For the GOP, the ‘big tent’ fell down

BY TRAVIS FICK
Managing Editor

With the Nov. 3 defeat of yet another moderate Republican running in a special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district, the “Grand Old Party” (GOP) seems to be sending the signal that the Republican’s ‘big tent’ is no longer accepting new members.

While the Republican Party would like to believe that there is another Republican “wave” coming in the 2010 midterm, party leaders seem to have forgotten that the fringe politics of Rush Limbaugh and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin do not win
national elections.

When Republican leaders embraced the Conservative Party’s candidate Doug Hoffman in a district that has been represented by a Republican since the mid-1800s, the true Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, was pushed to the side because her views reflect that of many moderate New England Republicans. Scozzafava is pro-choice, pro-marriage equality and said she would consider supporting the president’s stimulus plan, but that was not good enough for a party that is moving even further right.

In a region of the country known for its strong “Rockefeller” Republican roots, today Democrats represent the northeast overwhelmingly. Of the 14 senators from New England, only three are Democrats. Of the 55 members of the House of Representatives, only two are Republicans. Consider after the 1994 Republican “wave” of the 55 members of the House of Representatives; the northeast was represented by 22 Republicans and of 14 senators; seven were Republicans.

But “waves” do not happen when you rely on a small, extremely conservative base, and that is what the GOP does not seem to get. Fringe politics do not win elections; center-left or right policies do. When you have Palin attacking Scozzafava and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty attacking moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, ME., no wonder the moderates feel out of place.

In 2006 and 2008, the Democrats were successful because they were open to the concept of the “big tent” party, or that the party is made of individuals of all ideologies. As the GOP leadership took the party to the right, individual members of congress, such as former Reps. Chris Shays, Conn., and Sue Kelly, N.Y., did not move with them and were defeated by moderate Democrats.

If the GOP feels the need to close the door to their tent, then the Democratic Party will make our doors open even more, increasing the chances that more Democrats are elected and further making the GOP even more of a minority party.