I’ve been enjoying One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century (Wiley, 2006) by Los Angeles Times reporters Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten.*
Based on their day jobs, you won’t be surprised to learn that this is no volume of praise for Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, and their colleagues. Hamburger and Wallsten reveal at times their disinterest in (or distaste for) core GOP principles.
Still, this book offers an interesting outsider’s perspective of the political operation Rove and company put together for the 2000 and 2004 elections, along with plans to secure a long-term majority for the Republican Party.
The authors might not like the results, but they recognize the effectiveness of strategies that encourage like-minded Americans to join the GOP fold.
In the battleground states of 2004:
Instead of edging toward the middle, Bush ran hard to the right. Instead of trying to reassure uncertain moderates, he worked hard to stroke the passions of those who needed no convincing. …
Rove’s team had a critical advantage: a substantially better computerized system for pinpointing small but significant pockets of potential supporters and even individual voters. The GOP also developed a more nuanced understanding of ethnic voting blocs, as well as more disciplined tactics for going after them…. Like the other pieces of [Rove’s] strategy, it did not seek to gain long-term dominance by bringing about a sea change in public attitudes or values. Rather it approached the task as a matter of maximizing the size and impact of the GOP’s natural base….
Of course, this strategy can succeed only if a critical mass of voters agrees with GOP ideas.
*In the interest of full disclosure, I worked with Wallsten at The Daily Tar Heel 15 years ago.
