If the Republican Party wants to win again without significantly moving to the center...okay, wait, that's not possible. If they want to win without moderating on cultural issues then it stands to reason that they ought to moderate on economic and foreign policy issues, so doing things like trying to be more friendly toward conservative minorities makes sense. It also would make sense to try to consolidate the white working class vote by trying to win union support. After all, a lot of lunchpail unionized Democrats that happen to be pretty conservative almost always vote Democrat. Taking a more lenient line toward unions would be a potentially enormous boon to Republican fortunes. Plus, it's not really a matter of compromising small government ideology. It would require upsetting the moneymen that have bought the GOP in recent years, and that seems unlikely to happen.
All of this is by way of saying that you all should check out this Ezra Klein post on unions. It's not really the same topic, but it got me thinking.
