Ethics, First Step To A Gop Comeback
The GOP has lost its old stronghold of New England, while poaching the Democrats’ Dixie redoubt. This is called trading up. New England is in demographic collapse and economic decline and does not set the National tone. There is one aspect of old New England Republicanism that could revive the GOP outside New England. That is “civil rectitude.” The conviction that the public fisc is not an endless trough for the connected. Calvin Coolidge of Vermont embodied this kind of Republican.
In large northern states such as New York, Illinois, Ohio, the collapse of the GOP has not come about because of its defense of traditional marriage, the unborn or opposition to other liberal social causes. In each of these states the Republicans became associated with the spending and corruption of the old style Democratic machines. This demoralized its base and killed off a chief selling point to middle of the road voters of the Republican brand.
In New York, the Republican Party was built on solid majorities in Upstate, and overwhelming majorities in Long Island, while holding about 40% of the New York City vote. Unfortunately, during the Pataki years the “Long Island Machine”, spent money like Democrats. The entire reputation of fiscal sanity and clean government that had served the party since Teddy Roosevelt’s time was destroyed by a Republican Party that bankrupted townships and could not stop spending. It did not help that the ethical environment accompanying this orgy of spending had plenty of Republican perpetrators. The spending in Albany by Governor Pataki and the Republican Senate reinforced this image and eliminated a chief distinction from the Democrats.
In Ohio, the great Taft name, synonymous with the GOP, was destroyed by petty larceny and runaway spending. Governor Taft, scion of a great house, and heir to rectitude and frugal government squandered that reputation. He took a plea deal on a misdemeanor and the entire Republican Party could not put Ohio’s fiscal house in order.
In Illinois, the home of Abraham Lincoln, and, not incidentally, Phyliss Schlafly and Henry Hyde, Republican electoral fortunes were not destroyed by rigid adherence to social conservatism. Its Governor went to jail and its representatives, again, became the party of the spending lobby in Springfield.
New York, Ohio, and Illinois, by themselves are more important demographically and electorally than New England. Their loss to the Party is not due to adherence to traditional values. It is due to the failure of belief that Republicans can be trusted to guard the public fisc and keep their hands out of the till. The good-government Republicans have had success in these places and can do so again. It is no accident that in a bad year for Republicans Governor Mitch Daniels, a fiscal conservative and good government Republican won in Indiana while its electoral votes went to Obama.
Big spending and indifference to petty corruption brought down Governor Ryan of Illinois, Governor Taft of Ohio, and, indeed Governor Rowland of Connecticut. Fortunately, the Republican primary voter, unlike his Democratic counterpart has shown a willingness to support challenges to corrupt law makers. Ted Stevens, a man synonymous with Alaskan statehood was nearly knocked off by a Sarah Palin backed challenger. Republicans have shown themselves more capable of cleaning their own house than the Democrats are. They must institutionalize this instinct.
The party of big government is also going to be the party of graft and back scratching. If the Republicans fight that culture they will find electoral successes in places now barred to them, primarily in the mid-West, but also New England. Unlike calls to abandon the base on social issues, or to back repeal of the immigration laws, a clean, fiscally sound Republican Party does not have to jettison any of its current constituencies. It is a pure case of addition by addition.
In large northern states such as New York, Illinois, Ohio, the collapse of the GOP has not come about because of its defense of traditional marriage, the unborn or opposition to other liberal social causes. In each of these states the Republicans became associated with the spending and corruption of the old style Democratic machines. This demoralized its base and killed off a chief selling point to middle of the road voters of the Republican brand.
In New York, the Republican Party was built on solid majorities in Upstate, and overwhelming majorities in Long Island, while holding about 40% of the New York City vote. Unfortunately, during the Pataki years the “Long Island Machine”, spent money like Democrats. The entire reputation of fiscal sanity and clean government that had served the party since Teddy Roosevelt’s time was destroyed by a Republican Party that bankrupted townships and could not stop spending. It did not help that the ethical environment accompanying this orgy of spending had plenty of Republican perpetrators. The spending in Albany by Governor Pataki and the Republican Senate reinforced this image and eliminated a chief distinction from the Democrats.
In Ohio, the great Taft name, synonymous with the GOP, was destroyed by petty larceny and runaway spending. Governor Taft, scion of a great house, and heir to rectitude and frugal government squandered that reputation. He took a plea deal on a misdemeanor and the entire Republican Party could not put Ohio’s fiscal house in order.
In Illinois, the home of Abraham Lincoln, and, not incidentally, Phyliss Schlafly and Henry Hyde, Republican electoral fortunes were not destroyed by rigid adherence to social conservatism. Its Governor went to jail and its representatives, again, became the party of the spending lobby in Springfield.
New York, Ohio, and Illinois, by themselves are more important demographically and electorally than New England. Their loss to the Party is not due to adherence to traditional values. It is due to the failure of belief that Republicans can be trusted to guard the public fisc and keep their hands out of the till. The good-government Republicans have had success in these places and can do so again. It is no accident that in a bad year for Republicans Governor Mitch Daniels, a fiscal conservative and good government Republican won in Indiana while its electoral votes went to Obama.
Big spending and indifference to petty corruption brought down Governor Ryan of Illinois, Governor Taft of Ohio, and, indeed Governor Rowland of Connecticut. Fortunately, the Republican primary voter, unlike his Democratic counterpart has shown a willingness to support challenges to corrupt law makers. Ted Stevens, a man synonymous with Alaskan statehood was nearly knocked off by a Sarah Palin backed challenger. Republicans have shown themselves more capable of cleaning their own house than the Democrats are. They must institutionalize this instinct.
The party of big government is also going to be the party of graft and back scratching. If the Republicans fight that culture they will find electoral successes in places now barred to them, primarily in the mid-West, but also New England. Unlike calls to abandon the base on social issues, or to back repeal of the immigration laws, a clean, fiscally sound Republican Party does not have to jettison any of its current constituencies. It is a pure case of addition by addition.