Tag Archives: Progressive Republicans

Quixotic yes; obtuse, no: on marathons, health care, and re-registering as a Democrat

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I ran, if that’s the word for it, the Los Angeles Marathon again yesterday. I’m not trained the way I was in the past, so some friends and I jogged the course together, snapping photos and (at least in my case) providing live Facebook and Twitter updates as we moseyed from Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica Pier. Slower than molasses, but lots of fun — and nice not to feel sore the next day, as I would have if I had actually put the proverbial pedal to the metal.

Last night, my wife was out and Heloise went down early. With my daughter asleep next to me, I sat on the couch and watched CNN and C-Span as the health care drama in the House of Representatives unfolded. During the race earlier in the day, I’d been keeping up to date on House negotiations via the iPhone, and knew about Bart Stupak’s decision to back reform before I finished the marathon. And I watched, fingers crossed and at times breath held, as the bill passed. When the number “216″ flashed on the screen, I pumped my fist and mouthed “Yes!”, carefully avoiding disturbing the slumbering little one at my side.

I don’t blog a great deal about politics and health care, but do want to make it clear that I strongly support health care reform. Indeed, count me in the army of those who would like to see a single-payer system in place! I’ve lived abroad, and have personally known excellent care with the NHS — as have many members of my family. I bristle at the misrepresentations of European-style socialized medicine by those who haven’t ever experienced it. Totalitarianism it most certainly isn’t.

Since I’d spent the day connected on Facebook and Twitter, I kept at it during the health care vote. I have lots of friends on the former who represent the political spectrum from pole to pole, and I follow a fair number of folks on Twitter. My conservative acquaintances were as aghast as my liberal friends were ebullient; reading their posts and tweets there were very few reactions anywhere between the extremes of jubilation and despair. Either America had fulfilled a long lost dream or abandoned it; either the country was headed for increased prosperity or desperation and malaise. The rigidly dichotomized reactions were perhaps emblematic of our polarized political climate, and perhaps they were also warranted, given that for once, the hype about the significance of a piece of legislation wasn’t oversold. This did matter, and both sides knew it.

Several years ago, I re-registered as a Republican. I posted about my quixotic hope to participate in a revival of progressive influence within the GOP. But I’ve watched as the few Republican moderates (with the loss of Lincoln Chaffee in Rhode Island, we have no GOP liberals in elected office left in the USA) were either demonized or forced to toe the party line. There’s idealistic — and then there’s silly. And I think that staying a Republican in the hopes that the few dollars I threw at Republicans for Environmental Protection or the Republican Majority for Choice would make a difference is absurd. Last night’s debate, in which the GOP seemed monolithic not merely in its opposition to sensible reform but also hate-filled in its rhetoric, demonstrated to me that it’s time to give up the silliness. I’m re-registering as a Democrat this week.

The faithful remnant rises: a moment of opportunity for progressive Republicans?

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In February, I put up a post called The quixotic faithful remnant: on being a happy liberal Republican in which I explained my commitment to the tiny but still potentially relevant left-wing of the Grand Old Party. Lately, I’ve encountered a number of fellow progressive Republicans through social networking sites like Facebook. As the battle rages on for the heart and soul of the Republican Party, the widespread assumption is that the struggle is primarily between those on the center-right and those on the far right. But this ignores the reality that there remain — particularly on the West Coast and in the Northeast — a large number of socially liberal, environmentally concerned, fiscally responsible folk who continue to identify with the GOP.

The fact is that on a great many issues, particularly around the environment, gay rights, and reproductive health, large contingents of the Democratic majority in Congress are well to the right of center. Indeed, until Arlen Specter rather cravenly switched parties this spring, Pennsylvania had the distinction of having as its two senators a pro-choice Republican (Specter) and a pro-life Democrat (Bob Casey, Jr.) While it would be a stretch to call Sen. Specter a feminist (we remember his shameful behavior during the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings), his record on reproductive rights as a Republican was substantially better than his Democratic counterpart. We see the same thing in the House: Shelley Capito, a fine moderate Republican congresswoman from West Virginia is well to the left of her Democratic counterpart from Ohio, Marcy Kaptur, on virtually all reproductive rights issues. Put simply, the Democrats became a majority party once again by actively recruiting socially conservative but economically populist candidates to run in swing states. (Think Heath Shuler, Jon Tester, Jim Webb, the aforementioned Casey, and so on.) From the standpoint of those who see women’s right to choose as a central issue, this is immensely troubling.

And what of President Obama himself? I continue to have reasonably high regard for him, but am more than a little disappointed by some of his decisions in the three critical areas of women’s rights, gay and lesbian inclusion, and environmental protection. And it occurs to me that progressive Republicans can make a case for criticizing the president by challenging him from his left. Below the fold are three issues where prominent Republicans are to the president’s left. Continue reading →

The quixotic faithful remnant: on being a happy liberal Republican

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Moderate Republicans have been back in focus over the past week in the Senate debate over the current stimulus bill. Three senators in particular, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, have thrown their support behind a less sweeping economic package. In doing so, they have bucked the remainder of the GOP, earning brickbats and calumnies galore from hard-line conservatives. The senators from Maine face no real threat; given that New England has been traditionally inhospitable to right-wingers, the only threat Collins and Snowe might face in the future comes in a general election from Democrats, not from the GOP. Specter may face a serious challenge in 2010 in the Republican primary, but it’s unlikely a true social conservative can win statewide in Pennsylvania again; Rick Santorum was (thankfully) the last of his kind in that region of America.

