Off the Shelf
What can be done to salvage the Republican Party? Even Gustav is more of a haunted reminder of Katrina than a do-over. It's presidential candidate openly scorns the party's corruption. Sarah Palin was elevated to cater to the evangelical base, but her primary asset is that she challenged the cronyism of the party's leaders in Alaska. It's leaders obsess about what they call the decline of its "brand," in itself a mark of a party invested more in marketing than in principle. Rep. Tom Davis, former head of its congressional campaign committee, concludes that, "If we were a dog food, they'd take us off the shelf."
Few will admit this in Minneapolis, of course. Gustav has helped the made-for-TV show, giving the failed president and vice-president a reason to stay out of town. 10 incumbent Republican Senators already had decided that absence was the better part of valor.
And the reality is even worse. Democrats will win stronger majorities in both House and Senate. 28 Republican legislators have taken a look at the race and decided they'd rather quit than fight. Corporate money is buying into Democrats, picking the stock hat is on the rise. Democratic registration is up nationally, while Republican registration is down over a million since 2004. The Millennium generation - larger even than the boomers - are voting Democratic in overwhelming numbers. The Republican southern strategy has created a regional, whites only party - with even that southern bastion is now being challenged. Democratic control of state houses and legislatures is on the rise. On issue after issue - from the Iraq War to Katrina, from contraception to consumer protection, from health care to fair trade - a growing majority of Americans have turned against Republican positions. The new center is progressive, not conservative.
So what can be done? In the best tradition of circular firing squads, Republicans are sniping at one another for the debacle. The fundamentalists blame the neo cons; the country clubbers deride the evangelicals; the corporate core scorns the supply-siders. And each of them is justified, for every strand of the Republican party contributed to conservative misrule. The neo-cons led us into the debacle that is Iraq, while shredding the Constitution. The evangelicals shocked America with the Schaivo grandstanding, and the efforts to enforce morality through radical right judges. The supply-siders really did practice "voodoo economics." And the corporate cronies descended into corruption and plunder shocking even by Washington standards.
How do Republicans recover? Rove's theory of imitating McKinley and ushering in a new Gilded Age exploded with the financial crisis. McCain's wistful invocation of Teddy Roosevelt is a far remove from what the modern Republican party could stomach. The bright young conservative, Ross Douthaut, suggests that Republicans imitate Democrats, and compete for the votes of workers on the basis of bread and butter issues. The old guard, like former Rep.Mickey Edwards, calls for a return to limited government and the Constitution. Grover Norquist enforces allegiance to starving government. Virtually all invoke the sainted memory of Ronald Reagan as lodestone for their recovery, without being able to agree on what Reagan represents.
This debate shouldn't be left to those who have helped drive the Republican Party to the verge of bankruptcy. Democracy requires at least two parties to thrive. If the Republican Party disintegrates, it will only have to be reinvented. So perhaps it would be good to invite the readers of the Huffington Post to join this discussion.
What can be done to save this party? How can Republicans - having failed so ignominiously at home and abroad over the past eight years - recover?
To start this discussion, let me offer my own modest suggestion - a return not to Ronald Reagan who helped start them down the road to bankruptcy, but to Ike, the Republican Party of Dwight David Eisenhower. Eisenhower reflected the common sense, country club values of a Republican Party that represented Main Street. He insisted on fiscal discipline, and was willing to raise taxes if necessary, even as he championed smaller government. To balance the budget, he put a lid on military spending, letting the services fight among themselves on how to divide the kitty. "We -- you and I, and our government," he warned, "must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow."
As a former commander of US forces in World War II, he was sensibly cautious about using military force abroad, preferring diplomacy to war. He brought the Korean War to a close. He scorned those who wanted a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and was skeptical of the schemes of the neo-cons of his day eager to rollback the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.
Ike understood the dangers of crony capitalism that might plunder Washington. He warned us to "guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. He reminded Americans that "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
He preached balance - in government, in society, in corporations. In his day, executives sought to expand their companies, not dismember them or ship them abroad. They shared the benefits of rising productivity with their workers. They didn't not wage jihad against union organizers.
As a lifelong military man, Ike didn't loathe government. Just as he understood its limits, he understood its purposes. So he accepted the core New Deal reforms - Social Security, financial regulation, labor unions. He understood the need for a modern infrastructure, funding the interstate highways that provided a strong stimulus to a mobile America and a more efficient economy.
In public at least, Ike and Mamie Eisenhower seemed to personify the small town morality of America. The 1950s was a time of a growing middle class, moving to the suburbs, raising families. Sure it was boring, suffocating, and hypocritical, and helped spark the cultural revolution of the 1960s. But Ike's Republican Party came closer to reflecting the values it preached than today's rack and ruin Right.
