Jim Pinkerton, an adviser to Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign and veteran of past GOP White Houses, began his comments at the forum by asserting that “on competence, the Republican Party deserved to lose” last November. But he disagrees about the lack of parallels between now and the late 1970s. Pointing to a chart showing an explosion in the money supply in 2008, he predicted massive inflation, and thus, a return to GOP economic principles.

Reihan Salam, a young Republican intellectual, placed himself in the “modernization” camp. He argued that the party’s traditional focus on marginal tax rates misses the point with the middle-income Americans. “What are the barriers for middle-class people who want to get ahead?” he asked, urging the party to develop policies and messages relevant to that question....