Advice for Conservative Republicans -- from one of their own

The Vanishing Republican
by David Frum
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07Inequality-t.html?em

This writer who is affiliated with the ultra-conservative American Enterprise Institute has some good warning advice for his fellow Republicans. In my personal discussions with Republicans, I hear from them over and over again their great concern for their own pocketbooks, but they ignore the great national debt caused by the administration they put into power. Instead, they excoriate the Democrats and are in terror that their taxes will be raised by a Democratic administration, even when the tax proposals are explained to them (the top 10% incomes will be taxed more. The other 90%--most of us--will not). The nominee of their party promises more of what George W. Bush has delivered -- and, further, Mr. McCain believes $5 million is the magic number to be considered "rich." Of course, he is married to one of the wealthiest women in the country, and can't remember how many homes he owns (I think it was 7, 8, or 9 at last count). (At the forum at Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren asked both Barack Obama and John McCain what it meant for someone to be rich. "I would argue that if you are making more than $250,000, then you are in the top 3, 4 percent of this country," said Obama. "You are doing well."
McCain, however, spoke for a minute and a half and then threw out a much higher number. "I think if you're just talking about income, how about $5 million?" he said.)

The Republicans I know have incomes well below that of Mr. McCain's definition of "rich," but they are well situated in life, with nice homes, most of them with the mortgages paid off, and incomes sufficient to take care of their needs and desires. With few exceptions, they seldom ever mention the plight of the middle-class folks who are losing the battle economically. Their major concerns are not about the poor, except for their fear of them (especially the immigrants, for whom they feel no compassion or empathy--and certainly, no responsibility). In this essay, the author talks about the need for Republicans to take notice of the nation's changing demographics and the inequality that is causing voters, including those who are intelligent and well educated, to align themselves more often with the Democrats than the Republicans.

My concern is that ignorance among the Republicans regarding their own welfare (read What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank) will keep them from understanding how they undermine themselves and the rest of the country when they:
1. align themselves with the candidates of the rich corporations who care nothing for the middle class
2. hold fast to fundamentalist religious teachings that cause them to fear and despise those who don't adhere to their own rigid beliefs
3. have not yet crossed over the racial divide and would never vote for anyone who has even a drop of African/American blood
4. cling to social "values" that are discriminatory and based on fear of the hellfire and damnation kind peddled by small-minded preachers
5. believe the propaganda/lies that are put out regularly by the conscienceless movers and shakers of their party