I'm trying to start something new here. Beginning this Friday, I'm going to pose a question for us to discuss.
The first question is this: Can the Republican Party be saved? Can it move back to the center or is it to far gone?
Start talking.
Posted by Dennis at June 4, 2004 12:41 PMdorsano,
Yes, you're right that the party members have to take responsibility, as well as the leaders.
But unfortunately, the rank and file Republican membership is very polarized to Bush right now. I think a lot of that has to do with how hated Bush is by those who are not Republicans. The rank and file are circling the wagons around Bush, not wanting the party as a whole to appear weak.
I think that if McCain publicly stated, clearly and without mincing words, that Bush's policies are a failure and that he cannot continue to support Bush as president because of those policies, I think you might see a good deal of that rank and file gather the courage to follow McCain's lead.
So I think it's more 80% leadership and 20% personal responsibility - for right now, at least.
Posted by: Mark Kittel at June 4, 2004 09:58 PMWhoa Paul!
Send Rupert Murdoch back to Hell? Strong language! But you need to specify which layer of Hell he belongs in to be entirely correct.
Seriously, though, Paul is right. The GOP has to sacrifice this election year. Keep the McCains in and vote the DeLays out (an aside: I always thought the name Delay was somehow appropriate for that man), and put Democrats in place of the DeLays. Guaranteed, you'd get another strong leader to front a "new Republican Party" that appeals to a broad majority of Americans.
Posted by: Mark Kittel at June 4, 2004 09:55 PMThanks for giving us our own blog for a day Dennis!!
I agree with Mark's eloquent assesment. (Paul touches on another aspect of the problem).
Mark's solution is only half the answer though in my opinion. Party politics is a two way street. There is a leadership component which comes from the electeds and a personal responsibility component which comes from the rank and file.
Both components need to be present or the party will either not change or be unduly crippled.
What happens with Faust will be instructive I think. He providing leadership now by staking out new positions for the GOP and potentially taking ownership of some issues away from the Democrats but if the Republican rank and file doesn't engage in the process at the grass roots and primary level, I'm afraid that he'll lose out to Musgrave.
I live in the Midwest and most of my friends are liberal Conservatives (or conservative Liberals) and it's hard for me to believe that support among the rank and file for people like Faust is not there. Engagement however is another thing.
A number of my friends have simply stopped attending caucuses because they have been swapped by single issue activists.
What I'm unclear on is how important is leadership (60%?) and how important is personal responsibility (40%?)
And to get to Paul's point, the quality of our public debate is pretty poor. It is long on image and short on substance. The consolidation of news and entertainment content spread out over a proliferation of outlets like cable and the Internet has provided wingnuts with a powerful soap box.
If one is a Liberal one ignores Rush and Fox and simply goes elsewhere. If one likes to consume Conservative red meat on a daily basis, there are ready available sources.
I believe that it is, in no small part, due to this phenomenon that the country is so ideologically divided.
Posted by: dorsano at June 4, 2004 09:36 PMThere is really only way to rid the ideologues, and that is to have the democrats decisively win offices away from those in the republican chain of command that lead the ideologues. We need the democrats to front a challenger to DeLay in Texas, and win. We need the democrats to front a challenger to Imhofe, and win. We need Kerry to beat Bush, and decisively so. We need the social conservatives and the neocons voted OUT OUT OUT of office while the progressive moderates stay in. At that point political patronage of the party shifts to those in office, and the neocons and social cons will lose favor and voice in the GOP.
We also need Rupert Murdoch (the source of all conservative media right now) to get sent back to hell where he belongs, and for FOX News to switch to an all-weather format.
Dennis,
I was going to address this at greater length in my next article.
But the answer is, Yes, it can be saved.
The battle within the Republican party is between the pragmatists (or realists, however you want to term them) and the ideologists. Call it "The McCains vs. The Bushes" if you will, because those two men are perfect examples of how the party is divided.
On one hand, you have Republicans such as McCain, Specter, Snowe, Powell, Faust, etc. who are realists or pragmatists. On the other, you have Republicans such as Bush, Musgrave, Hastert, Wolfowitz, Santorum, etc. who are ideologists.
Realists deal with facts and reality. When faced with a problem or issue, realists ask, "What solution will address that problem? How can we address the specifics of that issue?" Realists understand that society changes, culture changes, allies and enemies change, individual and group needs change, the country as a whole changes. And as those changes occur, policies must be changed to reflect the ongoing needs and desires of the country.
Ideologists deal with ideals and ideologies. When faced with a problem or issue, ideologists apply the ideology to that problem and believe, wholeheartedly, that following the ideology will always solve every problem that arises. Ideologists believe that change is only good if it moves the country or people more in line with the ideology, and changes are bad if they move the country away from the ideology, and therefore any "bad" change must be opposed, sqaushed, stopped, or regulated away.
The current administration is obviously one of ideology, not pragmatism. Only an ideologist could believe that our armed forces would be greeted as liberators in Iraq, and that people would toss rose petals to them in gratitude.
That's where the danger lies. Reagan himself recognized the dangers of ideology. Ideologists only hear and use the facts that support the ideology - any fact or reality that contradicts the ideology is discarded or ignored or simply named "a vast left/right wing conspiracy to discredit yada yada yada". But when our leaders follow ideologies, they make poor decisions, they choose not to address reality, and the country suffers as a result.
Can the Republican party be saved from the ideologists? Yes, but ONLY if the realists named above (and others of similar nature that I have not named) recognize the ideology that has invaded the party and make a conscious, concerted effort to rid the party of such elements. And that means they have to abandon Bush - publicly, and as a unified front.
Doing so would set up an internal war, naturally. But sometimes a war is what it takes to get things set back on course.
Posted by: Mark Kittel at June 4, 2004 01:28 PM