Whatever Happened to Moderate Republicans?

Once upon a time there there was such a thing as the "Eastern Establishment." Based in the Northeast, it was internationally minded, fiscally conservative, pro-business, pro-civil rights, and socially tolerant. It provided the intellectual, political, and financial leadership for American conservatism, and produced some of our country's greatest leaders: Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Webster, and Theodore Roosevelt, just to name a few. They were not "liberals" per se, but they were nationalists who believed in a strong government and a unified society. They also understood that conservatism required an acceptance of change - history must be adapted to, not ignored or repealed.

The last real leader of the eastern establishment was Nelson Rockefeller, who lost the 1964 Republican nomination to Barry Goldwater and with it the soul of the Republican party. George Bush's defection to Reaganism in the 1980's symbolized the complete collapse of a long and proud tradition. It had a great run, but we need to recognize reality - it is dead, dead, dead.

This isn't to say that there still aren't a lot of moderate Republicans running around, people like Sarah Chamberlain Resnick. What they lack is an institutional presence of any real power in the Republican coalition. What the Mods really provide is the frosting on the conservative cake, the yummy stuff that convinces people to eat something so bad for them. Moderates provide the extra votes needed for the Republican majority - what gets them from 40% to 51%. But any real influence? Forget it.

Resnick's op-ed in the Washington Post lays out all the old themes of fiscal restraint, a respect for tradition, and creative solutions to new problems. But to hear her describe the agenda of the Mods makes one wonder why she remains a Republican at all:

Nancy Johnson of Connecticut and Fred Upton of Michigan have spearheaded the effort to protect critical investments in education and health-care programs during this year's budget process. Efforts to curb skyrocketing gas prices through tough new legislation on price gouging have been championed by Heather Wilson of New Mexico. Mike Castle of Delaware and Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania have led the way on ethics reform designed to restore and protect the integrity of the legislative process.

Hello! Conservative Republicans don't care about those things! They will never do more than talk about solving those problems, and only when they absolutely have to.

The fact is that the moderates are simply in the wrong party. When they support the southern-friend Theocons now controlling the Republican party, they are selling out their own principles for... nothing. They get no respect from their Republican allies, and none of their ideas ever become law. The "Hastert rule" guarantees that they will never, ever play any meaningful role in the GOP.

There is an alternative, however. It is the Democratic party that thinks seriously about dealing with health care, the democratic process, and energy policy. It's a Democratic party largely purged of its old "big government" leanings, and it's a Democratic party that has consistently done what the mods say they want to do - provide incremental change and fiscal responsibility.

I think in the long run all of these "mods" are going to leave the GOP. The exodus has already begun, as we see in Kansas, where the old Dole-Kassebaum Republicans have been run out of the party. Rather than quit politics altogether, they have become Democrats. The mods in the rest of the country will either follow the example of the Kansas Mods, or they will be defeated in an election - either by a Democrat in the general or a wingnut in the primary.

Republican mods must accept the grim truth that they have lost their battle for the Republican party. They have been completely defeated. The sooner they recognize this reality and adapt to it, the sooner they can save their political futures, their principles - and their country. Because Democrats can't do the job without them.