FAR-RIGHT FRINGE DESTROYING GOP

The significance of the defection of Sen. Specter

Most conservatives on TV said “good riddance” to Arlen Specter, citing his tendencies to side with Democrats. Sean Hannity called him “Benedict Arlen”; thanks, Captain Obvious. I’m appalled at the nonchalant manner in which this departure by a senior GOP Senator has been approached by many in the Republican Party. This is huge. Believe that.
Specter’s departure, mainly for self-serving reasons should be taken seriously for several reasons. Number one, it should scare all Republicans that we are now one seat away from the Democrats having a filibuster-proof majority, especially since it appears as though Al Franken will be seated. Secondly, major conservative groups have been funneling money into Specter’s Primary opponent, Pat Toomey, in an attempt to usurp the Senator’s seat in the next election; by doing this, not only did they cost us immediate damage in the short term, but also ensured that Toomey won’t be elected. Third and most importantly, the far right-wing of the GOP drove him away. This trend of alienating moderate Republicans is disturbing and extremely counter-productive. Why many in the far-right don’t understand this is beyond comprehension. Through their actions, they have ceded another Senate seat. They gave it away, which can only lead one to conclude that the fringe elements of the GOP don’t actually care about winning seats in Congress or doing things that make sense. This is exactly what we saw in the summer of 2008, when prominent right-wingers were absolutely opposed to John McCain’s selection as the GOP’s presidential candidate, causing McCain to go against his gut instinct, which was to choose a fellow moderate as the VP. Instead, we got Sarah Palin and got our butts kicked. But at least Rush was happy, right? That's important, right? Wrong. This myth of “shoring up the base” cost the GOP the 2008 Presidential election. As I have said many times, “the base” will always vote Republican; Moderates and independents won’t. Hence our loss in November and failure to win any swing-states; where the moderate, independent vote is so critical. The truth is that words and actions of “the base” scare moderates and independents away; they don’t want to be associated with that behavior. There is not anything more polarizing and unattractive to the moderate voter than Sarah Palin egging on a raucous crowd of 20,000 in the South about how much of a pinko-commie, America-hating, Muslim-lover Barack Obama is. I cannot believe the leadership of this party actually thought that was a good idea. I am also shocked that some continued to believe McCain had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. I will always maintain that most moderates did not want to vote for Obama, but they were forced to by the actions of the out of control, hate-spewing, extremely partisan Republican Party.
Specter probably saw the writing on the wall shortly after the stimulus vote, apparently, sparking the switch. I would have preferred that Specter switched to Independent, much like Joe Lieberman. However, campaign financing becomes difficult at that juncture. It makes one wonder what kind of “deal with the devil” Specter agreed to. Regardless, I doubt Specter wanted this, but he was forced into it by the GOP fringe that has done so much to damage to the likelihood of any Republican gain in Washington in the near-term.
The hard-right effort (pandering to “the base”) in the Republican Party is and will remain the problem; and IS the reason we can’t and won’t make any significant gain in 2010 or beyond. Unfortunately, most of these people are too arrogant to realize or even admit to this. It is the unsaid reality of the current state of the Republican Party.
Conservative commentators love to claim that this is a “center-right” Nation. Well, if that is so, then isn’t Arlen Specter exactly the type of politician that the GOP needs? The same goes for John McCain. What the far-right doesn’t realize (or maybe they do) is that their actions are totally counterproductive to the interest of the Party. If this is a center-right country, as Conservative voices love to claim, then center-right politicians are exactly what we need, right? Are they not the type of individuals we want to run for office? This is simple logic, but when center-right candidates or sitting Congressmen act like moderates, they get destroyed by prominent Conservative voices.
Time and again, we see the topic of conversation brought up: Is it time for some soul-searching for Republicans? Do Republicans need to “find their way”? What happened to the GOP? The three major Cable news networks, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC have hosted this conversation on more than one occasion, if not daily. The right-wing fringe continues to maintain that Republicans need to “return to their conservative roots” or “act like conservatives”, or my favorite: “Republicans again need become the Party of Reagan”. This false view needs to be exposed and discussed at length.
Ronald Reagan wasn’t the prolific Conservative that Sean Hannity likes to claim. Reagan talked a good game, made a lot of promises, but followed through with few of them. Sorry to insult the Messiah of the GOP, but this view simply isn’t true. The truth is that the Federal Government grew almost 10% during Reagan’s presidency. The deficit expanded during Reagan’s tenure, mainly due to tax cuts and Cold War-related military spending. A common edict borne of Reagan’s economic policy was simply that “deficits don’t matter”. Despite pledges to lower taxes, after his initial tax cuts, he raised them and imposed new taxes four times by 1984 (most notably a gasoline tax and closing corporate loopholes). There were several other Reagan decisions on other top conservative issues that would cause him to be destroyed by the right-wing fringe today, most notably: granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants (something conservative commentators routinely forget to mention), never seriously followed-up on promises to outlaw abortion, ensured the survival and perpetuation of Social Security, negotiated with the Soviet Union on arms control against protest from hard-line conservatives, failed to abolish the Departments of Energy and Education as promised, but instead created the one of the largest bureaucracies in the federal government, the Department of Veterans affairs. By 1984, the initiative to significantly diminish the federal budget was, to quote David Stockman, Reagan’s first budget director, “an institutionalized fantasy.” In public speeches, Reagan still promised to get government out of the way of the people, but the reality was that the federal government pretty much stayed the same and in fact, expanded. Reagan’s presidency will be remembered as perpetuating the “umbrella party” edict that is so often associated with 1980s-era Republicans: he was able to bring together supply-side economists, the religious right, libertarians, defense and foreign policy hawks, Wall Street, Democratic moderates appalled by Carter’s presidency and also common, middle-class moderates. Most of the coalition that Reagan built has been lost or deeply destroyed today by the hard-line approach of many in the GOP. This insane idea that if you don’t “toe the line” on every single conservative issue, you aren’t a “real” Republican nonsense, has cost us the most important group of all: moderates. It appears as though many of the other “groups under the umbrella” have remained somewhat intact, but the moderates are gone. This sealed our fate in the 2008 election and it will again in 2010 and 2012 unless something is done.
The bottom line is that Arlen Specter’s departure shouldn’t be viewed as a relief to the Republican party, but as a major blow that will continue the downward spiral. Something must be done to fight the far-right approach. The moderates have to retake the party or we are doomed. I advocate the following:

1. Let the far-right fringe break off and make the Conservative Party mainstream. Get Conservative Party candidates on ballots. Stop voting Republican and most importantly, disassociate yourselves from the Republican Party. All those in Congress that want to switch to the newly formed New Conservative Party, be my guest.

2. Moderates: Publicly mourn the loss of Specter and work to prevent this from happening again. Be frank about how much damage the far right does to the party; Name names. Seek out moderate candidates for the GOP. Make friends and allies with conservative Dems. Give some leeway/make concessions on traditional social issues like gay marriage, abortion and church/state. Admit the Iraq War was a mistake and support its' end. Become more Federalist, advocating states' rights. Support some measures of Obama's budget. Make sincere attempts at bi-partisan legislation. Go on MSNBC and tell them you are proud to be moderate and you believe that the far-right fringe of the GOP should make their own party. Get yourself as far away from: Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Palin, DeLay, Huckabee, etc. as possible. Make them seem very crazy and NOT representative of you or your views. Congratulate them on forming a new political party, the NewCons.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Tell Mike Steele to get on-board or get lost.

Do this, and the GOP can be saved. Do it not, and we are doomed.