If the national Republican Party has a cold, the local DC GOP has pneumonia, and is on life support.
Sen. John McCain’s presidential defeat and vanishing congressional seats have instigated handwringing among conservatives and prayers for a 2010 or 2012 recovery. Newt Gingrich, the magician who affected the 1994 Republican takeover when Bill Clinton was president, is seen as someone who might save the Grand Old Party.
“The [national] Republican Party has reached a point where it has to hope and pray that contingencies bring it back to the point of resilience,” Ross Douthat, a senior editor at The Atlantic, said last week during a post-election forum sponsored by the Democratic Strategist and the Progressive Policy Institute. .
Douthat, the co-author with Reihan Salam of “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream,” lives in a “what if” world. He, like other conservatives, sees the party’s potential revival in possible gaffes or debacles of President-elect Barack Obama’s administration.
The District Republican Party needs more than luck. Every lever of political power now rest in the hands of Democrats. Incumbent Carol Schwartz lost the Republican primary in September and, then, conducted a vanity write-in campaign in the general election that was doomed from the start. Her efforts quashed any hopes the DCGOP’s official candidate, Patrick Mara, had for winning a seat on the council. He faced four Democrats—two of whom disguised themselves as independents. Democrats comprise 75 percent of the 426,761 registered voters; as predicted, they came out in large numbers to help elect the country’s first African-American president.
In worse shape than House and Senate Republicans, the DC GOP has to decide whether to put on battle gear or surrender with honor. To pick up McCain’s refrain: Stand up and fight; fight. One party rule is not democracy; it is a dictatorship.
It’s not as if Republicans can’t come back in 2010, when six other council seats are up. While they constitute only 7 percent of registered voters, there is nothing that prevents them from tapping into that 16 percent of voters (69,340 individuals) who are not affiliated with any party.
With the changing demographics in the city, a moderate but true Republican, in the mold of Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), could gain support from independents and conservative Democrats in the city. But building that kind of coalition takes time, hard work, and a galvanizing personality.
The DC GOP could greatly help its cause by persuading At-Large Councilmember David Catania to return to its ranks. It may also want to engage other young rising stars like Christina Culver and Mara. And, its executive director, Paul Craney, could pull himself from the computer, relinquishing emails as his weapons of choice to fully interact with the electorate.
Everyone should hope the DC Republican Party is successful. A thriving Democracy depends on multiple political voices.
