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The Republican Party

You must know how Republicans got to where they are today in order to understand how Republicans can make a resurgence. Unlike the Democrats, where the leadership and the base seem to walk in lock step with each other, the Republicans seem to be all over the place. While the party was largely united in the 1970s and 80s, cracks began to show in the 90s and today we have wide canyons dividing the Republicans. The Democrats have opened the door for the Republicans to make massive gains throughout the United States, but can the Republicans get their act together in time to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them?

Senator Barry Goldwater was the architect of conservatism in the Republican Party. His brand of conservatism consisted mainly of less government, lower taxes, individual freedom and responsibility, and states rights. In Goldwater's bid for president, he lost by one of the largest margins in history. But this was more due to his stand against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (a Republican piece of legislation) and the recent assassination of President John F. Kennedy, than to his conservative views.

Sixteen years later, Ronald Reagan, using the economic conservative principles of Barry Goldwater, supplemented by the social conservative principles of Jerry Farwell's Moral Majority, as well as his strong conservative foreign policy agenda, won an overwhelming victory over President Jimmy Carter and the liberal Democrats. Four years later, President Ronald Reagan won forty-nine of fifty states based on his successful implementation of conservatism.

In 1988 three things occurred that would lead to the eventual decline of the Republican Party. First, Jerry Falwell shut down the Moral Majority, an organization that welcomed into its fold Catholics and Jews as well as Protestant Christians. Second, after losing his presidential bid Pat Robertson used his remaining campaign funds to start the Christian Coalition which used heavy-handed tactics to get its way and began pushing out of the Republican Party Catholics, Jews, pro-abortion advocates, and others it didn't agree with. Third was the election of George H. W. Bush as president with a campaign based on Reagan conservatism (and the shadow of President Reagan), but then serving as the true moderate that he was.

It's important to know that what you do today in politics may not have an effect for years to come. And the shadow of greatness of President Ronald Reagan took an extraordinary effort to undo. In the nineties, you had in place three of the four factors needed to bring down the Republican Party. A move away from Reagan conservatism, the bullying of the Christian Coalition, and the push away from Ronald Reagan's "Big Tent" philosophy of inclusiveness by the social conservatives.

The final nail came in the mid-nineties with Republican political consultants. Aside from the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan, the next most powerful asset of the Republican Party was its base and in particular its network of Republican Clubs. In an effort to increase the reliance of candidates (and increase profits), consultants drove a wedge between the grassroots of the party and the candidates. This separation created the atmosphere that ultimately led to a disconnect between the grassroots and the Republican office holders. The synergy between the two, thus being broken, led to many office holders moving to the center, the Republican grassroots leadership working to push out all but the born again evangelical Christians, and "true Reagan conservatives" looking around going, "What happened?"

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