“Why vote for a ‘Dime Store Democrat’ when you can vote for the real thing?” President Harry Truman famously said. He was speaking about Republicans who drift away from conservative core values in an attempt to curry favor with the public by being slightly less radical than popular Democrats. General Colin Powell has become the latest high-profile spokesman for Dime Store Democrats. His predecessors include President Herbert Hoover, presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.

Hoover, despite his good intentions, set in motion the trend toward big government. He laid the groundwork for the New Deal, implementing measures which Roosevelt scorned but then expanded once he was in office (not unlike President Barack Obama’s amplification of bailouts started during President George W. Bush’s administration). Wilkie was a Roosevelt delegate at the 1932 Democratic convention, but in 1940, he effectively cleared the path for Roosevelt’s unprecedented third term when vocal spectators swayed delegates on the floor of the Republican convention, defeating legitimate, viable conservatives. Wilkie then presented no real alternative to Roosevelt. Rockefeller acted as a spoiler in the 1964 election.

None of these men spoke out against the party. Hoover remained a loyal Republican, but to this day, his name is used to excoriate conservatives even though he was more liberal than all other Republican presidents who preceded him. Democrats and the media still point to Hoover as someone Republicans need to live down. Wilkie died in 1944. Rockefeller seemed unaffected by his role as spoiler and eventually became Vice President under President Gerald Ford. The most important effect of these men’s political actions was to muddy the waters, making the differences between Democrats and Republicans less evident.

Mr. Powell presents a new twist to the scenario of Dime Store Democrats. In the last election Mr. Powell spurned Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, despite him being the kind of Republican nominee Mr. Powell has always called for. By endorsing and publicly announcing his intent to vote for Barack Obama, Mr. Powell effectively left the Republican Party. Having defected, he now presumes to lecture the party on how to be Republican. He enjoys the support of the media, who do not examine his actions, but instead question the rest of the Republican Party for not following Mr. Powell’s lead.

Then there is the matter of Mr. Powell’s questionable political character. During the media-hyped controversy about who leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the press (which was not actually a crime), Mr. Powell knew that Richard Armitage, his protégé and a top aide in the State Department, was the leaker. He remained quiet as the press attacked Mr. Bush’s handling of the affair and poisoned the jury pool, contributing to the conviction of Lewis “Scooter” Libby for the crime of lying to investigators about a conversation he had with Tim Russert of NBC News.

Libby’s defense was that he had thousands of conversations with many journalists and couldn’t remember precisely what he said to whom. Russert, initially also not sure what was said, testified against Libby after Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald pressured him to “become sure” of what was said after all. (Russert, a Catholic, later died of a heart attack). Mr. Powell’s conduct in this matter does not inspire loyalty.

Dime Store Democrats are welcomed by the Democratic Party because Democrats continued success depends on the diminution of Republicans as an opposition party. Democrats often lose against a true alternative to liberalism and big government solutions because, while safety nets and entitlements offer a certain appeal, most Americans still have an independent spirit. They do not want big government. They understand the loss of independence and self-reliance these programs present. Also, when Republicans offer something less than a true alternative to liberalism, they are easily defeated, as in 1940 and in 2008.

A well-known, respected public figure who ostensibly remains Republican but actually undermines the core values that have identified the Republican Party as a true alternative to Democrats may serve as an internal Fifth Column, working secretly for one party while maintaining the appearance of loyalty to the other. Mr. Powell wants it both ways: he wants to be considered a Republican, but to ally himself with the Democrats.

It remains to be seen how Dime Store Democrats will react to and influence upcoming issues such as the nomination and confirmation process of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.