Following its sweeping defeat in the presidential election, the Republican Party is beginning a period of reflection and rebuilding. So far, this has played out on editorial pages and airwaves in predictable ways, as one Republican pundit squares off against another. But their familiar screeching and table-banging indicate things are not yet changing for the GOP. For that to happen, the fighting needs to get much uglier.
There are signs this is starting to happen. This week, the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives booted two of its members from the budget committee after they urged fellow Republicans to oppose any tax increases. For Congressmen Tim Huelskamp of Kansas Jusin Amash of Michigan the penalty for undercutting their boss, John Boehner, was swift and harsh. Huelskamp also lost his post on the agriculture committee, leaving Kansas without a representative there for the first time in 151 years.
But this is as it should be. Politics is a rough trade, and Republicans are facing a tough showdown with President Obama over the budget and a larger challenge over their future. This won’t be the last time we see a clash within the party. Beyond Washington, this battle will play out locally, in counties and congressional districts. For it’s deep in the local party structures that delegate selection rules are set, platforms are cast and potential candidates are put forward.
If the moderates are serious about taking control of the GOP, they will have to fight precinct by precinct, challenging conservatives who have held local-party roles for many years. When a fierce battle erupts for GOP leadership posts in Iowa, South Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire then you can be certain that the Republican reconstruction is underway.
Because trying to win over the party establishment was Mitt Romney’s strategy, and it failed.
Ironically, Romney pursued the strategy that a brash campaign staffer proposed to a little known Georgia governor in 1972. In a now-famous 27-page memo to Jimmy Carter, Hamilton Jordan outlined a strategy to capture the Democratic nomination in the aftermath of the sweeping defeat of George McGovern. Here’s his advice for how Carter should approach the Democratic primaries:
An over-reaction to McGovern’s defeat is very possible, and although the party rules need to be modified, you should not be part of any effort which would give the appearance of “closing the Party” to the people and specifically to the McGovern activists who dominated it this past year. Their expertise and enthusiasm will be needed in 1976. Unless extreme and drastic measures are taken, the people will still control the party and the selection of the party nominee through the primary processes. This is as it should be. The greatest mistake the party could make would be to restructure or build the party around a particular person, i.e., Senator Kennedy. This will be a tremendous temptation-as Kennedy is regarded by many as the savior of the party and the probably nominee in 1976.
Following Jordan’s playbook, Romney did not ‘close the party’ to Republican activists, and sought to bring them aboard his campaign. But what worked 40 years ago didn’t work today, at least not in the GOP. Romney wasn’t conservative enough to energize the party’s activist base, yet he was far too conservative for the broader electorate.
Somewhere today there may be a brash young staffer who is staying up late to write a master strategy for a Republican presidential hopeful. It might call for having precisely the fight that Hamilton Jordan wanted to avoid.