Paul Ryan prevails, ending an era in the Republican Party

Paul Ryan elected VP and the end of the moderate Republican Party as we know it

The era of moderates Nelson Rockefeller, George Pataki, Christie Todd Whitman, Bob Dole and John McCain has been definitely defeated. With Paul Ryan’s nomination as Mitt Romney running mate, the Tea Party movement has definitely made its coming of age in the national scene. 

Signs of the party’s conservative faction success was already seen with the retirement of Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), announced back in February of this year, and recently  Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), who became the latest moderate Republican to retreat on Capitol Hill. 

The polarization of the Republican Party has been so extreme in the last five years that it is hard to find even similarities between some of these defeated moderates and the new extreme conservatives as belonging to the same party. 

Nelson Rockefeller’s life, for instance, a man whose level of wealth could compare with Gov. Mitt Romney’s, would make any present Republican and even Democrat go pale. Former Vice-President Rockefeller, an active philanthropist who built good relationships with unions, worked hard to improve education and social programs, and donated his salary to programs for youth and the arts, said in 1972 regarding the abortion law repeal:

“I do not believe it right for one group to impose its vision of morality on an entire society," the governor said. "Neither is it just or practical for the state to attempt to dictate the innermost personal beliefs and conduct of its citizens. The extremes of personal vilification and political coercion brought to bear on members of the Legislature raise serious doubts that the votes to repeal the reforms represented the will of a majority ...”

Positions have changed but tactics have not. 

Even moderate Senator McCain had to move to the right-wing of his own party in the last election campaign in order to be considered as an electable candidate. With his radicalization, the era of bi-partisanism is also gone.

The Arizona Senator, who was one of the most  active politicians reaching across aisles, wrote with Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman the 9/11 Commission legislation, co-sponsored with Democratic Senator Fritz Hollings the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, and with Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Working with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, McCain was a strong proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, a law that was never passed. 

Bringing in Paul Ryan means a fundamental decision for the Republican campaign. They bring a career politician to the team, a true “Washington resident,” someone who has never been exposed to the real world of Main Street America or Wall Street America, someone who is an ideologue, and whose theory fills a whole in the Romney campaign. 

Ryan has written a business plan for a “business” he did not create, he did not build, and he has not been involved with. He brings very specific guidelines to his proposed budget, some of them yet to be largely proven. And for the first time in this campaign, that is progress. Now Romney cannot hide in his flip-flop strategy any more.