rssAre Divisions Within the GOP Good for Their Chances in November?
Monday, August 30, 2010 at 8:54 am
- 22 Comments
Republicans might be marching lockstep in their opposition to President Obama in Congress, but the same cannot be said of GOP candidates on the campaign trail. In a Sunday article about the fractious nature of the Republican Party, The Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes:
It has long been said that any political coalition large enough to aspire to majority status is an organization of factions, conflict and contradictions. That description defines the Republican Party as it looks toward the November elections and beyond.
This was a week in which the party’s strengths and weaknesses competed for attention. Turnout in Tuesday’s primaries showed Republicans energized and enthusiastic, far more so than the Democrats. If anything, Democrats are more pessimistic about their prospects in November than they were two months ago.
But the elections last week in Florida and Alaska also pointed to ideological differences and personal enmities that have played out in Republican primary battles all year and that threaten to leave scars and fissures within the party that will have to be dealt with later. Republicans have seen more turmoil in their ranks this year than Democrats have, a sign of both robustness within the coalition and unresolved debates about the party’s direction.
Balz correctly notes a number of divisions within the Republican party, but to label them “ideological” seems a bit of a stretch. Businessman Rick Scott and Attorney General Bill McCollum spent most of the GOP governor’s race in Florida attacking each other’s experience and character, not policy prescriptions. And Joe Miller may have edged out Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska’s GOP Senate primary mainly by successfully characterizing Murkowski as a member of a political dynasty when the nation is looking for change.
The party is split between insiders and outsiders, even if those outsiders in turn represent a strange pantheon of grassroots Tea Party candidates and self-funded multi-millionaires. When it comes to policy, GOP candidates’ opposition to Democratic initiatives are a matter of degree, not kind. Tea Party candidates adopt the Republican mantle but often seek to go further in dismantling unwanted portions of government spending — like various regulatory agencies, departments, and entitlement programs. Often they simply cannot forgive Republican incumbents for betraying their principles through a vote for the Bush-era Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that bailed out Wall Street banks.
Balz also seems to imply that this fractiousness speaks well of Republicans’ electoral chances in November. While Republicans will doubtless gain many seats in both chambers, I’d argue that they’d be sitting a lot prettier if they had managed to avoid nominating Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Ken Buck, Rick Scott, and now, perhaps, Joe Miller. By way of example, Democratic pollsters confide that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev.) looked like toast running against nearly any Republican for reelection except… Sharron Angle. Now that the race has become in large part about her antics, many think Reid’s got more than a fighting chance of holding on.
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Comment posted August 30, 2010 @ 2:36 pm
Its sickening to think Republicans or Tea Partiers could win any seats.
Comment posted August 30, 2010 @ 4:17 pm
Tell me what Tea Party offer? I do not see them any different than Republican. They offer no tolerance to other race. They don't like other religion. They hate immigrants. They even hate immigrant baby. What else? The list is so long. It's like Communist who call other people they dislike “communist”! Republican almost bankrupt America and no tea party? Just another Wolf with Duck costume. No way to Palin, Delusional Beck, Fox network and its Koch inc. Enough is enough!!
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Comment posted August 31, 2010 @ 1:23 am
You say: “I’d argue that they’d be sitting a lot prettier if they had managed to avoid nominating Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Ken Buck, Rick Scott, and now, perhaps, Joe Miller.”
In whose opinion? The primary opponents of those candidates were worthless. Electing them would scratch no itch for representation, at all. Contrarily, some of the candidates you list are pretty good. Rand Paul is exceptional.
Comment posted August 31, 2010 @ 1:26 am
Here is what Rand Paul offers:
“?I will never, ever vote for a taxpayer bailout of a private industry. Whether it’s big banks, automakers, or any other industry — you succeed or fail on your own.
?I will not vote for an unbalanced budget. I will not vote for a tax increase. Ever.
?I will fight for new rules like a Balanced Budget Amendment and Term Limits.
?I will not take ANYTHING off the table in the fight to balance the budget. Anyone who says something like they will “freeze non-defense discretionary spending” is blowing smoke at you and hoping you won’t notice. That would balance the budget — MAYBE — in about 80 years.
?We have to keep our promises to seniors and keep our country strong, but every area has things that can be cut. Every agency has things that are duplicative or that could be done better or cheaper.
?I will propose and force a vote on an Enumerated Powers Act, to force Congress to point to the part of the Constitution that justifies their bills.
?I will fight for the Bill of Rights. Democrats often love the 4th amendment. Republicans the 2nd. I will fight for them all, which means fighting for your free speech, gun rights, and civil liberties. Laws that infringe on ANY of these make the federal government more powerful, and we cannot continue to allow that.
?I will not allow our troops to be the world’s policeman, and I will force a vote on a Declaration of War if any President seeks to commit our military to battle.
What you’ve just read above is an agenda unlike any politician in the country. While solidly conservative, it also shows first, a great loyalty to the Constitution and to our freedom. You cannot fight for liberty while voting for bills that embolden the state. You cannot fight for some of our founding rights without others. And you cannot enable change in Washington by sending the same old people there. “
And as to race, who excludes any race? Why shouldn't everyone be treated as individuals, according to their merits?
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Comment posted August 31, 2010 @ 7:42 am
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