BUILT TO LAST (via <~text text="Bush/Cheney 2004">

GOP Seeks Lasting Majority: The party dreams of a political dominion. To do that, they're claiming Democratic ideals, raising millions and targeting lobbyists. (Janet Hook, July 21, 2003, LA Times)

Emboldened by a popular president, key fund-raising advantages and an opposition party plagued by divisions, Republicans are heading into the 2004 campaign eyeing a goal that extends far beyond the election: They want to establish political dominion for years to come. [...]

Toward that end, Republicans have pressed their cause with bold--some say hardball--tactics. They launched an effort to redraw state political maps to favor GOP candidates. They are laying claim to issues--such as improving education and health benefits--traditionally associated with Democrats. They are trying to turn Washington's lobbying establishment into an army of GOP loyalists. And they are building up campaign treasuries that dwarf the Democrats'.

"It is breathtaking," said Thomas Mann, an expert on politics at the Brookings Institution think tank. "It's the most hard-nosed effort I've seen to use one's current majority [to try] to enlarge and maintain that majority."

The effort may not succeed, but the sheer exuberance of the GOP drive stands in stark contrast to the pessimism that pervades Democratic
circles.

We've spoken some in recent days over the balance one has to strike between principle and political reality. The Republican Party did something really interesting in this regard, if not wholly intentionally, when it nominated George W. Bush instead of John McCain in 2000. Senator McCain would have had a far easier time defeating Al Gore in the general election, but he is not a social conservative ant more and seems to have little vision of where the Party and the nation should be headed. The implicit promise of George W. Bush was that he was uniquely capable of being a transforming figure in American politics, the explicitly conservative candidate who had the capacity and the will to court not the socially liberal whites who McCain appealed to but the naturally conservative portions of the Jewish, black and Latino communities.

In addition, the President has laid out a broad agenda of what can be done once such a durable majority is achieved. It includes: reform and privatization of entitlement programs; voucherizing public education; devolution of social services to local charitable and religious organizations; reconfiguring the military into a lighter, more mobile, more technology-driven force; transitioning the tax system so that it focusses on consumption; free trade agreements; returning the Courts to a less activist posture; placing limits on abortion, biotechnology experimentation and other procedures that disregard the dignity of human life; etc. The effort to ensure his own re-election and that of Republican majorities has led to compromises that one would have preferred to avoid--steel tariffs; a bloated farm bill; etc.--and requires avoiding fights that will alienate the groups the GOP is trying to entice, particularly when waging the fight won't change the result, as with the Court's atrocious affirmative action decision. But when you're playing for such high stakes it seem sensible to expend more effort on the big pots than the little.


MORE:
Ex-NASCAR official eyes Boucher race: Triplett considers 9th District drive (TYLER WHITLEY, Jul 11, 2003, Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH)

Southwest Virginia Republicans may be turning to NASCAR to try to wrest the 9th District congressional seat from 21-year Democratic incumbent Rick Boucher.

Kevin Triplett of Abingdon said he is exploring a candidacy and said, if he runs, he will bring NASCAR principles to the congressional race.

Triplett recently resigned as managing director of business operations for the auto-racing association.

In a brief interview, Boucher said he knows nothing about Triplett and expects several Republicans will try to take him on when he seeks re-election
next year.

Triplett said he has learned from NASCAR a sense of urgency.

"Time is of the essence" in trying to reverse the fortunes of Southwest Virginia, he said.

He said he also has learned the value of teamwork and responding to a constituency, whether it be fans, drivers or pit crews.

This is the kind of seemingly safe seat that the Democrats run the risk of losing if this election does get nationalized at the lower levels. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 21, 2003 11:21 AM