Karl Rove on Republicans and suburbs

In a break from our regularly scheduled business and economics programming, I offer some notes I just dug up from a conversation I had with Karl Rove about four years ago (on Sept. 10, 2004, to be precise).

We were mostly talking about William McKinley (a favorite subject of his) and the urban-oriented majority McKinley forged for the Republican Party in the 1896 that dominated American politics until 1932. I was throwing out the idea (it’s basically Ruy Teixeira‘s idea) that the Republican Party seemed at risk of painting itself into the same Southern- and rural-oriented corner that William Jennings Bryan and the Democrats had in 1896. There was evidence of this in results from the last few elections. Outside the Deep South, suburban counties that had once been solidly Republican (Orange County, Calif., was the example I threw out) seemed to be migrating toward the Dems.

Rove would have none of this:

That’s only because of the changing nature of the suburbs. The cities are spilling out into suburbs, the suburbs into exurban counties or smaller metropolitan areas.

I think you are getting way out there. What is happening now is that people who once lived in Orange County are now moving to San Diego or Riverside or Ventura or the Central Valley.

Is the old Republican county of Waukesha County in Wisconsin turning Democratic? No, there’s no change.

It is not universal. Is Douglas or Arapahoe County [in Colorado] becoming more Democratic? No. Jefferson County is. There is no generalized trend that says the old-line Republican suburbs are turning Democratic.

Anyway, I’ll be very interested in seeing those Douglas and Arapahoe and Ventura and Riverside and San Diego County results come next week. I’m betting Rove will still be right about Waukesha County, but who knows?

Stocks Rally Further in Run-up to EU Summit

MOSCOW — Global stocks enjoyed one of their best days in weeks on Tuesday ahead of a summit of European leaders that’s expected to be dominated by calls to boost economic growth.

Europe remains the focus of attention across all financial markets in the run-up to the June 17 Greek election that could go a long way to determining the country’s membership of the euro as well as the future of the single currency zone.

paul lukasiak

I don’t think that this years election results will tell us anything in terms of overall trends — the general antipathy toward the Bush administration is giving the GOP a really bad name… four years of failed Democratic rule (“failure” is inevitable regardless of who wins thanks to the mess that Bush is leaving) will make the GOP look much better than it does now.

Indeed, I think we’re about to enter a people of political volatility — an age of demagoguery and reaction. Obama is little more than Professor Harold Hill in multicultural drag — but we’ve got REAL troubles right here in “River City”, and Professor Hill only has band uniforms to sell as a solution.
http://www.odograph.com odograph

“I think you are getting way out there. What is happening now is that people who once lived in Orange County are now moving to San Diego or Riverside or Ventura or the Central Valley.”

As an OC resident I at first found this outlandish. OC people, when they move, move out of state … but inland?

Then I thought maybe he is thinking of the 50′s OC that was, farmers and working “Joes.” They haven’t really moved, but the new farmers and Joes are starting up the exurbs.
http://www.odograph.com odograph

would a little whitespace hurt so much? (blank lines on comment paragraph breaks)
That Anonymous Dude

i hope you showered thoroughly afterwards..
http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/ Justin Fox

@odograph: I’ll ask the authorities if they can fix that. Although I may wait until next week because they’re kind of busy trying to restore all the archives and I really don’t want to slow them down.

@TAD: It was a phone interview. But I do generally shower daily.