In 1972, as left-liberals led the Democratic Party to a near-unbroken 20-year run of presidential-election disasters, the late, great New York Times columnist William Safire wrote that “nothing is more certain in politics than the crushing defeat of a faction that holds ideological purity to be of greater value than compromise.”
Safire’s comment was cited this March in a trenchant Commentary article by former White House aides Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, “How to Save the Republican Party.”
Their piece focused on the steps the party should take to avoid a fate similar to the Democrats a generation ago, while noting that the GOP has lost four of the past six presidential elections and is in danger of losing more unless it turns toward the center, as Democrats did with the presidency of Bill Clinton.
Before his election in 1992, Clinton developed his program — welfare reform, tough-on-crime, national service — through a centrist organization, the Democratic Leadership Council, unfairly derided by the left as “the Southern white boys’ caucus.”
The GOP sorely needs an equivalent of the DLC today to counter the right-wing ideological purists who dominate the House Republican Conference, terrify Senate Republicans and force GOP presidential candidates to take stances that make them unelectable.
via GOP Faces 20 Years in Desert Without DLC-Like Moderation | Pennsylvania Avenue.
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