National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru is a brilliant writer and speaker who grasps the foundations of Conservatism better than most. It’s encouraging to know he is speaking to America’s young people.

Brian Miller of The College Conservative reports.

How Conservatism Forges Ahead

Ramesh Ponnuru, who is an editor at National Review, a columnist at Bloomberg, and a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, gave an excellent speech on the future of conservatism to, appropriately, a gathering of young conservatives.

Ponnuru touched on many of the concerns that are facing the GOP, including its problem attracting young voters, single women, and immigrants. He claimed that even through the Democrats love to attach social niche issues to each of these groups, namely gay marriage with young people, abortion with single women, and immigration reform with immigrants, these issues are not the care of the GOP’s problem.

He pointed out that among the diverse group of people who fall into the categories of young people, single women, or immigrants, the majority of each are united in being economically insecure. This should be great news for Republicans who believe they can win on an economic-centric message, but Ponnuru cautioned that the current path the GOP is taking is not likely to win any new votes, even if the GOP were to become more socially moderate. He pointed out that the Democratic party ceased to be the Party of the working class in the mid 1960s, however, the Republican Party never stepped up to fill the void. To the middle class and insecure, the GOP is still the party of wealthy white men.

To prove this point we need only consider that the major theme from the Republicans during the past election was entrepreneurship. Ponnuru claimed this message failed to resonate because the vast majority of Americans do not see themselves as entrepreneurs, nor do they necessarily aspire to be. Most Americans simply want a job to care for their family, or to supply income so they can enjoy some other leisurely pursuit or hobby. In short, Americans do not find their identity in their economic endeavors, and to listen to the rhetoric of the GOP one would think economic pursuits are the end-all-be-all of human existence.