Not for the first time does this blog consider the GOP internal civil war that is about to strike among those conservatives who make us cringe over rape statements, wanting to start three wars ( a cold one, a hot one, and a trade one), increase defense spending, pass still more tax cuts, and slash federal regulations.
Come Wednesday morning—or might it even start late Tuesday night?–there will be a large and growing uproar in the Republican Party about the losses they suffered, and the way to move forward. It will be a modern day political civil war.
In no small way the Tea Party will have to accept blame for the outcome of an election with the continual demand that the GOP move further to the right, become more male and white, and as a result smaller in relation to the larger political pie.
I will be the first to say as a reader of history, and a political junkie that this nation is best served by two strong political parties which competes in the arena of ideas and works for the compromise agreement. But over the past years the Republican Party has become delusional and so tilted to the right that it is walking into a fascist wall of craziness.
Listen to the debates from the GOP presidential primaries and those of the congressional members (Indiana Senate primary), and then think of the names Pete Domenici and John Warner. When did being a seasoned, educated, and reasonable Republican become out-of-date? The GOP must ask themselves how far adrift they wish to go, and how ridiculous they wish to look to the rest of us.
But Republicans are divided on the way forward. Its base is growing more conservative, nominating and at times electing purists while the country is becoming more center than center-right. Practical-minded party elites want to pass a comprehensive immigration bill, de-emphasize issues like contraception and abortion and move on a major taxes-and-spending deal that includes some method of raising new revenue.
But many rank-and-file Republicans in Congress and grass-roots activists won’t sanction amnesty for undocumented immigrants, are determined to advance restrictions on abortion and have no appetite for any compromise with Democrats on fiscal issues. And that doesn’t even get at the growing cleavage on foreign policy in the GOP between the party’s hawkish wing and the rising voices who prefer a more restrained role abroad.
There’s not much of a moderate wing left in the GOP, but the pragmatism versus purity battle that looms on the horizon could be as fierce as Republicans have seen since the Goldwaterites sought to wrest control of the party in the 1960s.
“Structurally, a Romney loss, following a McCain loss, would be a rebuke to moderates who have wanted ideological conservatives to fill the bus but not drive the bus,” said a GOP operative close to one sure-fire future presidential aspirant. “The nominee is 2016, if he is not a President Romney, will certainly he a card-carrying movement conservative with a track record to match.”
The pragmatists will howl at this and point to the underlying issues in the electorate.
“If I hear anybody say it was because Romney wasn’t conservative enough I’m going to go nuts,” said Graham. “We’re not losing 95 percent of African-Americans and two-thirds of Hispanics and voters under 30 because we’re not being hard-ass enough.”
Of the party’s reliance on a shrinking pool of white men, one former top George W. Bush official said: “We’re in a demographic boa constrictor and it gets tighter every single election.”
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