One needs to ask, “What is the role of a political party?” Recently the tug-of-war between Karl Rove and Iowa Congressman Steve King pits the growing rift within the Republic Party between a pragmatic approach to winning elections and the oft-heard position that it is better to lose an election and maintain philosophical ideals than to compromise. As the religious right learned between 1976 – 2004, the nature of politics is compromise.
In 1995 research by noted Political Scientist John Aldrich indicated that, “Defections from party lines and split ticket voting are far more common for all major offices at national, state and local levels today than before the mid-1960’s. (Aldrich, 1995 ). A recent study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (conducted Feb. 13 – 18, 2013) indicates that while American’s view the GOP as “more principled” thirty percent of registered (voters) Republicans indicate they feel their party is “out of touch with the American people” and “too extreme.” (GOP Seen as Principled, But Out of Touch and Too Extreme, 2013)
If one wanted to create a toxic concoction to stifle future Republican success at the election booths, they could not do a better job than we seem to have done ourselves.
Because “principles” and pejorative labels continue to push likely conservative voters out of the party structure, the girth of independent voters is swelling. (Wolf, 2011) What’s clear is voters are more willing than ever to cross party lines to vote and, given sufficient negative reinforcement; at least 30% of registered Republicans appear strongly disillusioned with the current party strategies. (Think about it, we could not beat an incumbent whose Administration was responsible for managing two wars, an unemployment rate that had nearly 1 in 10 Americans out of work, passage of the uniformly unpopular AHA and unprecedented debt: do you think we’ll do better if 3 out of ten Republican voters actually leave the party?) The last Presidential election demonstrated that it is delusional to suggest that ‘if we are the only game in town, they will have to vote with us.’ Poll turnout rates indicate that voters are more than willing to sit out an election where the “cost of voting” exceeds the ‘value of voting.’
It is also evident that little at the moment is giving this mobilized bloc an incentive to stick around. Any strategy that fails to embrace current party moderates will assure victories…for opposition candidates. Couple these with the national move to embrace Hispanics voters and a successful Republican Party will look very different in the near future. Are we preparing for these changes?
To answer the opening question, the singular purpose of a political party is to win elections; preferably for like-minded candidates. When dogmatic struggles for control of the party consume the party’s ability to put forward electable candidates, we need to stop and reconsider our motivations: challenging the ideas that are losing elections. Are the ideas valid? How do we know? We know by answering the question, “What is the role of government?” I suggest that “your” government ends at “my” front door.
If the ideas are valid what course of action can be taken to incorporate these ideas while widening the tent? What are the ideas that widen the tent? Strategy demands that we consider whether we want to be a distant voice from the grandstand; peanut galleries of hope that tosses in the occasional ‘good idea’ or whether we want to continue to own a chair at the ‘big table?’ The efforts of a principled niche may be able to spoil an election here and there but it will not put its candidates in the winner’s circle for long and it is only by electing candidates that a place at the big table can be assured.
Works Cited
Aldrich, J. H. (1995 ). Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
GOP Seen as Principled, But Out of Touch and Too Extreme. (2013, February 26th ). Retrieved from Pew Research: http://www.people-press.org/
Wolf, R. (2011, December 20th ). Voters leaving Republican, Democratic parties in droves. Retrieved from USA Today: http://usatoday30.usatoday.
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