Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Moderation is still a virtue
Posted by Abdul-Hakim Shabazz @AttyAbdul on Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 10:00 AM
This past summer I was downtown walking toward the Capitol
when I ran into Richard Mourdock. We hadn't seen each other since the primary
and so we stopped to chat. I congratulated him on his win and told him that
although I was a big Richard Lugar fan, I wished him well. I also shared with
him a story.
The first U.S. Senate campaign I ever covered as a reporter
was the 1996 race in Illinois. The storyline paralleled a lot of what happened
here in Indiana. Longtime U.S. Senator Paul Simon was stepping down leaving the
seat open. Democrats nominated then Congressman Dick Durbin and Republicans had
a contested primary pitting Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra against moderate Republican and
a state representative from the Chicago suburbs, a guy named Al Salvi. Salvi
would have been the 90s version of the Tea Party. He was pro-life, pro-gun,
pro-home school, anti-tax and just about anti-everything else.
Salvi galvanized the far right, called Kustra a RINO
["Republican in Name Only"] and everything else but a child of God
and managed to win. He shocked the establishment by scoring a victory. And
just when we thought things couldn't get any worse back then, he shocked
everyone again by running a horrible campaign and ever since then, Dick Durbin
has the been a U.S. Senator from my home state.
Does any of this seem familiar?
While I don't recall Salvi ever having a "rape/abortion/God's
will" moment. The fact is that he never moderated his positions or more
importantly, his rhetoric, he went on lose by a healthy 56 to 44 percent. You
would have thought that any sane, rational political person would realize that
the strategy you use in a primary isn't always the best one to use in a general
election.And that is what the
problem has been for Republicans for a while and it all came to a head in last
week's election.
GOP associations with the crazy tea party crowd have paid their
dividends. In a year with unemployment near 8 percent, Republicans
managed to not only lose the presidency, but also Democrats had a net gain of
two seats in the United States Senate. And, as my progressive counterpart
Democrat Kip Tew noted, had it not been for 2010 redistricting, Democrats would
have recaptured the U.S. House.
Republicans can no longer afford to be the party of angry,
bitter, white men. The big reason being there won't be enough of them. America
is changing and becoming a more diverse society. The GOP needs to understand. And
instead of talking about forcible rape and God's will, the party should be
talking about economic empowerment. No, I take that back, the party should be
talking to blacks, Latinos and women about economic empowerment.
Barack Obama's campaign did one heck of an outreach, making
an emotional connection with voters, making them feel like they had a stake in
his re-election. Mitt Romney did not do that and the GOP at the U.S. Senate
level didn't help matters much either by running so many extremists who have no
real appeal to that moderate/middle-of-the-road voter. And what is the end
result, a re-elected Barack Obama and more Democrats in Congress.
Oh well, there's always 2014. Maybe someone will learn
moderation is not just a virtue, but a winning strategy as well.
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