Republicans have to change their ways -- or die out as a party: McCain Campaign Manager

It must be taken into account that this was said at a Log Cabin Republicans' national convention, with the firm intention of keeping Republican gays in the party (I have always wondered how gays can stay with a party in which the majority despises, fears, and shuns them).  It seems the party is getting so desperate now, as it continues to crumble in the wake of Bush/Cheney and the neocon debacle, that it will do or say anything to woo members into staying. 

I often wonder how many present-day Republicans are aware of how far the Republican party of today has drifted from being the "Grand Old Party" their parents taught them to follow and support. 

GOP HAS BEEN CO-OPTED BY FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS

Speaking publicly for one of the first times since the end of the presidential campaign, John McCain's campaign manager Steve Schmidt painted a dire portrait of the state of the Republican Party, arguing that the GOP has largely been co-opted by its religious elements.

"If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party," Schmidt declared. "And in a free country, a political party cannot be viable in the long term if it is seen as a sectarian party."

The remarks came in a passionate, roughly 20-minute speech before the Log Cabin Republicans' national convention, in which Schmidt laid out the case for a far more open party -- one which did not consider gay marriage to be a "litmus test" issue. And while he made it a purpose not to offend social conservatives -- they "remain an indispensable part of the Republican coalition," he said -- Schmidt did not hide his concerns that religion had become the predominant thread of the GOP.

"If you reject [gay marriage] on religious grounds, I respect that," he said. "I respect anyone's religious views. However, religious views should not inform the public policy positions of a political party because... when it is a religious party, many people who would otherwise be members of that party are excluded from it because of a religious belief system that may be different. And the Republican Party ought not to be that. It ought to be a coalition of people under a big tent."

Earlier, in the question-and-answer session, Schmidt said he conveyed a similar message to Senator McCain, though he declined to elaborate on what kind of advice was given.

"My views were known inside the campaign on this," he said.

Looking beyond the issue of marriage, Schmidt's diagnosis of the GOP's ills was fairly ominous. "Our coalition," he declared, "is shrinking and losing ground to segments of the population that is growing, whether it is with suburban voters, working class, college educated voters, Hispanics, or left handed Albania psychics, the percentage voting republican has declined precipitously."

Schmidt warned, particularly, that losses among Hispanic voters threatened to "cost the Republicans the entire southwest," a development that would make winning 270 electoral votes a near impossibility. "Had Sen. McCain not been the nominee in 2008," he said, "I am convinced we would have lost the state of Arizona."