All Their Base Are Belong To GOP

James Carville's polling outfit has compiled a report on the Teabagger base of the GOP:

"They believe Obama is ruthlessly advancing a 'secret agenda' to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism," the analysis said." While these voters are disdainful of a Republican Party they view to have failed in its mission, they overwhelmingly view a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of this country's founding principles and are committed to seeing the president fail."

The analysis argues that Obama's unpopularity among conservative Republicans is both quantitatively and qualitatively different from liberal Democratic ire against George W. Bush -- that the GOP is more heavily conservative than the Democrats are heavily liberal, and that the hatred of Obama is more intense than Dem hatred of Bush was. All of this adds up to a powerful set of emotions that the Republican Party as a whole cannot ignore.

One thing that the firm makes clear, though, is that this is not about racism, but about ideology: "Instead of focusing on these intense ideological divisions, the press and elites continue to look for a racial element that drives these voters' beliefs - but they need to get over it. Conducted on the heels of Joe Wilson's incendiary comments at the president's joint session address, we gave these groups of older, white Republican base voters in Georgia full opportunity to bring race into their discussion - but it did not ever become a central element, and indeed, was almost beside the point."

The massive racism is incidental, you see. They just really, really, really hate Obama to the point of breaking from reality. BooMan plays out what this means for the Republicans in 2010:

The Republicans have unleashed a beast that they don't seem able to control. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Sunshine State, where Governor Charlie Crist's campaign for U.S. Senate is starting to look a little wobbly. But, it's also evident in Upstate New York, where a special election is coming up in the 23rd District for the House of Representatives. The Chairman of the NRSC, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, has wisely sought out candidates who fit their states in Illinois (Mark Kirk), Connecticut (Rob Simmons), Delaware (Mike Castle), New Hampshire (Kelly Ayotte), and Florida (Gov. Crist). But the base of the Republican Party is no match for these "moderates" and, other than Castle, none of them seem assured of winning their primaries. Cornyn certainly has failed to clear the field for them, which means any victory could be pyrrhic if it winds up consuming the entire bankroll and leaves nothing left over for the general election.

The Village keeps thinking that the Democrats will lose dozens of seats in the House next year. That is possible, but only if the Democrats don't pass their agenda...and even then, the reality is that the Teabaggers want to hijack the Republican party so far over to the right that 90% of the current denizens in the Republican side of the aisle would be tossed for ideological impurity.

It's actually about a lot more than race: it's about change, real actual honest to goodness change, and the people who have been beaten with the fear stick for the last 30 years have now broken the leash and are loose. The Republicans can't control them anymore, and this hurricane is liable to cost even more GOP incumbent lawmakers their seats than Democrats.

The GOP civil war is raging. The results will be that the Democrats are the biggest winners of all.