My latest column for The Daily centers on the general election implications of the rise of Rick Santorum:
Perhaps the central challenge facing the next Republican presidential nominee is to somehow craft a message that will energize disaffecteds, who tend to have a somewhat bleak view of the world, as well as postmoderns, who are far more optimistic. A GOP campaign centered on disaffecteds might, like Santorum’s primary campaign, center on Obama’s war on religion, and how Democratic radicalism might lead to unimaginably terrible outcomes for America and the world. But this message will almost certainly alienate postmoderns, to whom it will sound hysterical and unhinged. A Republican effort to court postmoderns, in contrast, would look more like Romney’s primary campaign, with its emphasis on the importance of private-sector experience, encouraging grassroots entrepreneurship, and wringing savings out of an inefficient public sector. Yet for disaffecteds buffeted by rapid economic change, this message will likely prove uninspiring.
For more on Disaffecteds and Postmoderns, please check out the Pew Research Center’s Typology Survey and this post on the demographics of partisanship and unemployment.