Katrina vanden Heuvel on the rise of the Libertarians.

Question: What can Republicans do to regroup?

vanden Heuvel:    I’m not that well versed in the leaders, but I believe, with a little bit of reporting and a little bit of understanding of this last campaign, that you put aside Sarah Palin for a moment, you put aside the Social Conservative movement within the Republican Party, what struck me was the excitement around Ron Paul, especially among young people, on campuses around the country.  Ron Paul is not going to be the standard bearer for the Republican Party, but in his ideas and in that kind of libertarian spirit, which is very American, the idea of choice, of going your own way, I think that the libertarian spirit, the libertarian politics within the Republican Party may be its future, as long as it also taps into not only the younger generation demographically, but it needs to broaden and become more inclusive, because in this last election you saw the end of the Southern strategy, using race to divide a [wedge] issue, and you also saw how the Republicans have become, in a sense, a [rump] regional party by failing to tap into the changing conditions and demographics of this country.