Hello? Did Marty 'I Am In Love With Scooter Libby" Peretz" get kidnapped?
When GOP moderates appeal to the spirit of bipartisanship or claim they can influence their leadership, they are recalling a bygone era. For the longest time, U.S. parties lacked ideological coherence. Northern liberals voted Republican and Southern conservatives voted Democrat, with the result that party affiliation meant less in the United States than in nearly any other democracy. In this world, it made sense to evaluate your senator or representative less on party affiliation than philosophical convictions.
This system still held sway the last time Democrats controlled Congress. As Bill Clinton learned, party moderates felt no obligation to support his agenda. Centrist Democrats from oil-producing states sunk Clinton's broad-based energy tax. Moderates allied with the insurance industry against his health care reform. If you wanted to circumscribe the Clinton agenda, then electing moderate Democrats was a good way to go about it.
From the moment they took power in 1995, Republicans made it clear that they would act differently. Those Republicans who wanted to head committees had to pledge their loyalty to the party agenda. Republicans saw themselves less as a traditional U.S. political party--with diffuse power and independent personalities--than a parliamentary majority working in unison. From a standpoint of effectiveness, the GOP's record of winning floor votes and clinging to a majority in support of an often-unpopular agenda is impressive.
. . . Of course, maintaining that majority has required Republicans to win the votes of many Americans who don't support their agenda. That's where the GOP moderates come in. Unlike the moderate wing of the old Democratic majority, they seldom do anything without the tacit consent of the leadership. GOP moderates are allowed-- indeed, encouraged--to publicly scold their party leaders, because that's how they hold onto their districts.
. . . At best, moderate Republicans have been hapless dupes. At worst, they've been co-conspirators. In either case, they have done almost nothing to alleviate the radical or corrupt tendencies of Republican Washington. Extinguishing the moderates at the polls this November is not a vote for mindless partisanship. It is simply a vote for transparency.
Well now, I could get snarky about this and ask them to explain their previous utterances on these subjects. But I am feeling corny today, so instead I'll borrow from Victor Lazslo --
"Welcome to the fight, I know* this time our side will win."
*Know? Hope?
