Sink or Float – Aberdeen
I’ve read some GOP operatives claiming that there’s no principle in the decision – i.e. that Specter is a pure opportunist. Well, sure. But do you really want to be on the national news talking about how your brand is so toxic that long-term members of the party are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship?
I realize that what they’re trying to say is that Specter was facing the real risk of losing a primary. And that’s fine. But no one in the world thinks that Toomey would have anything but a looooong shot in the general, which means the message here is: “our party is so fractured and incoherent that we were ready to bump off a moderately popular Senator just to make a point about taxes.”
There is inevitably going to be a tension between holding together a party under a tent of specific ideas – fighting for those principles even when the going gets tough – and recognizing the pragmatic need to hold power before you can exercise it. There’s no perfect answer. But it’s hard to see what the Republicans are doing these days as even in the same ballpark as a good balance.
What’s more, I know people don’t often come out and make it crystal clear that they’re doing things out of political fear, but all of the castigation on this seems a little strange. Would people prefer that elected officials be strictly ideological and pay no attention to what the people they represent might want? The entire idea of turning the netroots into a political force is that it can change the political dynamics, force people to pay attention to their issues.
There’s an idealized world where the best ideas win purely on their own merit. And then there’s the actual world in which politics takes place, where appealing to interests of political actors is a necessary element of the game. If you are angry at Evan Bayh for not signing onto the Obama agenda, and you mobilize voting blocs against him, that’s not really any different than what’s happening with Specter. It’s all about producing a political environment where people can either choose to get on board or face political irrelevancy.
Specter was in a uniquely precarious position – thus the party switch. But it’s a difference of degree rather than kind, I think.