Scott Brown and Rick Santorum have a lot in common besides both visiting Iowa this week. Both are former U.S. senators who lost re-election bids. Both are considering running for president in 2016. Both claim humble roots and have called on the Republican Party to do more to appeal to working-class voters.
The two men have very different views on how GOP candidates can accomplish that goal.
I doubt I’ll see another New England Republican nominated for president during my lifetime, but Brown beat long odds to win a special election for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in early 2010. Although he lost his seat to Elizabeth Warren last November, he may run for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire and hasn’t ruled out a presidential bid. Last night Brown was the featured speaker at a Scott County Republican fundraiser in Bettendorf. Jason Noble reported for the Des Moines Register,
Brown recalled his humble personal background, and described his conversion to the GOP as a model for winning over middle- and working-class voters.
Democrats have long presented themselves as champions of workers and the poor, Brown said, but their record hasn’t backed them up. The troubled roll-out of the health care exchanges at the heart of President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act only underscore the point, he said.
“Sometimes it seems that all the Democratic establishment has to offer is better-managed poverty, instead of opportunity,” he said. “And as we’re often reminded, their managing skills aren’t so good either.”
He added, “This party of ours, it has a different mission: We’re in the business of spreading opportunity.”
Brown believes the GOP can win over working-class voters by setting aside sharply partisan messages in favor of pragmatism that gets results.
“Somewhere in between unbending partisanship and wishy-washy conformity, there’s got to be a place where we meet and carry out the business of our country,” he said. “The basic respect across party lines needs to somewhat be reestablished.”
He fleshed out the concept in an interview with Radio Iowa yesterday:
Former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown – the keynote speaker at the Scott County Republican Party fundraising dinner tonight – says the GOP will flourish if it promotes “problem-solving” and “civility” over partisanship and conflict.
“It’s all about us versus them, you know,” Brown said this afternoon during an interview with Radio Iowa. “This division, this haves and have-nots, the Democrats and the Republicans and I’ll tell you what – I for one am getting a little tired of it and I think the American people are as well.”
Brown, who served about three years in the senate, said “demonizing and criticizing others” isn’t the path to victory. […]
“I don’t remember taking a test or anyone that has a test that says what a true Republican is, ’cause I’ve been a Republican since I was 18 years old,” Brown said. “My first election, I think I voted for Ronald Reagan. Who’s to tell me that I’m not a Republican? I find it, quite frankly, offensive.”
The effective approach for Republicans – Brown said – is to be an “ideas oriented” party that sets aside the purity tests and primarily addresses fiscal and security issues. […]
Brown told Radio Iowa he’s “not sure” what his political future may be, but for now he wants to try to forge a “different kind of Republicanism” that “isn’t just the defender of wealth and privilege.”
Speaking to the Des Moines Register before the Scott County event, Brown said Republicans must show voters that “we are the party of good ideas.”
These days, Brown promotes himself as a big-tent Republican, even as some conservatives dismiss him as a Massachusetts moderate.
The party needs to warmly embrace all kinds of Republicans, Brown told the Register.
“There is room for people like me and Rand Paul and Chris Christie and Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney,” he said. “And not only is there room for us, but we have the ability to have tolerance, and to get out our message of problem-solving, of living within our means, of following the Constitution and a whole host of other things.”
I doubt the Iowa Republican base is ready to embrace that message. They don’t want candidates to downplay the social conservative issues. Although I agree that GOP elected officials need to do more good-faith compromising to govern the country effectively, I suspect most Iowa Republican caucus-goers are more inclined to view bipartisanship as treason.
Santorum was in Iowa Monday to promote a Christmas movie his company (EchoLight Studios) is distributing later this month. I believe EchoLight has a much better chance of becoming the “Pixar of faith movies” than Santorum does of being elected president. But given his strong showing in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, he as to be considered a serious contender here for the next cycle. He strongly opposes those who would put “family” issues on the back burner and appears ready to position himself as one who will never give up the fight.
As for his potential opponents in the 2016 presidential primary, Santorum was asked if he thought New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was too moderate. He opted not to directly criticize Christie, but provided an indication of his thoughts regarding Christie’s conservative bona fides.
“What they’ve fought for and what they haven’t fought for are good indicators of what they will fight for,” Santorum said. “All that is fair game and one thing I know is the people of Iowa do a pretty good job analyzing it.”
Santorum’s claim to a working-class background is a bit of a fraud, but he does come from Pennsylvania steel country, and I thought he made some excellent points during an Iowa visit this summer. Whereas Scott Brown seems to think sounding less partisan and more pragmatic will be enough to bring working-class voters around, Santorum recognizes that Republican-backed economic policies leave a lot to be desired. In August,
He chided both moderate Republicans and the libertarian wing of the party for not being authentic in their social views and for pushing an economic agenda that left too many Americans behind. The GOP, he said, must become more populist by reaching out to working Americans alongside business owners.
Republicans have “marginalized” working-class voters, pushing them into the Democratic Party.
“We need to reject this idea that if we just build the economy, all boats will rise and everybody will be fine,” Santorum said. “I don’t know about you, but most people I know have holes in their boats and when that tide rises sometimes they don’t rise. Sometimes they sink.”
Not only that, Santorum acknowledges that Republicans simply don’t address the working-class voters they claim to be courting.
“If all we do is focus on the job creators and not the job holders we are talking to a very small group of people who would normally agree with us anyway because they have to live with the government and they know what the problems are. What we did not do in the last election and what we do not do as a party is talk to the folks who want to be with us, but they don’t think we care about them because we don’t talk to them. Literally we don’t talk to them.”
Any relevant thoughts are welcome in this thread.