The Center Will Hold the Parties

Will the Republican Party ever be known as anything but the party of big-bucks Texans and Orange Country, California? Maybe. The recent moves to remove the anti-abortion plank from the Republican Party's platform takes them one step closer to--gasp--the party of consensus.

Consensus has been a dirty word for Republicans for several years now. Issues such as abortion rights, gun control, and gay rights have found the GOP looking across the fence at the general public. Opinion pools have repeatedly shown that most Americans believe that a woman should have a right to an abortion, that the sale of guns should be strictly curtailed and that gays should be allowed to marry and join the military. Sure, majorities are supposed to rule in this country, but the Republicans didn't want to see all that lobbying money go out the window.

Now, three Republican governors have started the fight to make the GOP pro-choice, or at least netural. Govs. Christine Todd Whitman (R-N.J.), Pete Wilson (R-Cal.) and Massachusetts' own William F. Weld '66 have taken up the battle that Weld and Connecticut governor and former U.S. senator Lowell P. Weicker lost repeatedly. All three have aspirations to sit in big offices in the nation's capital, so consensus will eventually become very important to them. The question becomes whether the Republican Party will stand behind each or any of them.

The debate over abortion rights comes at a time when the GOP is searching for direction. Several factions have developed, but each is hard to pin down. The "religious right" personified by Pat Robertson must contend with moderates like Weld and Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.), who in turn lock horns with ultra-conservatives like Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). With Republicans voting for the Brady Bill and becoming pro-choice, the harsh right-winger seem to be losing ground.

The unfolding debate on health care would have provided an excellent opportunity for the Republicans to provide a unified front, but too many representatives had already latched on to the multitude of different bills being offered by House and Senate committees. The health plan of the Senate Minority Leader, Bob Dole (R-Kan.), came too late to draw the party together, Dole seems most concerned about maintaining a high profile for the presidential race in 1996.

Meanwhile, the two issues have become intermingled. Will whatever basic plan is enacted subsidize abortions for poor women? Soon enough, politicians will have to show their colors. Observers should take note of how many Republicans vote one way on the abortion plank of the platform and another way on health care.

When the presidential election does roll around, the Democrats may well be able to sit back and watch the Republicans muddle through primaries and campaigns with an uninspiring and bland figurehead. However, there is no reason to believe that the Democrats will not offer the same character to the voters. The ugly truth is that both parties are heading towards the center at breakneck speed.

This situation occurs naturally. In a two-party system, the party on the left never fears losing voters to the left of its policy stances, so it can only gain voters my moving right. The opposite goes for the party on the right. Eventually, both end up in the center and they split the vote evenly. Of course, this positioning makes democracy exceedingly dull. In stead of majority rule, only a small minority is truly satisfied while the overwhelming majority just copes. Politics becomes a sham, and two parties aren't even necessary anymore. In twenty years, it could be that the names Republican and Democrat will be pure formalities.

The rising tide of consensus in the GOP could be the beginnings of this movement, or it could be mere posturing by a few governors trying to look compassionate to the public. The majority of Republican politicians are pro-life, but that might not always be the case. Attention should be focused on those who elect them--the voters.

The U.S. has suffered from horrendously poor voter turnout for at least twenty years. The GOP can claim about 40 percent of the nation's voters, but that's only 20 percent of the nation's eligible voting population. Opinion polls and domestic issues perennially find majorities on the side of Democrats. Quite simply, if every American over the age of 18 became informed and voted, the Republicans would have a hard time winning another presidential election.

Unfortunately, voter turnout is falling. Republicans, ever a minority, have less and less to fear from consensus. Perhaps Govs. Weld, Whitman and Wilson will wake up to the fact that shooting for consensus could just cause them to be ostracized in the party. Still, the GOP doesn't have many better--or at least relatively untainted--candidates for high office than those three.

Republicans are looking towards strong gains in the 1994 and 1996 elections. Perhaps they're only hyping themselves, but the public should nonetheless be on guard for a rash of centrist leanings meant only to garner votes.