One More Disappointment And We’re Out Of Here

From all the disgruntlement he’s receiving, Washington state GOP Chairman Dale Foreman certainly must feel like a seismologist waking up to find his lamp swinging and huge needle movement on his lab’s Richter scale.

News reports on the just completed 1997 state legislative session paint a beautiful picture of “compromise” and “cooperation” between the two major parties. That’s the take by both Democratic Gov. Gary Locke and the majority Republican leadership in the Legislature. And it all sounds so heartwarming. Yet, truth is, there are serious disagreement deep inside the GOP.

This session, GOP leadership spent revenues right up to the governor’s budget, totally missing their best opportunity ever to cut government down to size. They then proceeded to cave in on every other major issue before them. I don’t call it compromise when you collapse before the fight even starts. ln fact, Locke has stated that he is “very pleased” with the results of this year’s session. (That certainly raises my eyebrows.)

As far as I can see, the only political fighting this year was between conservative and liberal factions within the GOP.

The truth is, if you’re a real conservative seeking real conservative goals (you know, those extremist goals of less government, less spending, lower taxes and fewer regulations), you have to be more than a little disappointed this year. Because of Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, there was great hope in conservative circles for major changes in government. Instead, we got business as usual parading as compromise and cooperation.

After talking with conservative leaders all across Washington, I’d use the word “stunned” to describe their feelings. From the start, most were certain that GOP leadership wanted the same things they did. But they were sorely disappointed in the final days.

To many people, including the press, compromise and cooperation have become the goals today, rather then doing what is right - certainly in terms of making any real changes. The politically correct way of thinking now is to avoid confrontation at all costs - nothing is worth getting anybody upset. Yet, the very purpose of opposing political parties is for the interjection of differing ideas and views. Elections are then held so people choose a direction for government.

The winning party’s views generally are more prominent in the course of legislation. But not so with the GOP this year. In some ways, it’s as if the Democrats are still running the show.

Many conservative ideals were introduced this year, only to be rejected, leaving the average citizen with more growth in government, along with more meddlesome laws, not to mention more unfulfilled conservative promises.

And now, GOP leadership doesn’t recognize that what they are seeing as only a slight tremor in party ranks is actually a major fault ripping through the terrain.

I have warned of mounting dismay and forthcoming rifts if weak GOP leadership allowed such things as publicly financed sports stadiums, gas tax increases or any other state spending increases this session. As it stands, the failure of the gas tax proposals is the only victory for conservatives. Conservatives believe that monies needed for roads should come from existing revenue windfalls, rather than picking the voters’ pockets again.

Finally, I see the term limits issue pending before the state Supreme Court as the final factor in determining just how far the seismic fault will cause the Republican ground to separate.

The court should rule soon. Should the justices overturn voter-approved term limits, I think there will be a huge exodus by strong GOP conservatives. And conservative legislators likely will see their future again at the mercy of less-than-conservative leadership - career legislators who refuse to go home or make any real changes in government called for by the people who voted them in.

The longstanding contention on the left side of the GOP has always been that conservatives have no other place to go. Maybe. But there is a growing feeling among true conservative members that this point makes very little difference if conservative goals can’t be accomplished anyway. Conservatives are beginning to see walking away as their only option.

As with Mother Nature’s seismic anomalies, perhaps political upheavals also need to occur every so often for purposes of realignment. It happened about 150 years ago when the Whig Party failed to make principled choices over the issue of their day, namely slavery. They, too, decided to compromise. The Republican Party was born out of this negligence by an eerily similar band of renegades who had run out of patience.

A few short years later,the Whig Party was no longer. Now, it’s the GOP’s move away from its own moral roots that is in question. Could it be that the “big tent” philosophy, in which all ideas have a place in the GOP, is what now threatens its foundations? It appears that the original founding party principles, still in the platform, now get mere lip service.

As the first prominent Republican, Abraham Lincoln, stated so eloquently: “To sin by silence, makes cowards of men.”

Should the court overturn term limits, it won’t necessarily be the Republican Party’s fault, but it will be the last straw. It will be increasingly unlikely that Republicans can get re-elected in any district. Perhaps then, some in the old guard might recognize the decisions they should have made all along. Perhaps not.

In any case, when the ground quits shaking, I don’t believe they will be standing.

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