On April 16, conservative columnnist George Will wrote, in a column entitled "The GOP's Betrayal on Speech," that "the GOP's conservative base is coming to the conclusion that House Republicans are not worth working for in October or venturing out to vote for in November." Will further wrote that, aside from 18 "principled Republicans" (none, by the way, from Virginia!) who voted against "big-government regulation of speech," the rest of the House Republicans "forfeited its raison d'etre April 5." Wow.
As if that wasn't bad enough, a column in today's Washington Post by long-time Republican PR man, Craig Shirley, entitled "How the GOP Lost Its Way,", hammers the nail into the coffin even further. Shirley, a big fan of Ronald Reagan, now says that Republicans are "addicted" to "corporate and governmental power," that "the GOP has lost its motivating ideals," and that it "appears to sanction and institutionalize corruption within the party."
Shirley further writes of the clash between "the elitist Rockefeller business wing" and "the party's conservative populist base" on issues like deficit spending, trade issues, corruption, free speech, and especially immigration. As a result of all this, Shilrely concludes, bluntly, that "The Republican Party is now unraveling." And he asks, plaintively, "Who speaks for Main Street Reaganism" and for "the populists under Reagan?"
Well, I've got one answer for Mr. Shirley: a man named Jim Webb, who comes from a strongly populist, "Reagan Democrat" and "Jacksonian Democrat," tradition. Jim Webb has been criticized by some in the Democratic Party for expressing his admiration for Ronald Reagan, a man who was "was pro-legal immigration, pro-patriotic assimilation and in step with other populist conservatives."
Now, I'm no fan of Ronald Reagan's budget deficits, his policies towards the environment, the Iran-Contra scandal which took place under his watch, or many other aspects of Reagan's presidency. However, there's no doubt that Ronald Reagan was an extremely important President, and an extremely popular one, winning two landslide victories - in 1980 and 1984 - and who is considered by historians and scholars as the 14th greatest President - just behind JFK and just ahead of LBJ - in U.S. history. And Reagan is extremely popular among the American people more broadly, with a 2005 Gallup Poll ranking him #1 and a 2000 ABC News poll ranking him #4 - behind Lincoln, JFK, and FDR.
In other words, Reagan tapped into something with the American people, and that includes tens of millions of working class "Reagan Democrats," who "no longer saw Democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations" and voted for Reagan in droves.
So, who can win back these "Reagan Democrats" today? Who can bridge the gap on issues like immigration, and on the broader divisions between working class whites and African Americans? To me, Jim Webb - Jacksonian Populist, Reagan Democrat, and fiercely independent thinker - is clearly such a person.
Frankly, if the GOP is "no longer Ronald Reagan's party," and if "Reagan Democrats" no longer feel a home there, perhaps it's time for them to COME HOME to the Democratic Party of Jim Webb. Maybe, in a few years, we will refer to "Webb Republicans" - populist, progressive, proud Americans, with a libertarian streak - in the same way as we now refer to "Reagan Democrats." If so, that will be a great day in this country.
The last five years have overwhelming demonstrated the bankruptcy (in every sense of the word) of this view. Most Americans are ready to fire the Republicans, but they are not quite sure they want to hire the Democrats.
Jim Webb is a man pefectly placed to bring the message of the common good back to the heart of the Democratic Party. First, he himself switched parties because of the kernel of truth in Reagan's view. Second, he has written a book, "Born Fighting," about in the Scotch-Irish, the commmon good, and the Democrats. Third, few things would signal greater disgust with the GOP than Virginia firing her favorite son and presidential hopeful, George Allen, in favor of a former Reagan official who is now a Democrat.
The Democrats, who favored McCain-Feingold and now are as cynical as Republicans about defending free speech only when it serves their competitive interests, will someday win control of Congress. Then they can wrap their anti-constitutionalism in the Republicans' April 5 rhetoric. They can say:"In 2006 you Republicans said that because Democrats have done better than Republicans with 527s, the 527s should be restricted in order to 'level the playing field.' Now we will level the playing field by restoring the 'fairness doctrine' to broadcasting, thereby eliminating conservatives' unfair domination of talk radio."
The problem with talk radio and all media is that right wing pundits feel free to visciously attack the left, while the left still tries to stay fair. Thus 2 out of three messages are right wing and the third comes from the center. Either the left needs to stop astoundingly coddling thier right wing overlords, or "fairness" should return. Hello... WASHINGTON POST! THIS MEANS YOU