Despite all the hot air and venting about Arlen Spector switching parties, no one has commented upon the real meaning of Spector's switch. Namely, Pennsylvania is turning democratic, or at least Spector thinks it is, and he has a lot of experience in PA politics. More than I do for sure.
Republicans should be asking themselves "why are we loosing Pennsylvania?" rather than "Why did Spector abandon the GOP?"
So why is Pennsylvania (and a lot of other places) going Democratic? Certainly the GOP's poor record on spending ($750 billion TARP was a Bush bill), pork, and earmarks, association with, and bungling of, the Iraq war hurt. Great Depression II happened on Bush's watch and is blamed upon the party in power. A Democratic media, and a Democratic education establishment are doing their best to raise the new generation as Democrats. GOP support of the record companies against the downloaders of music alienates the young but doesn't bring any voters into the party. The record companies don't vote. Republican concentration upon hot-button wedge issues looses more votes among the new generation than it gains among the older generation.
What should the GOP do? Certainly it needs to pull up its socks on spending, pork, earmarks, campaign finance/bribery, and corruption. It needs programs to reduce the scandulous amounts of money (16% of GNP) spent on "health care". It needs to advocate Wall Street reforms to prevent Great Depression III from occuring. Outlawing credit default swaps, outlawing the secondary mortgage market, requiring stock holder approval of bonuses, and cleaning up the accounting "profession" would be a good start.
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