Two Ways to Treat a Fringe Element

For my money, the most fascinating revelation that’s emerged from the Palin VP media circus is that McCain really wanted to choose Lieberman or Ridge, but had to cave to the powers that be when faced with the possibility of an evangelical revolt at the Convention. This story shows—yet again—the degree to which the Republican Party has devolved into a cobbled together coalition of fringe groups who, with money and voter mobilization power, control Republican politicians like puppet-masters when it comes to their pet issue.

Let’s see…you have the supply-side, tax-cuts-are-the-solution-for-everything Club for Growth, which has a stranglehold on economic policy. You have the evangelical zealots of the Christian Coalition, who dictate policy on abortion and other social issues. And you have the neocons that brought us the Iraq war running the show when it comes to foreign policy. There is simply no home for rational thinkers in the Republican Party. Moderate Republicans (and libertarians) increasingly find themselves in the political wilderness as the Republican Party increasingly finds itself with an ever-shrinking, ever-more-radical, political base. Republicans are fortunate to have nominated John McCain, perhaps the only candidate capable of bringing some of the more sensible folks back into the Republican fold (at least when it comes to abortion, the environment, campaign finance, and torture). But across the board, the passionate few won't let McCain be himself and go after his natural constituency of independents.

The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has the polar opposite relationship with its fringe elements. Unlike the GOP, the Democratic Party consistently ignores or muzzles the progressive groups that are passionate about a particular issue. Obama doesn’t have to pacify hard-core environmentalists, for example, on carbon emissions or drilling; it’s much easier for him to pretend they aren’t in the Democratic Party at all and, come November, expect their vote anyway. This may be a strategy for victory (at least this year), but the downside is that the Democratic Party ends up looking a lot like what I imagine a Republican Party might look like if it were run by moderate Republicans rather than a cobbled together coalition of radicals.