Yes, the Republican Party once welcomed men like Jim Jeffords.
No more.
And the country is worse off because the GOP has become a party of extremists.
From Publishers Weekly's review of Yvonne Daley's collaboration with Senator Jefford in writing his autobiography:
"This political autobiography by Vermont senator Jeffords will disappoint readers expecting a no-holds-barred, sensational expos‚ of why he left the Republican Party, an act that gave control of the Senate to the Democrats in one of the biggest political stories of 2001. Instead, consistent with his endangered-species status as a moderate Republican,
Jeffords writes with the sensibilities of another vanishing breed, the gentleman politician who eschews political diatribes and partisan name-calling to offer considered and principled explanations.
According to Jeffords, and contrary to the pundits who attributed his actions to "mishandling" by the Bush administration, he left the party he had served for 35 years because the gap between his beliefs and party dogma had grown too wide to breach. As he describes his political service, which included time as a Vermont state senator and attorney general, the only real question is why he stayed with the party so long.
His differences with Republican orthodoxy began early in his career and included his support for environmental regulations, expanded federal funding for health care and federal involvement in education, and his opposition to Clinton's impeachment.
Jeffords is generally reticent about his personal life, but he does provide insights into the stresses and strains in political marriages. As it turned out, Jeffords's flight had little lasting effect since the Republicans retook the Senate in 2002, but his articulation of the difficulties moderate Republicans face working with their party's mainstream may foretell a growing polarization within the political establishment."
From the WaPo's obituary on Senator Jeffords:
“Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party,” Jeffords said at the time. “I understand that many people are more conservative than I am, and they form the Republican Party. Given the changing nature of the national party, it has become a struggle for our leaders to deal with me and for me to deal with them.”
That struggle had been long. In 1981, while serving in the House, he was the only Republican to oppose President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts. Later, as a member of the Senate, Mr. Jeffords opposed President George H.W. Bush’s nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court and publicly agonized before supporting the president on the invasion of Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
During the Democratic administration of President Bill Clinton, Mr. Jeffords broke with his party by backing the president’s health-care plan and voting against the articles of impeachment brought against him in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair. Clinton called Mr. Jeffords his “favorite Republican.”
His disaffection with his party — as well as his party’s disaffection with him — intensified after President George W. Bush’s election in 2000.
1 comment:
Jeffords was ideologically more a conservative democrat than republican. It is as the commentary points out almost inexplicable that he waited so long to leave the party.
I'll give him this, he stood by his principles and was consistent in his views that government could solve problems and have a positive impact on people's lives.
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