They may attack me with an army of six hundred syllogisms; and if I do not recant, they will proclaim me a heretic. - Desiderius Erasmus (c.1466-1536)

by Richard Ivory  

There is a lot of talk in Republican circles about “Rhino Hunting”.  Rhino Hunting can be  described as: kicking out anyone in the Party who does not fit the definition of Republicanism. The self-styled Rhino-Hunter believes he is the tried and true Republican. Our Party, therefore,  lost this past Presidential election because of moderates like Sen. McCain.  The history of the Republican Party is that of genuine coalition building and interest coming together to better the nation.

Martin Rybicki in his article The Real Republicans: The Case for Moderates, Liberals, and Pragmatic Conservatives in Our Party  argues the historical fallacies in the Rhino Hunters purist arguments.

 In trying to find out who we should be as Republicans we must first look back in history to see what the party stood for. Many in the party, hard-line conservatives for the most part, are calling for a return to the roots of the Republican Party. Fair enough. I think that is precisely what we should do. And to do this, the facts that can be bothersome to some must be brought to the forefront of this internal debate. The roots of the party, of course, must be from the very beginning of its conception.

The Republican Party was formed in the late 1850’s in response to the democrats who supported the expansion of slavery into the new territories, which the new party was vehemently opposed to. The party was from the beginning, a progressive party and by no means a conservative one. It was a party that sought to modernize the country, not to keep the status quo especially if the status quo was not working for Americans. They sought to modernize the country by supporting higher education, free homesteads to farmers (a rather non-conservative thing to do), free soil policies against slavery, banking, railroads, industry and cities.

This was a party that not only was aiming for the rural vote via homesteads, but also one that had a heavy lean towards urban America. Again something that is not apparent with today’s conservative controlled Republican Party. It was a party that believed industry and free markets were superior to slave driven ones. These were the founding principles of the party and it is these principles that should define real republicanism instead of what has crept into the party over the last few decades. Taking into account these founding ideas must also include Abraham Lincoln himself who was a man of principle as well as pragmatism in being the first iconic leader of the Republican Party. Lincoln from his early years warned against the slave holding southerners continuing power growth of the government.

Of course so called Rhino-Hunters, are not big fans of the historical record because history is rarley ideological neat or clean. If the Rhino Hunters have  their way, they would choose candidates who emphasized social issues such as: anti-immigration or abortion over more substantive issues like job creation as their ideal winning strategy. To them, moderates in the party are the problem not the solution and must be tossed. This reasoning may seem strange given that despite their rhetoric and finger pointing most polls show that moderates were far from the problem this year. Instead, to the contrary, they may have been more of a help than any other faction of the party.  

Also, if any of these Rhino-Hunters did just a little homework and checked the Census Bureau data, they would clearly see that the nation is undergoing a huge demographic shift. The population that Reagan reached out to in the 80’s is getting older and replacing them is a new group of kids who grew up in the 90’s. Most of these kids know very little about Reagan, but they are very familiar with the Clintons and now Bush. This new voter group is internet savvy; write daily on blogs ;and communicate through text messaging. The GOP’s old “my way or the highway” is destroying the Party’s image and turning off young and potential new voters.  

Of course, all of this is nonsense to the Rhino-Hunters because to them young voters are unreliable, whereas the base is tried and true. What they fail to grasp is that these younger voters are the future of this nation. How these younger voters vote early on can be an indicator of what Party they and their children will choose.  No perfect example of this is a group we “did” reach out to yet still lost by large margins this year - Latino Voters.  

The Joint Center, a non-partisan research firm in Washington, DC, noted that Latino Americans overwhelmingly voted for Sen. Barack Obama. In trying to explain their voting behavior, the Center’s pollster said that in every poll the key reason for supporting Obama was a disdainful reaction to certain xenophobic messages proclaimed loudly throughout our Party. Despite McCain’s record of moderation on this issue, the GOP’s Anti-Immigrant image lost the Latino vote.   

Some Republicans dispute such arguments as pandering. They think that we can ignore these voters and stick with the base. They can hold onto this belief, but they do so at our Party’s own peril. Ignoring the handwriting on the wall will mean a GOP that is on its way to be a Party without power and influence.   

Democrats won State by State by making room for centrist within their Party ,and by not allowing the hard left to dictate every local election. In a similar move, the Republican Party must reject any movement that calls for purging moderates. The truth be told, in order to win nationwide we need all ideological schools within our Party.  Often times, Moderate Republicans are our best chance to withstand a Democrat tidal wave. By their very nature moderates are consensus builders. This often gets them into trouble with the purists in both Parties.   

Saying we lost solely “because of scandal and broken promises” has to stop! This train of thought is getting old. The facts are clear. We lost for many other reasons as well, and until we deal with all of these issues we will continue to loose.    

In Hindsight, however, instead of tearing down moderates, we should try to listen and to possibly learn from them. Perhaps their experience of running successful campaigns against an army of Democrats might be what the party needs. There is no better time like now; especially given that we will have four years to do so.  

Richard Ivory is  the founder of HipHopRepublican.com, a centrist blog that delves into urban issues from the Republican/Libertarian perspective. Richard has worked on over a dozen political campaigns around the country and has worked for both the Republican National Committee and was the College outreach director for Republican Youth Majority.