Proud to Be a Centrist

On Monday, TIME published an article entitled, "Republicans Must Embrace the Vital Center" by David Frum.  He places the blame for the decline of moderate Republicans squarely on the shoulder of moderate Republicans.  If we want a voice in the Republican party we have to work for it as much as the conservatives have worked for theirs.  I agree.

"Moderate Republicans sometimes blame conservatives for edging them out of public life. But politics is a competitive business. If the conservatives bring more voters, more dollars and more intensity to the table, well, of course they get the bigger chair. They've earned it. The fault is with the moderates themselves. The moderate tendency still exists in the GOP. It expresses itself in quiet dealmaking in the halls of the Senate, in pragmatic decision-making in state capitals. But when challenged, the moderate tendency goes mute.

Who'll speak up for Utah Senator Robert Bennett, chief co-sponsor of the Wyden-Bennett health proposal that was the best hope for truly market-oriented health care reform? Bennett now faces a serious nomination challenge. Once the excitement of Massachusetts subsides, who'll champion the non-CPAC-style Senators on the ballot in 2010: Mark Kirk from Illinois or Rob Portman from Ohio?...

If moderates are to flourish, they need an infrastructure to support them. The Democrats worked hard in the 1980s and '90s to showcase their centrist governors. They invented superdelegates to balance the left-wing activists who had saddled them with unelectable presidential candidates. They altered their primary schedule to enhance the clout of must-win states in the West and border South.

Republicans can learn from these examples. But first they have to say it loud and say it proud: The time has come to restore the center to the center-right coalition. Maybe it's even time to start a new convention so the centrists can meet face to face at least once a year, just as their conservative colleagues do. CenPAC, anyone?"