Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Can Bush reshape GOP?

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999 | 9:23 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

DISSENSION in the ranks, real or play-acted, is good for the Republican Party.

With Gov. George W. Bush hitting higher stride out on the presidential campaign trail, it appears evident that there is a widening rift between the Texas governor and his GOP colleagues in the U.S. Congress. And that is good news for those of us who have been wondering lo these many years, "What happened to the Republican Party?"

It is no secret, especially to the narrow-minded and hate-spewing letter writers who constantly share their scorn with me, that I have been a man without much of a party ever since the forces of the fundamentalist right overtook the mainstream of the GOP sometime back in the middle 1980s. Even if candidate Clinton had not been a friend of mine since college days, it is clear in my own mind that I was seeking someone with some brains and common sense to lead this country away from the precipice toward which it was heading. It is even more clear today that he was the answer.

Even though many in my political party still refuse to acknowledge it, there is little question that history will record the Clinton years as some of the best and most common-sensical times in our history, during which our country moved away from an extremist course and back down a middle road of sanity, security and social responsibility. Now we are about to embark upon another effort -- we call it the presidential race of 2000 -- in which the voters of this country will decide upon which path they will continue to travel.

Some short-sighted folks are handicapping this as a Republican versus Democrat contest and of course in a narrow political sense, it is. But the bigger questions of the day, the ones that challenge us to determine for our nation the course it will travel well into the next century, have more to do with who we are as people rather than what we call ourselves in the precinct meetings.

Will we continue on a course of prosperity in which the least among us are given the opportunity -- through training and the creation of jobs -- to travel along, or will we change course and move down a path that has room for fewer people to travel upon?

Will we continue down the road to a more peaceful world in which nations that don't talk to each other are forced to by circumstance, willpower and the leadership of the single superpower on the planet, the United States, or will we head in a different direction in which isolating the bad guys -- which will, by necessity and political purpose, include those who can be moved into the light of reason -- will result in a more hostile environment which will cost us much more money and far more lives in the long run?

And will we continue toward a time in this country in which tolerance for the views, lifestyles and dreams of each of our citizens is the hallmark of our society, or will we head in a different direction down a road in which intolerance is bred into succeeding generations so that hatred and divisiveness define what our nation will become?

These are just some of the questions that we must consider as responsible citizens as we grow toward a new millennium and the opportunity that will unfold with its coming.

Even though it is far too early to tell if his remonstrations are real, one candidate is already trying to distance himself from what many of my Republican friends have bought -- hook, line and sinker -- as the GOP mantra these past few years. And the infighting it has created has not gone unnoticed, especially by the pollsters, whose job it is to tell the politicians which way to talk as they head into next year's referendums.

When Gov. Bush first chided his Republican colleagues in the Congress to stop, in essence, being so mean about things, it brought the usual cynical remarks from the leadership in both the House and Senate. They took his criticism in stride as if it had nothing to do with them and everything to do with politics as usual. "If it works for Gov. Bush," they'd say, "then more power to him." That's what guys like Trent Lott and Tom DeLay said, as if making it sound like so much political rhetoric would make the substance of the governor's challenge go away.

Here's a news flash, boys. It won't go away. And I don't think Bush is going to go away either. At least not now while he can take this opportunity to separate himself from all the ugliness that the congressional Republicans have created. He is taking the time to position himself as a moderate (right out of the Clinton playbook in 1992), one who cares about all Americans -- rich and poor, well-born and not, those in need and those who need nothing -- and that puts him at odds with those in his own party in Washington who just can't get past their mean streaks, jealousies and insecurities when trying to do the work of the people who sent then them there.

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have been most successful in moving the Democratic Party away from measures that, while well-conceived in the beginning have failed in the execution, and toward programs and policies that work for most Americans. Bush appears to have understood that play and is trying to do the same thing for his party. He knows that, in the end, the only way for the GOP to regain the White House is for the voters to believe the GOP candidate cares about them and not the NRA, the tobacco companies and the hard-liners who would like to see our country's women move back into the alleys of self-destruction and deprecation.

He knows it and he is talking like a man who believes it. The problem, of course, is to get his colleagues in Washington to believe it, too. Right now they are not taking him seriously, only his politics. George Bush can talk a good game. Only time will tell if the voters believe he'll play the same way.

Time, of course, and a Congress full of Republican ideologues who, by not taking him seriously, send the wrong message to Americans eager to continue our travel toward a better America.

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