GOP Moderates, Still 'Dwindling' Away After 15 Years in the New York Times
Those GOP moderates just keep “dwindling” away. New York Times Political editor Richard Stevenson Sunday wrote about Americans Elect, a new organization that favors an alternative nominating process for electing a president in the name of nonpartisanship: “Group Clears a Path For a Third-Party Bid.” But what Stevenson called a “process to enable creation of a centrist ticket” was in fact packed with Democratic Party soldiers and disgruntled Republicans. Stevenson employed an old Times trick to denigrate the GOP by singling out for approval “one of a dwindling band of moderate Republicans.”
Those who have lent their names to the effort include Will Marshall, the president of the Progressive Policy Institute, the centrist Democratic research group; Christine Todd Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey and one of a dwindling band of moderate Republicans; Mark McKinnon, the strategist who guided Mr. Bush’s message in 2000 and 2004 but backed Mr. Obama in 2008 and now says his interest is “anything that disrupts the current system,” and Doug Schoen, a pollster who worked for Bill Clinton in the 1990s but is now frequently critical of Democrats.
Katharine Seelye used that same formulation in an April 16, 2009 story on then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania: “Mr. Specter is holding fast to his identity as part of a dwindling band of Republican moderates.”
As Times Watch has previously reported, the "dwindling band of Republican moderates" has been "dwindling" for a long time -- former reporter Adam Clymer used that exact same phrase back on December 1, 1996, giving back-handed praise to “very conservative” Sen. Trent Lott:
But the dwindling band of Republican moderates gives him high marks for attentiveness. ''I've always found him considerate of those in the party who weren't in total lock step with him,'' said Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island, who has not always found other conservatives so tolerant.
After 15 years of “dwindling,” it's a surprise there are any moderates left in the GOP at all!
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Comments
I say we go back to the original method
Submitted by c5then on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 10:19am.
Let the Electoral College elect the President with absolutely no popular vote at all.
We should also go back to Senators be appointed by their State Legislatures, also no popular vote at all.
That way we return to more of a republic with the States having more power than the Federal government.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
You and me against the world
Submitted by thestalkinghorse on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 10:40am.
I'd welcome your changes, but I do not hold out much hope.
both of you are on the
Submitted by jkwtrading on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:06am.
both of you are on the correct direction..we also need those whom vote without any vested interest in their vote, such as owning property, to be eliminated. The same era we allowed the senate to be popular vote we had the greatest influx of immigrants whom owned nothing. Their vote went to acquiring something from those whom did own something. a vote by people whom own nothing will eventually take from those whom do own something..right where we are now. it took a 100 years to get here, but we are here right now.
Income taxes and then any other tax became our way of "distributing" from those who owned to those who did not. It paved the way for politcal parties like the Democrats to love taxes.
Oh, for crying out loud!
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:05am.
Same as it ever was......same as it ever was.....
The media, God love 'em, are always sooo concerned bringing Republicans to the "center."
No one ever talks about a "centrist" ticket to approve of "moderate Democrats".....oh, I forgot, they're ALL "moderates."
Good everloving grief!
E.J. Dionne was trying to "save" the GOP with this:
Is it time for a GOP write-in campaign?
Normally, it would be too late for someone else to get in. But there is clearly space here for another candidacy. Write-in campaigns were once common in New Hampshire, though a long time ago. Henry Cabot Lodge won the 1964 Republican primary in New Hampshire, beating Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller, on the basis of a write-in campaign organized without his approval (or disapproval) while he was our Ambassador to South Vietnam. Will there be a Draft Daniels – or Christie or Portman – write-in effort?
and that was over a month ago!!
You can always hope, E. J.......and your pals at the NYT are glad to join their prayers to yours!
Democratic Party Brand
Submitted by Fredy on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:51am.
The democratic party has devolved into a very hard core of socialists. Their message simply cannot resonate in public. It is at times like these, that the socialists in America have needed to change their name, like from progressive to liberal to progressive, in order to have any chance for political survival in the next generation.
Obama has exposed the current crop of Democrats as the far left socialists they really are. What this group of socialists want is to rebrand themselves as the new 'centrist party'! Of course, if this rebranding happens, it will be controlled by the same progressive, liberal, socialists as the current democratic party.
Republican voter
Submitted by kg on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:54am.
Republican voter registrations have risen 5% while Democrats have dropped 4% this year.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
the more moderates dwindle in
Submitted by jkwtrading on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 11:57am.
the more moderates dwindle in the New York times the lower the stock goes...interesting..