Writing prescriptions for curing what ails the Republican Party has become a favorite parlor game among political junkies. IT WASN’T ALWAYS this way. In the lifetimes of today’s Republican grandfathers there have been liberal Republican leaders galore. Nelson Rockefeller of New York gave his name to a brand of Republicanism which embraced government activism. President Theodore Roosevelt was a trust buster and the father of the national park system. Wendell Willkie was a Republican progressive who vied with Franklin Roosevelt for national popularity. The list of Republican progressives who have served as governors and members of Congress is long and distinguished and includes Kansas Senators Nancy Kassebaum and James B. Pearson and Gov. Bill Graves.
Without sticking to the metaphor, here are some observations.
A distinction is made between patronage parties and programmatic parties. A patronage party caters to the various and ever-changing needs of its members. A programmatic party adopts a set of political principles and goals and follows them. Historically, the dominant political parties in the United States have been patronage parties or, in modern parlance, big tent parties.
Programmatic parties, such as the Communist Party, the Socialists and the Progressives, have been established and some of them lasted for decades. The Progressive Party elected governors and members of Congress and had a strong influence on U.S. politics for decades. Most of its good ideas were swiped by the Democrats and the Republicans and put into action. But even the Progressives never came close to electing a president.
Programmatic parties have failed in America because they are deliberately exclusive. Its members sign on to a program, to a set of principles and goals. Those who reject either are not welcome.
Patronage parties, in contrast, welcome everyone because their goal is to achieve political power and serve all of the population.
Today’s Republican Party has become quite programmatic. To be a Republican in good standing one must oppose tax increases in any guise; must oppose abortion and gay marriage; must seek to shrink government in general while increasing military spending; must oppose government involvement in health care delivery; must oppose any immigration reform which offers citizenship to the 10 million or more illegals in the country; must oppose federal regulation of the nation’s big banks and financial institutions and favor less regulation of all business.
In contrast, the Democrats have become the big tent party and have a much shorter list of “musts.” As a consequence, the party has created a larger base of support in a nation that becomes more diversified in its population with every passing year.
But when former Sen. Kassebaum-Baker was asked to get a group of today’s moderate Republicans together, she asked wryly if she should reserve a phone booth for the meeting.
The breed has vanished. Today’s Kansas congressional delegation competes to see which can be most rigidly — I almost said religiously — conservative. Gov. Sam Brownback is considered the most conservative governor in the 50 states. On the national stage, at least, the election clearly showed the Republican Party is the minority party, which seems destined to lose more and more congressional seats as the demographic face of the nation continues to change.
What to do?
Republicans changed from what they were to what they have become. They can change again to what they need to be to win national elections again. Dynamic candidates can be the agent; leaders who have the good of the people in mind rather than a program which must be followed down to the last hobbling pledge.
Such leaders appeared in years past and were followed with enthusiasm. They must be found again and lifted up if the party is to revive.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
