shrink to lose

It used to be said that the right looks for converts, the left looks for heretics, and both find what they're looking for. In American politics today those terms can be precisely reversed.

As the electorate becomes more various and to some extent more socially liberal, the Republican Party is turning inwards, closing ranks, and seeking out heretics. Governor Huntsman's rescinded invitation was a small example of a burgeoning and entirely self-destructive trend in some Republican circles to shun those who do not follow the Conservative Path of Purity. Peggy Noonan, in a column that gently scolds her own party, calls this the 'Shrink to win' theory:

A great party cannot live by constantly subtracting, by removing or shunning those who are not faithful to every aspect of its beliefs, or who don't accept every pole, or who are just barely fitting under the tent. Room should be made for them. Especially in those cases when Republican incumbents and candidates are attempting to succeed in increasingly liberal states, a certain practical sympathy is in order.

In the party now there is too much ferocity, and bloody-mindedness. The other day Sen. Jim DeMint said he's rather have 30 good and reliable conservative senators than 60 unreliable Republicans. Really? Good luck stopping an agenda you call socialist with 30 hardy votes. "Shrink to win": I've never heard of that as a political slogan.

Did DeMint really say that? Yes he did.

Now it's the left, under Obama's leadership, who have erected a big tent and are waving in converts of different stripes and outlooks, many or most of whom wouldn't call themselves 'liberal'.

Comments

[The Baron]

This is 1/2 right, 1/2 wrong. The description of the Right is correct, and the witchhunt is on in full force, w/ moderate Republicans in flight. But it is incorrect to state that the Left - as opposed, perhaps, to the Democratic party - has gotten any more tolerant. Look at any left-wing blog to get the true partisan smell. Many moderates voted for Obama b/c they were sick of the Bushies and dismayed by the choice of Palin. This is in no sense a mandate, but the Left thinks it is, and so sees no reason for a sudden onset of tolerance.