Specter’s departure stirs internal party debate
After the defection of Senator Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party, the undeniable truth is that the Republican Party is at its lowest point in terms of its national popularity. In the aftermath of the historic 2008 elections, the Grand Old Party is searching for its soul. Is the GOP still the party of Ronald Reagan or is it looking to become something else?
By all accounts, the Republican Party is becoming more of a regional party, mainly based in the South. The Democrats have dominated the Northeast and with the historic election of Barack Obama, the Democrats have made inroads into the Midwest.
Whether the Republican Party needs to be more inclusive or should return to its conservative roots is a debate that Republicans are having right now. With President Obama’s ambitious plans, from health care to the economy, Republicans should be mindful that its return to prominence will ultimately depend on the viability of the solutions that they market to the American public. If not universal health care, then what? How can we truly achieve energy independence from countries like Saudia Arabia? What about the high school dropout rates ailing our schools?
My hope is that the party, as it struggles to find its identity, will begin uniting over a common purpose. Right now, the party remains divided – and there is a lot of public angst between prominent Republican officials, from Former Speaker Newt Gingrich to GOP Chairman Michael Steele.
The problem is that the leadership of the Republican Party wants to court the vote of the conservatives, the religious lobby and the moderates, but after 15 years of words not syncing up with actions many Republicans are jumping ship to either the Democrats or third parties (Libertarian, Constitutional, etc.) This has caused an internal conflict between Party leadership and lay people. Nowhere was this more evident than the Nevada GOP convention last year. The Party leadership at the convention first delayed voting and then shut down the convention for no other reason than that they supported McCain and a majority of the people attending supported Ron Paul.
The answer is that the Party will continue to become marginalized and either new conservative leadership will arise (we’re talking about the sentiments of half the country needing to be represented here) or there will be a massive exodus to - my guess - the Constitution party.
Right now, I view the GOP as a self-serving entity first and a representative of conservatism second. I wouldn’t consider myself to be jumping ship on the GOP though. Regardless of whether they are ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ is irrelevant (to me); I would ally myself with the party so long as they embody conservative values.
But there do seem to be a notable few turncoats (I’m referencing those crossing to the Democratic Party) acting with the interest of holding office as their sole motivation.
David G although Im a democrat I agree with your assessment that Mr Arlen’s move was strictly a political one. I like this group because I can learn about the conservative movement and in a friendly forum. Im not one to come to a group unless you are allowed to speak your mind and agree to disagree. I just want to say that the people on this forum have kept me well informed of the changes that those on the right want to make and I want to thank Stephen for starting it. I have no problem with conservatives in general I just dont care for the leftys or the rights who go to the extreme.
steven,
i just can’t see how this is a terribly bad thing. the move of a senator across the aisle in a prosperous time to avoid being voted down by his constituency really doesn’t bother me one bit. i mean, those aren’t the kind of people we want on board anyways, in my opinion.
but this really brings to the fore some meta-issues facing the party:
1) what are we going to rally around as a party?? it certainly doesn’t seem to be fiscal conservatism as we have michigan republicans wholeheartedly approving all the auto-market bailouts and guys like ron paul representing the other side of the spectrum. i think this should be the natural starting point for conservatives, but it seems like we’ve got a lot of work to do on this issue.
2) what is it that we have to offer people? i mean, people are voting in droves for democrats because they feel like their future is better off with them. how do we win the popular opinion that we (as a party) are good for the country and that our values are worth voting for?
these are a couple of the huge issues i see that need to be addressed if we are to move forward…
trev…I’ve been asking myself the same question. How does this party re-build itself? How do we appeal to the right-leaning moderates in this country, while also not alienating the more conservative folks at the same time. Forget the people on the far right, we need to jettison them or we’ll never be a factor. What are people’s thoughts about focusing on personal responsibility and accountability? Understanding that we are primarily responsible for the health & financial well-being of ourselves & our families…not our govt, not our teachers, not our neighbors. The govt is there to be a safety net for those who genuinely cannot physically or mentally provide for themselves. The govt isn’t meant to be a cushion to soften someone’s fall. Failure is supposed to hurt…that’s the incentive to do all that is possible to avoid failing again. Once we have a govt that tells us it’s not our fault, it’s someone else’s, and provides that cushion…you may not work as hard to make sure you succeed the next time around. I feel if everyone would just take personal accountability for themselves and those under their control (like our children), we wouldn’t need to have the debates to try and justify the amount of govt spending and interference in our lives that we are going to face in the future.
