Be Wary of a Party Owned by One : Why aren’t the Republicans heeding the wake-up call? The right wing intends to take over.

Ross Perot and TV preacher/political entrepreneur Pat Robertson have put a major burr under the saddle of every Republican--and Democrat--who has fretted over his or her party’s drift toward the fringes of America’s political life.

Recently, Robertson called on the Christian Coalition to take over the Republican Party, publicly stating the battle plan that his lieutenants have been pursuing for years. This should be the final wake-up call for all of us who have been averting our eyes as our once-great political parties have been commandeered by proponents of narrow agendas. With Perot’s announcement of a third presidential party, the snooze alarm has gone off again.

I have worked in and around the Republican Party since 1978, and lately I have become tired of being stereotyped as an anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-environment, pro-big business bigot. But the sad fact is that I, and other Republicans like me, allowed it to happen. We stepped back, shut our eyes and pretended--or hoped--that the right wing’s effort would blow over. Perhaps we didn’t want to dirty our hands, or maybe we didn’t want to stand in the way of success. I’m not sure which. But I imagine that a lot of Democrats probably feel the same way about how the left wing has come to dominate their party.

When Robertson announced the Christian Coalition’s until-now worst-kept secret, it should have sounded alarms through the GOP. But I haven’t heard a word mentioned.

I don’t hold the goal against the coalition. For the past several years, they’ve done the hard work. They knocked on doors. They organized their grass roots. They raised money. They registered their voters and turned them out to vote. And, as a result, they yield significant power.

I don’t agree with most of what the Christian Coalition wants to do. Politically, though, they’ve done the work. In that sense, they deserve admiration. And they deserve opposition.

After serving two presidents as deputy press secretary, after serving four national chairmen as communications director of the Republican National Committee, after serving one Cabinet member for nearly seven years and after working on more than a couple of campaigns over 20 years, I can honestly say we are letting this happen and now is the time to just say no .

Nobody owns the Republican Party and no one should. For years, moderate Republicans have stood back and whispered in horror over what’s happened to the party. But we’ve done nothing about it.

The Republican Party should be dominated by no one person and no one group or philosophy. I was there when Lee Atwater composed his well-received “big tent” speech five years ago. It wasn’t an evangelical tent he had in mind. He believed that the party needed to be open to all views, not only because that is politically wise and would help bring in more supporters, but also because holding all views under the tent meant that we’d get the best ideas, new ideas for keeping the country’s policies moving and not stagnating.

Instead, the party is perceived as a monolith. Every Republican is viewed in one mold: Anti-gay. Anti-abortion rights. Anti-government role. Anti-environment.

While not true, there’s good reason for that perception. We see many of our capable and qualified presidential contenders racing each other to the right wing to help secure the nomination. Cynicism is not hard to come by after one has been in and around politics for a while. I can’t climb inside anyone else’s head and know what he or she is thinking. But I just have to believe that good people like George Bush, Bob Dole and others haven’t spoken from their true hearts on many issues of the day because politics overtook them.

Colin Powell says the country is ripe for an independent candidate; Perot creates a vehicle for that candidate. And even though an independent party may not be in the country’s long-term best interests, both are correct because each major party has taken so many steps to their opposite extremes, leaving the great middle abandoned. If the Christian Coalition succeeds in its takeover of the Republican Party, those who thought that the 1992 GOP convention was an attack on Attila the Hun from the right will have a whole new learning experience.

Republicans who aren’t as “right” are letting it happen. Robertson’s chief political strategist, Ralph Reed, told the Christian Coalition’s convention that he didn’t want that organization to be the wholly owned subsidiary of any political party. He didn’t say anything about the reverse, though.