Lindsey Graham…..Can he be doing the right thing?…..Can he survive doing it?

In the last few weeks the Dog keeps seeing Lindsey Graham…..the Republican senator from South Carolina’s name popping up all over the place (talking to Chuck Schumer…no less )……

Immigration and Climate have been the area’s of interest….

But the question that comes to mind is this…..

Is he deal maker….. or is he working with the enemy?

How can a GOP senator work with Chuck Schumer all the time and survive?

I mean ……most of the high-profile moderate Republican’s have been shown the door by the GOP…..

Can Graham’s method of doing things last?

“The growth potential in America lies with demographic changes and independents. Independents are the fastest-growing group in terms of political identification.

“Demographically, we are becoming a more diverse country . . .  Conservatism will appeal to the public at large because the public is right of center

“But ideology that is extreme never sells 50 percent. You have to be relevant to people’s lives. You have to solve problems that people deal with every day and you’ve got to get to 50 percent . . .

“If you want to purify the party, then the cost is the ability to grow because purification is not a gave of addition. It’s a game of subtraction. Coalition building is a game of addition.”

Political scientist Alan Abramowitz of Emory University has numbers to bolster Graham’s main thesis.

In 2008, he noted in a recent Internet article, Republican presidential candidateJohn McCain carried the white vote by 11.6 million, but Obama won by carrying “non-whites” by 21.1 million.

With non-whites — especially Latinos — representing an ever-growing portion of the electorate, he showed, if Democrats sustain their advantage with those groups, Republicans will need to carry more than 60 percent of the white vote to win national elections, as only Ronald Reagan was able to do in 1984.

As Abramowitz wrote, “2010 is likely to be a very good year for Republicans. Yet there is a real danger that Republican leaders and strategists will interpret (that) strong showing as vindication for a strategy based largely on energizing the party’s conservative white base.

“That base is indeed energized. But it is also shrinking due to the steady growth of the non-white electorate . . .  Unless Republicans can expand their support among non-white voters, they will have to win a much larger share of the white vote than they have in any recent presidential election in order to remain competitive.

Did you just read that?

Is the GOP faithfull gonna swallow that?

I don’t think so……..

Graham …and for that manner Crist both understand that the move to the right by the mainstream GOP is cutting them off from the growth demographics of the country…..We discuse this all the time at the Dog with CD….

Texas is gonna turn democratic pretty soon simply because it’s getting browner..mind you not all Latinos vote Democratic….but even the Bush family (Jeb is against the Arizona Bill ) know that  the party is working awfully hard to disfranchise itself from its future….

Having a black RNC leader hasn’t been too comfortable for a lot of Republican’s either…..

Lindsey Graham may be right….

But he’s got a long road in front of him…..

and he may not be successful……

More…….. on the CQPolitics piece by Morton M. Kondracke, Roll Call Contributing Writer

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