Where are the Reform Republicans?

Reform will be long in coming, it requires pushing up a steep hill against howling headwinds.

The true danger of the growth of government is that Washington becomes a very prosperous, very attractive place in which to make a (long) career.  It's as true for Republicans, nominally the party of smaller government, as it is for government-expanding Democrats.  We saw the results with Republicans in Congress after 1996, the corruption and Delay-style leadership, and during eight years where Bush Administration types sought to preserve what they had achieved, rather than act on behalf of those they had been elected to serve.

There are a few in this Congress who genuinely get the need for reform as a precondition to doing their jobs properly, but they are far outnumbered by the time-servers.  In the Senate, only Tom Coburn seems up to the fight, I respect how he approaches his service, even when I don't always agree with positions he takes.

Worse still than the Members are all the associated hangers-on, staffers and ex-staffers and the usual political operative crowd whose vested interests tend toward more of the same, rather than reframing the relationship between the People and the governing apparatus.

Even being a perpetual minority party is just too comfy these days for too many participants.  Only when conditions in the country get appreciably worse (as happened in the Carter Administration days) will the value of this comfort be seen as insufficient compared to a different vision of governance.  Then the reforms will happen.

Jon, keep at it. I'm sad to see the Obama adminstration not go fully transparent as was the hope, but at least the ball is now rolling. the cracks in the foundation have appeared. Can you imagine us having this convesation about actual implementation even six months ago.

Instead of Republicans using lame tactics for easy talking points, I'd love to see them set the pace for Transparency beginning with themselves. But as you have always pointed out:

Congressional Republicans must, unilaterally and without condition, embrace expansive - even uncomfortable and politically inconvenient - transparency and disclosure rules for the House and Senate Republicans.

I fear that with McConnel and Boehner as leaders (even Cantor)....we'll never see it happen. These were dudes responsible for the last eight years. Why would they have a change of heart now?

The current leadership of the GOP is not at all interested in reform, and the credible envelope for doing so is quickly slipping away. My feeling was that "the first 100 days" were just as critical for the GOP as for the Obama administration, in terms of defining the next four years.

McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor all appear to be happy just maintaining the status quo in the GOP and waiting for Obama to screw up. In marketing that is called a codependent brand. The success or failure of your brand is contingent upon what the competition does or does not do. It is a very weak position to play from. And it by definition, gives your opponent free rein to define you.

The GOP is dead in the water but just doesn't want to come to terms with the reality. In the last two elections people were voting anti-GOP as much as they were voting for anything offered by the Dems. You can argue all day about what the problem was with the GOP. But whatever it was, voters rejected it at every level. It wasn't just a cult of Obama. The GOP got stomped in the Senate and the House too.

Something is broken. McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor are the guys who broke it. They will surely not be the ones who fix it. As long as they remain in control, the GOP will remain broken. A permanent regional minority party.

I saw a poll where liberal and moderate republicans were only 25% off the party. I think most of the reform republicans were kicked out or clubbed into submission. If you are talking about reform, shouldn't you also talk about your core principles. For example, deregulation, just like cracked-out monkeys, bankers could not keep their greed in check until they destroyed the financial system. No taxes and limited government: people want government that works and balanced budgets; it's not serious anymore to cry, "NO TAXES," and not propose what they would cut.

I know this site focuses on strategy and tactics, but since it's called "The Next Right," shouldn't there be some discussion on policy since policy drives strategy? If I were a "reform republican," I'd push the democrats to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIF) so republicans can compete in California again. Everytime anti-illigal immigration zealots point a finger at those people, Latino-Americans pretty much assume it is also directed at them. If CIF passed, then California republicans might be able to compete again. This would be similar to when Clinton and Newt took the welfare problem away from the democrats back in the 90's.

All this talk of twitter, transparecy just reminds me of when I was in college and I used to get my car painted at Earl Scheib every year. It was shiny, but still a beater. It's not the brand, fellas, it's the product.