No need to romanticize Eisenhower. He let McCarthy spread hate and division far longer than necessary. While he appointed Warren and Brennan and Stewart to the Supreme Court, he was complacent about segregation. And he presided over a CIA that was running covert operations across the developing world. But he was a sensible, relatively moderate conservative who provided adult supervision for the ideologues on the Right.
Still, small government, fiscal discipline, a lid on military adventure and spending, investment in vital infrastructure, acceptance of Social Security, Medicare, financial regulation - this might go a long way toward allowing today's Republicans to recover from the lacerations left by the New Right marauders, and begin once more to offer America a sensible alternative, not an extremist nightmare.
But please, join the conversation. Can this party be saved? And if so, how?
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Until people stop believing everything on Fox "News", and as long as people continue to follow the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, - there is no hope for the Republican party.
When regular folks start thinking for themselves and stop being sheep - the real Republican ideology could be born again. The odds are against it ever happening.
I so agree. I never turn to Fox because I know what I'll hear--Spin and more spin! These hard economic times; a war that was built on lies, a President/
There are only two ways to save the GOP:
1. Make all Americans wealthy.
2. Make all Americans stupid.
Taking us all over the famous 5 million-dollar mark (!) is obviously impossible, thus the only option left is to decrease education with each successive generation. Propogate ignorance to pandemic proportions.
That would increase the base. But it wouldn´t be the America that we would like to love and defend, would it?
How many for putting them out of their misery ASAP?
Sorry.
You need a loyal opposition. We enough of a one-party State as it is.
Rx for repairing Republican party (not nececessarily listed in order of importance or criticality):
1.) Reinforce the idea for them that the tree of liberty will be refreshed from time-to-time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, and that when tyrants are are identified and outed, everyone else is either a patriot or a collaborator, or truly stupid. Ask them which category they'd like to fall into.
2.) Suggest that they attend a weekend retreat which focuses on the small differences inherent in fascistic vs. democratic political systems and societies.
3.) Make them swear they understand that election fraud is undemocratic, and still fraud...re
4.) Remind them that "freedom" probably does mean, to a large extent, that they and their representatives are not readily welcome into free people's bedrooms, doctor's consultations, telephone conversations, e-mails, sick and dying relatives bedsides, etc.
5.) Make them say, again and again, "I understand that supporting our troops should and will entail much greater expenses and sacrifices than the $1.99 I spent on my Support Our Troops car magnet."
6.) Make them swear that if ever given a real opportunity to govern again, that they will employ tactics and strategies not solely dependent-upon fear. WE DON'T LIKE IT.
7.) Try to get them to admit that even if God did create the world in less than a week, he didn't do it 5,000 years ago.
That's a start.
Outstanding commentary. Thank you. You said it all.
I like your style.
A bipartite system of representation is absolutely essential for democracy to exist. Otherwise by definition, the will of the people would not be necessary for continuation of a single party government. We would have China or Cuba as exemplar forms of rule. Do we really want that? Therefore, though it does not mean that it is essential the Republican party remain viable, a new second or better yet third party can find its way past the tag team annihilation approach to quelling third parties the dems and GOP manage to come together on to effect. Let them die as a result of the actions speak louder than words come back to haunt them rhetoric they spouted on religion, ethics and morals. Now the gen pop has turned a deaf ear to the rights party call of God and Country because they failed to abide by their own credo and succumbed to the temptations they claim dems perpetrate through liberalism. Eat crow!
What is needed as an emergency is for McCain to have a SURGE on his pick for VP. He needs to send Ms. Palin back to Alaska, and just as he was so adept to use the surge as a way to erase his vote for the war, he can use a number of excuses to erase his blunder choosing this lady. He probably energized the Fundamentalist Religious Ultra-Right, but he lost the rest of the country.
As for a long term solution to the GOP problems, at this time it looks beyond help. Maybe someone with a lot of expertise in made man disasters might be able to help.
There's no going back on his pick. He and Palin either spin this mess invisible or future historians mark this as the point where they lost the presidency.
