How Not to Build a Permanent Majority

It wasn't that long ago that people like Hugh Hewitt were writing books about a permanent republican majority. This election, while far from over, looks like it could produce a Democratic president and increased control of both houses of Congress. David Brooks attempts to explain why in his column in the Times today:

And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission — because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission — by telling members of that class to go away.

The whole article talks about the rampant anti-intellectualism and anticoastalism that has been an undercurrent of GOP thinking for awhile, and has absolutely busted out at recent McCain/Palin rallies. If you want to be a party that builds a coalition broad enough to stretch over a long period, it probably is best not spend all your time proposing that half the country are in some amoral, terrorist loving, baby killing cabal. That's free advice.