Posted on 11/05/2013 3:18:47 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In the coming two to four years, the Republicans seem ready to engage in a battle royal for the soul of their party. And it sure will be ugly.
It looks like a war between the Backward Caucus and the usual Conservative Caucus. Forget the moderate Republicans; most of them were put out to pasture long ago.
Parties have seen battles between factions since the founding of the republic: the Whigs, the Bull Moose Party, conservative Democrats, liberal Republicans — plenty of splinter groups to go around.
Conservatives took over the Republican Party in the 1970s and northern liberal Republicans became nearly extinct. Conservative southern Democrats who controlled committee chairmanships gradually disappeared as Nixon’s Southern strategy turned those states red over a couple of decades. The most telling battle was Reagan challenging Gerald Ford in 1976 and winning a solid conservative majority in 1980, even taking control of the Senate. Pat Buchanan’s multiple bids for the presidency further exacerbated the rift in the GOP.
But that was nothing compared to what we are seeing today.
The country is changing and changing fast. For Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), the Three Musketeers in the Senate, they are locked into the Ozzie and Harriet 1950s.
On gay rights, the Senate is about to pass legislation to ban discrimination in the workplace, 14 states have legalized same sex marriage, and polling has done an about-face in less than 10 years. Yet, a large faction of the Republican Party and the Backward Caucus will hear none of it. The House will do its best to sink any reforms, and an audience of Republicans viewing a presidential debate would probably still boo a gay soldier. The message has been clear from the Tea Party: no room for you in our America.
And on immigration and attitudes toward minorities, it is equally intolerant. When the electorate in 2012 was 72 percent, compared to 87 percent in 1992, and dropping, Republicans resisted reform and sent a message that many construed as racist.
And when a country is digging itself out of a horrendous recession, a handful of Republicans lead a charge to shut down the government and default on our obligations, costing us $24 billion. And many follow the Backward Caucus and vote in lock step. The result: The Republican Party is viewed more unfavorably than at any time since Watergate.
The reason this is different from other party splits or insider battles is that the policy positions are so extreme and so contrary to where the nation is headed that there may have to be a Waterloo.
It will come down either to the New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wing or the Cruz wing of the party winning out.
Do the extreme Tea Party challengers to conservative incumbents in Idaho, Kentucky, South Carolina and across the country indicate a wave or a wasted effort?
Will Republicans continue to become the anti-gay, anti-Hispanic, anti-black, anti-women, anti-young-people's party? Do they refuse to change with the country?
Or will they stand up to the bullies in the Backward Caucus and take control of their party and refuse to go along with those who shout the loudest, get on 24/7 cable news, and feed the talk show circuit?
After today’s results in Virginia and New Jersey, one would think that reasonable Republicans might get the message. But the battle is just beginning.
Peter Fenn??? Amazing the way they recycle these a-holes.
“It will come down either to the New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wing...”
So is Krispy now the crown prince and new poster boy of the GOPe???
Utter bilge and wishful thinking from a Dem partisan. . .
Is Peter H. Fenn, Democratic political strategist & consultant, the person trying to help save the GOP. I think he’s been advising McCornhole and Bonehead.
This is a battle that will go on for years with no single decisive win or loss.
Peter...fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life. (Apologies to Dean Wormer)
Bachmann doesn’t belong in that company, she is a permanent small timer and a little flaky, with some troubling wishy washyness when it comes to her thin veneer of independence from the establishment.
Palin has suffered from two females who rode her coattails and muddied her image, Tina Fey, and Michelle Bachmann.
Yet another Progressive writer demonstrates the characteristic lack of understanding that defines modern leftists.
As John Lennon wrote: "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see."
I once had the bad luck to be locked in a tumultuous relationship with a liberal college professor for almost three traumatic years. I met a lot of liberals while I was with her, and I was stunned by how little they knew about what conservatives really think.
Christie, Peter King and Mitt Romney ARE northeastern, liberal Republicans.
Paul Ryan and John Boehner are north mid western liberal Republicans.
Saxby Chambliss, Lamar Alexander and Pete Sessions are southern liberal Republicans.
There is an over abundance of liberal Republicans, and that is killing the GOP and the nation.
Kinda like you don’t belong among conservatives.
Moderates are lying manipulative bottom feeding scum (and not nearly as sneaky as you think you are)
That seems to be MSM's narrative. RINO wins NJ handily, TEA Party loses in VA.(Never mind the Libertarian candidate run to split the Republicans.)Set up Kristy for the nomination against Hillary.
Either they and we win or GOP takes its place alongside the Whigs on the shelf of historical oddities of no present day importance or relevance.
Either they win, and we win, or GOP implodes and no one notices or misses it.
What an idiot you are, Bachmann and her kissing up to Romney, and her hiring of Ed Rollins, and the attack on Palin and Bachmann’s lack of ever doing anything in office as the big boys shove her around and ignore her, are what turned us conservatives off on her.
You seem to be the moderate here, not the conservatives annoyed at her anti-conservative activities.
Just unusual that they label him as a Democrat, and it reads exactly the same as the care trolls in the media.
You’ve got a long history of bashing conservatives here. I leave it up to others to check it out for themselves.
Dean Wormer/Chuck Schumer — Seperated at Birth twins for Laura’s list.
If Christie is nominee, i will be voting third party. He’s atrocious. I liked him in year one when he took the unions, but he’s been utterly worthless since.
I like Palin, but I agree she has suffered great damage.
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