John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party

McCain-Goldwater

Politico reports that John McCain is attempting to reshape the Republican Party in a more center-right direction, supporting more moderate Republicans. It would be good for the country to have a meaningful two party system again. We should have a sensible opposition party as opposed to one which has no ideas other than to oppose everything the Democrats propose regardless of the merits.  It is a shame McCain didn’t decide it would be better to move the party in a more moderate direction before he pandered so much to the far right during his failed presidential campaign.

McCain worst move was to give prominence to the most reactionary and anti-intellectual factions of the party from Sarah Palin to Joe the Plumber. Even Steve Schmidt, his top political strategist in 2008, says that the nomination of Sarah Palin in 2012 would be catastrophic for the party.

If McCain really wants to identify the aspects of the Republican Party which have turned it into a fringe regional party, there is one area where he should look back to another Senator from Arizona who also lost a presidential race–Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was fiercely opposed to the influence of the religious right in the GOP and conservative movement to the point where he called himself a liberal in his later years. McCain has tangled with the religious right in the past, but in recent years has ignored their idiocy, such as in flip-flopping on teaching intelligent design and speaking at the Discovery Institute. A real straight talker would be consistent in opposing this faction of the conservative movement as Barry Goldwater was.

Update: A commenter correctly notes the degree to which the Republican Party is now dependent upon the religious right and how they would lose both contributions and current voters without them. Sometimes when we remove a cancer from a patient they become weaker before they recover, but without such treatment they would die. That also applies to the Republican Party. Unfortunately the GOP might have waited too long to remove the cancer which is destroying them. They will lose a lot in terms of fund raising and party workers if they remove the influence of the religious right, and might die from the treatment, but without doing so it is hard to see how they recover.

13 Comments

  1. 1
    Eclectic Radical says:

    ‘A real straight talker would be consistent in opposing this faction of the conservative movement as Barry Goldwater was.’
     
    I don’t disagree, but this becomes a very tricky prospect when one realizes how big a bat the religious right swings in fundraising and voter turn-out numbers. The religious right has become the GOP base in many parts of the country and one is not going to elect candidates there by attacking them. Their voters will stay home or vote for Democrats able to give a good pro-life/anti-gay-marriage speech.
     
    The religious right is the equivalent of the labor movement for Democrats from the 1940s to the 1060s. An endless wellspring of votes and money that becomes a constituency that cannot be ignored because of the election day power provided. When the Teamsters backed Reagan in 1980 it was crippling to Carter’s re-election campaign and McGovern’s lack of support from big labor was crucial in denying him electoral wins in normally very liberal states.
     
    The Democrats have shaken off their dependence on the labor movement primarily because of union-busting legislation passed by Republicans. The real way to end GOP dependence on the religious right might not be for high profile Republicans like McCain to fight them head on, but for Democrats to attack the tax-exempt status of churches that make huge profits off their membership and then use that money for improper political purposes.
     

  2. 2
    Trevor J says:

    » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values http://tinyurl.com/y8aro5l

  3. 3
    Charles says:

    » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values: Politico reports that John McCain is attempt.. http://tinyurl.com/y8aro5l

  4. 4
    tattootrevor says:

    » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values http://tinyurl.com/y8aro5l

  5. 5
    Ron Chusid says:

    Sometimes when we remove a cancer from a patient they become weaker before they recover, but without such treatment they would die. That also applies to the Republican Party. Unfortunately the GOP might have waited too long to remove the cancer which is destroying them. They will lose a lot in terms of fund raising and party workers if they remove the influence of the religious right, and might die from the treatment, but without doing so it is hard to see how they recover.

  6. 6
    susan ducan says:

    everyone drink » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values: P.. http://bit.ly/2FoSZV
    who will last

  7. 7
    Blue says:

    It would be good for the country to have a meaningful two party system again. We should have a sensible opposition party as opposed to one which has no ideas other than to oppose everything the Democrats propose regardless of the merits.

    It would take considerably more than reform of the Republican party (solely) to achieve that.

  8. 8
    Eclectic Radical says:

    I don’t disagree at all. I was outlining the political factors that make it terribly difficult for an active Republican politician to spearhead such a charge.
     
    It was the GOP who ended Democratic dependence on the labor movement (for good or ill… personally I think it’s good the Democrats aren’t /dependent/ on labor, but it annoys me that no one appears willing to address labor issues) by effectively ending the viability of unions in most of the country. I’m not advocating for the same kind of war on churches that Republicans waged on unions in the 1980s, obviously, but the imposition of corporate taxes on corporate churches is fair in my view. Likewise the imposition of corporate taxes on churches that violate their tax-exempt status by donating to or campaigning for candidates.
     

  9. 9
    Charles Seymour Jr says:

    » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values http://bit.ly/2FoSZV

  10. 10
    commonsensegovm says:

    » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values: Politico reports that John McCain is attempt.. http://tinyurl.com/y8aro5l

  11. 11
    susan ducan says:

    everyone drink » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values: P.. http://bit.ly/2FoSZV
    who will last

  12. 12
    uspoliticsconvo says:

    » John McCain Wants To Reform The Republican Party Liberal Values http://bit.ly/2FoSZV

  13. 13
    lord koos says:

    This from the guy who chose SARAH PALIN as his running mate?  Puh-leeze.

3 Trackbacks

Leave a comment