Will Radicalization Split The Republican Party?

Can the Republican Party survive the division within their own ranks?  I’ve been wondering this for quite some time now.

As I’ve watched the recent debates and studied the laws (and the lack there of) coming out of our current Republican controlled Congress – as well as the ensuing rhetoric – I can’t help but wonder why the Republicans are moving so far to the right. 

I know all too well about the Tea Party movement that created an acute awareness of our burgeoning national debt.  And I agree that the Tea Party was the catalyst of the ultra-conservative shift to the lunatic fringe by many members of the aforementioned party.  But what most people are forgetting about is that there are still a number of conservatives who don’t buy into the radical rhetoric of the new far-right.

These ‘left-behinders’ are still conservative in all their rights.  They still believe in the core foundations of the Republican Party.  But I have noticed that they are in a conundrum.  They disagree with much of what the Democratic Party holds dear but they also disagree with the severe turn in their own party’s objectives and priorities.

At one time the Republican Party was revered for its fiscal and moral conscientiousness.  Many turned to them to be the adults in the room.  But lately, there has been a new voice rising out of the party that embodies name-calling, irresponsible decision-making and divisiveness.  I have noticed a new normal in the party that projects their failings onto the opposition.   They seem to have the ideology of ‘If we accuse them of doing this first then it will look silly of them to accuse us, won’t it?’  Well, those who are paying attention aren’t falling for it.

I’ve watched over the past year as accusers of presidential candidates – paid-off victims of sexual harassment, abuse and lurid affairs – have become vilified by the party that they report to still endorse.  There are those who were critical of Clinton during the scandal with Monica Lewinsky, (including myself) however, the Clinton Administration and all others involved in his reelection campaign, never diminished or abused Ms. Lewinsky in the way Herman Cain’s alleged victims have been.  For that I have to respect the former president.  It doesn’t let him off the hook for his indiscretions in office, though.

And yet, with another scandal looming, we have apologists standing at the caution tape, ready to viciously decimate his former spouse for telling her side of the story.  Additionally, Newt Gingrich’s recent comments in the South Carolina debates show nothing but disdain for people of color and the poor, painting them all as lazy and unwilling to work for their sustenance. 

What was more appalling than his words were the cheers and the standing ovation he received from the audience in attendance.  They, meaning Gingrich and the audience, had disregarded the fact that only 29% of food stamp recipients are black.  Why didn’t he tell whites that they should prefer jobs or food stamps also?  Do we really need to ask?

Additionally, if you take a close look at Mitt Romney, you will see a man who has gone from a moderate position to one who protects companies whose fortunes are won at the expense of the laborer, numbers of people being disenfranchised and sent to the unemployment lines so that his corporate-raiding company – Bain Capital – can shift profits to the Cayman Islands to effectuate tax evasion while amassing billions. 

It is mind-numbing to think that Mr. Romney has an economic plan that would give even more tax-breaks to companies like Bain, as well as their benefactors – such as himself.  Tax breaks for the rich while increasing taxes on the ones who can least afford to pay more – that is anyone making $40,000 a year or less – is not a plan in which I can imagine any truly fiscally responsible conservatives emphatically embracing.

Even more radical shifts have occurred within the party on a more local level.  State government interference in elections in Michigan with the assistance of a new Emergency Manager Law has allowed the Republican Governor to throw out the results of any city elections if they don’t like the outcome and replace the elected officials with a dictatorial and appointed (not elected) representation.

The shift to change elections laws under the unproven guise that there was previous election fraud, has been under close scrutiny and many states have repealed these republican-endorsed changes.  Ohio and Maine are the first states to come to mind in circumstances such as these.

Then there’s the driving push to desecrate Collective Bargaining Laws in many of these individual states.  Most people who’ve been keeping an eye on this matter need only google Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker or Ohio Governor, John Kasich.  

In watching this I tend to think of my friends who are staunch republicans in the traditional sense of the word.  I was shocked last year when I found out that a close friend who is one that falls within that conservative group had voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 elections.  Both my husband and I were floored.  Now, my husband once was a died-in-the-wool-Republican.  But, after what he has witnessed over the past decade, his mind has shifted to the more moderate position of an unaffiliated voter.  But many of our friends haven’t made that move.  And yet I see their feet becoming restless and I wonder how long it will take before they do. 

There are still a number of conservatives out there who don’t cheer allowing a person without health insurance to die, don’t enjoy listening to candidates insulting the poor by ignoring our child labor laws so that they can put their children to work, and haven’t blamed the black community for the number of people on government assistance.  There are actually some who abhor this type of behavior as much as the rest of us.

The inordinate number of signatures repealing Republican Governors and Republican-legislated laws, shows a discontent unlike any this country has seen since the Civil War.  What is more shocking is the number of Republicans who have also called on their party’s legislatures to knock it off or face retribution.  And these people still consider themselves republicans.  But their horror at the insensitivity and radicalization of the new Republican Party has echoed that of the rest of us; moderates and liberals alike.

I can’t help but foresee that the Republican Party has no other recourse but to separate into the more reasonable and moderate faction while leaving the radically divisive members to their own mechanisms.  In doing so, I anticipate an exodus of the surrounding disenfranchised voters who have thusly voted democrat out of necessity and even have changed their political status to ‘unaffiliated;’ resulting in a return to the party of responsibility for these wandering, homeless conservatives.  I may be wrong but, then again, it’s only my opinion.