The Moderates Are Coming!
Salon.com News has a story about, once again, our kind of Republican here at The Sound Of The Crowd: Those against Bush. Salon being Salon, you have to either be a subscriber or click through a brief ad. I think it’s worth it; to convince you, herewith a few ‘graphs…
“Moderate Republicans are often fiscal conservatives but social liberals – in many ways, the exact opposite of this administration. They believe in balanced budgets, environmental conservation and a foreign policy that’s strong without being needlessly belligerent. They see themselves as the heirs of former President Teddy Roosevelt, the avid conservationist and trustbuster, and former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, the philanthropist, statesman and governor of New York. The party they joined was staid and dignified. It was the other party that seemed shrill and radical.”
“Fasciani, a native of Westchester, N.Y., is a Republican of the old school who counts Abraham Lincoln and Roosevelt among his heroes. He’s proud of the party’s tradition of environmental stewardship – it was Richard Nixon, after all, who established the Environmental Protection Agency – and the military valor shown by people like Eisenhower and McCain. The party he loves is one where strength and erudition aren’t mutually exclusive.
“Teddy Roosevelt, this man read more books than Bush could name,” says Fasciani. “He wrote 50 or a hundred books in his lifetime.” (Fasciani is being hyperbolic – Roosevelt authored a mere 36). “
“Bush, of course, has been superbly willing to alienate such elites – a term that, when used by the right, seems to encompass most educated people who live in coastal cities. “My values are not Mr. Bush’s,” says Susan Cosgrove, a 59-year-old lifelong Republican who owns a communications firm in Pittsburgh. “The Republican Party as I think of it – the party of Rockefeller – had a profound respect for character, and I don’t think Mr. Bush is a man of character. I think his presidency is one of cronyism and pandering to the most radical wing of the party.”
