Is there a Republican Crackup?

In the last few weeks I have gotten a lot of email about the republican crackup - the signs are all there - the Meir nomination, the indictment of Delay, the standing of the President and the Governor, yada yada yada.

Well, if wishes were....

In a recent New Yorker article the following was argued trying to explain the success of the GOP over the last decade (the article goes on to say that the dems will succeed by "nationalizing the campaign") the writer said -

"Part of the movement’s success came from its ability to pursue common goals in spite of divisions—between pro-business libertarians and social conservatives, tax cutters and deficit hawks, intellectuals and evangelicals, millionaires and the white working class. But Bush’s philosophy of corporate conservatism—more Harding than Reagan; not anti-government, just anti-good-government, with a tone of authoritarian piety and legislation written by lobbyists—has shown that Republican unity was always based less on intellectual coherence than on a willingness to keep one’s mouth shut."

Well, I respectfully disagree. The risk that the dems have is their rigid ideological conformity. (Name me more than a couple of delegates to the Democrat convention who espouse anything but the party line on abortion rights or a raft of other issues). I think the risk that the GOP faces is that a number of people including the religious right have tried at various times to require ideological conformity. Look at Bill Kristol and the Governor - both have disagreements with the President yet both would support him on some key issues and feel free to disagree on others. Can you name that kind of diversity in the democrat ranks? It is hard to find that. I think the peril that the GOP faces is that we have some people who are demanding that kind of lockstep.

The second problem faced by the dems is their complete lack of ideas. The problem with nationalizing the campaign is they have to present their national ideas - they cannot run against - they need to run for and besides a series of ideas that most Americans reject (affirmative action, more spending, bizarre social beliefs) they have nothing. Were they to be able to get back to the Scoop Jackson premises - a strong defense with a coherent military and diplomatic policy and a moderate domestic agenda that was not bogged down with groups - they would kick the GOPs butt. But I am convinced that they do not have a clue about how to do that. Look at the Corzine race - where Forrester has begun to stop the notion of a coronation. Look at the race in Virginia - until the dems quit pimping for their constituents they will continue to lose.

But the GOP should not gloat about those perceived weaknesses in the opposition - there are indeed some very good democrats. The GOP has shown a marvelous propensity to concentrate on the idiotic - the more they look like a different kind of constituency party (to the religious right or whatever other group that makes them up) and less like a place where ideas are tolerated - then the voters may say - we think that the dems are the lesser of two evils - right now the out of the mainstream ideas of many dems have made many say they are the evil of two lessers.