It’s time for the Republican Party to formally split. A chasm has already opened up informally, with party infighting between the extremist take-no-prisoners Tea Party wing and the old establishment Republicans. The extreme right-wingers have already tarnished the Republican brand with their unwillingness to govern or compromise, which will make it more difficult for the GOP to regain control of the Senate in the 2014 election. (Tea Party candidates for Senate Sharon Angle, Ken Buck, and Christine O’Donnell lost elections in 2010, Richard Mourdock in 2012, helping Democrats maintain Senate control. Mike Lee and Ted Cruz defeated Republicans who would have won anyway, so there was no net gain for the party in the Senate with their victories.) On the other hand, the Tea Party conservatives in the House don’t care about whether their actions in Washington will hurt their chances for re-election since they represent gerrymandered districts with safe conservative Republican constituencies.
But these right-wing representatives do not exemplify the values and ideals of the nation as a whole and their recalcitrance in Congress merely highlights how they are out of step with the general public. With their success at shutting down the government and their threat to allow the United States to default on its debt in the battle over Obamacare, they are ignoring the fact that the Democrats won the majority of votes cast for president, the Senate, and even the House in the last election. Only the ability of Republican state legislatures and governorships to gerrymander Congressional districts allowed many of them to get elected, though more votes were cast for Democrats in House elections. And the demographics, with increasing numbers of minority voters on the rolls in the future, will doom the Republican Party to losing in coming elections, unless there is a profound and rapid change in the direction the Party is heading.
The time has come for the pragmatic adults to re-assert themselves within the Republican Party and take control away from the spoiled brats who insist that the game be played their way. People like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander, and even Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are seasoned politicians who know how the process of governing works. Jeb Bush, and probably Chris Christie, can be added to the list. In fact, these men and their
allies, who constitute a majority of the party, are the only hope that Republicans have of governing in Washington by winning the presidency, the Senate, in addition to the House, in the foreseeable future. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Steve King, Tim Huelskamp, and so forth, don’t have a chance of taking over the government. The Tea Partiers may be temporarily able to block action on legislation, but they will never attain enough power to allow them to govern.
The Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, and most business interests, also would like to see
pragmatic Republicans control the Party, rather than the Tea Party populists. The latter refused to accept the wisdom of mainstream economists and business people regarding the catastrophic impact that default on our debt could have had on the American and world economies, and were willing to consider default as an option in order to get their way. They also ignored the effect of the government shutdown on the economy. In addition, the Tea Partiers have continuously blocked immigration reform which business interests favor and which will turn minority voters away from the Republican Party from decades to come. Their stances on food stamps and student loans have also not been helpful in terms of youth and minority voters.
For years, right-wing and Tea Party conservatives have been labeling Republicans they consider as not conservative enough as RINOs, which stands for Republicans In Name Only. It is time for the establishment Republicans to turn the tables on these extremists by labeling them as RINOs for their unreasonable partisan stances and move to expel them from the Party. If the Tea Party is forced to go it alone, they will lose their drive and power over the next few election cycles. Voters will come to realize just how radical these people are, and how their positions could destroy America’s social safety net and the government itself. American business and the moneyed interests will back the establishment Republicans in their battle to control the Party, and the Tea Partiers will see their sources of cash diminish.
Some Tea Partiers have been talking about splitting from the Republican Party themselves and setting up a third party. If they want to, let them do it. There is no room for the Tea Party and its shameful rhetoric within the Republican Party or any responsible political organization. Rather than allow the Tea Party and its adherents to lead Republicans to increasing national defeats in the years ahead, mainstream Republicans should take over the Party and disassociate themselves from the extreme right-wing and Tea Partiers.
Pragmatic conservatives are needed to govern along with the Democrats in Washington and on state levels, even moreso as the demographic makeup of the nation is undergoing a transformation that requires a more flexible approach policy and politics.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020