John David Dyche: A Changing [For The Better -- Or Worse Kentucky] GOP[?]

(Senator-elect Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, left, talks with former Ky. Sen. John Sherman Cooper during a press conference at Cooper's home in the Washington, D.C. area. Nov. 28, 1984.)
A changing GOP
Written by John David Dyche

Kentucky Democrats love reminiscing about long-ago days when a species called the Liberal Republican roamed the state's political landscape. Democrats lamenting the extinction of this docile breed of elephant sometimes wistfully whisper the name “Cooper,” just as the dying Citizen Kane uttered “Rosebud.”

The courtly John Sherman Cooper remains the beau ideal of a Republican for older Bluegrass Democrats. He co-sponsored Medicare, supported federal education aid, opposed missile defense, championed civil rights, and changed his mind on Vietnam after voting for the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The leftist Americans for Democratic Action once named Cooper the Senate's most liberal Republican.

Kentucky had many others. Tim Lee Carter of the rock-ribbed Republican “old” 5th Congressional District offered a national health insurance plan and supported federal programs aplenty. Carter was among the first GOP congressmen advocating withdrawal from Vietnam.

Even Louie Nunn, a conservative capable of race-baiting and religious bigotry, had a liberal epiphany. Elected governor in 1967, he found state finances in disarray, broke his campaign promise not to raise taxes, and spent the proceeds from his “Nunn's Nickel” sales tax on education and health programs. Democrats practically deify him now.

State Sen. David Williams and then-state Rep. Anne Northup earned fleeting Democratic acclaim by voting for 1990's tax-increasing Kentucky Education Reform Act.

Their votes may have been moderate Republicanism's last hurrah in Kentucky.

Walter Baker, a state senator who also supported KERA, epitomized the kind of Republican that Kentucky Democrats held dear. As journalist Al Smith said in eulogizing Baker last year, “Walter was a beautiful example of when Kentucky Democrats and Republicans seemed close together and were able to cooperate.”

But such Republican cooperation often meant saying “me too” to Democratic tax and spending proposals. To paraphrase Barry Goldwater, Kentucky Republicans often offered an echo, not a choice. They provided minimal ideological contrast to dominant Democrats and seemed content as a popular, but permanent, minority. Lacking vigorous competition in ideas, Kentucky lagged behind truly two-party states.

Mitch McConnell emerged from this liberal Republican milieu, but was instrumental in ending it. McConnell admired Cooper, opposed both Goldwater for the 1964 Republican presidential nomination and Ronald Reagan for the 1976 and 1980 nominations, and even had a kitten named Rocky after liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller.

By McConnell's 1984 election to the U.S. Senate, however, Reagan was providing America's first conservative electoral and policy success since Calvin Coolidge. McConnell moved rightward, tracking the state and national political centers.

While larding the commonwealth with federal funds and backing some big federal spending programs, McConnell also made confrontational, anti-tax, social issue conservatism the hallmark of Kentucky Republicanism for a quarter-century. A few moderate Republican relics remain, like remnants of Louisville's once prominent River Road faction and a few members of the state House of Representatives minority.

The rise of Rand Paul may herald another remaking of Kentucky Republicanism. Paul is really a libertarian, not a conservative, and wears the Republican label from expedience more than party commitment.

Paul's success startled the state GOP establishment last year. His zeal for smaller government is resonating well beyond Kentucky's borders this year.

Many Kentucky Republicans, including leaders like McConnell, are moving toward Paul. The current GOP gubernatorial primary is largely a contest about who most resembles Rand.

Preventing a fiscal crisis is Paul's primary focus now, but his passion is individual freedom.

He downplayed civil liberties, military isolationism and lifestyle laissez-faire to get elected in Kentucky's reputedly conservative cultural climate. Yet his broader libertarian beliefs lurk just below the surface and must inevitably emerge.

If Paul expands his libertarian crusade beyond economic issues, Kentucky Republicans may follow. Paul might also add some doves and social liberals to the fiscal conservatives already marching under his banner. Both parties should beware of the political realignment such a coalition could portend. Forget Cooper. Kentucky Democrats may soon be waxing nostalgic about the good old days of Republicans like McConnell.

John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternating Tuesdays in Forum. His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him online at www.courier-journal.com; email: jddyche@yahoo.com.