You Go Gary

Booman:  We continue to hear arguments from the Republican establishment that the party is too socially conservative, particularly on gay marriage and immigration reform. But the social conservatives have a pretty decent rebuttal. Take this, from Gary Bauer:

Social conservatives are particularly — and understandably — bothered that the elites rarely want to discuss the elephant in the room: that the party’s economic policies don’t necessarily appeal to the the rank and file, who vote Republican because it is the party of traditional values.

“If we gave our voters an accurate portrayal of our ideas, that we want to cut the rate of growth on Social Security, give tax cuts to billionaires and then the values issues, the values issues would be more popular than the economic agenda of the current Republican Party,” said Bauer, citing particularly those Mass-attending Roman Catholics who have fled the Democrats.

Bauer added, “I would caution the donor wing of the Republican Party that is driving a lot of this: If they think social conservatives are the only thing preventing Republicans from winning, they’ll learn that their economic agenda will go down the tubes along with the Republican Party’s prospects.”

That's a pretty astonishing admission on Gary Bauer's part, if you stop and consider the implications of what he's saying. If you just read between the lines there a little bit, he's saying that the Republican Party's leaders (including Mr. Bauer himself) are not giving an accurate portrayal of their economic policies to the rank-and-file. He's saying that he basically gives the party a pass on economic policies that don't serve his value-voters' interests. He's saying that he and other socially conservative leaders are basically in on the hoax, and that they'll tell the truth about the GOP's economic plans if their social interests are no longer represented in the party. 

He's saying the only way Republicans get poor and middle class whites to stab themselves in the throat economically is God, guns, and gays.   That's something we all know but it's rare indeed to have one of their own articulate it.  In any case, it's a truth that if widely accepted would decimate the Republican party and the conservative movement.  Here's to the truth no matter who's telling it.