In a recent post, former Reagan aide Bruce Bartlett has correctly noted the sad position of the Republican party these days and gives a somewhat good reason for why he is “anti-Republican.”
He notes that in the eighties, the grown-ups in the Democratic Party created the Democratic Leadership Council to try to steer the party back to the center. Bartlett then notes that there is no such counterpart in the GOP and that has allowed talk show hosts like Glenn Beck to run the party and drive away moderates and independents.
Well, he is partially correct. Talk show hosts have in some way become de facto leaders in the GOP, but unbeknownst to Mr. Bartlett there are grown-ups still in the GOP who are trying to steer the party towards the center. There are several organizations that are dedicated to this task, but they have little name recognition and are ignored by the mainstream media as well as the blogosphere.
Mr. Bartlett might want to check out the Republican Leadership Council. It’s not as well known as its Democratic counterpart, but it is trying to get the GOP to welcome centrists again. Led by former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and former Senator John Danforth, this group is willing to speak up and has done a good job of getting people involved at the state and national level.
He might also want to look at Republicans for Environmental Protection, a grassroots organization that is trying to preserve the environmental heritage of the GOP. They work hard at getting “green” Republicans elected to office and are not afraid to call out those who do not respect the environment.
Let’s not forget the Log Cabin Republicans, the national association of gay and lesbian Republicans who are working towards the full inclusion in the party and the nation of gay and lesbian Americans. The organization is always looking for straight allies to work with us.
Mr. Bartlett, I think all of these organizations would be pleased to have you join them in trying to make the GOP a sane political party again.
It is easy to complain about the current state of the GOP. I’ve done it myself. But when there are groups out there working hard, like the RLC, Republicans for Environmental Protection and Log Cabin Republicans, they need our help and support now more than ever.
Mr. Bartlett you don’t have to call yourself a Republican, but you should try to help the adults that are working for change.
16 responses so far
1 rbottoms // Aug 31, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I think you have a whole lot of despair coming.
So you all in 2010.
2 tim.or.tom // Aug 31, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Conservatives aren’t interested in liberals posing as conservatives telling us what to do. Sorry. Your “New Majority” would be more aptly named “permanent minority” because that’s what you always will be and that’s what the GOP always would be if they followed your advice. The polls make it rather clear that your positions are not what the GOP should be doing.
3 Contrarian_Libertarian // Aug 31, 2009 at 6:03 pm
If Bruce Bartlett is genuinely counting on the John Danforths and CT Whitmans of the world to “fix” the Republican Party, then he’s in for a rude awakening.
The party does NOT need to “move to the center”. Rather, it needs to start governing the way it talks on the campaign trail. If it doesn’t, then conservatives are going to leave the party in droves…at which time the GOP will go the way of the Whigs.
I’ve got no problem with having people like CT Whitman in the party. But she has to realize that she is outside the mainstream of the party’s prevailing views. Either she’s comfortable with that or she’s not. But she’s not going to be able to change the prevailing views…..which are hardly “extremist” in nature.
I took Bruce to task in his post for conflating “birthers” with people who are ideologically conservative. That’s a fallacy — and beneath Bruce Bartlett. To say that we have a choice between Christie Whitman and Michelle Bachman is to present a glaring false choice.
4 EscapeVelocity // Aug 31, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Is there no room in the Party for Michelle Bachmann?
5 rbottoms // Aug 31, 2009 at 8:18 pm
By room, do you mean the padded variety?
6 rbottoms // Aug 31, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Would someone on this site let me know how I am to interpret this:
Governor Perry of Texas did mention it as a possible consequence of federal government intrusion into his state’s affairs. So are the teabaggers loons or average citizens asking a politician to act in a way that he himself offered as an option?
7 balconesfault // Aug 31, 2009 at 8:51 pm
To all who argue that the way for the GOP to win is to move from the center, rather than towards it …
Would George W. Bush have won in 2000 had he not pledged a “humble” foreign policy, had he not called for regulation of CO2 as a pollutant, had he not called for our intelligence services to quit “profiling” Arab-American citizens for extra surveillance?
Would he have won re-election in 2004 had he not passed the Medicare Drug Benefit and No Child Left Behind?
8 EscapeVelocity // Aug 31, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I think that Conservatives should understand that the socialist revolution will not stop, and give up.
The new identity groups that pop up to persue special priveleges and their piece of the state handouts will be interesting.
Men – Misandry is running wild!
Whites – The villification of light skinned folk and discrimination against them must stop. End the bigotry.
European Ethnicities
Heterosexuals
Christians – Christianophobia is running wild!
Western Rednecks – We are people too, our culture should be respected and celebrated in the diversity circle.
The National Association for the Advancement of Unborn People
What a hoot!
Then we can all demand that the government promote our interests over other groups interests. And all this hate filled Conservative Bourgousie False Consciousness will be relegated to the dust bin of history.
9 rbottoms // Aug 31, 2009 at 11:45 pm
We won in 2008 and we’ll win again in 2010 if Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, and Michael Steele clones are the best you’ve got.
10 EscapeVelocity // Sep 1, 2009 at 12:10 am
We can always run the Farthest Left Centrist Republican Senator from Arizona again.
You won alright.
11 brutus1791 // Sep 1, 2009 at 9:05 am
Bruce Bartlett has publicly expressed his desire to see the Republican Party go down in flames. What is too bad, is that I loved his book Wrong on Race… but he seems to have reached a point where he feels like the party left him, and understandably so. Instead of righting the ship (figuratively, as he OBVIOUSLY does not want it ‘righted’ ideologically
he has chosen to hammer the GOP with broad overgeneralizations and he has seriously entertained the notion of liberal-tarians. At this point, holding onto him because he is a former Reaganite is not helping, but hurting our ability to rebuild our party and the conservative movement. “Some men just want to see the world burn” and Mr. Bartlett has stated that he wishes to watch the Republican Party and the Conservative movement burn.
If he wants out, the door is open. If he wants to demonstrate an ability to criticize both sides and help with more constructive criticism for our (Republican/conservatives here, as many readers seem to not be) movement then I would absolutely appreciate his erudition as an economist and DC insider. But if he continues with his current tactics, he deserves our heart-felt goodbyes, we cannot let him act as a wolf in sheep’s clothing and slaughter us from within our own ranks like this, and keep pretending to be “Building a Majority that can Win Again”…
12 sinz54 // Sep 1, 2009 at 12:56 pm
contrarian_libertarian:
The 2004 Republican Party platform called for extending Fourteenth Amendment protections to fetuses. Is that within the mainstream?
13 ProfNickD // Sep 1, 2009 at 1:23 pm
The GOP tried the route of moderation in 2008 — the result is in the White House right now.
14 VCF // Sep 1, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I’d despair. The GOP has reduced itself to middle-aged Christian white folks party in the Confederacy and Mormon corridor. When the GOP loses to a black man in Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana, that should tell you just how horrible the GOP brand is right now. Considering that Bush passed NCLB and Medicare Part D and the Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping, you should not be surprised that moderates and independents have no idea what conservatism means anymore.
Keep going for ideological purity and soon you’ll be permanently at 35-40 Senators and an 80 seat deficit in the House.
15 rbottoms // Sep 1, 2009 at 5:18 pm
The GOP race towards oblivion continues.
16 Cforchange // Sep 2, 2009 at 1:47 pm
CT Whitman’s absence from the top ticket has been a huge GOP mistake. Hilliary would have had zero traction with this competitor. But then again Whitman is so brilliant she probably knows all to well that competance and smarts don’t get you anywhere in the GOP these days.
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