The Washington Post Thursday told Republicans they are losing
their core supporters. The same day in the Wall Street Journal,
Peggy Noonan told the GOP its voters might stay home in
November.
Mark in Alabama has the same message.
The Washington Post Thursday told Republicans they are losing their core supporters. The same day in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan told the GOP its voters might stay home in November.
Mark in Alabama has the same message.
Last week I wrote that the coming election would be a referendum on six years of collective Republican responsibility for the state of the nation, if not the world. I closed with the insouciant suggestion that congressional Republicans might want to consider impeaching Bush themselves as an act of expiation to facilitate moving out from the president’s ever lengthening, and darkening, political shadow.
Among the reactions was an e-mail from Mark, an Alabama Republican, most of which I reprint here. For those wondering why the president’s support is evaporating among once-loyal members of his own party, it is as clear a statement as I’ve read anywhere:
“As a former Republican (mostly on the fiscal side), surrounded by Republicans (friends and co-workers), I started to grow disenchanted with Bush and the Congressional leadership several years back with each new bloated spending bill that passed Congress (transportation, education, agriculture, defense, etc.). I argued that the GOP was hypocritically spending dramatically more than the previous Democratic Congress and president, despite their nonstop rhetoric about being the fiscally responsible party of small government. The Iraq War pushed me over the edge, and today I am not a Democrat, but a very passionate anti-Republican who supports anyone who can defeat their Republican opponent.
“I frequently lay out my position to my erstwhile colleagues. They tend to stick to their guns, and their basic argument is: ‘It would be worse if the Democrats where in charge’ and even better, ‘They have to spend like that to get re-elected!’ None of them can seriously defend our participation in the Iraq War.
“Now, I will tell my friends, their acquiescence empowered this Congress and this president to take these roads. Fox News, a slew of Republican commentators, and the core of the GOP base refused to speak up when this administration and this Congress took their initial missteps. If they refuse to acknowledge a problem, how in the world will they ever correct it?
“Most of my friends and colleagues look for reasons why I would be critical of this government, rather than addressing the substance of the argument. ‘Oh, you listen to too much NPR’ or ‘You work for a university, I am sure that gave you leftist tendencies.’ And they continue on their way, with their heads stuck firmly in the sand.
“Liberals and Democrats have been pointing out these problems for a long time, and nobody paid attention. Once Republicans recognize how serious their predicament is, there is at least a small potential for them to address and correct the disastrous state of our country, which I read as terribly divided, with a diminished world standing, and on the path to bankruptcy.
“Once the GOP has spent some time in the wilderness, the Democrats will eventually repeat their errors of the past, and there may be a place for the GOP at the head of the table again. For now, I fervently hope they do less damage as the minority party.”
Those are frightening words for a cocky ruling class.
Many Republican strategists – including Karl Rove, according to Newsweek’s Howard Fineman – are taking no chances. They’re taking their cues from Mark’s colleagues: that voters can be scared into voting for Republicans by being presented with the specter of a demonic Democratic majority. James Pinkerton in Newsday made much the same point Tuesday.
Is this the best way to win back Mark, or people on the verge of following him?
The Democrats tried the same scare tactic in 1994. Responding to the Contract With America, Democratic strategists urged congressional campaigns to remind voters that Republican control would put Orrin Hatch (ouch!) at the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, give Jesse Helms (horrors!) control of Foreign Relations and, worst of all, make Newt Gingrich Speaker. We know how voters reacted.
Here’s a novel suggestion: Instead of calculating ugly and divisive campaign messages – is there any other kind in Rove’s world? – or pandering to special interests with a tax cut extension that turns off the fiscally responsible, why not follow Mark’s advice, and try governing sensibly, from the middle, instead?
Or is it too late for that?
