Is this the end for’YankeeRepublicanism’?
‘Yankee Republicans’ May Be On Last LegsBy Cliff MontgomeryThere is a serious problem in American politics.The classic New England, or “Blue blood” Republican–fiscally conservative but socially liberal— is nearly extinct after a long and quiet decline which began more then a decade ago, when the GOP nationally began its move to the right.It is a political breed which has been around since William Howard Taft and the early days of the 20th Century.The Democratic tidal wave in the Nov. 7th elections claimed several victims in seats which had long been in “Yankee Republican” hands. Scholars say such losses may be the death knell for the traditional “rock-ribbed” New England Republican.Perhaps the best example is Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), whose family has been in the Senate for 30 years.Both of New Hampshire‘s Congressional seats switched parties. Six-term Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH), also part of a political family whose father held the same seat in Congress and whose grandfather was a governor, was swept out of power by the resurgent Democratic Party. So was Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-NH), who served 12 years in the state legislature before winning election to Congress in 2002.Twelve-term Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT), Connecticut’s longest-serving congresswoman, suffered a loss in the double digits to a Democrat.Yankee Republicans like Chafee’s father, the late Sen. John Chafee, former Sen. Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, or even President Bush‘s father, former President George H.W. Bush, once were the base of the party.This, unfortunately, is not the case anymore.The defeat of Senator Chafee, perhaps the most liberal of the “Yankee GOP” senators, and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH), who at times aligned himself with GOP moderates, leaves Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, and Arlen Specter (R-PA) as perhaps the only moderate liberal Republicans in the Senate.”It’s truly regrettable,” Snowe told Associated Press (AP). “Losing individuals like Linc Chafee and Mike DeWine, who were moderate consensus builders in the U.S. Senate, is a serious reversal.”John Kenneth White, a politics professor at Catholic University of America in Washington, went one step farther: he’s declared the current GOP to be little more than “the party of Dixie.””George W. Bush has taken the party further and further south,” he said.”This has really severed off the Yankee Republican New England establishment.””Yankee Republicans” had long been the real base of the GOP. They embrace the true liberal values of environmental stewardship and protection of personal liberties, including support of abortion rights. They differ from Democratic liberals only in pushing for more stringent fiscal responsibility.Chafee did not even support the Iraq war; Bradley, Bass and Johnson did. But they proudly call themselves environmentalists, a position that dates to the conservationism of liberal Republican Teddy Roosevelt, and also fully support embryonic stem cell research.Those are popular positions in a region where voters subscribe to personal liberty and pragmatism, and want to keep the government out of both their boardrooms and their bedrooms.But the GOP has moved farther and farther right since 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress.”That moderating voice in the party is going, resulting in a more conservative and more right-wing Republican Party,” added Gary Rose, a professor of politics at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.Some of the “Yankee Republicans” did survive Nov. 7th, including Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, who won a third two-year term, and Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri, who was re-elected to a second four-year term.In Connecticut, Rep. Chris Shays narrowly was re-elected; but Snowe easily won in Maine.America is best served when it has at least two distinct parties, putting forth somewhat different views for how we may best enjoy and preserve our freedoms. Yes, it may be good to know that the segment of the GOP which is only interested in destroying personal liberties was given such a “thumpin'” last week, but no one party should hold all the reins of power–even one dedicated to their view of personal liberties and civil rights for all, as is the liberal Democratic Party.America needs both Democrats and such “rock-ribbed” Republicans, each fighting for their understanding of how to preserve and expand these liberties–and each making reasonable compromises–for every lover of liberty to feel they have a voice in this democracy.But this stinging defeat may serve as a call for the GOP to rebuild its party from the ground up, said Chafee, who has indicated since his loss that he may leave the Republican Party.”I hope they can guide the party back to the middle,” Chafee recently said of the remaining liberal GOP senators. “At our peril we don’t.”
