Choosing between parties and country

By ALISON SONNENSCHEIN
Opinion editor

Adela Wu/The Paw Print

In the past election, Republicans faced the choice between traditional party views and winning the election. With a recession beginning and an un­popular war continuing, the Republican Party of the incumbent president was bound to face troubles in the 2008 gen­eral election. Republicans realized that they needed to re-brand their party to separate their candidate, John McCain, from the current administration in order to win in the game of politics. There­fore, from the beginning of the election season, the party faced a major identity crisis.

During the general election, Senator John McCain emphasized his past as a “maverick,” highlighting co-legislation with Democrats and disagreement with Republicans. However, this quality was rarely bragged about during the prima­ries, knowing it would fail to appeal to much of his own party. Instead, he waited to bring it out in full force in the general election as a tactic to attract the independent vote that could win him the election.

Although this strategy may have won McCain votes outside of his party base, the Republicans’ reaction was varied. Some Republicans may have under­stood the strategic value of highlight­ing the Arizona senator’s independent approach to policy but also still knew their nominee held true to the conserva­tive platform of the Republican Party. Others, however, may have lost trust in the candidate, scared that if elected president, he might betray the party’s ideology as shown in some of his Sen­ate votes.

As the campaign wore on and the eco­nomic upheaval became the major issue in October, McCain explicitly rebuked the Bush economic policies. “We both disagree with President Bush on eco­nomic policies,” McCain declared on October 27 in Cleveland, setting forth his economic proposals. His attempt to distance himself was, of course, too little too late.

The Democrats confronted a milder problem within the party. The public had not seen a Democratic president since before the September 11 attacks and could not predict how he or she would handle the current situation with regards to the war on terror. The Demo­cratic nominee would need to earn the trust of citizens. When Senator Obama was named the presumptive nominee, he knew, with his title as the most lib­eral senator according to the Congres­sional Quarterly, that he would have to voice his more “conservative” views to draw the independent voters.

During the Saddleback Civil Forum that took place in mid-August, Pastor Rick Warren asked Obama to define marriage; Obama quickly stated, “I be­lieve that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.” Despite his fol­low-up that explained that he does not support a constitutional amendment de­fining marriage in such terms and that he supports civil unions, he challenged over 40% of his party’s leaders that are more liberal than he is.

Although it often involves turning their back on their own base of sup­porters to win an election, candidates must reach across the aisle to woo the increasing number of unaffiliated vot­ers. Despite the risk of alienating vot­ers with more extreme views, the act of crossing party lines allows candidates to broaden their support and ultimately guides the nation towards a new party’s leadership.