ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140040
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
GOP UNITY and Democratic fragmentation contributed to Republican victories in the 1994 congressional elections. The Iowa caucuses this week are a reminder that the Republicans are not without rifts of their own.
Beyond the competition to be expected when several men (no women in this one) of robust ego seek the same high office are differences in fundamental outlook among the candidates for the GOP presidential nomination. In Iowa:
The practiced politicians emerged with 48 percent of the caucus vote. Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (26 percent), former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander (18 percent) and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar (4 percent) may not agree on all issues. But, despite some unfortunate pandering to the rigid right, they share a discomfort with contemporary conservatism's harder edges, pragmatic records and an absence of the profound disdain for government per se found among some conservatives.
Thesocial conservatives emerged with 30 percent of the vote. Commentator Pat Buchanan (23 percent) incorporates protectionism, nativism and scapegoating into his appeals for votes; activist Alan Keyes (7 percent) adheres more purely to a call for moral regeneration. But both campaign as crusaders, are fiercely against abortion, and look upon politics and government as appropriate instruments of what Buchanan calls a "cultural war."
The economic libertarians emerged with 19 percent of the vote. Publishing heir Steve Forbes (10 percent) and Texas Sen. Phil Gramm (9 percent) differ over Forbes' flat-tax scheme. But both focus heavily on economic issues, and have a taste for lower marginal tax rates and a distaste for government regulation.
The fact that Forbes and Gramm together failed to get even 20 percent suggests that the issue isn't the economy, stupid, or at least not solely the economy. Conversely, the 30 percent total for Buchanan and Keyes suggests the power of the religious right within the GOP - and indeed may underestimate it, given some religious-right support for Dole as more electable in November.
Even so, and even with four men fitting the description, candidates with actual experience in elected office together failed to get so much as 60 percent of the Iowa vote. (And some of Alexander's support may have stemmed from the image of non-D.C. outsider he sought to project rather than his actual record as an activist governor and U.S. cabinet official.)
In other words, dissatisfaction with politics as usual continues to be plainly visible - as it was in the 1992 ouster of an incumbent Republican president and its counter in 1994 with the ouster of Democrats as the controlling party in Congress. Just as visible, too, is a lack of consensus behind any strategy for easing the dissatisfaction.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICSby CNB