Earthquake

29 April 2009



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Senator Specter Switches to Democrats

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a moderate by most measures, finally had enough of the rightist Republican leadership. Yesterday, he switched to the Democratic Party. In so doing, he has put the Democrats within a single vote of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate; Al Franken of Minnesota will be that other vote once the courts are done adjudicating the legal challenge to his election. The move illustrates just how far along the fragmentation of the Reagan coalition has gone.

There was a time when both parties were broad tents. Conservative Democrats in the South managed to coexist with New England liberals, while New England's Republicans kept the progressive values of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt alive next to small government westerners. Ideologically, it was rather incoherent. However, it made governing much easier because the center held.

After the Republicans' Goldwater debacle in 1964 and the disaster the Democrats held in lieu of a convention in 1968 in Chicago, the right moved toward the GOP and the left went Democratic. For those interested in philosophical purity, this was a good thing. The problem is that such purity never renders a majority after an election. What does create majorities under such conditions is the implosion of the opposition.

The Republicans have, more or less, imploded. Having lost the 2006 mid-term elections as well as the 2008 general election, they have no unifying leadership. When a radio talk show host like Rush Limbaugh is seen as the keeper of the flame, it says the party's elected officials are pretty second-rate. As one commentator said, “20 million listeners make you a hot radio property. 20 million voters makes you a presidential loser.”

The leadership essentially chased Mr. Specter out of the party. Elected in 1980, he came to office along with Ronald Reagan at a time when the Democrats and Republicans could work together. His willingness to vote with the Obama administration on the bank bailout and other issues was out of step with the obstructionists in the Party of “No.” When they announced a primary challenge to him (he's up for re-election in 2010), they essentially gave him a choice between voluntary retirement, forced retirement, or a change of party. A survivor of cancer as well as Senate politics, Mr. Specter accepted the challenge and has left the GOP twisting in the wind.

That is not to say the Democrats have a lock on Senate procedure once Mr. Franken arrives. Mr. Specter is independent-minded, and there are other Democrats who will see their chance to get a pound of flesh in exchange for their vote on filibusters. Democrats lack the party discipline of the GOP. However, the loss of Mr. Specter means that the GOP will continue to move to the right, alienate more independents as it does so, and continue to lose the few marginal seats that remain in the gerrymandered House of Representatives. America needs an opposition party, but it appears the GOP isn't up to the job.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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