russell Kirk," as well as "the pounding rhythm section of the Austrian School of Economics."
So while the Obama Democrats transform America's youth into a Facebook army, the Republican Party is offering this disc, Mr. McCotter writes, "as an alternative to an eighty story high stack of dry white policy papers."
Did I forget to mention it can also be podcast?
There is nothing wrong with advancing the public's understanding of Russell Kirk or the Austrian school. Ideas certainly do have consequences. But the packaging here, like so much else about today's GOP, makes me wonder if the party is trying to paint itself as kitsch or is simply out of touch.
Mr. Davis, a former White House speechwriter, consults for global businesses with the White House Writers Group.
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