The Economist: Democracy in America. The future of the Republican Party? b

Several of my colleagues have written characteristically incisive pieces about what lessons the Republicans should take from losing an eminently winnable election. Over at the corner, Michael Walsh and Mark Krikorian recommended a few lessons of their own. For Mr Walsh, the number of one lesson learned from Tuesday's defeat is that "the Republicans should never again agree to any debate moderated by any member of the MSM, most especially including former Democratic apparatchiks like Stephanopoulos." That's number one! "Republicans should immediately begin constructing their own media operation," he writes, as if no such enterprises exist. The best rated cable news channel is Fox! Five of the top ten radio programs, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Grenn Beck, Mark Levin and Neal Boortz are conservative. Messrs Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity et al have spent the last four years telling their listeners that Mr Obama is an incompetent Kenyan Marxist Muslim Commie Socialist doomed to defeat. Such sentiments soothe their listeners and are good for ratings, but the parts about incompetence and imminent defeat turned out to be false. The problem is not that conservatives lack media outlets. The problem comes when they fail to venture outside of them. Mr Walsh also advises Republicans to "lay off the social issues", which is probably a good idea. As for Mr Krikorian, he pours water on the suggestion offered by many that Republicans ought to moderate their stance on immigration as a matter of some urgency. His reasoning is this: A more moderate stance on immigration will attract fewer Hispanic voters than it will lose white voters. Thank goodness someone on the right is finally working on the most pressing question question of the day: How can Republicans attract more white voters. Hispanics, you see, "are poorer than average, pay less in taxes, use more in government services, benefit from affirmative action and are less likely to have health insurance, so the Democrats' message of big government and racial quotas is going to resonate with them, as it also has!"