If you haven’t had a chance to read Fergus Cullen’s recent provocative op-ed piece in the Union Leader, it is worth checking out. I think the former state Republican Party chair is on the right track with his argument that conservative elites’ obsession with Ronald Reagan could significantly hamper the party’s ability to field a slate of competitive candidates in future elections.

 

While I think it is fine to replenish one’s political strength with a return to first principles (be they Reagan’s or someone else’s), if those ideas are not clearly translated into a policy agenda which accounts for changing social, economic, and even technological contexts, then they will be of little use as a foundation on which to build a winning electoral coalition. Right now, the party’s increasingly homogenous base of conservative activists seems remarkably resistant to this realization. In a Cullen-related post earlier this year, I noted the peril this situation holds for the Republican Party’s relationship with younger voters, in particular.

---