

It's 1988 for Republicans and they can learn from Dukakis

By now, it's no secret that many Republicans, including advisers in the Romney campaign,were shell shocked last Tuesday night.
A Sept. 13, 1988 AP Photo of presidential candidate Michael Dukakis taking a ride on a new tank confirmed the perception that liberal candidates were not as militarily strong as their Republican counterparts. ( Photo by Michael E. Samojeden/AP Photo/FILE)




Less important than fixating on what went wrong and, more crucial for the GOP's long term national strategy, is determining how to proceed. Gridlock, obstruction, and extremism haven't propelled them forward from their 2010 victories, they have instead weakened the party as a whole.



In 1988, the Democrats suffered their third consecutive defeat for the White House after Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis's loss to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Democrats were a party in the wilderness, searching for answers and a path forward that could connect their values with those of middle class America.


In their 1989 blueprint for the Democrats new undertaking, The Politics of Evasion, political scientists and Democratic Party operatives William Galston and Elaine Kamarck said "the leadership of the Democratic Party has proven unable to shake the images formed by its liberal fundamentalist wing and has been prone to take the rhetoric of the primaries into the general election, with the predictable negative results."

Sound familiar?

"The Republican Party was transformed into a governing party during the 1970s because it was willing to endure a frank internal debate on political fundamentals," Galston and Kamarck said. "If Democrats hope to turn around their fortunes in the 1990s, they must set aside the politics of evasion and embark upon a comparable course."


"The inescapable fact is that the national Democratic Party is losing touch with the middle class, without whose solid support it cannot hope to rebuild a presidential majority," said Galston and Kamarck.


A frustrated Al From, Chair of the center-left Democratic Leadership Council, claimed "we're the party of teachers," after the Dukakis defeat, "we should be the party of education."

New coalitions would be created to address the personal and economic concerns of a much broader electorate—the all-important political "center."



The growing network of moderates or "New Democrats" were working to construct a Democratic majority with progressive but pragmatic ideals that were at the heart of it.





It's too early to tell how, or if, the GOP will evolve. We've seen little evidence to date that they intend to moderate.  But, in the wake of Tuesday's resounding repudiation, we've seen some of the party’s grown-ups advocate for thoughtful intra-party analysis and reflection. Even that strategy is being rebuffed by its most provocative activist allies on cable and radio. In other words, the soul-searching is still underway.