I’m new to this site, so bear with me. I have some catching up to do. The party as it currently operates is contolled by the hard-core conservatives. I agree that it has lost its way, as can be evidenced by a lot of the decisions that were made by the Bush administration, as well as the Republican legislatures since the Clinton era. If we are to have a voice in politics going forward, we need to appeal to a broader group…hence my reference to the moderates. So the question is what is that message? I feel that the sense of personal responsibility and accountability is missing from both parties right now. You mention integrity…that seems to be missing from all of our elected officials right now. Steve has opened the door to have a forum to discuss. Let’s work up a value statement and see if we can get some buyin. Remember, we had a great foundation coming out of the Reagan era and lost our way sometime after the Contract with America. There are lots of hardworking, decent Americans out there that supported Obama, but are now seeing that he is not the moderate voice of reason he claimed to be. We have an opportunity to gain the support of those folks, but we need bring them back over. I have a very young daughter…I want her to live in an America she can be proud of for her entire life. Let’s do this!
if we’re going to be the “new republicans” one of the first things we need to agree upon is the things that we will no longer divide over and separate on. When “moderate conservatives” start attacking “far-right conservatives” and swearing off one another as the problem with the party, we’re not going to get anywhere.
the problem we face is one of trying to “unify” the party, not chop off one of our arms. the fact is the people on the “far right” aren’t going anywhere. and frankly, neither are the moderates. people want dogmatism about serious issues, not wishy-washy vote courting…. and that’s what we’ve been guilty of as a party. we need to take a stand on these issues we mostly agree on. granted there will be people in the party who (for one reason or another) don’t necessarily hold to these “core values” but we should be able to extend and deepen the base with this “core.”
since many have beat around this bush, i’ll go ahead and suggest a few possible “core values” which we may all be able to unite upon. these are totally free and open to discussion:
1. fiscal restraint and conservatism. (this does not just mean lower taxes, but also smaller government for real, not the kind we’ve seen the past decade.)
2. integrity in our politicians. (this one should speak for itself. no more mcreedys, no more “barak the magic negro”, no more disrespect for others.
3. no more polemics as mainline party policy. this may mean lessening our dependence on figures like limbaugh and beck in order to be honest with ourselves again about what’s actually going on in the world. we have to face facts: the fact is that democrats do sometimes get things right.
feel free to add/critique this list.
The last great conservative President we had was Ronald Reagan. He won the election not because he had the backing of the conservatives, but because he also appealed to moderates. That included registered democrats. Obama won because he appealed to moderates in the republican party. Your post sums up what is wrong w/ this party and why it is stalled. If the objective is idiology, then this will be a long and painful road. If the objective is to regain power and try to move the country toward more conservative values, then you have to start be not alienating those constituents that are key to winning national elections. People won’t like to hear this, but in my opinion, the reason we lost a lot of our support was because of the insistance on pushing the pro-life agenda. I am morally against abortion. I feel it is wrong. But a lot of people in this country feel it is a necessary evil. If we insist on a party plank that seeks to eliminate it completely, we’ll never get the backing we need to reclaim power. You’ll end up w/ a minority of “pure conservatives” that have no power. If you are comfortable with that, I wish you luck. I am a realist, and believe this party is doomed to irrelevancy if we insist on standing on principle instead of taking up a battle we can actually win.
I did see the posts by yourself & trev hit after my recent reply. I fully understand where you are both coming from, and I don’t think we are that far apart. The point on establishing the principles first is valid. I feel that those principles need to be designed for and (more importantly) marketed to a broader group of people. I don’t want to dilute our values simply to court votes, but at the same time, we can’t be so narrowly focused that we are unable gain the critical mass to counter the momentum that the democratic party has been gaining. And to trev’s point about my comment regarding the far right, that is a fair point. My concern is that the far right is trying to force out those who don’t share their idiological views. We need to have that “big tent” concept that allows for divergent views, but we must all agree on what our non-negotiable values are. That being said…I need to spend some time digesting both your posts, as there is a lot of good info/opinions in there. I’ll be back with some follow-on thoughts. Thanks for engaging in this dialogue…was about to give up on this site! Rgds.
Leave a comment!
Latest Video
Recent Events
View more photos >
Connect On
Subscribe
© 2009 The New Republicans. All rights reserved. By using this site, you accept our Terms of Use.