Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake has been a consistent, though mostly ignored, truly conservative voice in Congress. While I disagree with him on many issues, he presents his case thoughtfully without attacking the motives of his opponents. He has published an essay in the Arizona Republic reflecting upon the voters' overwhelming rejection of Republican neo-conservative ideology. This is my reply to him.
Congressman Flake:
Your essay in the Sunday Republic was a good reflection on the lessons of this election cycle. Your analysis of Republican Party failings was mostly spot on, and this liberal Democrat agrees with most of what you said. Your party gave us soaring deficits while claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility; it gave us thousands of budget earmarks handed out by a mean, vindictive Congressional leadership to reward personal loyalty while railing against tax-and-spend liberals. You strayed off on "traditional values" at one point, by which I take you to mean support for the nuclear family. This issue, as much as any other, has served as a wedge issue for your party, but now it's a wedge that has broken off a substantial part of America's youth and sent them over to the Democrats. Contrast Barack Obama's family with that of the Republican nominee. No further description is necessary.
As you said perfectly, Republicans have "relied upon the redistricting process to choose your constituents." You didn't say, but it is true, that this misuse of redistricting has subverted the Constitution, perverted the political process, and polarized our nation to a potentially crippling degree. You also didn't mention the nasty, negative personal attacks that have come to epitomize your party's political style. The loss by Democratic challenger Bob Lord (who ran a totally negative campaign) to Republican John Shadegg (whose campaign was positive) shows that people are tired of that style.
If the last eight years have taught us anything, it's that government does indeed have a place - a strong regulatory place - in a huge, complex economy such as ours. Can financial markets correct themselves? Perhaps, but not in a timeframe that is acceptable to any thinking American, and not without leaving an unacceptable wake of economic destruction. Can an economy the size of ours work without strong, effective regulation? No more than a football game can work without rules - and referees to enforce them.
I hope that your party can accomplish the rebuilding that you urge. If, as it is in danger of doing, it retracts into a party of paranoia, discrimination and hatred, even if it never regains power, America will suffer.
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Comments: 14
I share your hope for the Republican Party. Without a rebuilding under a more moderate umbrella the forces of darkness represented and supported by the neo-cons will make enlightened governing more difficult in the future. Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Tom Delay, Alberto Gonzales, Richard Scaif are the kind of people that have driven the GOP (and nearly the USA) over a cliff.
I have not read the writings to which you refer but your response sounds like an excellent response!
Right now there are more Republicans writing on ways to reinvent the Republican party that Carter has little red pills! The truth is, the Republicans did not loose this because of there not being sufficiently conservative, the lost it by swinging too far into the extremes of right wing ideology.
I, like you, would hope for a return to the party of Nelson Rockefeller and play the important role of being the watchdogs of fiscal integrity. The Christian right extremes have driven the agenda for the Republican party for many years now and it is impossible for persons who want to be Republicans but don't want to overturn Roe V Wade, to be a significant part of teh party. It's a one way party and is shaped by the Christian right trying to legislate how everyone else should live.
This nation has been centrist for as long as I can remember and that would be the better part of seventy years. The people have seldom accepted as president, a persons they perceived to be too radical or removed from the main stream.
McCain, in addition to having the Bush administration and economy against him, solidified his loss when he went with an unknown Sarah Palin, a horrible extreme social conservative, as his vice presidential candidate. I've discovered several known Republicans who I learn from them that they ahd actually voted for Obama. In each case, Sarah Palin sealed the deal!
There are things about the Republican party that most people like but they don't want the extremes of either direction. Obama, despite any past voting record or early comments, came across as near the mainstream of American politics, closer than did the McCain team.
I have to ask Republicans and others who rail against regulation, "Is being regulated by a societal law worse than being regulated to economic ruin by a broken market?" Regulation is inherent in being human and in being a society. Self-regulation is written in our DNA. DNA tells our body when and where to do certain things, such as when to start hormones flowing that begin puberty. On a societal and cultural level, self-regulation means making decisions when and how to do or encourage something that benefits the society and when to stop or lessen doing something that is harming it. Sometimes this can be accomplished over time by education without making a law, but not always. Sometimes a law should be left behind because it no longer works, never worked or no longer applies to the society.
Regulation is often needed when something new, such as a new technology or new way of doing something, has been introduced into a culture because we can't always foresee all the repercussions of what we are doing. For instance, I grew up and majored in chemistry in college when a popular slogan was "Better living through chemistry." And the marvels of chemistry did bring wonderful inventions to humans. But chemical knowledge and advances also brought pollution and devastation to the environment. When I re-entered the work force after being out a few years for my family, I went to work as an environmental manager working to clean up, mitigate, and prevent pollution. For a culture and the individuals with in it to thrive, it has to make adjustments to its individual (or cultural) behavior when it hurts or probably will hurt individuals or society.
James C pretty well sums up my assessment of the the current Republican predicament. They have to figure out a way to mitigate the growing influence of the Religious Right on the party apparatus, while not alienating those people and driving them away from the party, because they need their votes! Reagan did it very successfully, bowing obsequiously to them, and then virtually ignoring them once he was elected except for some pious proclamations that cost him nothing.
AS long as they pander to the religious fanatics, the moderates, undecideds and even a sizeable bunch of conservatives will be driven away. Ironically, they are victims of their own patented strategy of introducing "wedge issues" to divide and demoralize. They have done it to the Democrats for years...and now they are victims of the mother of all wedge issues!
Thanks for bringing me up to date in the 21st Century!