NEOAVATARA

World's Largest Tent...Leave an opening on the left for the stragglers

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/07/feehery.republicans/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/06/liberal.republicans/index.html

I keep hearing the media talk about the big tent party, the extremism of conservatives, and why the Republicans are now in the minority.  Time magazine is calling the for the death of the Republican Party, calling them an endagered species.

This argument simply shows the idiocy of most in the mainstream media.

Barack Obama, 2 years ago, was the the most liberal Senator in America.  So the Democrats, in the perfect liberal way, took a very liberal man, ran him as a moderate to left candidate, and with the assistance of Republican incompetence won a decisive victory against the political Right.

Explain to me where the ‘big tent’ Democratic Party exists.

The only moderate Democrats are a few Governors (such as Montana’s Brian Schweitzer) and the ‘Blue Dog’ Democratic Congressman in the House of Representatives, which number approximately 51 after the election of 2008.  That means that the ‘moderate’ wing of the Democrat Party numbers 51 out of a total of 251, representing about 20% of the caucus.  The leadership, including Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, are far to the left of this contingent.  And Barack Obama is presiding as a classic tax and spend liberal, isn’t he?  Obama, for example, is now being lauded by the media for cutting $17 billion from the budget; or 0.5% of a $3.4 Trillion budget.  Sure, that is fiscally responsible.  Now, name me a moderate proposal that Obama has passed so far.  You can’t.

That is a big tent?

Colin Powell continually attacks the Right wing of the Republican Party, and blames them for the Democrat majority.  This explains his continued back-and-forth with Rush Limbaugh.

Um, Mr. Powell, didn’t you vote for Barack Obama?  Notably, over John McCain, one of the most moderate (liberal?) Republican Senators?  Powell would have had more credibility if he had supported McCain, and said the Republicans need to follow McCain’s lead.  But what Powell in fact proved is that he can support real Republican (conservative) leaders, such as Ronald Reagan, but cannot follow moderates like John McCain when the time comes to put up or shut up.

Speaking of Ronald Reagan…exactly how did he build the big tent Republican Party that dominated politics virtually from 1981-2009?  He ran as a revolutionary conservative leader.  He ran on a policy of smaller government, lower taxes, and pro-business regulations.  He wasn’t universally successful in those goals, but that was the underlying theme.  There was almost nothing that liberals or moderates (such as George H.W. Bush) agreed with Reagan on.  Just remember ‘voodoo economics’.

But what happened?  Reagan trounced Bush in the Republican Primary, and then considered moderate alternatives for Vice President, first former President Gerald Ford, and later Bush himself.  But notice the difference:  Reagan led the revolution, and was more than welcoming of moderates under his conservative flag, not vice versa; in some ways, similar to Barack Obama.  Lead from principle, but leave the door open for followers.  In other words, building a big tent takes principle over politics, victory over semantics.

Additionally, Reagan won even with a moderate challenge within his own party, from Congressman John Anderson.  And what happened?  This:

A trouncing.  Other than Carter’s home in the south, and Mondale in Minnesota..it was a wipeout.

Reagan took 50.7% of the vote versus 41% for Carter, even while losing 6.6% of the moderate Republican vote to Anderson.  Reagan won 489 electoral votes.  Can you imagine the bigger wipe out that would have occurred if Anderson had not run?

Historically, this is quite similar to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008.  The liberal Obama won by 7 percentage points over the moderate McCain.  Much narrower victory than Reagan in 1980, similar to Bill Clinton in 1996.  Again, where is the big tent?

What happened after Reagan’s victory?  We saw moderates flood the Republican Party.  Where did Arlen Specter originate from?  The Reagan Revolution.  How about Colin Powell?  The same.  George H.W. Bush, he of ‘voodoo economics?  The same.

Reagan built a large tent party by defining the party he loved.  He stated his beliefs, whether conservative to the extreme or not, and the public followed.  He did not try to become a more moderate version of the Democrats; he redefined American politics.

Here is the real rub with the ‘big tent’ argument:  as I have shown above, the Democrats have yet to build a big tent party.  That is not to say that they don’t have the opportunity though.  Mr. Obama could draw moderates (ala Arlen Specter) depending on how successful he is, and also how willing he is to listen to moderates.  But that has yet to happen.

And one sign that the Democrats are uncertain about their success is how much anger remains on the left.  They should be continuously celebrating, considering they now own Washington D.C..  Instead, they whine about Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and others, and keep wondering what the minority Republican Party is doing, instead of thinking about their own majority party.  It is puzzling.  Why worry about the ‘dead’ Republicans?  The answer is simple:  they fear a conservative comeback.  They understand that they have won a victory, but it isn’t necessarily a long lived one.

The Republicans certainly need new ideas.  New ideas is a different strategy than new principles.  I don’t see that the Democrats, who were dead in the water a few years ago, diametrically changed their principles.  And the argument that Republicans have old ideas…what is Obama’s ideas other than a restart of FDR’s New Deal?  That is pretty old.  No, we as conservatives need to renew the party by using conservative principles to come up with new, effective ideas to solve the issues of today.

I actually am more positive about the conservative movement than I have been for years.  I had high hopes for George W. Bush, but he was never the conservative I wanted him to be.  The rest of the party has also lost its way.  But now, what we are seeing is the party being redefined, first by being deconstructed, and then being built from the bottom up.  It will be ugly, painful, and will take time.  But the party will be better for it.

So remember, when someone says the Republicans need to be a big tent party, they are right.  But what they don’t understand is first you build the tent on your principles and a firm foundation…and then leave a door open on your left for moderates and others to come join you.