Tom Davis has a column we should all read.

Former Congressman Tom Davis has written an article for the Ripon Forum which every Republican should read. ( http://www.riponsociety.org/forum109a.htm )  I agree 100 percent with his analysis but would add a major caveat.  He is correct that we must face some realities, make some determinations regarding which hills are worth dying on and focus our efforts and our messages where they will be most effective.  Constantly engaging in the political equivalent of Pickett’s charge may appeal to our sense of gallantry, but we need to remember who won that battle and the war.  Nevertheless, the most critical challenge facing the party today is not our external outreach to voters outside the party.  It is our own internal civil war.  We are so badly divided right now that unless we start to heal our internal wounds, in 5 – 10 years the Republican Party could go the way of the Whigs and cease to exist as a meaningful voice in American politics.

Republicans HAVE been a big tent party that embraces every variety of hyphenated conservative and most center right moderates.  But we have done a very poor job of fostering communication between the various groups.  Consequently, entirely too many people from all factions consistently refuse to accept 60 or even 80 percent agreement on issues and hold out for 100 percent consistency with THEIR ideology or they take a walk during the general election.  I can recall when Michael Ferris was nominated for Lt. Governor.  He was moderate to main stream conservative on about 60 percent of issues that mattered; but, because he championed a hard right position on some (not all) social issues, moderates in NOVA took a walk in the general.  I even saw local party officials handing out bumper stickers that read “Allan/Byer/Gilmore”.  And of course this was followed the next year by the North/Coleman/Robb/Wilder debacle.  Personally, I trace many of the splits in our state party to that election. Each faction within the party MUST recognize that loyalty is a two way street.  If party leaders want to sit out an election, so be it; but it is unacceptable for those selected for leadership positions, including elected officials, to oppose the party’s nominee in the general election.

Conversely, we must also recognize the Republican Party rules in many areas have tended to favor small groups of extreme activists and limited the ability of moderates to have a meaningful voice in writing party platforms or nominating candidates.  Over the past decade we have started entirely too many congressional, state and national election efforts with platforms that could command 80 percent agreement from undecided voters and then proceeded to campaign hard on the other 20 percent.  Strong voices of moderation in our nomination and platform development processes would allow us to more clearly recognize and focus on general election messages that both reflect our values and appeal to the broadest number of persuadable voters.

Most importantly we need to recognize the issues which bind us are (or should be) more important than those which divide us and develop meaningful, respectful communication between the various factions.  Christine Todd Whitman wrote a book “It’s My Party Too” which inadvertently cuts to the core of the problem.  In Chapter 3, “A Party Within the Party” she describes the conflicts with social conservatives in New Jersey over abortion issues and the lack of understanding from people she almost never met with, clearly did not understand and did not particularly like.  She notes with some distain that when, after months and years of conflict, she finally described her position to Pat Robertson, he endorsed it in a matter of seconds.  In the next chapter, “Reclaiming Lincoln’s Legacy”, she describes a more amicable resolution to a racial profiling dispute that was based on her 20 plus years of outreach to black and Hispanic community leaders which allowed her to see the situation from their point of view and craft a response that satisfied their base as well as her own. 

Which left me wondering if she had spent half as much time building a relationship with activists within her own party as she did reaching out to those in the Democrat party, would she have been able to resolve the first dispute as easily as she did the second?  If George Allen had spent as much of his Senate term in town hall meetings with moderate NOVA Republicans as he did with downstate conservative Democrats, would he still be a Senator?  If hard right conservatives dealt with moderate party members respectfully instead of castigating them as RINO’s and making them feel unwelcome, would we retain more center right voters?  If moderates actually took the time to learn and understand the nuances of many social conservative issues, would they recognize the potential for 60 to 80 percent agreement and gain more influence in the nominating and platform development process?  Clearly, the answer to all these questions is “Yes”.

We are never going to win elections by trying to run to the left of the Democrats.  But if we also will not win elections by focusing on the relatively small number of issue positions that divide our party and marginalize us among the overall electorate.  Anyone who makes a serious effort to understand the viewpoints of the various hyphenated conservative and center right factions within our party quickly recognizes there is 60 to 80 percent agreement across all groups.  The stridency of our rhetoric and inability or unwillingness to listen to each other may divide us but our issue positions actually unite us.  If we reach out to one another and focus on areas of agreement, we can bring this party back within less than a decade.  But if we continue down our current path, we will drive a series of wedges between the various factions, marginalize ourselves and become nothing more than a historical anachronism.