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It's a Grand Old Party indeed

The authors give credit to George and Jeb Bush for persuading party leaders to reach out to African-Americans and Latinos.

By DAVID COLBURN
Published September 17, 2006

The rise of the Republican Party to national leadership has been ongoing for nearly 50 years, starting at what might have been its lowest point, the rout of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater by Democrat Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Despite his defeat, Goldwater gave the party an ideological coherence, and his successors, from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and George Bush have modified that ideology over time to expand the party's outreach.

One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century by two of the nation's leading political reporters, Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten (Wallsten formerly wrote for the St. Petersburg Times) is one of the best written accounts and among the most insightful on the strategic, structural and organizational changes adopted by Republican leaders to aid its rise to power.

One Party Country complements and expands upon several important books that have been published in recent years to explain Republican achievements. Among these are Thomas Frank's highly entertaining and disconcerting What's the Matter with Kansas?, George Lakoff's thoughtful Don't Think of an Elephant, and two important historical accounts: White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism by Kevin Kruse and The Silent Majority by Matthew Lassiter.

While acknowledging the important individual contributions made by certain Republican leaders, Hamburger and Wallsten argue persuasively that the strategy of the Republican Party "was never designed to rest on the short-term fortunes" of a single politician. Political leaders like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay might be removed by scandal and presidents like George W. Bush might suddenly lose standing with voters, but the authors contend that the Republican Party will remain dominant for the foreseeable future because its durability has been carefully crafted on a conservative ideology and an infrastructure that is built to ensure success.

Hamburger and Wallsten give particular credit to Bush and his brother Jeb for recent Republican successes by persuading party leaders to abandon its lily-white roots and to reach out to African-Americans, Latinos and other minority voters. Relying on an appeal based on moral values and wealth creation, the Bush brothers made possible the party's significant gains among Hispanic voters and its smaller, but not insignificant, inroads among African-Americans.

The authors also argue that it is George W. Bush who, together with Grover Norquist and political guru Karl Rove, hatched plans for the party's long-term dominance. Despite the narrowness of Bush's victory in 2000, the president, Rove, and Norquist determined he should lead aggressively as an ideological conservative. They set in motion plans to build a conservative coalition by cultivating new Republican voters and launching a sweeping conservative realignment of government. It was an incredibly brash plan considering the results in 2000. But aided by redistricting in Southern states in the early 1990s, Republicans were well positioned in Congress and in many states to pursue their agenda.

By the 2004 election, Bush's forces had greatly enhanced their base through political appointments, aggressive initiatives to help big business, outreach to minorities and Voter Vault, a database that enabled the party to target specific interest groups down to the neighborhood level. Hamburger and Wallsten credit these developments with leading to Bush's defeat of Kerry in 2004. The evidence, however, is not quite so persuasive. While these developments no doubt aided Bush's re-election and other Republican victories, much of Bush's success resulted from voter concerns about international terrorism and the war in Iraq and their decision, as a result, to back the incumbent.

The authors concede that the public's growing disillusionment with the president's policies in Iraq and the embarrassing response to Hurricane Katrina may well swing the political momentum back to the Democratic Party in the 2006 elections. But they are equally certain that Democrats are ill-prepared to turn such victories into a winning movement, because the party lacks both the structural foundation and political agenda to do so. Even with the unpopularity of the war in Iraq, the authors note that Democrats have failed to agree on an alternative. Moreover, the party has no proposals for such critical issues as rapid globalization, growing economic disparities, and soaring health care costs.

Although one can take issue with Hamburger and Wallsten on some aspects of this book, they have done a masterful job in explaining the strategic planning and vision of Republicans and the ways they outmaneuvered Democrats. Those interested in modern American politics owe it to themselves to read this book.

David R. Colburn is a professor of history at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

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ONE PARTY COUNTRY: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century

By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten

John Wiley & Sons, $25.95, 272 pp

Reviewed by DAVID COLBURN

MEET THE AUTHORS

Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten, authors of One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century, will be featured authors at the Times Festival of Reading on Saturday, Oct. 28. The festival will be held at USF St. Petersburg and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

[Last modified September 16, 2006, 11:16:22]