The New Republic

Now that even a watered-down effort to “do something” about guns in response to the mass slaughter of small children in Newtown has collapsed in the Senate, it’s time to look political reality squarely in the face: No external shock, no matter how extreme, will clear a path for meaningful gun control legislation to emerge from Congress. READ MORE >>

Ever since last year's election, the nation's conservatives have been in self-preservation mode: They know something about the GOP needs to change, but they don’t want it to be them. The party establishment would prefer to jettison cultural issues, since it never cared much about cultural issues, anyway. And the faction of fiscal conservatives argues that well-educated, affluent voters are more natural GOP constituents, anyway. READ MORE >>

Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the two big gay marriage cases it heard last week, it’s only a matter of time before the institution is legalized. Public acceptance is accelerating and will soon be overwhelming. READ MORE >>

Conservatives have a new darling: Ben Carson. Or, as they prefer to call him, Doctor Ben Carson.  READ MORE >>

On Monday morning, after a four-month listening tour and a thousand op-eds about What Went Wrong, the Republican National Committee rendered its verdict: The GOP has an image problem. People see it as a stuffy old club of rich white people, one that’s out of touch with the lives of most Americans. READ MORE >>

Conservative thinkers have been brainstorming ideas to revive the GOP, but few Republican politicians have been as bold. READ MORE >>

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is winning accolades for the wide-ranging plan he presented Monday morning in Washington that charts a way forward for the party after its demoralizing performance in the November elections. Drafted by a five-person committee—which included former George W. READ MORE >>

At this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference, reeling from its demographic drubbing in last year's elections, the American right—or part of it, at least—is chewing over how to align itself with the nation's evolving mores. And much has been made of their efforts to expand the tent. Maybe undocumented immigrants, for example, shouldn't be deported on sight? And is it possible that gays, too, should have the right to marry?  READ MORE >>

Take a moment to browse the CPAC agenda, and guess which event today was most likely to devolve into a roomful of conservatives yelling “Can I just say something?” and “Stop lecturing us!” If you guessed “Trump the Race Card: Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You’re Not One?”—a panel organized by the Tea Party Patriots—then pat yourself on the back. READ MORE >>

As this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, at National Harbor in Washington, is the GOP’s first major gathering since the Democratic coalition trounced Republicans in November, it stands to reason that the party's demographic dilemma would be a preoccupation among panelists. How goes Republicans' hopes to refill the Big Tent with Latinos and young voters and the like? Not so hot.  READ MORE >>