The last Moderate Republican takes his leave
Don’t try to claim Snowe, Collins, Hagel, Smith and Specter remain. Just like Chafee, they will not jump until they lose a re-election.
“It’s not my party any more,” he said.
Chafee’s departure is another step in the waning of the strain of moderate Republicanism that was once a winning political philosophy from Rhode Island and Connecticut to the Canadian border. For the first time since the Civil War, the six New England states combined now have only one Republican U.S. House member, Connecticut’s Christopher Shays.
Chafee said he disaffiliated from the party “in June or July,” making him an unaffiliated voter. He did so quietly, and until yesterday, he said, “No one’s asked me about it.” He said he made the move because “I want my affiliation to accurately reflect my status.”
“There’s been a gradual depravation of … the issues the party should be strong on,” and the direction of the national party, he said.
Gradual depravity, caused by extremists, will not be changed when losers leave. It will only be changed when winning GOP officeholders switch sides and counter the tyranny in their midst head-on.
Is there a real Republican moderate left? If so, their actions in the rest of 2007 will define them when they become Democrats.
Anything less will merely be rhetoric.
September 16th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
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