Can the GOP Change? Should It?
By Dennis Sanders | Related entries in General PoliticsThere is an old saw that Democrats and the mainstream media hold on to: that is, that the GOP has expelled its moderates and will never, ever change. Some believe that moderates should just become Democrats.
In reality, while it is very, very true that the GOP’s moderates are fewer in number than they were in the days when moderate and liberal Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller and Jacob Javits were in power (and even fewer after last Tuesday), moderates still exist and still are getting elected. Arnold Schwarzenegger was just re-elected this past Tuesday in ultra-blue California. The far right does control the party, but moderates, to paraphase Monty Python, aren’t dead yet.
I’m not trying to paint a rosy picutre, just one that isn’t as bleak as some point it out to be.
I sometimes think that Democrats want to have a Republican party that is as far to the right as it can be. They think that if the party is sooooo reactionary, people won’t want to elect them and the Democrats will remain in power in a permanent majority much like the Social Democratic parties in Scandanavia.
The reality, is that the GOP has veered right for decades and people still elected Republicans who can be very reactionary. The thing is, in America, the electorate is more volitile than it is in places like Sweden and grows impatient when the party in power behaves badly. If the Dems don’t satisfy the public, they will go for the other viable option even if it is radical. If you want an example, see the elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004.
We need to have two parties that reach towards the center, not just one. We need to have both a center-left party and a center-right party. We need to do that so that when one party loses, we know that there won’t be people foisting a radical agenda on the public.
And that’s why I remain in this party. Yeah, we needed to be spanked on Tuesday and thankfully we were. This might make the party reach out towards the center and kick Karl Rove’s “divide and govern” strategy to curb. I want to be a voice for change.
I’m thankful that Dems decided to listen to the center, but I’m not satisfied with only one party doing that. We need to get rid of the radicalism on both sides of the isle and get people who are interested in acutally governing the nation than in push their ideological agendas on people.
Republicans can change just as the Democrats have done. Whether they decide to that in the coming days and months, remains to be seen.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 10th, 2006 and is filed under General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 10th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Right on.
November 10th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
To be a little more precise, the number of moderate and liberal Republicans didn’t change with this election. We’re all still here this morning.
What changed was the number of moderate and liberal Republicans holding national office. That may have some impact on the Republican agenda in Congress. But it won’t necessarily impact our efforts to take our party back from the theocons. It will be tedious grunt work, admitted — but it needs to be done.