by less than half a percentage point. it was a ss t landslide. it was a l mandate. w itas was also 40 years ago. and in some ways seems even longer than that. since reagan the positivistre puregu tonight, we will examine today . republican party on the eve of yet anotheblicr presidential election. what does the party believe, what is the republican position on foreign policy, cultural issues. how if the party has changed, where is it going? california and new york, will be popular vote be in play againag for a nominee or does winninaig require running the electoral college gauntlets. we are joined tonight by four people who have worked in or around politics for decades. they are very likely to have different views on some issues and may prioritize issuesiz differently. they maye sues represent peopley differensentt orthodoxies withie party but they have come together to discuss policy and politics in the upcoming race for president. as we begin tonight we start with a quoten
republican party to explain why that doesn t work.po one thing i wanted to add was the republican party now has had this transition to being one of the middle class.-c it s starting to havlae the efft that we ve been calling for years which is that conservative values are actually good for people who are at the bottom of the ladder.e bulat that is where the opportunity is and the immigrant population is starting to see that, making some inroads withwh african americans come with hispanics in particular who aree looking at the economy and especially of the last few years of saying this is not what we want. dana makes reference to a big tent. when you win 49 of 50 states, that s a huge tent. he also said an 80% friend is o enough. t still where the republican partynt. is? it seems like some republicans the light most inviting one another as opposed to fighting anything else.ee a you see a lot of infighting with republicans.g why fight the leftre and we fin ourselves?th you see that r
certain voting constituencies? or is it the manner in which we communicate. he just mentioned early voting and saying that we don t want too much because of fraud but not because we don te of want yo vote because we want your vote to count.yo how do you seeur that? is it message or messaging? on the abortion issue the left is very good at galvanizing voters and the post roe world, women ar we excited to go out ad vote to defend what they see as a freedom and right they had for many years bite fundamental to o they are as americans. a that s something that republicans are going to have ts takeom issue with. but on the messaging part, republicans have been horrible at allowing the left and democrats to define them as the extremists on abortion. there was a harvard-harris poll that came out and showed that 72% of americans think about how many people agree about 72%. 72% of americans believe in the
abortion restrictions at 15 weeks at the maximum.th is75% of women in the country believe in restrictions at 15 weeks. r 60% ofes democrats believe thisv and yet on the campaign trail,l all we have seen is republicans, republican men running away froo this issue like it doesn t matter. and so they have allowed the left or.f the find them on that specific issue. generally i think that americans all over the country believe that politicians in washington, d.c., talk at them, they don t go into different communities and listen to them. and i think when people come around t o communities where they have notthey been, they are just there to try and get their votes to get elected andt they will be forgotten. i do think that generally speaking people are very tired of thee identity politics that you have to look a certain way or be from a certain are a to be a democrat or republican. i think that s really changed and it s less about republican or democrat and more about