Yes there is one :)

Let me just say up front -- Democrats aren’t all bad; Republicans aren’t all good (or all bad). I don’t think anyone participating in the political process does so primarily because they are evil or corrupt. I hope it’s not boring to be all moderate and reasonable about things, but that’s how I am. There are people who think their political opponents are evil. I think they are indulging in a little fantasy to make politics more fun (like people who put money on football or Tabasco on eggs). But as I see it, at a high level most people in the mainstream of American politics share similar goals. If it’s more fun for you to believe that everyone you oppose is evil, go ahead but that’s too bad for you and perhaps too bad for the country too.

That said, there are differences between Republicans and Democrats, and they wind up being important if we want to actually achieve things. I think I can show you that in many respects the Republican approach has been, and can in the future be, more effective than the Democratic approach.

I write as a Seattleite. Seattle has been for some time isolated from one of the most original strains of thought in American politics and has missed some opportunities because of it. Seattleites have been shut off from a healthy political debate and from ideas that could have helped Seattle. This lack of competition is partly why Seattle has wound up with such a mediocre set of politicians (yes Jim McDermott, I am talking about you).

I am not alone in thinking that Republicans have been the party of ideas for a while. Barack Obama said in 2008 that “Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last ten, fifteen years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.” That’s true. The Democratic Party had very few new ideas between the Great Society and, well, quite recently. The Republican Party has had a lot of new ideas that are in step with the world as it has been evolving.

As an aside, I don’t know how so many smart people stayed loyal to the Democratic Party from about 1978-1992 when it was fairly evident that they were defending a dead ideology and fighting the future (confirmed by their ultimate abandonment of 90% of everything they were advocating). Who knows what they were thinking? The genius of Bill Clinton was that he jettisoned many of the party planks that were past their prime. One thing you can say for Bill is that he knows a political loser when he sees one and he saved his party.

Republicanism in Seattle has to be different from Republicanism in certain other parts of the country. The kind of Republicanism that can work in Seattle is, fortunately, the kind of Republicanism that works for me, but I also believe it is the only kind of Republicanism that will remain relevant in the United States 20 years from now. It is focused on using the latest ideas to solve societal problems and while maintaining our economic strength, giving everyone opportunity, and preserving the environment.

Let’s see if we can find some common ground and some new ideas.