In the February issue of Providence Monthly, former Senator Lincoln Chafee '75 was interviewed with regard to his views on the upcoming presidential election. The questions were mediocre; the bias was incredulous at times, such as when the writer proffered the following definition of Republican In Name Only (RINO): "a derisive buzzword for anyone not blindly towing (sic) the party line."
One can consult the article to see Chafee's recycled lines about how the Republican Party supposedly went wrong. For now, however, I will address his claim that the Yankee Republican has "come and gone." As a Protestant Yankee Republican myself, I am unprepared to accept defeat, if for no other reason than to reclaim the title for those to whom it actually applies.
Traditionally, a Yankee Republican has distinguished himself from other Republicans by his forceful insistence on limited government. Even when he comes to power, he refuses to get caught up in the perpetual back-scratching that has characterized the recent years of Republican dominance. For many Yankee Republicans, therefore, President Calvin Coolidge is the patron saint.
A firm believer in low taxes, low spending, federalism, the entrepreneurial spirit and government discipline, he in no way resembles Chafee, who stated, "I care about using the tools of government to help the less fortunate." President Coolidge rightly observed that using the federal government to engage in coercive charity is both wrong and imprudent. That is to say, it is neither virtuous nor productive for Washington to spend other people's money in the name of "compassion."
Yet Chafee, the fifth-richest senator in 2006 according to Forbes, seems not to realize or even to care that taxes place an enormously heavy burden on the most populous and most targeted segment of society - the industrious middle class. He likewise seems oblivious to the Calvinist roots (Coolidge was a Congregationalist) of most Yankee Republicans - roots that have historically led those who have them to distrust human nature and therefore to abhor both centralization and collectivism.
Such roots also tend to produce unassuming, forthright, practical politicians, such as President Chester Arthur, who, though an Episcopalian, attended Baptist churches as a child. Yankee Republicans exhibit humility, in stark contrast to the Democratic Party's two remaining, equally vain presidential candidates.
But despite my distaste for Chafee, I can find common ground with him. For instance, I accept his contention that the Southern base exercises far too much control over the agenda and leadership of the Republican Party. Nonetheless, Chafee merely notes the prevalence of Southern Republicans, and fails to analyze why the Southern base has so much power. While he is correct to decry the decidedly rightward lurch of his former party, he misapplies the blame.
Chafee appears to regard the rise of the conservative Republican as the most noteworthy political change in recent times. I would argue that the more monumental change has been the death of the moderate Democrat. After that most unsavory of decades, the 1960s, few Southern Democrats willfully remained within their once respectable party, but most still could not fathom crossing into the Republican Party. The betrayal of President Carter, the rise of President Reagan and the occurrence of the Republican revolution, however, ended their qualms with affiliating with "the party of Lincoln," as Chafee correctly identified it.
Most ex-Southern Democrats found a comfortable home in the Republican Party. Unlike its opposing party, it recognized the duty to protect all innocent life, to stave off judges' attempts to re-write constitutions at the federal and state levels to accord with their utopian theories, and to preserve a system of diffused power whereby states and local communities handle virtually all non-defense matters.
Unfortunately, the new wave of Southern Republicans capitalized on the growing divide by harping, almost exclusively, on the issues that splinter the parties most. Many of them have sullied conservatism by associating it with the right wing. Still, I am more inclined to assign blame to the Democratic Party than to the Republican Party for the increased polarization of recent years.
Chafee, on the other hand, is quicker to castigate the latter party. That is his business, I suppose, but I become visibly irritated whenever his lack of any first principles is lauded as "independence," and his modern liberal views are mislabeled as those of a Yankee Republican.
Lincoln Chafee was never a Yankee Republican, except in the sense that he is a Yankee (a New Englander) and was a Republican. But that term encompasses more than the sum of its parts - it entails a disposition, an approach and a certain set of values, none of which Chafee has. But with the last major imposter gone, Yankee Republicans can begin a restoration, building a coalition that adheres more faithfully to our inheritance. Chafee, I assure you, will not be welcome.
Sean Quigley '10 met Ed Cox while volunteering for Senator John McCain's campaign. Perhaps Padawan Chafee could learn from that Yankee Republican Master?
