GOP: A Party In Desperate Search Of Itself.

It’s a mess, this election. One candidate will, of course, win and become President of the United States. The other candidate will, of course, lose. We believe, as we last opined, that Hillary Clinton will win this election and become the 45^th President of the United States.

All things considered the alternative, that is, the election of Donald Trump would, to us, represent an unacceptable turn in American politics—a hail-Mary pass into a strange, dark and risky labyrinth. Great nations have, from time to time, found common cause with shallow, blustering, demagogic politicians, and those flirtations have never ended well. We do not believe the vast majority of Americans have made common cause with either candidate, but we believe the discomfort with Trump will trump the discomfort with Clinton.

We are not, however, among those who thrill to the prospect of a Hillary Clinton Presidency. But we’ll hope for the best, and for better alternatives to emerge by 2020. Hillary Clinton is committed to positions that abandon the political center for the siren call of the far left. And, according to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, her pursuit of that siren call will increase federal spending $1.65 trillion over the next decade, raise taxes by $1.5 trillion and increase the national debt by $200 billion. And anyone who thinks the resulting tax squeeze will be limited to the proverbial one percent should stay away from people with bridges to sell.

We will not excess over her lack of foreign affairs accomplishments or her policy and management missteps or her other flaws that simply don’t commend her to the oval office. Suffice to say, she has a seriously convoluted notion of candor. But then again, her opponent in this election has not made virtue the cornerstone of his campaign either. In fact, other than bumper sticker pronouncements we’re not sure what his governing policies would be. He is, unquestionably, the most divisive personality ever to seriously seek the Presidency of the United States. All of which brings us to the purpose of our essay today.

The Republican Party is in serious trouble. The substantial, and to us troubling, number of Republicans who are devoted Trumpsters will not go away when this election is over. Most, we believe, will not be chastened either. The center will not reconstitute itself, and, indeed, the Republican center has been steadily eroding for years. This is not the party of Lincoln, or Teddy Roosevelt, or Dwight Eisenhower, or Jack Kemp or Richard Lugar, or William Ruckelshaus or, Bob and Elizabeth Dole or, for that matter, Ronald Reagan. This is, today, a largely angry party—sent to Washington by a largely and understandably angry electorate—angry not just because the national debt has grown so large, but angry because no one seems to care. Their constituents are angry because slow-to-no growth seems okay to our elected representatives in Washington. They are angry because student debt now exceeds almost all other “consumer” debt— even more than all credit-card debt combined. And they are frustrated that fewer and fewer of our workers have the skills to command the decent salaries that our technology-based, information economy pays.

This is not the sole fault of either Party. Both Parties have stultified with representatives who are more focused on re-election than the hard work of legislating and governing. They have, much too often, focused on their own business rather than the Peoples’ business.

To be sure, both Parties have migrated away from the political center, but the Republican Party has, generally, drifted to the right further and faster than the Democratic Party has drifted to the left — at least until 2016. The influence of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, however, is changing that. These self-styled political purists have large and very active constituencies that Hillary Clinton will have to satisfy if she is not to be a one-term President, and rest assured, Hillary will have no intention of becoming a one-term President.

America has generally been a centrist nation, always more moderate than extreme. That has been our greatest strength—our unique true North. America’s secret, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1835, “lies in her ability to repair her faults.” It is not hard today to discern our faults, either from the left or from the right. We are bereft of moderates in government. Moderation has become a term of abuse on both sides of the aisle, but particularly on the right. Too many Republicans, in particular, today eschew moderation as though it were synonymous with capitulation. But it is no such thing. Governing requires problem solving, and, barring autocratic rule, problem solving requires moderation—a willingness to work together and an understanding that problem solving is, or should be, the business of politics and governing.

Ours is not a perfect system. Indeed, it is rather messy. In 1787, the 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin harbored many concerns about the proposed Constitution and had argued vigorously for provisions that did not make the final draft. Yet, in the final hours of debate at the Constitutional Convention, Franklin urged his colleagues “who may still have objections to it … to doubt a little of their own infallibility” and adopt an excellent, if imperfect, document. That advice, when writing legislation, is as sound today as it was at the founding. Making good the enemy of the perfect in a democratic, two-party system is a disservice to the country. It is foolish, even stupid.

We suspect a functional third party may emerge from this election consisting mostly of those disaffected Republicans who simply will not be able to identify with many of their post-election colleagues.

 We understand the frustration of serious men and women who are frustrated by the extreme positions of their party’s standard bearer, and we would not be surprised to see scores of them coalesce around more moderate leadership. The criticism hurled by many talk radio and cable television personalities that moderates lack principles is, of course, absurd. We have huge problems to solve including our long-term fiscal challenges, global terrorism, a broken immigration system, escalating health care costs and many more.

A more moderate Republican Party will build on the Party’s historical fiscal conservatism while remaining highly skeptical of ever expanding, ever encroaching government. But it will also remain committed to civil and personal rights, providing a safety net for those citizens who are struggling to gain their footing in a rapidly changing economy and a realistic commitment to environmental protection.

We believe a growing number of Americans will support sensible positions emanating from both parties, and that many will, of course, reject certain ideas from both parties. We recently quoted from Charles Wheelan’s Centrist Manifesto, “that the time has come to take the best ideas from each party, discard the nonsense, and build something new and better.”

All of the founders feared the rise of political parties, because they knew how divisive they would become. They also knew that the rise of political parties would be inevitable in the democratic system they were creating. Well, our Parties have, indeed, become as divisive as the founders feared. The remedy, the only remedy, might just be a new third Party that serves to ameliorate the extremes to which both Parties have migrated.

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