War Of The Elephants

The Republican civil war continues, spilling over onto the pages of the NY Times.

A fundamental debate broke out among Republicans on Wednesday over how to rebuild the party in the wake of Senator Arlen Specter’s departure: Should it purge moderate voices like Mr. Specter and embrace its conservative roots or seek to broaden its appeal to regain a competitive position against Democrats?

With consensus growing among Republicans that the party is in its worst political position in recent memory, some conservatives applauded Mr. Specter’s departure. They said it cleared the way for the party to distance itself from its record of expanding government during the Bush years and to re-emphasize the calls for tax cuts and reduced federal spending that have dominated Republican thought for more than 30 years.

“We strayed from our principles of limited government, individual responsibility and economic freedom,” said Chris Chocola, a former Indiana congressman who is head of Club for Growth, a group that has financed primary challenges against Republicans it considers insufficiently conservative. “We have to adhere to those principles to rebuild the party. Those are the brand of the Republican Party, and people feel that we betrayed the brand.”

But Republican leaders in Washington argued that Republicans would be permanently marginalized unless they showed flexibility on social issues as well as economic ones.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he would seek to recruit candidates who he thought could win in Democratic or swing states, even if it meant supporting candidates who might disagree with his own conservative views.

Mr. Cornyn said he was taking a page from Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the last head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who led his party to big gains by embracing candidates who, for example, opposed abortion rights or gun control.

“If you think about it, Schumer has been very good at this; I complimented him this morning in the gym,” Mr. Cornyn said, adding, “Some conservatives would rather lose than be seen as compromising on what they regard as inviolable principles.”

As I've said before, the outcome of this is vitally important to the country. If the Republicans go for the Club For Growth "Purity" path, they are doomed as an effective counter to the Democrats and that actually hurts the country as a whole. On the other hand, nobody's going to believe them when they say they are the Big Tent party when they continue to demonize Hispanics, blacks, gays and lesbians, union blue collar workers, the scientific and environmentally minded, and the pro-choice memberships of their party and continue to drive them into the arms of the Democrats. They lost in 2006 and 2008 because they drove far more people away from their party than included people in it. It's that simple.

The GOP still thinks it can be the party of 2010 by pretending to be the party of 1980, when they are really still the party of 1950 and economically the party of 1920. It can't work. America has changed fundamentally from the 20th century and will continue to do so. But the Republicans refuse to recognize it. The Democrats have adapted. They are thriving as a result. The GOP won't evolve and demand the country change back to the way they want things, and are incapable of understanding why this isn't working any longer. They see a landslide in 2010 and 2012 not because the Democrats did something right (that's impossible) but because the GOP controls the political universe and they did something wrong. Even the concept that the Democrats won is incomprehensible to them. Democrats can never win...Republicans just fail to do so by sheer coincidence that will not be repeated. The next election will prove America is conservative. Bush failed conservatism, conservatism itself can never actually fail. The GOP followed the moderates and failed to win. Ergo, the moderates must be jettisoned.

As such, they will continue to fail to win. Lindsey Graham has the best quote in the article:

“Do you really believe that we lost 18-to-34-year-olds by 19 percent, or we lost Hispanic voters, because we are not conservative enough?” he said. “No. This is a ridiculous line of thought. The truth is we lost young people because our Republican brand is tainted.”

Amen to that, brother. And your own party continues to spread the taint of hate, intolerance and bigotry on a daily basis.