I think there are pundits and writers like Ross Douthat and David Frum who are rational and informed. There are also some governors who do not seem totally radical. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitch Daniels, Charlie Crist.
But none technically lead the GOP. However they seem to be the voices of reason and sanity.
My impression of Romney is that he is basically just trying to ride the tide to power and has no interest in good or bad. He is like the republican equivalent of John Edwards.
David Frum was just fired by the American Enterprise Institute. He says it was because of financial difficulties of AEI.
Bruce Bartlett says that, now that Frum is no longer employed by AEI, he feels free to report something Frum told him pivately several months ago:
He’s constantly on the Sunday talk shows as the face of the Republican Party. Not many Senators "control many votes’, so unless you limit yourself to the 3 or 4 official leaders in Congress, you’re going to have to go to the senior members in Congress, especially in the Senate.
Incidentally, Crist is running for the Senate, and he’s probably going to lose a primary to a more conservative Republican.
Honest engine, Astorian, without a hint of snark, I wish that were true.
Thing is, the moderate leadership did control the party for years and years, but increasingly made a corrupt bargain with its extreme elements, and a dishonest bargain as well. The pretended that they were “on board”, sometimes with a broad wink and dog whistle rhetoric, in order to exploit the energy and commitment of the True Believers.
But they knew, or should have known, that there was no way they were ever, ever going to deliver on the agenda, it just wasn’t going to happen. Sooner or later, such a fragile mechanism was bound to break down, and it has. Now they have the wretched choice: make a deal with the nuthatches, and afford them more control, and lose, or throw the nuts overboard and rely on a compelling and intelligent presentation of their views. And lose.
RL intrudes, sadly, but I didn’t want you to think I was running off without responding. I think there are two sides to this issue, and it depends on ones perspective as to whether or not the Dems made a good faith effort to include the Republicans in their plans or rammed it down there throats. Had they not used the methods they did to ultimately get this passed then I think the Dems would be in a stronger position. That said, I freely concede that the Republicans were idiots on this, that they proposed no alternatives and were obstructionist from the get go.
So…in essence, and on reflection, I concede the point that this stuff was rammed down their collective throats. Doubt my admission of error will make much difference, but sometimes I allow myself to get carried away when debating…and this was one of those times.
-XT
The problem is the (fairly) rational sane ones are getting primaried from the right. Frum is fired, Crist and McCain are primaried, Schwarzenegger (and Snowe and Collins) are deried as RINO. The reason Specter switched from R to D is because he wouldn’t survive the primary from the right by Toomey in 2010.
I can understand using primaries to make your party more in tune with your values and move your parties ideology and overton window to the right or left. But the right seems to use primaries and threats on anyone who even cooperates with the dems instead of treating them like a foreign invader. They are using primaries on anyone who acts like a sane adult rather than a frothing end timer who thinks we were just invaded by the USSR.
I’m all for primaries from the left for dems to make them more progressive, but I’m not going to help primary anyone as punishment for cooperating or being sane.
I will laugh like a banshee if white supremacist revolutionaries that he indirectly helped encourage end up mudering Cantor’s Jewish chikdren.
As to the OP, I grew up in the GOP, & left when I realized that the ostensible “party of grown-ups” was full of fools who would follow a Dear Leader off a cliff because his name was familiar. I think the smarter conservatives (that aren’t cynically playing at being Father Coughlin) are now considered “moderates” (though many “moderates” are also stupid) & many are Democrats.
Some Senators seem to be in the position to cut deals and negotiate with the leaders of the other party, despite not being part of the Congressional leadership. I’d say they qualify as party leaders despite not holding a formal position.
For the last two years, Graham seems to be constantly trying to do this, proposing deals on Climate Change and Gitmo, but despite the fact that Obama and Reid seem open to his compromises, his efforts don’t seem to be going anywhere since he doesn’t actually bring any of his party members votes along.
As far as being on talkshows, he doesn’t seem to do much more the tow the party line, and in places where he breaks with his party, he doesn’t seem to be doing much to bring GOP opinion with him. Nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think it qualifies him as much of a Republican leader, which is what I understand the OP to be thinking of.
Pity about Frum. The AEI can of course fire/hire whomever they want, but it seems kinda stupid for Conservatives to put money into think-tanks if they just want them to be echo-chambers.
David Frum seems to agree with you and summed up a lot of this well I think:
Too bad that Frum spoke out against the leader of the Rebublicans - Rush.
Frum is now punted from the American Enterprise Institute
Agreed.
“Make a good faith effort”? They sucked up shamelessly to the Republicans, to the point of alienating the public (most of whom wanted the public option, for example) and, especially, their own base. What more were the Democrats supposed to do?
Back to the OP’s question:
Sorry - Frum’s been thrown under the bus, so he’s off the list of Sane GOP leaders. See post above.
This is not how I remember it. The most visible “hippy, anti-government” viewpoint was against the Viet Nam war, and that gradually became the mainstream view. Also, many of the progressive policies espoused by those groups became much more generally accepted, as they kept getting repeated without much challenge.
All the unrebutted signs in these protests, like “I want my country back” (back from what, one wonders) and the ones equating health care reform with fascism and communism (at the same time) will, I believe, have some effect on the muddled middle. How much and for how long is of course open for debate.
I think that you are right, though, that if the economy improves noticeably in the next six months, the Democrats won’t lose too badly; if it does not, or if it gets even a little bit worse, all bets are off.
Roddy
I’m a registered Republican, but my general approach to politics is to vote for whoever will do the least amount of damage. If I had a bumper sticker, it would say, “Vote for (Insert Candidate Name Here). He’s the lesser of two evils.”
As far as I’m concerned, the Republicans in Congress have been intellectual cyphers since Gingrich stepped down. At least he had a coherent set of ideas. Frankly, at this point, I’m even missing Clinton.
In terms of who is in Congress now, I think Lamar Alexander is inoffensive and among governors and and ex-governors, I wouldn’t be too bothered if Jeb Bush was elected.
:dubious: I must be missing something here.
Or…someone on the left fired a shot because he’s tired of the Reps fighting against it tooth and nail. Which, to me , seems more likely.