American Politics Journal -- Today's Moderate Republicans: Tomorrow's Democrats

American Politics Journal

Today's Moderate Republicans: Tomorrow's Democrats
By Mike Hersh

Jan. 25, 2001 (Political Sanity/APJP) -- Many Republicans are greedy, closed-minded, and hard-hearted. This is true for the top Republican "misleaders." That's why James Jeffords quit.

However, there may be more Jeffordses out there, because many if not most Republicans oppose extreme right-wing policies.

We should try to win them over to our side -- or at least away from the right wing.

I believe that with a little coaxing, moderate Republicans may leave their party. Many are Republicans because their parents were, and didn't think too much more about it; others don't pay much attention to politics, so they probably don't know how rabid their "misleaders" actually are.

What would make them think and learn enough to switch?

When they see a right-winger yelling at a Democrat (and vice-versa), they may think "I am not one of THOSE Republicans, but I'm no Democrat either!"

There are times when it seems Republicans are like Patty Hearst in her SLA days, brainwashed by a cult. But the media tells us this cult is legitimate. Even some Democrats more or less accept the Republicans' lies. This makes it hard for moderate Republicans to figure out what's going on. It's up to us to help them understand politics better. That will take a lot of patience on our part.

It can take a long time for people to quit their party. Southern whites remained loyal Democrats for 100 years after the Civil War, even though the Republicans better represented their right wing views.

If we brand all Republicans as money hungry, mean and heartless, that won't help them overcome their reluctance. If a Republican is secretly ashamed of what her party is doing, it may be possible to get her to switch. It's certainly worth it to try.

We have to help sane Republicans make the transition away from the GOP as easily as possible. Perhaps they could be persuaded to become independent, as Jeffords did, and stop supporting the GOP. Even that would be a major victory!

I suggest providing open-minded Republicans with books and articles by former GOP members. Two such people by Michael Lind and Kevin Phillips.

In Up From Conservatism, Lind explains why the "right is wrong for America." Even Republicans have to admit Lind is essentially correct. This makes his book a powerful tool to provide moderate Republicans with solid reason to leave their party and join us against the extreme right. Here is an excerpt from one hostile review of that book:

The reason to read Lind is that he is … one of the millions of young, well-educated, and well-off people who joined the GOP in the 1980s to build a new mainstream conservatism, only to see the party taken over by extremists in the 1990s. Their inclusionist [sic] dreams were replaced by ... racism, contempt for the poor, and immigrant-bashing.... [Republican positions such as] forcing a woman to bear the child of a rapist, denying schooling to the children of illegal immigrants, teaching creationism, arming 'the people' with assault weapons against an evil federal government, and indulging bizarre conspiracy theories ... strike middle-of-the-road Americans as simply too crazy....[With regard to the Republicans'] Contract With America, Lind believes its anti-environment, antipoor, and procorporate stances (with corporate lobbyists actually writing antiregulation bills) were...repugnant and extreme. Indeed, polls...support Lind's thesis.
-- Bruce NussBaum, BusinessWeek Online, September, 1996 (http://www.businessweek.com/1996/36/b349128.htm)

Here's another review of Lind's book:

Lind, a former protégé of William F. Buckley ... details the workings of the American right as witnessed from the inside, and rails against what he describes as the right wing's politics of cynicism and propaganda.... Lind decries the right's ... misleading information about issues such as taxes, welfare, family values, and affirmative action, and criticizes conservative leaders for starting a divisive 'culture war' which has served to alienate and distract a large number of Americans.

You can see this review and buy Up From Conservatism from Baker Books (http://www.bakerbooks.net/pick/politics.html).

In "His Fraudulency the Second?", published last year in The American Prospect, former Nixon advisor Kevin Phillips exposed the illegitimacy of George W. Bush. He lists reasons moderate, open-minded Republicans should have grave doubts Bush:

If there were but one or two dubious elements to Bush's ascension, a question like this would be churlish. But the dubious elements of Bush's victory are so numerous that questions regarding his legitimacy are appropriate -- even urgent.

Phillips cites several reasons Bush is not legitimate:

[O]nly three times previously in U.S. history has a president been elected without a plurality or better of the popular vote -- and the lack of a popular plurality today matters even more than it did the last time it happened....

[T]he questionable means by which Bush the younger 'won' Florida's electoral votes....

The excesses of the Republican Party on behalf of such an average or mediocre talent may seem odd. But in the case of Bush the younger, the explanation is at once simple and disturbing....

[This Bush] restoration poses a critical danger to democracy itself [because it is] an illegitimacy with worrisome implications [and] a sign of political decay....

The Democratic nominee Al Gore won the popular vote by more than 300,000 [we now know more than 500,000] votes and, Florida aside, had 267 electoral votes, just three short of victory.

Only by holding Florida for Bush -- through refusal to pursue irregularities or to count uncounted ballots -- could the Republicans secure for their nominee the electoral votes needed for a hairbreadth victory....

[T]he governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, was the brother of the GOP presidential nominee; and the Republican secretary of state, who certified the dubious count, was Bush's campaign co-chair....

At least three factors ... suggest that more Florida voters intended to vote for Gore. First, the infamous 'butterfly' ballots.

[Second, the] irregularities in the processing of absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin Counties.

And worst of all... the black vote was suppressed.... In Duval County alone, the suppression of black voting [and] refusal to count 9 percent of the votes may have cost Gore 2,000 to 4,000 votes.

Republicans can reject comments from die-hard Al Gore loving Democrats like us, but how can they argue against Lind and Phillips, one a disciple of William F. Buckley, the other a former Nixon advisor?

Don't give up on moderate Republicans. They may be Democrats tomorrow!

Mike Hersh is the moderator of the Political Sanity newsgroup. Find out more at http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/political_sanity

ISSN No. 1523-1690