GOP brand fail, civil war dividing party

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Media villagers and Beltway bloviators inform us of their conventional wisdom (CW) that Republicans will enjoy a mid-term election resurgence in 2010. First of all, when was the last time that CW was correct? Anyone? That's what I thought.

Secondly, the Beltway media elites have always shilled for the GOP, win or lose. These over-paid media elites have a vested financial interest in maintaining their Republican allies in Congress who protect the multi-billion dollar media conglomerate monopolies that pay their salaries. Ben Bagdikian – New Media Monopoly

No, the real political story of our time is not a GOP resurgence, but the GOP brand fail and the political civil war within the conservative movement. This may not be the normal realignment of a political party after a series of humiliating defeats. We may be witnessing the break-up and decline of a major political party.

This has not occurred since the decline of the Know Nothing Party and the decline of the Whig Party in 1856 (yes, I am aware of the revival of The Modern Whig Party). Most of these partisans joined the newly formed Republican Party (GOP) in 1856. Republicans and Democrats have been the dominant political parties ever since.

The Tea Party "movement" has as its first order of business the remaking of the Republican Party. From Politico Tea partiers turn on GOP leadership:

Whether it’s the loose confederation of Washington-oriented groups that have played an organizational role or the state-level activists who are channeling grass-roots anger into action back home, tea party forces are confronting the Republican establishment by backing insurgent conservatives and generating their own candidates — even if it means taking on GOP incumbents.

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“We’re not a partisan organization, and I think many Republicans are disappointed we are not,” added Dick Armey, a former GOP congressman.

In Florida, where the national party has signaled its preference for centrist Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary, tea party activists are lining up behind former state House Speaker Marco Rubio in reaction to Crist’s public backing for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

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Tea party activists are also lining up behind challengers to GOP establishment-backed Senate candidates in Colorado and Connecticut. In California, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina [an advisor to the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain] – like Crist, another National Republican Senatorial Committee-favored Senate contender — is the target of tea party animus in her primary against conservative state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

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It’s an unusual predicament for the Republican Party, since the conservative-oriented issues that animate Tea Party activists once seemed destined to make the movement a valuable auxiliary to the Republican Party.

While there’s little evidence of tea party activist support for Democratic candidates, the specific notion of electing a GOP majority hasn’t ranked high on their agenda either.

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In a handful of states, tea party activists have zeroed in on House Republican incumbents and have launched primary challenges in protest of their past support for the controversial Wall Street bank bailout.

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For some, supporting insurgent campaigns or waging primary bids just isn’t a strong enough signal to send to a Republican Party that has abandoned core conservative policies.

Erick Erickson, founder and editor of the influential conservative blog RedState, has urged tea party activists to “put down the protest signs” and stage takeovers of local Republican parties.

“Grass-roots activists need to start infiltrating the party,” said Erickson. “The only way to start getting [the establishment] back is to start pounding them with every fist we have.”

Chris Matthews discussed the Politico report in this segment. (Matthews let's these Tea Party representatives make fools of thermselves.)

Here in Arizona, this "movement" dates back to at least 2004, before it had a name. Social conservative Republicans were upset with the fiscal conservative Republicans who "conspired" with the Democratic minority in a rebellion against the GOP Speaker of the House and Senate President to pass bipartisan budgets in Gov. Janet Napolitano's first two years (2003-04). A half dozen or more RINO's (Republicans in name only) were defeated in GOP primaries in 2004. Several more were defeated in Republican primaries in 2006, after Gov. Napolitano again succeeded in having a GOP-dominated legislature pass her budgets. A few remaining stragglers were either defeated or termed out in 2008.

There are not more than four Republicans serving in the Arizona Legislature today who can by any stretch of the imagination be termed a "moderate" – but imagination runs wild in the conservative mind. There are several more Republican incumbents' seats targeted in GOP primaries in 2010, representing the next battle in the conservative ideological purity purge within the GOP.

This is without question the worst Arizona Legislature of all time, an epic failure, and it is only going to get worse next year. There is no rational reason why Arizonans would reward these incompetent ideologues with reelection. It would be an act of political suicide.

Make no mistake, this is not your father's GOP. This a radicalized and extremist conservatism. It does not represent traditional Republican Party values with which we were so familiar. They are not interested in compromise or bipartisanship, because it represents weakness and defeat. These conservatives want to use political power to impose their conservative ideology over us all.

Perhaps this is why so few people now self-identify as Republican (not to be confused with voter registration). In the most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll Most support public option for health insurance, poll finds, "Only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans, little changed in recent months, but still the lowest single number in Post-ABC polls since 1983."

Overall, 57 percent approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president and 40 percent disapprove.

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Poll respondents are evenly divided when asked whether they have confidence in Obama to make the right decisions for the country's future, but just 19 percent express confidence in the Republicans in Congress to do so. Even among Republicans, only 40 percent express confidence in the GOP congressional leadership to make good choices.

The wide gap in partisan leanings and the lack of confidence in the GOP carries into early assessments of the November 2010 midterm elections: Fifty-one percent say they would back the Democratic candidate in their congressional district if the elections were held now, while 39 percent would vote for the Republican. Independents split 45 percent for the Democrat, 41 percent for the Republican.

This is an epic brand fail from a political party that confidently predicted a "permanent Republican majority" back in 2004. It is not a harbinger of the "Party of No" enjoying a mid-term election resurgence in 2010. "A house divided against itself cannot stand" said Lincoln. Perhaps he foresaw a GOP civil war destroying his Republican Party as well.

UPDATE 10/21/09: MORE GOP CIVIL WAR

Dede Scozzafava is the "moderate" Republican candidate in a three-way race with a Democrat and a Conservative Party candidate in the NY-23 special election to replace Rep. John McHugh (R), who was appointed by President Obama to be Secretary of the Army. The Grover Norquist Republicans of The Club for Growth and Neocon chickenhawk warmonger Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard have attacked Scozzafava as a "liberal" Republican and support the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman. Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal also supports Hoffman over over Scozzafava. The GOP's New York Fiasco – WSJ.com

The Club for Growth and The Weekly Standard have attacked GOP 2012 presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, the father of the "Republican revolutuion," and the RNC and RNCC establishment for supporting Scozzafava over Hoffman. Michelle Malkin has told her two readers that conservatives might want to ask for their money back from the RNC, RNCC and Newt Gingrich. Freedomwork's Dick Army of tea baggers are supporting Doug Hoffman. NY-23 may be a microcosim of things to come in 2010 as the GOP implodes.

Rachel Maddow takes a look at the NY-23 race in this segment.