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Florida tests GOP choice of purity or victory

Governor Charlie Crist’s decision to run for Republican Mel Martinez’s U.S. Senate seat, rather than seek re-election as Governor has brought Florida, once again, to the front stage of national politics. This time the Republican primary next year will be a microcosm of the national Party’s rush to purity.

Prior to the early to mid 1960’s, the Republican Party had a moderate faction and a more rigid socially conservative core. Perhaps the most familiar of the former was Nelson Rockefeller for whom the “wing” was named; significant members of the fiscally prudent but socially aware faction included Dwight Eisenhower and Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut, father and grandfather of President Bush, Nos. 41 and 43, respectively. Starting in the mid-1960’s, however, under Barry Goldwater, Republicans began to purge the Party of all who were of suspect purity, that is, the purged ones were socially moderate, believed in some business regulations and sufficient taxation to accomplish the proper functions of government.

The result of the unrelenting push for conservative purity has been a loss by the G.O.P. of the White House and of control of both houses of Congress. It continues forcing supporters of Republican positions on fiscal responsibility and limited government but also social responsibility, reasonable regulation of business and the permitting of abortion, coupled with practical policies that would reduce the need, to be shunned. Those who do not follow the Party-Line as defined by former Vice-President Chaney and Rush Limbaugh are treated as less than welcome. Whereas Democrats appear willing to build a majority party by a policy of inclusion (small business owners and labor, homosexual support groups and those opposing same-sex marriage, people favoring different methods of addressing the issues of the economy or of healthcare), the GOP is not.

In reality, a successful political party in the United States welcome all who believe in a handful of core issues while willing to accept those opposed to more tangential ones. Be that as it may, over the past weeks, the former Vice-President has expressed his view that Republicans who are deemed “moderate” because of their unwilling to accept all of the beliefs of the far Right forfeit their standing in the Party and are encouraged to leave, Thus Colin Powell, a genuine war hero and well respected by the American public of either Party is no longer “Republican enough; Arlen Specter, Senator from Pennsylvania, leaving the Party is “welcome” to do so.

Now we come to Charlie Crist. By conventional standards, Governor Crist is and remains a Republican; he is also a pragmatist. As Florida’s Attorney General and as a Gubernatorial candidate in 2006, Crist did all of the “right things” and pushed the correct buttons to keep his conservative Republican identity. He supported draconian punishment and the expenditure if funds on prisons in lieu of schools and teachers; he earned and proudly used the nickname: “Chain Gang Charlie” 

Governor Crist has a flaw that may make him unsuitable to the far right faction of the party, ideologues to whom any cooperation or agreement with Barack Obama is anathema.

Our state is in dire financial condition. Like many states, we are forbidden to operate from a deficit. Because of this, Governor Crist signed a contract that would allow the Seminole Indians to expand their already extensive casino operations. That act resulted in objection and a suit by the GOP controlled Legislature. These objections mostly disappeared in the face of reality. At the very end of the state legislative session, expanded gambling was approved. In other acts of apostasy, Governor Crist welcomed President Obama and made joint appearances extolling the latter’s stimulus program. In other words, the Governor is willing to “cross the aisle” to promote the people’s interest.

While many prominent Republicans have indicated support for the Governor’s running for and election to the Senate, it is by no means unanimous. Those same individuals who wish to drum Colin Powell out of the Party wish the same actions applied to Charlie Crist.  One man is planning to challenge the Governor in a primary fight; Marco Rubio, a south Florida politician who was the Speaker of the State House of Representatives. Mr. Rubio would not put up with the “dangerous and unrestrained ideas” of Governor Crist and is rather in the mold of the former Governor Jeb Bush. He receives accolades from those who prefer purity to victory – because let there be no doubt, the GOP has to make a choice.

The greater the time since the Jeb Bush reign, the better he looks. One reason is the inevitable comparison with his brother. In actuality, Jeb was an abject failure in business, much as brother “W” managed to leave Florida’s fiscal condition, school and educational system, infrastructure, and future in shambles. His unrelenting push for “privatization” destroyed an already weakened child protection agency and the foster care and prison systems. But he, and Rubio, talk the talk and walk the walk.

And so we wait. Will Florida Republicans want to win and, perhaps, reclaim the United States Senate? Will the Republicans rather stay pure? Stay tunes but . ..

I’d guess the latter.