Arlen Specter-Democrat

The only surprising thing about Senator Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democratic Party is that it took him so long. He has been a “moderate” for many years in a party that has abandoned the concept of moderation.

I’m sure that when Senator Specter voted for President Obama’s stimulus bill, the Republicans who provide funding for senate races told him that they would fund his opponent in the Republican primaries. After 29 years as a Republican, he was a pariah. Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine described the feeling in a recent New York Times Op-Ed article: “Being a Republican moderate sometimes feels like being a cast member of ‘Survivor’ — you are presented with multiple challenges, and you often get the distinct feeling that you’re no longer welcome in the tribe.”

Specter’s switch was a sweet gift to President Obama. It does not mean that Specter will automatically vote for every Democratic bill, but it will free him to vote his conscience instead of feeling duty-bound to vote with the Republicans. Specter has long been a moderate on social issues. He has supported freedom of choice on abortion and the funding of stem-cell research. He has opposed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He has supported affirmative action. He is not a complete liberal, but he is far more liberal than most of his senate Republican colleagues.

For years now the Republican Party has been contracting into a regional party predominant in the former segregationist states of the South. It has been taken captive by the Rush Limbaugh dunce-heads, the self-righteous, sanctimonious bigots of the “Religious Right,” and by the Club for Growth. Whereas once the Republican Party could boast leaders like Everett Dirksen, Jacob Javits, Nelson Rockefeller, William Scranton, Tom Kaine, and Jack Kemp, it is now led by red-necks like Mark Sanford, David Vitter, Jim DeMint, Saxby Chambliss, and Rick Perry.

It is not uncommon for senators to switch parties. In 1964, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party because the Democrats had become the party of civil rights. Later, in 1994, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama switched from the Democrats to the Republicans. In 1995, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado switched from the Democrats to the Republicans.

Although it was padded with various code words such as the fight over “affirmative action,” “welfare,” or “busing,” the primary issue between Democrats and Republicans in the decades of the 70s, 80s, and 90s was the civil rights of African Americans. The old Southern Democratic segregationist bloc that switched to the Republican Party fought those issues fiercely. In more recent years, the Republicans have added abortion, gay rights, same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, and immigration to their list of favorite social issues.

If the lumbering Minnesota courts ever get around to certifying Al Franken as senator-elect, Senator Specter’s switch may help the Democrats get the 60 votes necessary to defeat the wall-to-wall filibuster being promulgated by the Republicans.

I have no doubt that Republican adherence to ultra-right-wing positions will lead to more Democrats in Congress in 2010. Unless the Republicans give-up their antagonism toward gays, immigrants, labor unions, poor people, and single women, they will continue to shrink.

With the 60-vote majority, and with the large Democratic majorities that I expect to come after the next elections, Congress will be able to enact a bundle of liberal legislation including universal health insurance, a cap and tax on greenhouse gas emissions, repeal of all tax cuts for the wealthy, repeal of all tax breaks for oil companies and tax loopholes for rich corporations, restoration of the estate tax, a tax on the windfall profits of oil and other companies, the Freedom of Choice Act, the Stem-cell Research Enhancement Act, the D.C. Voting Rights Act, the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act, the Employee Free Choice Act, anti-discrimination laws to protect gays, and many other desirable laws.