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The new edition of TIME features an interesting article by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, "Still Looking for Mr. Right." In it, they discuss some of the growing divisions within the republican party. It reminded me of how my father used to tell me that the strength of the republicans was their unity, and their ability to get out the vote. He said the ability to deliver the vote was found in precinct level: people would make the local phone calls and even drive people in their neighborhood to the voting booths.
He said that this type of organization was hard to disrupt, but that republican unity often imploded in cycles. The more special interests within the party at the second and third tiers, the better. An example of this is found when the TIME article quotes "conservative patriarch Richard Viguerie, 'They think they call holler, "The bogeyman's coming!" every four years, and conservatives will get on board. There is zero evidence of that. They think that we will be so afraid of Hillary and losing the Supreme Court that we will fall in line. Well, we might want to run another candidate." He is expressing some of the conservative republican dislike for Rudy Giuliani.
They also quote James Dobson, the leader of "Focus on the Family," who speaks of his disappointment with Fred Thompson: "He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me."
We know from previous experience that it is at the end of primary season competition that these republican divides become the more stressful. Think, for example, of in 1992, when Ross Perot became something more than a curiosity, and actually began to take votes from Bush the Elder.
Another example that older DUers will remember was 1964, when Barry Goldwater was nominated at the Republican National Convention. After he finished his acceptance speech, the majority of the NYS delegation walked out with Senators Jacob Javits and Kenneth Keating.
Michigan's most powerful politician was George Romney. The national party viewed him as their best resource for getting the votes out in his region. He told reporters, "Well, we're going back to work just as hard as we can to assure republican victories in Michigan." Reporters asked if he meant republican victories across the country? "I meant exactly what I said," he responded. (The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson; Eric Goldman; page 163)
In 1912, when Teddy Rosevelt lost the republican nomination to Taft, he formed the Progressive Party. He said that the goal was, "To destroy this Invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics..." His party was known as the Bull Moose Party. His dividing of the republican vote was in part responsible for Woodrow Wilson's victory. Wilson's campaign was based on a "New Freedom" platform.
Will the republicans experience such divides in 2008? Let's hope so: it will spell defeat for their party on many levels.
Will grass roots democrats learn a lesson from the republican mistakes of the past? Let's hope so on that one, too.
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