I have a confession to make. It's not something I share very regularly -- not because I'm ashamed of it, but because it requires a conversation long enough to explain the context. My confession is this: I used to be a Republican. Not a George W. Bush Republican, but a Republican nonetheless. Had I been able to vote back in 1996 and 2000, my 11- and 15-year-old selves would have voted for Bob Dole and George Bush respectively (my seven-year-old self thought that Ross Perot was really cool). I believed in "compassionate conservatism," and deep down I still do. I was happy to see Mitt Romney become my governor in 2002, but soon afterwards, I lost faith in the Grand Old Party. I couldn't tell you the exact moment, but it was sometime between the 2002 midterm elections and the Democratic Presidential primaries in early 2004.
But now must come the story of how I lost my faith. I have no doubt that most Republicans are good, moral people who have the same hopes and dreams for this country that I do. Unfortunately, their leadership does not appear to feel the same way. Compassionate conservatism has disappeared and in its place is an uneasy coalition held together by fear. The party I preferred due to its emphasis on personal responsibility, hard work and a meritocratic view of life has been replaced with one hell-bent on replacing that notion with one of corporate profits, cronyism and rampant corruption. In other words, the Republican Party has become what the old city machines once were; a way to make your friends wealthy and powerful while ignoring everyone else.
However, that is not to say that there is no hope. While moderation does not always inspire the greatest enthusiasm, it does build bridges. It provides a check on the extremes in order to create a pragmatic support that can build (often grudgingly) support from all ends of the political spectrum. Republican moderates were never necessarily interested in the most politically expedient solution, but rather one that could create lasting, positive benefit for all Americans.
I firmly believe that politics are extremely cyclical. One party takes power, gets stale and too extreme for its own good, the other side gets energized, creates a plan, comes back into power and then you start again from the beginning. The cycles may vary in length, but they are always present. So while Republican moderates may be in scarce supply at the present moment, a Democratic majority may be the best thing that ever happened to them. Presently, we see many Republicans touting their moderate credentials as the country becomes sick of polarization and ready for pragmatic, independent individuals whose devotion is not to a political party, but to their constituents. Perhaps it won't work this time around, but it is certainly a better strategy than pandering to the extreme factions. It is easier to be a divider than a unifier, but the latter is much more impressive. It takes every kind of people to make government work at its best.
And who knows, maybe one day I'll even return to the Grand Old Party, the party which once stood for Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, and not Tom DeLay or Karl Rove.
