What plays well in Alabama doesn't work in Vermont

If you support a progressive agenda, then support a progressive candidate.

I saw two good articles this weekend on the slow demise of northeastern Republicans. As the national party has veered sharply to the right in the last two decades, it's has shown less and less room for the moderates that populate the northeastern GOP. Half a century ago, New England was the most reliably Republican part of the country. (And the south, the most democratic... they've basically switched).

Even recently, there used to be room for moderate Republican governors in Democratic states like New York (George Pataki, 12 years) and Massachussetts (several, mostly moderate ones for 16 years). Both reigns ended for different reasons, but ones that didn't work the more moderate northeast.

In Massachussetts in 2006, Republican lieutenant governor and gubenatorial candidate Kerry Healey ran a Rove-style smear campaign and lost to a charismatic opponent by over 20 points. New York Republicans nominated the former Assembly minority leader John Faso as their sacrificial lamb to face the (then) wildly popular Democratic attorney general Eliot Spitzer. Faso was far too conservative to ever have a chance in a state like New York and was crushed by almost 40 points. Both the MA and NY GOP tapped conservatives to replace incumbent moderates and were crushed at the polls.

The New York Times had an article about the main state political story here in New York: the desperate Republican fight to preserve control of the state senate.

Outsiders might be surprised to know that the GOP has controlled the state senate for all but one year since 1938, back when basically a new state constitution was promulgated. Despite New York's increasing Democratic dominance in registration, the GOP has maintained control of the senate thanks to gerrymandering (in collusion with Assembly Democrats) and bedrock support in the more conservative rural upstate.

However, the increasing unpopularity of the national Republican brand after eight years of Bush plus a lack of leadership in the state party and an aging Republican caucus has led to a slow decline in GOP fortunes, as it's turned out off what used to be the other main bastion of NY Republican support: suburban New York City and Long Island. Republicans have a mere one seat majority in the chamber (with one vacant seat at the moment). They are aided by the fact that the lieutenant governor's post, who casts tiebreaking senate votes and would normally be in Democratic hands now, will remain vacant until 2011. But the trends are not in their favor.

Northeast Public Radio points out that Republicans now have only 6 of New York's 31 federal House and Senate seats and that number could dwindle to as low as 2 after Election Day.

The Boston Globe also had a story about the collapsing Republican fortunes in New England. It points out that in the early 70s, 10 of New England's 25 House members were Republican. Now, there's only one. And the region only has two Republican US Senators, both moderates from Maine, one of whom is in a tough re-election fight. The article points out that this is why several moderate Republicans, such as former Bush Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell and former MA Gov. William Weld, have endorsed the more unifying Barack Obama and Joe Biden rather than the more divisive campaign John McCain and Sarah "Real America" Palin.

Basically, the GOP is disappearing in the northeast for one simple reason. 50 years ago, the national GOP was moderate enough to nominate someone like Dwight Eisenhower. 45 years ago, the national GOP was moderate enough to be a main reason why key civil rights legislation passed the US Senate. 35 years ago, the national GOP put the good of the nation and the rule of law ahead of partisanship in impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon.

Now, someone like John McCain is too liberal for a good chunk of the party. Now, the national GOP stands against civil rights for gays. Now, the national GOP has put partisanship ahead of the good of the nation and the rule of law in passing many of Bush's self-destructive and/or anti-constitutional policies.

What plays well in Alabama doesn't work in Vermont.