GOP moderates shrinking in numbers - and impact

Base shifts right, and ideological zealotry follows

July 27, 2011|By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Trey Grayson hugged daughters Alex and Kate after his concession speech… (David kohl/associated…)

WASHINGTON - As Tom Russell watches the nation’s debt ceiling drama drag on day after day, the 44-year-old Republican from Keene, N.H., sees a dysfunctional family careening toward economic disaster, with leaders from his own party mostly to blame.

A self-described moderate, Russell said he feels abandoned by the Republican Party as its base shifts to the right and politicians respond with ideological zealotry, refusing to compromise even as the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit looms and the country nears the brink of defaulting on its debts for the first time in history.

The former stockbroker who now sells solar panels for a living says he believes that the seemingly defunct bipartisan plan by the Gang of Six to reduce the nation’s deficit by combining program cuts with tax increases made sense. But many Republican lawmakers stood firm against taxes, and talks imploded.

“The Republicans have become the party of no,’’ Russell said. “Now that we’re at a tremendous crossroad when things are going down the tubes, it’s kind of an embarrassment to say that we’re even in the same party.’’

The Republican Party has, in fact, moved away from its moderate wing in recent years, according to national polls, resulting in a growing chasm between its political leaders and a significant group of disenchanted voters. Republican lawmakers have increasingly aligned themselves with their expanding conservative base - the party’s loudest, most active voices that helped propel GOP candidates backed by the Tea Party movement into the House in the 2010 primaries and general election.

Self-described moderates, who made up nearly a third of the Republican Party a decade ago, now represent less than a quarter of Republicans, according to new Gallup findings to be released Friday. Meanwhile, the percentage of Republicans who call themselves conservative has risen to a high of 72 percent, up from 62 percent in 2002.

“The base of the party right now is the Tea Party, frankly,’’ said Trey Grayson, former secretary of state of Kentucky who now directs the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School after losing in the 2010 US Senate GOP primary against Tea Party candidate Rand Paul. “Those are the folks who are the most active, the loudest, who go to town hall meetings, call members of Congress, and show up at political barbecues, and they’re pulling the party to the right.’’