Distilling GOP Purity = Political Irrelevance

Stuart Rothenberg of The Rothenberg Political Report and Roll Call notes that conservative activists cheering the defection of Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to the Democrats don't seem to get it.

Thirty years ago, it was Democrats who imposed a rigid test on abortion, gun control and military spending, dismissing moderate Democrats as insufficiently pure. But party insiders learned their lesson after losing elections they assumed they would win, and the party started recruiting candidates who fit their districts.

The GOP is and will remain a conservative party. But unless its grass-roots activists come to accept the importance of nominating strong candidates who would be strong legislators, the party will be shut out of too many regions to enable it to be the strong national party that it was during the 1980s and 1990s. Conservative activists don't need to like Specter or agree with all of his votes, but cheering his exit from the party demonstrates that they don't understand the seriousness of their political troubles or how they can rebuild their brand.

Conservative commentator David Frum agrees.

Right now, I fear, the Republican mood is not conducive to party building. It’s a mandate for party shrinkage.

The United States is and has always been a centrist nation. The party that wins the center generally wins elections. The GOP's move further to the right ignores this history and courts a longer stay in the political wilderness.

--Ballard Burgher