I don’t write a great deal about politics on this blog. But I am heartened by the significant role that Snowe and Collins in particular have played in this current congressional drama. As regular readers know, I re-registered as a Republican a little over a year ago. I did so not because my politics have shifted to the right (they haven’t), but because I’ve become increasingly satisfied with the core values of the Democratic party leadership today. The Democratic party doesn’t need me — but quixotically enough, I think the GOP does need folks like me.

Students of political history know that the term “progressive Republican” only recently became an oxymoron. Indeed, for much of the twentieth century, it was Republicans who took the lead on environmental and women’s issues. The Roosevelt Democratic coalition of the 1930s to the 1960s, relying as it did on trade unionists, Catholics, Jews, and Southern whites, was frequently more socially conservative and less interested in environmental protection than the GOP. Family planning tended to be an issue that garnered more Republican than Democratic support, largely because Democratic leaders saw anti-contraception Catholics as so vital to electoral victory. Similarly, unions tend to be interested in jobs; massive construction projects create those jobs. Environmentalists tend to oppose major construction projects, and thus the interests of working class trade unionists and traditional conservationists were diametrically opposed. Continue reading →

Twelve days out: of dollars and polls, and — finally — an Obama endorsement

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If the polls can be believed (and not all the polls agree), we are moving inexorably closer to a Barack Obama victory on November 4. Like many progressives, I fear a sudden disaster (either tactical or geopolitical) that shifts massive energy to the McCain campaign. I’ve learned to take nothing for granted; after the bitter disappointments of 2000 and 2004, I’ve become clear that it ain’t over until the votes are counted three times and the Supreme Court intervenes. (May it not be that close this time.)

I’m worried, too, that the great success of the Obama fundraising may have hurt other progressive causes. I mean that in two ways. Progressives in California who are committed to, say, better treatment for farm animals (Proposition 2); protecting access to abortion for our most vulnerable young people (Proposition 4) and preserving marriage equality for all (Proposition 8) have many causes to which to give. Obama has outraised McCain impressively; I can think of dozens of people who have given, and given, and given to the inspiring and transformational senator from Illinois. (I know many folks who have given to Obama who have never donated to a politician in their lives before.) This is all to the good, up to a point. Propositions 2, 4, and 8 are all likely to be close. Big agriculture interests in the Midwest are spending a fortune to defeat Prop 2, while national conservative groups like Focus on the Family have spent millions and millions to pass Prop 8. And in these battles, progressive groups are behind in fundraising.

At the same time, some conservatives have given up on McCain. Read the conservative blogs — it’s not just the likes of Colin Powell, it’s David Frum and Christopher Buckley and George Will and so forth. Not all have endorsed Obama outright, but many have been deeply pessimistic about McCain. The money isn’t flowing in to the GOP coffers as fast as it comes in for Obama-Biden. Frustrated right-wingers who want to salvage something are thus turning their attention to issues like marriage, abortion, and animal rights. Prop 8, which would ban gay marriage, thus benefits (perversely) from the national Republican ticket’s poor prospects. Continue reading →

In praise of progressive Republicanism: celebrating the triumph of McCain

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I spent a lot of time yesterday reading commentary about the Super Tuesday results, and admit that I spent most of that time focused on the Republican race, about which more in a moment.

On the Democratic side, I started supporting John Edwards last year and continued to support him until he dropped out of the race. His was the most consistently progressive voice of the three major candidates; I am pleased to see that the two candidates who remain have been influenced by his rhetoric, particularly on poverty issues. I wrote last month that all things being equal, I was slightly more inclined to Hillary Clinton than to Barack Obama. That’s more out of admiration for Hillary than dislike of Barack. I don’t accept the “suffering Olympics” model that posits either sexism or racism as worse than the other; the election of either a woman or a black man to the most powerful office on the globe would be equally revolutionary. What matters to me is simple: I want each candidate’s voters to pledge unequivocal support to the party’s nominee. If Clinton does end up with the nomination — and I give her about a 60% chance of doing so — Obama will need to urge his supporters, particularly the young ones, not to be disheartened. If he doesn’t get the nomination in 2008, the chances are excellent he will someday.

But of course, I changed my registration to Republican last year. It’s not that I am ideologically comfortable with today’s GOP. On virtually every major issue, the Democratic party is a better fit for me. But that’s less because I am particularly left-wing and more because the GOP has, since my childhood, moved farther and farther right. The GOP of my childhood included not just moderates, but genuine progressives, especially on environmental issues. The GOP was never just the party of the right; it was also the party of Pete McCloskey and Millicent Fenwick. Continue reading →