GOP Establishment Vs Liberty

This post is about the Republican Party, with which I’ve had a conflicted relationship for more than 45 years.

A local election in a rural district at the far northern edge of New York has reopened a decades long feud within the GOP.  For those who haven’t had time to keep up with each act of the political theater in New York’s 23d Congressional district, here’s a very brief summary.

• Several months ago The Obama Administration enticed the incumbent Republican to abandon the seat by offering him a new job: Secretary of the Army.
• Under New York law, party caucuses selected candidates to run for in a special election to fill the vacant House seat for the remainder of its two year term.  There was no primary election.
• Republican party elites picked Dede Scozzafava, a member of the State Legislature with a voting record liberal Democrats would be proud to display.
• A Conservative Republican, Doug Hoffman, mounted a third party challenge to Scozzafava.
• The 23d has been a Republican district for decades.  But splitting the Republican vote between Scozzafava and Hoffman gave the Democrats a shot at turning it.
• After Hoffman announced his candidacy various GOP luminaries weighed in.
  • Newt Gingrich supported Scozzafava, insisting  that party unity and future national elections were compromised by upstart third party challenges to Republican nominees, and that the national party should respect the decision of local party officials.
  • Sarah Palin supported Hoffman because he’s a legitimate Conservative and Scozzafava is a liberal who should be running as a Democrat.
• On Saturday Ms. Scozzafava, running third in the polls and out of money, announced her withdrawal from the race.  Several high profile Republicans praised her for being gracious and yielding to maintain party unity.  BUT…
• On Sunday an embittered Scozzafava publicly endorsed the Democrat candidate.

My own dysfunctional relationship with the GOP began when, as a teenager working for the Barry Goldwater For President Campaign in 1964, I was disillusioned by party leaders who denounced Goldwater, calling him a dangerous extremist.  But all he did was advocate the principles of liberty and self-determination that, as I had just learned in school, guided the authors of the Constitution.

Goldwater’s defeat was caused more by liberal Republicans who openly opposed him than by President Johnson and the Democrats.  Johnson’s negative campaign merely echoed the same “extremist” theme Goldwater’s Republican adversaries had used against him in the primaries.

Since the Goldwater campaign I’ve observed the same pattern repeated over and over.  Conservative Republicans win more elections than so-called “moderates,” yet the moderates always seem to gain more power and influence within the party than their election performance entitles them to.  When a genuine Conservative is nominated they fall silent, or even throw their support to the Democrat.

But when a less than solid Conservative is the Republican nominee, grass roots conservatives usually turn out with enthusiasm, manning get-out-the-vote drives and donating money.  We Conservatives have supported a long string of disappointing moderates including:

Richard Nixon:  Perhaps the most revealing insight came from then California Governor Pete Wilson who, speaking at Nixon’s funeral, expressed gratitude for the mentoring he had received from the disgraced former President.  Wilson said Nixon advised him to always campaign to the right and then govern to the left.

Gerald Ford: Grass roots Conservatives supported him Ford’s reelection campaign even though their preference, Ronald Reagan, almost won the GOP nomination.

George H.W. Bush rode Ronald Reagan’s coattails to the GOP nomination.  But in his acceptance speech he scolded Reagan by pleading for “a kinder gentler America.”  He promised no new taxes to win the election, then joined Congressional Democrats in a deal that raised taxes and trashed spending restrictions that would otherwise have been imposed on the budget.  Yet grass roots conservatives still worked for Bush’s failed reelection campaign against Ross Perot and Bill Clinton.

Bob Dole: ‘Nuff said.

George W. Bush won enthusiastic support from grass roots Conservatives even though he was “squishy” on a number of issues.  His Presidency eroded support for the Republican party and enabled the left to blame Conservatives for problems caused by big government.

John McCain did face harsh criticism from some high profile conservatives.  But he still enjoyed support from grass roots folks, especially after he selected Sarah Palin.  But then the usual GOP suspects, including some from inside the McCain campaign joined the Democrats and the media in savaging Governor Palin.  Today, McCain is an ardent supporter of Obama’s ruinous Cap-and-trade legislation that supposedly will “fight global warming” by creating an artificial energy shortage in America and enriching politically favored corporations such as General Electric.

Along the way the nation has suffered several heart-breaking disappointments because of so-called moderate Republicans.  The most recent was Obama’s massive stimulus that has turned out to be a catastrophic failure.  It would not have passed the Senate without two Republican votes, one from Arlen Specter who later, after decades of grass roots Republican support, switched parties.

The one Republican conspicuously absent from the above list is Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s lower tax, smaller government, genuinely Conservative agenda was extremely popular.  In 1984, in spite of 7.4% unemployment, Reagan won a second term in a 49 state landslide, with more electoral votes than any other President in U.S. history.  A 2008 Gallup poll found Reagan tied with John Kennedy for the title of most popular former President.

But regardless of real world election results, the political-media establishment never drops it’s formulaic doctrine that to appeal to independents, Republicans must run candidates who favor abortion, higher taxes, bigger government, and environmentalist subjugation.  Yet actual voting data demonstrates that most Independents are not closet liberals, and will vote for a Conservative with a compelling, appealing message.

Politics in America is a continuous process of evolution toward either greater liberty or greater authoritarian government control.  Republicans do not move the process toward greater liberty by nominating candidates who mirror Democrats.  Those candidates usually lose, and even when they win they usually disappoint Conservatives.

I don’t believe a third party movement can succeed.  But a movement to make the Republican party the champion of liberty can succeed.  That should be our goal