The only way to save the republican party, in my mind, is to overhaul it from the top down. Remove all the deadwood, and clean up the scandles, fulfill promises to constituants,and start keeping it real...don
Why bother.The
I agree with many of the comments posted so far. For this nations experiment to work, perhaps we should abolish political parties altogether. Adams noted that political parties would divide Americans. But if we are to be stuck with a two party system, we need to remove gerrymandering from the laws of the land. And then we need establish publicly funded and very short elections. Once that is in place, we can have a meaningful discussion about how to save the republican party. My two cents:
1. Stop aligning with right wing fundamentalist Christians.
2. Significantly reduce the size and scope of the military budget, and the operational role of the military (ie withdraw from Japan, Korea, Western Europe)
3. Make a massive investment in infrastructure.
4. Commit to a business friendly tax structure at the same time as an individual friendly tax structure.
5. Commit to a strong dollar and a balanced budget.
6. Commit to working with Democrats in congress and around the country to compromise and get things done
7. Commit to Social Security and Medicare, and by extension a health care system that is provider friendly rather than just pharmaceuticals friendly
thats it.
I started my political life as a Barry Goldwater conservative and still think it was a good choice. Most only remember the first part of his remark at the 1964 Republican convention, "Let me remind you, extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" but forget or are ignorant of the second part of his comment: "And let me further remind you that moderation in the cause of justice is no virture".
His and my Republican party disappeared decades ago. I'm an independent now and when people will only feel comfortable if I somehow label myself, I tell them I'm an ecologically oriented libertarian and member of the Radical Center.
Maybe the Libertarian Party or libertarian wing of the Republican party should be in charge. It was no accident that Ron Paul raised so much money (more than any other candidate from servicemembers stationed in Iraq) and not an accident that Libertarian candidate Bob Barr might be the difference between victory and defeat for the McCain/Palin ticket.
By the way, is Palin as fit for the Vice Presidency as Harriet Meyers was for the Supreme Court? Just a thought.
I like this discussion and think it's about time. This is a great article.
What I would like to see for the Republican Party is an acceptance of the duty of gvt. to provide core services, up to and including the universal health care and college tuition that is a given to our Western allies. With smart fiscal management and a tax increase on the wealthy, this could happen.
I would like to see a real appreciation of the dignity of work and an understanding that to suppress the minimum wage for 10 years, not even keeping up with inflation, is a spirituall
Another main problem for the Republicans is the fundamentalist movement. The Religious Right should have their own party. I do not think that a party of rational grown-ups should have to kowtow to this radical group. It would hurt, but better to let them go their own way. Otherwise, it's just an impossible party for the rest of us. The choice of Sarah Palin throws this in stark relief. How else to explain this irrational choice?
I am neither Democrat nor Republican but I cannot even think about voting Republican until the party regains the respect of workers and rediscovers its centrist roots.
The Republican party is the party of wealth, it is by its nature a minority party. It wins elections by using that wealth to recruit a wider base, and right now that base is the religious right. They can't do without this massive voting block until they can find another one.
I really appreciated this thought-provoking article.
Eisenhower was, in my recollection, a competent conservative. And I believe that a center-right party based on competent conservatism would resonate well today.
A hallmark of competent conservatism would be to avoid extremist positions, for example, extreme militarism. Eisenhower's warning to guard against excess influence by the "military-
What's the rush? We haven't even cleaned up their mess yet. Let them stew for a decade or two, they've had power most of the time anyway.
This sounds like the Republican Party should be more like Ron Paul mixed with John McCain of 2000. It seems the Libertarian Party could be the new Republicans, if only they could find a way to actually care more about people that live in urban environments, non-whites, and the poor. As an Obama supporter, I think Ron Paul comes closest to reinvigorating the Republican Party -- plus, he was the only one to stand up to all the Republican talking heads during the primary debates over war and finances. That's why he's such a beloved figure among the young and those who are tired of the current Republican Party. Although he and Barack Obama are probably diametrically oppossed on most every issue -- I have a great deal of respect for Ron Paul and see him as the kind of Republican this very insightful author is refering to. Then again... what do I know? ;-)
I think if elections were publicly financed individual votes would count more. Corporate contributions should be illegal. I think those two measures would encourage the reform or abolition of the electoral college which presently serves the personal political interests of it's delegates and which is also susceptible to special interest influence more than it represents the popular vote. Both parties should also simplify the rules by which delegates are selected and how they vote ( especially the Dems) , if the college system is to be retained.
Churches (as in parent religions) should be taxed and legislation needs to be passed to restrict their interference in the secular political process.
I think these steps would result in a more democratic system ( the ideal democracy will never be realized of course) .
But it's up to the GOP, it's officials and public supporters to reform and re-form themselves. and the the present GOP and it's activist ranks and all the 'Reaganites's don't deserve any 'help'. Not very democratic of me I know, but screw-the lot of them. .
I don't think the religious right will allow this to happen. Perhaps it will splinter. One party whose focus is on smaller government including the rights of the individual
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