According to some new polling conducted by Rasmussen Reports, the Republican party's problem is it is too moderate. Or that it's too conservative. And that Sarah Palin is definitely the future of the party. Or she isn't.
Basically, nobody knows what Team Red should do. 43% of Republicans polled think the party needs to turn further to the right, with 55% saying they should look to Sarah Palin for the direction of the party. Unsurprisingly, most democrats think the Republicans have the opposite problem, with 64% saying the GOP is too conservative.
What's most telling is what unaffiliated and moderates think. 39% say the party is too conservative and 34% say it isn't conservative enough.
It kind of reminds me of the early part of this decade when Democrats were getting whooped up on, and all of your liberal friends were convinced that the only way to get back was to take the party further to the left. The D's made a comeback, but haven't really moved the party any farther leftward than they were in the 90's, when moderate Clintonites ruled the land. They just waited for the Republicans to screw up to the point where no one could stomach these trolls any farther and sort of fell in to power.
It seems to me that with the election of Michael Steele as RNC boss and the pre-emptive crowning of Sarah Palin as torchbeaer for 2012, Republicans are trying to have it both ways, by giving the image of a party moving to be more inclusive while moving to the right ideologically.
Will America respond to a Republican party that is more image-concious AND more conservative? Only if the Democrats REALLY screw up (which will probably happen soon.)
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