The Republican Civil War

It is coming and it is obvious. For those of us as moderates we hope that they will soon determine their course so that we can all move forward but this will be a determination that only the Republicans can make.

The question is who does the Republican party want to be. Watching the interviews and conservative commentators over the last few hours when I hear folks talking about the fact that Mitt Romney lost because he was not Conservative enough you have a strong sense that the lesson has not been learned. It is possible that a charismatic conservative can win a national election but what is clear is that nominating a presumably " electable" moderate and then dressing him up in conservative clothes will never work. Mccain, Romney, they are all the proof you need.

Any discussion of the future of the Republican party cannot go forward without an examination of the Tea Party and the influence this group has had on the success of the party. The list of Republican Senate opportunities that have been lost due to the tea party is long. In 2010 Delaware and Nevada, Harry Reid's seat, should have gone Republican, it was expected and anticipated. However like a bolt of lightning from the Democratic Gods the Tea Party candidates won primaries and displaced the expected Republican candidates. This year as the Democrats again control the Senate the right only needs consider that Richard Lugar, Olympia Snowe, and whatever rational Missouri Republican was to be nominated before Todd Aikin rose to prominence, would easily have won Republican seats. Clearly the tea party is doing no favors for the Republicans in Congress. In Presidential politics that tipping to the far right that the tea party requires brings defeat to Republicans.

What is the answer. Cooperation. Realism. an understanding of the Demographic time bomb which threatens to annihilate the Republicans. Let me be clear. This country needs a viable Republican party. Richard Nixon himself said long ago that if one party became the party of liberalism and one party became the party of conservatism the country would never recover. He was, to this point, correct. Fifty years ago there were Conservative Republicans and Democrats and there were both Liberal Democrats and Republicans. This is no longer the case. It is no mystery, it is a direct result of the gerrymandering of political districts to all but allow for guaranteed party representation. There is no esy fix for this however, the establishment politicians like it this way.

It is easy to get discourgaed. However we have no option but to improve. I will address these issues soon with an eye to how this can possibly be affected.