Reihan appreciates Douthat's comparison of Rick Perry to Howard Dean. But he points out a key difference:
If we take the Pew Research Center’s 2011 “Beyond Red vs. Blue” report as our guide, ideological conservatives — encompassing the typology groups labeled Staunch Conservatives, Main Street Republicans, and Libertarians — amount to 29 percent of the general public, 35 percent of registered voters, and a large majority of Republican primary voters. Solid Liberals, in contrast, are 14 percent of the general public and 16 percent of registered voters. In a Democratic primary, ethnocultural cleavages and organized labor might also help an ideologically left-of-center candidate, but the Democratic party is perhaps best characterized as a coalition between ideological liberals and moderates in which ideological liberals often have to restrain their impulses. The Republican party, in contrast, is far more conservative-heavy, and far less inclined to allow self-conscious moderates in the party, a small and arguably shrinking minority, to hold sway.
The Dish 