Is GOP The Big Tent Party In 2010?

An interesting piece in The Weekly Standard points to the return of the 2004 political landscape for voter make-up.

The new geography for Republicans looks like this: a reliable base in the South and Plains states, parity or better in the Midwest and Rockies, and the ability to compete in the Northeast and West Coast. That’s roughly the red state model that elected Ronald Reagan and both Bushes.

Mix in some ethnic diversity outreach reaping success: And there may be a Black Republican Caucus in the House. Tim Scott is a prohibitive favorite to win a House seat in South Carolina, and Allen West in Florida and Ryan Frazier in Colorado are in tossup races. All three are African-American conservatives.

In 2006 and 2008, Republicans lost ground with Hispanic voters. Now they may regain some. Hispanic Republicans are likely to win the governorships of New Mexico (Susana Martinez) and Nevada (Brian Sandoval), and Marco Rubio, headed to the Senate from Florida, is cut out to be a star.

This explains the rise of conservative Hispanic voters: Across the country conservative Latino organizations are springing up as fast as illegal immigrants are streaming across the border. And these organizations are not content to just conduct meetings and complain about the liberal takeover in Washington. Some are taking action. In Dallas, Amigos de Patriots is launching an online and TV ad campaign called “Vote your Values, Vote Conservative.” The idea is to remind Hispanics that their ancestors fled countries where prosperity was killed by left-wing regimes. The 30-second spots also take on social issues like abortion, a practice that is dear to liberals and Democrats but that the Latino community at large finds offensive.

It is encouraging that the move back to conservative candidates is growing in the Hispanic and black communities. Both are socially conservative communities and becoming aware - from accelerated outreach on the local level and on up the ladder - that GOP economic policies nurture small businesses which produce the majority of job creation in our country. There is no pride in allowing the Democratic party to take a community's votes for granted as they strive to keep voters enslaved with government dependency. A job and a paycheck is the path to freedom, not a government check and beholden to federal bureaucracy.

There is room for everyone - from the libertarians to moderate Democrats. The Republican party is open to all who share our basic philosophy. The importance of fiscal issues in this election cycle are proof of that. It is good to remember all of Ronald Reagan's political philosophy, not just what is convenient in the moment to remember. If a voter believes in 80% of GOP philosophy then that person is someone we can work with.
It's looking pretty damn good to those of us on the ground who have been working for a very long time to move fiscal and defense issues to the forefront and allow the social issues to be relevant but not all encompassing.