The party has moved so far to the right that it is in danger of falling apart.
For decades, they’ve made a devil’s bargain with the Religious Right, and now they’re finding that they can’t reach out to moderate voters without totally alienating the base,” said Michael Keegan, the president of People for the American Way, about the GOP’s struggles. “There’s no question that continuing to pander to the Religious Right is a recipe for becoming a permanent minority party. We’ll see this week if the RNC is ready to contemplate making some tough changes or if they’re just going to keep drifting towards irrelevance.” …NBCNews, h/t Political Wire
Result? The RNC is trying to rebuild. That is, tame its radicals. Doesn’t appear to be a done deal. The far right is threatening to pull out of the party altogether.
Mitch McConnell may use the FBI to punish the Democratic activists who managed to get video evidence of McConnell saying nasty stuff about his prospective rival, Ashley Judd, but there also seems to be plenty of evidence that McConnell’s reelection to the Senate isn’t something the party can count on. Still, the worst of the damage may fall on David Corn and Mother Jones rather than McConnell.
Meanwhile, I wouldn’t invest a dime in the probability of McConnell’s reelection. The dislike of McConnell — and not just among Democrats — has been growing. And the Republican party is, itself, in pretty bad shape.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
cliff photo via shutterstock.com