Most people
probably consider former President Jimmy Carter to be some kind of
liberal, but that's not how he ran for and won the nomination of his
party. He was a centrist and moderate reformer, liberal only for his
home state of Georgia. He was distinct from opponents like George
Wallace in the South, from neo-conservatives like Scoop Jackson of
Washington, and from liberals like Frank Church, Birch Bayh, and Sargent
Shriver. If Carter represented a wing of the party, it was an emerging
one. He came from the Southern wing of the party that accepted the
righteousness of the Civil Rights Era. He was much more Blue Dog than
liberal, and he governed that way, too, for the most part.
I was thinking about this when I read that
George W. Bush will
not be attending the Republican National Convention, let alone giving a
speech there. Poppy Bush also declined an invitation, citing poor
health. I hear that Sarah Palin didn't even receive an invitation to
appear. On the one hand, this seems like a whitewashing of history. On
the other hand, it brings into stark relief the fact that Mitt Romney
doesn't really represent any faction of the Republican Party. He doesn't
represent Yankee Republicanism because he has completely abandoned the
values of traditional New England conservatives in favor of the southern
flavor of the national party. It's not possible to find any issue where
Romney is a moderate. This would not be true if Rudy Guiliani or
Olympia Snowe or George Pataki were the nominee. There is no regional
appeal to Romney. He will not compete for any votes anywhere between
Delaware and Maine.
So, where is
he taking his party? Carter helped solidify the New South and moderate
his party's racial views. Reagan created a conservative revolution
within the GOP that his successor failed to reverse. Bill Clinton helped
invent the New Democrats, the DLC, and the Third Way. George W. Bush
pushed for compassionate conservatism, which meant big spending with no
cops on the beat, and permawar as the cherry on top. Barack Obama
created a new coalition and showed the Democrats a new way to win
elections.
It seems like all our
recent presidents, with the exception of Poppy Bush, have had a major
impact on their party. But not Romney. He's like an empty vessel. He
might as well be Haley Barbour. Who could tell the difference?
The
Republican National Convention is going to be weird. Dick Cheney might
be the only Republican there who has ever been elected to serve in the
White House. Maybe Dan Quayle will make it two.
And
a Massachusetts conservative will give a speech that could just as well
be delivered by Sen. Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III of
Alabama.
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