GOP must find the road to moderation

By MYRIAM MARQUEZ

Jeb Bush hopes to change the GOP’s tattered image from an immigrant-hating, privacy-meddling party of the Deep South to the national optimism of the Reagan years.

The new National Council for a New America took its “listening” tour to a Virginia pizza parlor last weekend to start the Republican Party’s reformation. The group of mostly Southern governors (current and former) and Massachusetts’ Mitt Romney did most of the talking. They took only four questions from the public.

Well, gentlemen (yes, they’re mostly guys), take in this comment posted by a reader on The Miami Herald’s Web site about the GOP-led Florida Legislature’s struggle to raise about $2 billion in taxes and fees to close a $6 billion gap in this recession:

“We need LOWER taxes! This is a recession/depression. Common sense dictates you do not raise taxes in tough times. I really don’t know what this Republican Party stands for anymore.

“All they seem to care about are their precious ’social’ issues — gay marriage, Jesus license plates, abortion, etc. — not about the economy. They have totally lost me. May as well be a Democrat. Yeah, tax increases, but at least they stay away from all the religious craziness.”

And that’s the crux of the GOP’s problem. The party’s hard right can’t reconcile that most God-fearing Americans are socially moderate. The GOP has strayed from an individual-rights and economic opportunity agenda to a party controlled by zealots.

When Ronald Reagan’s no-tax optimism grabbed America after years of liberal Democratic Party excesses, a group of mostly Southern moderates formed the Democratic Leadership Council. It pushed to balance the federal budget and grow the middle class. That strategy worked for former President Bill Clinton, who left a hefty federal budget surplus.

Competition is vital

As an independent moderate who voted for Clinton but also backed Jeb Bush twice in Florida because I liked his outside-the-box thinking on education, I hope this new GOP council succeeds. Democracy is strong only when there’s a competition of ideas.

One-party rule, from the left or the right, corrupts. We know this in Florida, where the overwhelming GOP Legislature offers gimmicks and piece-meal tinkering meant to protect special interests — instead of an honest assessment of the state’s limited tax base and voters’ angst about losing services.

Everyone loves a tax break, but most people also want strong public schools, health care for needy children, transportation systems that work and safe streets. Can Bush’s new group find a balance?

Today’s GOP has lost much of the middle class because federal tax cuts the past decade went mostly to the wealthy, and the party’s push for deregulation resulted in corruption and less protection for average people hurt by corporate greed.

President Barack Obama so far has the public’s support because he talks moderation. We’ll see if he delivers.

But if the Party of Lincoln insists on a “just say no” strategy to combat Obama and the Democrats, it will keep losing.

No doubt Bush governed Florida as a conservative and delivered strong growth during most of his eight years in office. But voters no longer look to the private sector as the only way. Can this new GOP group accept the wisdom of regulation?

Toning down the angry, reactionary rhetoric of the GOP’s far right won’t be enough if the GOP of the 21st century refuses to work with Democrats and reach a middle ground.

X Myriam Marquez is a columnist for the Miami Herald. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.