I was talking to a couple of Virgina Republicans visiting Seattle at a post office today (I had a Kerry button on). The guy told me they plan to vote for Kerry and his girlfriend suggested I look up this article online...

9 September 2004
by Alex Gourevitch

Last week's Republican Convention was supposed to be a massive show of political force, and at first blush it appears to have worked. Unlike Democratic nominee John Kerry, president George W Bush has received the much-coveted post-convention bounce in the polls, having risen more than 10 points over the weekend (1).

Bush's improvement has been attributed to the convention's ability to cast the president as a leader of firm resolve, and to cast Kerry as an indecisive opportunist. In part the accusation stuck because it is true - Kerry is more or less how Republicans presented him, military service 30 years ago in an unjust war notwithstanding. However, having pursued a number of reactive, ill-thought out wars, one feels that Bush's 'resolve' is more akin to Thoreau's foolish consistency of small minds, rather than a quality of real political leadership.

The real story of the convention is not Bush's schoolyard posturing, but the light it sheds on the problems within the Republican Party. What was overlooked was the degree to which the Bush administration relied on party mavericks and outsiders to craft an attractive political image. This was only the latest in a series of efforts by the Republicans to maintain the coherence of a party that has seriously fragmented over the past few years.

The main speakers' list at last week's convention gave the initial impression of a strong showing for the Republicans. Former mayor of New York City, Rudi Giuliani, widely popular since 9/11, tag-teamed with the similarly popular Arizona Senator John McCain to kick off the convention. Both known for their general 'toughness' and initiative, they were invaluable initial speakers at a convention dominated by the predictable theme of security.

The following day, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the star-cum-governor of California, captured prime time and was succeeded, the day after, by renegade Democrat Zell Miller, senator from Georgia. Strength and leadership were the virtues for these 'uncertain times', economic girly-men and partisanship the vices. After Miller's heated speech, the devastation seemed complete - even a Democrat thought Bush was a better candidate. All that was left was for vice president Dick Cheney and President Bush to walk on and remind everyone that they were the actual candidates, and hope everyone forgets that Bush's daughters also had been on stage at some point.

Yet this lineup was a curious one. Giuliani, McCain, and Schwarzenegger are all party outsiders, and each holds unorthodox, liberal political opinions on issues like gay rights and abortion at odds with the highly conservative Republican Party platform. Add Zell Miller, who gave a speech at Bill Clinton's nomination in 1992, and some less noted speakers, like Mitt Romney, the liberal Republican governor of Massachussetts, and one hardly has a representative sample of Republican party views.

It was somewhat startling to see Bush and Cheney, the ostensible champions of conservative and neo-conservative views, capping off this hodge-podge lineup. One was left with the feel that the Republicans are somewhat embarrassed and defensive about their 'real' views, and feel the need for outside help. Lacking the confidence unflinchingly to reassert the culture wars, they seem to have fallen back on organized paranoia and a shabby, militarised crisis politics. They have substituted fear for an assertive party program, and any popular politician they can get for a show of party unity.

The lack of party unity has plagued the Republicans for a number of years, but become pronounced since the Bush administration took office. Over the past years there have been major defections of significant Republican constituencies. Pat Buchanan and the traditional, nativist conservatism he represents left the Republicans and joined the Reform Party in 1999, breathing new life into it by becoming its 2000 presidential candidate. Buchanan's magazine The American Conservative was launched in direct response to the rise of neo-conservatism, and has been one of the most persistent critics of the 'new American Empire' (2).

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