What’s holding the Republican Party together?
Threads. Bare threads.
An analysis by seasoned political reporters at the Washington Post reveals a party that is “riven with divisions, including over issues that barely registered even two years ago.” Whether they’re looking at immigration or banking or schools, “the dynamics of the issues and the coalitions around them are shifting so rapidly that what looks like a safe position today could be a lethal one by the time the Iowa caucuses roll around.
Disagreement, whether violent or mild, is fodder for a irreponsible media. It’s as though all those unherdable cats have moved from the Democratic side into the Republican party. To a great extent, internal factures within a major political party the corporate media’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
…Many of the biggest fights in Congress in recent years have been among Republicans — over agriculture and highway bills, disaster relief, taxes, earmarks, export subsidies, trade, automatic spending cuts and the debt ceiling. What grass-roots activists often see as betrayal, establishment Republicans portray as the realities of governing.
All of this is being played out against the party’s effort to find its footing and its identity in time to prevent the 2016 presidential election from becoming the third in a row in which the Republicans fail to win the White House. ...WaPo
Party identity? How about the party of money, of corporations? Oops! The latest primary upset was brought about by a candidate who says things like, “I will fight to end crony capitalist programs that benefit the rich and powerful.”
More tea? No, thanks. So what remains?
“The story right now isn’t about the tea party. It’s about the party at the grass-roots level becoming more libertarian,” Pawlenty said.
“There is a loud libertarian faction,” agreed South Carolina strategist Katon Dawson. “Libertarianism has moved into the Republican Party and is trying to hijack it.” ...WaPo
There they go again, those “conservatives,” breaking the American community into increasingly angry groups and gun-totin’ individuals.