Strewth, I come back from giving Boris his walkies and my e-mail bag is spilling down the stairs & into the driveway. Of a dozen or so I’ve read so far, every single one agrees with me. GOP losing their base? I would say so.
Sample:
“John—Was there ever a time when not just a 3rd party, but a 4th party might be in the making? Both parties are hemorrhaging base constituents. Conservatives are disgusted with the GOP and you can’t find a loony lefty happy with the Democratic party. At this point I can’t see a down side to it. It might make for a good political purge (leaving a strong conservative party and a strengthened democratic party), or it could go horribly wrong (weak republicans and George Clooney). A 3rd party does us no good at all. If it’s left of the dems, republicans win and we’re stuck with more of the same. If it’s right of the republicans we end up with the dems. Either way there’s no fundamental shift. I think Ramesh predicted some time back this would happen. As the left creeps ever further left they will drag the right with them. And now it’s happened.”
In re Rudy Giuliani: He is ruthless, insatiably ambitious, devious, unprincipled, terrifically intelligent, and coldly efficient at dispatching his enemies. I like that in a man. Alas, pick any conservative at random, and there is some issue on which, your conservative will tell you, Rudy is not “sound.” For me it’s illegal immigration. For other conservatives, it’s other things. Every conservative has some beef with Rudy, though. That may be unfixable.