At the same time, the Republican Party's base of loyalists narrowed and our management betrayed the faith of too many of our natural supporters, including good government advocates, responsible environmental conservationists, defenders of personal liberty, fiscal disciplinarians, and pragmatic centrists who believe leaders of both parties should work together to do the things that are difficult.
It did not matter that many centrist Republicans supported a strong policy on climate change, stem cell research and alternative energy; all Republicans needed the lesson that ideology can not be allowed to trump science and progress. It did not matter that many of us worked without much cooperation from either party's leadership to impose budget reforms; all Republicans needed the lesson that those in charge have the obligation to produce results. Finally, it did not matter that Republicans succeeded in delivering both lower taxes and a strong economy; all Republicans needed a lesson in the outrage felt over the squandering of the taxpayer's trust through out-of-control spending.
In this light, the firing of Republicans as managers of the government was rational. More important , if voters follow through on the second part of this election lesson by restoring the GOP as a national party, this renewal will be good for the health of our democracy.
The special election to replace Representative Martin Meehan in the Fifth Congressional District will give voters an opportunity to exercise influence on the national political system and provide a model of the future of the Republican Party.
Electing another Democrat from Massachusetts in the special election would have no effect on the philosophy of that party and would not imprint the needed guidance on the Republican Party in its work to be restored as a party that can compete in every region of the country -- including New England.
If the Republican Party wants to compete nationally, it must not move toward the extremes, appeal to a narrow base, or ignore the lessons of the previous election. The cycle of renewal will begin when the advocates of sensible, pragmatic, centrist leadership express themselves through the nomination and election of a Republican candidate reflecting these views.
In 1993, Republican Ron Lewis's victory in a special election to replace Democrat William Natcher was an early indication of the nation's discontent with Democratic control of Congress. In 1994, Republicans swept into control using themes that Lewis had honed in that Kentucky race.
In 2005, Democrat Paul Hackett's unexpectedly tough special election challenge to Jean Schmidt, in an overwhelmingly Republican district in Ohio, exemplified growing frustration with the GOP. Last fall, the Democrats won by tying Republicans in swing districts to President Bush's policies regardless of those representatives' own votes or independent beliefs.
Massachusetts has its own recent history of presaging a national trend or realignment. In 1992, the Bay State elected two Republicans to the US Congress in response to early outrage at the scandals of incumbent congressmen Joseph Early and Nicholas Mavroules. Meehan's election that same year turned on the same campaign theme as the two Republicans -- albeit in the Democratic primary against the incumbent. It took the rest of the country another two years to catch up to the Massachusetts House cleaning.
In this special election, the challenge for voters who want to influence the national discourse, who want a credible two-party system in Massachusetts, and who want to finally be represented by someone who fits the fiscally conservative and socially libertarian views of the majority of Americans is to find and elect a Republican candidate who will go to Washington and inject new ideas into the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.
The Fifth District already includes communities that are forever tied to American revolutions -- one for liberty and another for industrial progress. The special election can begin another revolution that leads to competitive two-party elections featuring candidates who appeal to the real needs and the real hopes of all Americans -- not just an increasingly polarized and narrow base.
Charles F. Bass, a former six-term congressman from New Hampshire, is president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership ( rmsp.org).