GOP elders’ plan for ‘moving forward’

If eight years of calculated congressional obstructionism results in heavy Republican losses in November, one would assume that serious tactical re-evaluation would occur; perhaps even a hint of compromise and comity.

Tom C. Korologos and Richard V. Allen, two elders from the administration of Richard Nixon – yes, almost a half-century ago – recently had some advice along that line for their party.

I approached their joint essay for the Washington Post with a sliver of optimism. Surely these veterans, having experienced decades of steady corrosion of our political system by the acid of ideological extremism, would offer mature wisdom and historical perspective for their party’s post-election consideration.

After all, they are the last generation of political operatives with first-hand memories of some of our finest moments of national cohesion and determination under hardship: recovery from the Great Depression, World War II with food and gasoline rationing, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, communism’s fall.

“Now is the time,” they wrote, “for the Republican Party to take decisive, perhaps desperate, measures if it is going to survive.” And they had a “four-point plan for moving forward.”

(OK, so far so good for my sliver of optimism.)

Point one: Hillary Clinton will probably win the presidency. “So be it” they declared, adding that “it appears a political landslide will sweep the country.”

(Well, maybe, maybe not.)

Then they added: “That’s not all bad,” because the larger the margin, they said, the more likely Clinton will overplay her hand, giving the GOP a better chance in 2018 and 2020.

(OK, that’s just how politics rolls.)

Point two: The GOP needs a massive push to educate people about split-ticket voting, so that it can at least maintain control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate.

(And that, too, makes sense.)

But point two continues: “With a Republican House, attention-getting hearings can be held every week on the inevitable missteps of the Clinton administration.”

(Uh-oh, this is beginning to feel sickeningly familiar.)

Point three: “There will be more than 2,000 presidential appointees, many requiring Senate confirmation.” Also there will be one or two Supreme Court nominees, and “although pressure to confirm nominees will be heavy, it is not unheard of…to postpone confirmation hearings indefinitely.”

(Thud. Down with optimism, up with obstructionism.)

Point Four: “Clean house” at the Republican National Committee and “change the rules that allowed (Donald) Trump to win the nomination.”

That’s it. Not a word in the four points about re-thinking policies and priorities, no binding up political wounds, no seeking some accommodation for competing views. Just politics as usual.

And, most sadly, no recognition of the reality that a broken governance system cannot be fixed by either side alone but only by combined efforts, because that is the very core of our republic’s birth and history and the only hope for its future.

This story was originally published September 6, 2016 at 5:03 AM with the headline "GOP elders’ plan for ‘moving forward’."