Rudy: GOP Becoming ‘Ideologically Narrower’

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said that the Republican Party is becoming ideologically and geographically narrower, and said that social issues have driven away many former GOP voters.

Giuliani said the Republicans must learn how to again become competitive in states like California, New York, and Illinois — particularly in those states’ suburban communities — during an interview with the conservative website The New Majority.

“We have to deliberately have a policy of running candidates that can win in the New Yorks, the Californias, the Illinois, and in the satellite states,” Giuliani said. “We have to be able to emphasize the issues that are of concern to the voters, and not alienate them on issues that just don’t work in certain parts of the country.”

Giuliani said that means running candidates who are more centrist on social issues like gay rights and abortion, while maintaining a stronger focus on fiscal, military, and foreign policy stances.

“Those are issues on which we can get a majority of the American people, if we don’t drive them away with the social issues,” the onetime Republican presidential nominee said. He added that electoral math does not support the idea that Republicans would have won the 2008 election had they been more conservative.

“Our base is our base, and is not getting bigger. If anything, it’s getting smaller,” Giuliani stated. “[Democrats] focused on their broadest organizing principles, and left room for disagreement, whereas we focused on our narrowest organizing principles and didn’t leave room for disagreement.”

Watch videos of both parts of Giuliani’s interview below.

Part I:

Part II: