There's been a lot of talk lately about the "New Head" of the Republican party. But, when was the last time that the Republicans had a notable, respected leader?
Remember the primary race? John McCain was a face in a sea of thousands for those many months. Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee: An adulter, a mormon, a Southern Baptist minister. Though this sounds like the beginning to a very bad joke, these short descriptors highlight the fact that these are three very different men who would have taken the party in three very different directions. The people chose John McCain, but not by a comfortable margin.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that the Repubican party doesn't know where it's going. John McCain used to be seen as a moderate and progressive senator. However, he wasn't conservative enough for the new base of religious zealots, and, with his flip flopping on the issues and his choice of Palin, he wasn't moderate enough for the moderates. For now, I think it's impossible for the entire Republican party to find a leader who is able to dance between religious nuttery and reasoned social and fiscal conservatism. If there's no middle ground, how can there be a consensus? How can a party rally around a leader if they don't know which side they're truly on?
I hate to come back to old Ronnie, but he's the last important, formative Republican head of the party that I can remember. He won two elections, the first of which was against an incumbent. At the time, there wasn't the same Republican pandering to the extremely religious right. Are the Republicans going to have to cut ties with this "base" and move on?
As I've said before, there's a deep rift between the two major factions of Republicanism. Sarah Palin on one side and Olympia Snow on the other. Before Republicans can find a "head" they need an identity.
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2 comments:
Well written...don't you think it's funny/ironic that the religious nutballs are the ones that are okay with corruption, sleaziness, molestation and all that jazz? They seem to turn the blind eye only when it's convenient.
Mike, that's a really good point. With all of the election coverage, I had forgotten about Larry Craigs and Mark Foleys of the Republican Party. How does this perverted "family values" image square up with the rest of their morals? Is everything square if you acknowledge your mistakes and say "Whoops, sorry about that, America"?
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