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Can
someone tell us what Virginia Republicans stand for
going into the 2005 elections? Right now, it’s
difficult to keep the various positions and factions
straight.
If
one of the principal justifications for a political
party is to bring coherence to politics by producing
a straightforward policy agenda and nominating
candidates pledged to pursue it, the Republican
Party of Virginia is a failure.
But the party organization itself – the rank-and-file
members and party officials – shouldn’t be
faulted. The
blame for the lack of discipline and coherence
should be laid at the feet of Republicans in
elective office. They function beyond the effective
control of the party apparatus, which has been
consistent in its positions.
Despite
elaborate attempts to paper over divisions among
Republican legislators at the 2005 session of the
General Assembly, the rifts were too deep and
numerous to hide. The
coming election campaigns will underscore those
divisions.
Jerry
Kilgore, the former Attorney General and a candidate
for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, has been
stretching the membrane of party unity in an attempt
to cover all factions of the party.
He’s wasting his energy.
The membrane won’t stretch that far.
Trying
to please everyone is also a political nonstarter.
Voters don’t rally to a cry for unity. They are
activated by clear positions on vital, often
controversial, issues.
Former
U.S. Senator Phil Gramm was fond of saying that a
great party is a big magnet, not a big tent.
A big tent party is a party without a
compelling political agenda, a party having the sole
purpose of acquiring and holding power.
To
locate the lowest common denominator among positions
of Republican elected officials in
Virginia
today is to settle on an agenda without content.
They can expect a less than enthusiastic
response from voters.
Virginia
Republicans should take a page from George Bush’s
book. In the
2004 presidential campaign, he broke with convention
by appealing to his base rather than to undecided
voters in the political middle.
His electoral victory was due in large part
to the relative clarity of his agenda, particularly
when viewed against the confusion in John Kerry’s
positions.
A
state that voted heavily for Bush in 2004 should
respond to a conservative Republican gubernatorial
candidate this year.
Even in a three-way race with a Democrat and
an Independent, a Republican candidate should have
the advantage. That
advantage will disappear if the Republican fails to
spell out a clear message to the traditional base of
Virginia
voters who have supported GOP candidates in most
statewide races for several decades.
In
legislative races this year,
Democrats could cut into the GOP majority in
the House of Delegates because the Republicans have
yet to prove that they can govern in a coherent
fashion. A
starting point to prevent that would be for GOP
candidates for House seats to adopt a firm position
on the most significant issue likely to confront the
next session of the General Assembly.
That issue is whether taxes should be
increased to pay for transportation projects.
Nineteen
years ago, Republicans muffed a similar opportunity
by failing to oppose the Baliles tax hike for
transportation. That
program to tax and spend our way out of
congestion was a failure.
The voters were way ahead of
the politicians in understanding that real
innovation was
called for.
The
GOP can’t have it both ways on taxes.
It’s time to make a tough decision.
--March
14, 2005
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