Why the GOP needs its own Bill Clinton
The party of Reagan could use a figure like Bubba, who shepherded Democrats out of the political wilderness
![Is there a conservative Bill Clinton out there who could get the GOP headed in the right direction?](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YBps97bExcpheFJb6xxQLF-415-80.jpg)
Since President Obama's re-election, the sense that the GOP is in the midst of an existential crisis has only deepened. A new poll from Bloomberg shows that Obama's favorability ratings are at a three-year high, while the Republican Party's ratings are at a corresponding three-year low. Another poll from Pew indicates that Americans overwhelmingly agree with Obama and the Democrats on a host of issues, from taxes and the deficit to minimum wage and gun control. The latest data, combined with shifting demographics and Obama's convincing win in November, have all added to the impression that the Republican Party has drifted out of the mainstream of American politics.
With this dire situation as a backdrop, Michael Gerson and Pete Wehner, both former speechwriters in the Bush administration, have written an article in Commentary that amounts to a manifesto for a new GOP. Arguing that middle- and working-class Americans view the Republican Party as "wholly out of touch with ordinary Americans," Gerson and Wehner lay out a broad plan that would see Republicans craft a new economic agenda focusing on social mobility; offer undocumented workers a path to citizenship; ditch a "hyper-individualistic" view of society in favor of one that promotes the communal good; make peace with gay marriage and generally tone down the rhetoric on divisive social issues; and "harness their policy views to the findings of science." All these changes, they argue, can be made without sacrificing core conservative principles.
It remains to be seen whether Republicans will stomach advice from veterans of an administration that unquestionably did real damage to the GOP's brand. Still, the point Gerson and Wehner are making has been echoed by several forward-thinking conservative commentators, the general theme being that Republicans not only have to change the way they deliver their message, but the substance of the message itself. The GOP either has to adapt or die, argues Ramesh Ponnuru at The New York Times:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Today's Republicans are very good at tending the fire of Ronald Reagan's memory but not nearly as good at learning from his successes. They slavishly adhere to the economic program that Reagan developed to meet the challenges of the late 1970s and early 1980s, ignoring the fact that he largely overcame those challenges, and now we have new ones. [The New York Times]
But who will lead the GOP out of the wilderness? Gerson and Wehner point to Bill Clinton and Britain's Tony Blair as examples of leaders who transformed their liberal parties in a successful bid to bring them back to power. Clinton's "New Democrats" unveiled a message stressing both equal opportunity and individual responsibility, and struck back against more extremist elements within the party. The most tangible policy result of their efforts was welfare reform, which helped Democrats shed their reputation as encouraging a "culture of dependency."
In other words, for a party that is always on the lookout for the next Reagan, perhaps Republicans would do better to identify the Clintons in their midst. At the moment, however, the pickings are slim, even amongst a younger crop of politicians — such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida — who have merely put new faces on old Republican ideas. As Ross Douthat at The New York Times writes:
Real Republican reinvention is a cause in search of a standard bearer, and the right's reformers are doing a far, far better job proposing solutions to the G.O.P's dilemmas (and the country's problems) than they are persuading actual Republican politicians to embrace them. [The New York Times]
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
-
Salt Lake City named host of 2034 Winter Olympics
Speed Read The Winter Games are returning to the US for the first time in 32 years
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Netanyahu makes controversial address
Speed Reads Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress denounced Gaza war protestors
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Twisters review: 'warm-blooded' film explores dangerous weather
The Week Recommends The film, focusing on 'tornado wranglers', stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell
By The Week UK Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court rejects challenge to CFPB
Speed Read The court rejected a conservative-backed challenge to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published