Why David Frum is wrong about Arlen Specter

On Tuesday, David Frum wrote a column at NewMajority.com criticizing Pat Toomey and the Club for Growth for pushing Sen. Arlen Specter out of the Republican party. This was my response.

Mr. Frum,

With respect, I think you're wrong.

You are operating on the assumption that positioning on the ideological spectrum is the dominant factor in electoral sucess. If that were true then nominating a moderate conservative against a more extreme liberal would be an easy win for the GOP.

Yet Barack Obama is President.

Certainly, there are political extremes that are unacceptable to the vast majority of the electorate. Thankfully, neither David Duke nor William Ayres is electable. However, between those extremes I believe there is more ideological flexibility among voters than you realize.

Yes, there are hard core ideologues in both parties, but that does not describe the bulk of the electorate. For most voters ideology matters, but only to a limited degree. Voters also value a candidate (and a party) that rejects corruption, can competently govern, follows in office what was promised in campaigns, knows the principles it stands for and does not tolerate hypocrisy.

To demonstrate the relative importance of non-ideological factors in electoral success, as a thought experiment consider the following alternate history:

August 2003 - President Bush recognizes that his Iraq strategy is failing, fires Secretary Rumsfeld and embraces Gen. Patraeus' counter insurgency strategy.

January 2004 - Congressional Republicans appoint a panel of retired Federal Judges to investigate allegations of corruption within the GOP and mercilessly reject any found guilty.

September 2004 - Republicans adopt a unilateral ban on earmarks.

January 2005 - Congressional Republicans are unified and use reconciliation to pass a voluntary alternative flat tax and free market health care reform.

September 2006 - Republicans cut wasteful spending and set the country on a path to a balanced budget.

If this, however unlikely, had been the history of the last 8 years, would the GOP be in total collapse today? I think the only fair answer is no. Yet none of these actions would have been ideological shifts.

Within a broad ideological range, voters will support candidates, and a party, that are seen as standing for honesty, integrity, competence and vision. Primary challenges may move the party to the right, but on a deeper level they are an attempt to force the party to be true to its core beliefs.

A left wing President and Congress were elected not because of their ideology, but because they were trusted. If Republicans ever hope to regain that trust, putting principles above politics is a necessary first step.