Right before the 2006 election, America’s Future Foundation (of whose board I am an officer) held a roundtable on why the GOP was about to get its head handed to it on a platter. The room was filled with social conservatives, libertarians, neocons, economic conservatives, and all the various species on the right. As the night wore on, Michael Brendan Dougherty noticed a trend, which he put to print in the Washington Monthly:
At the end of the day, the arguments all seem to boil down to something similar: If it were more like me, the Republican Party would be better off. It’s failing because it’s like you.
I dubbed this observation the Dougherty Doctrine, and I think everyone engaging in political analysis ought to be aware of it, and ask him or herself, “am I simply projecting what I want from politicians onto the electorate?”
The Dougherty Doctrine is on full display today, with every side seeing in the election results conclusions that confirm their own views. For instance, Roger Simon, who became a conservative because he supported Bush’s wars, writes (and socially liberal libertarian Walter Olson links, in seeming approval) of NY-23:
In a year where the GOP racked up a 20% margin in Virginia and coasted easily in Jersey, a state in which Obama romped in ‘08 by 16%, what was the problem? Well… I might as well say it… social conservatism.
Simon provides zero evidence, quotes, or actual citations that Doug Hoffman ran a campaign primarily about abortion or gay marriage. In fact, his simple webpage focussed only on deficits and bailouts. But it serves Olson’s and Simon’s interests to push abortion and marriage out of the GOP priority list, so they do.
You similarly see Democrats arguing that Bob McDonnell won in Virginia because he ran as a moderate.
On the other side, I’ve heard pro-lifers pointing out that Creigh Deeds lost because he ran a primarily socially liberal campaign, and I know Corzine was hammering away on his Planned Parenthood endorsements. I’m not dismissing these arguments, I’m just saying they ought be taken with a grain of salt.
