Former congressman and 1996 Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp passed away on May… Former congressman and 1996 Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp passed away on May 2 as a result of an undisclosed form of cancer. Kemp, also an all-star quarterback for the Buffalo Bills during the team’s AFL days, championed one prominent idea that would undeniably alter the Republican Party in years to come: sharp tax cuts in government.

Kemp’s passing has been just one wave of recent events that have devastated the Republican Party and has left the American people asking, “What is next for the GOP?”

Along with the death of Kemp, the Republican Party lost another incredibly influential politician in Arlen Specter. Pennsylvania’s own senior U.S. senator defected from the Republican Party to become a Democrat on April 28. According to a New York Times article on April 29, the Specter camp had “concluded over the weekend that he could not win a Republican primary against a conservative challenger, particularly in light of his vote for the president’s economic stimulus package.”

Although political expediency and security motivated Specter’s decision to switch his party alliance, it nevertheless reinforces the notion that the Republican Party no longer has room for moderates.

Adding to the party’s precipitous collapse is that Specter’s defection allows the potential for Democrats to control 60 votes in the Senate. This number provides the ability to thwart any filibuster by the Republicans.

Although Obama has governed from a relatively centrist position during his first few months in office, a filibuster-proof Senate would effectively provide the president with a rubber stamp on key legislative issues — such as the recently released budget proposal.

The beauty of the two-party system in U.S. politics is that it allows for political balance and constructive debate. The representation of many political parties and ideologies enables a type of governance that effectively meets and represents the needs and viewpoints of all its constituents. Furthermore, the presence of a singular, dominating party has historically led to political unrest and ultimate failure.

The Republican Party, which is now made up of mostly radical conservatives, needs to recognize that its failure to welcome moderates and centrists will ultimately prevent it from recapturing congressional seats in the future.

In a New York Times column, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman wrote, “The United States needs two vibrant, competitive parties. With the economic crisis, the war in Iraq and countless other issues facing the nation, the stakes are too high to simply let one ideological segment of the country determine our fate.” Oh, how right she is.

In order for the party of Lincoln to go forward and work to reclaim some congressional seats, it is time that Republicans consider reforming their image and principles to better allow for centrist positions.

Just last week, Time Magazine published a list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Among the most influential American political leaders: President Obama, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — definitive iconic figures in the liberal and international community.

Republican Party members on the list? Why, none other than Rush Limbaugh and Gov. Sarah Palin. Needless to say, if those are the two most influential members of your political party, you should know you have problems.

The political attitudes of the United States moves in cycles and there will certainly come a time when government will take a smaller role in the lives of all Americans. But when that time comes and the Republican Party is once again either in control of the presidency or Congress, it cannot be, as Whitman wrote, “the party of no” to Obama’s Democratic Party.

What is needed is a more creative and forward-minded Republican Party. Much like in the mold of the deceased Kemp — who pressed the Republican Party to work to actively seek the support of black people and other ethnic minorities in the 1970s — it is time that Republicans put an end to their provincial and exclusionary practices and become more open to moderate and centrist viewpoints. The Grand Old Party will not survive without it.

E-mail Shane at [email protected].