The end of an era?

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne today takes a look at South Carolina and Georgia -- neighboring states that he says may show the polar ends of an era. (Column).

Dionne says conservative Christian consultant Ralph Reed galvanized voters in South Carolina in 2000 to turn to George W. Bush (and away from Sen. John McCain) in the GOP primary that year. How? By rallying the base - - conservative Christians. But this week in Georgia, Reed lost a bid to become the GOP lieutenant governor candidate by failing to mobilize that very same base, Dionne says. He also highlighted a discussion with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who backed McCain over Bush in 2000 and who found this week's events interesting:

Graham suggested that his party needs to unlearn some of the lessons supposedly taught six years ago by his state's primary.

Republicans, he said, need to move beyond mobilizing their base "because our base isn't big enough to propel us to victory 10 years from now."

Conservatives -- of which Graham is emphatically one -- should be wary of a politics based on the idea that to satisfy your own core supporters, "the other side's got to be miserable."

"I want conservatism to be seen as a good solution to people's problems and not go the way of liberals," Graham said. "Liberalism is not a title easily worn now, and that could happen to conservatism."