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Monday, Feb 2, 2009 5:55 PM UTC

Poll: Republicans want Palin as model for GOP

The lesson Republican voters took from their party's recent losses? Become even more conservative.

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Republican voters who responded to a recent Rasmussen poll have a solution for the GOP’s woes: Become more conservative, and more like Sarah Palin. 43 percent of Republicans say the party has been too moderate over the past eight years. 55 percent say they think Palin should become the model for the national GOP.

This is the kind of thing that can lead to a cycle of defeat. The Republican Party has, for some time now, been getting older, whiter and more conservative, in direct contrast to trends in the country as a whole. The GOP’s remaining partisans, then, naturally want their party to look more like them. That, however, only means a further contraction of its appeal. Lather, rinse, repeat.

For evidence, look no further than that same Rasmussen poll: Overall, 42 percent of respondents believe the Republican Party has been too conservative. 56 percent of self-described moderates gave that answer, as did 64 percent of the Democratic respondents. And 42 percent of moderates, — a plurality — said that John McCain, not Palin, should provide the model for the GOP’s future.

(Hat-tip to TPMDC.)

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