Quite a few of the emailers who contacted me in response to my earlier posts on Specter (almost of all whom, I should say, politely, but firmly, disagreed with me) referred back to the halcyon days of the 1994 GOP victories and the success of the Contract with America’s clear, direct, and unapologetic message as an example of how the Republicans might win their way back.
Those were, indeed, the days, and thought of them prompted me to take another look at what that document had actually said. To re-read it is to be reminded of what small-government, fiscally responsible Republicanism once stood for, and, I might add, the role that an inclusive and enabling social conservatism could play alongside it. Food for thought, perhaps.