November 7, 2014
So what happened to the dying Republican Party?
By Nick Sorrentino
Since Obama was elected we have heard over and over that the Republican Party is the party of old white guys who’d soon be dead and that there wasn’t any hope for the demographically challenged elephant parade. (What one calls a group of elephants. Just found out.) Then Tuesday happened and like that even NPR is wondering what is wrong with the Democrats and where the GOP found all its mojo. The GOP is reborn Hallelujah!
Not exactly.
A new GOP may be being birthed not reborn. This election was the first without unrelenting neocon overtones from the Republicans of my adult life. It is also the first election where Republicans seemed not to be looking back to the days of Reagan but toward a new and different future. It was the first election where the GOP did a halfway decent job of reaching out to non-white voters. (They need to do much much better still.) It was also the first election where at least some of the GOP began talking about how government has been gamed for the benefit of corporations and other large interests to the detriment of small and midsized business and the middle class. Though it was the GOP leadership which ultimately kept the Export-Import Bank alive the big boosters we prominent Dems, Bill Clinton, Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters, etc. The only people on The Hill calling for Boeing’s Bank’s death were Republicans. The obvious corporatists were the Democrats. (In this instance.)
Voters felt a shift in the political ether. Mix in a president who seems perpetually out to lunch when he isn’t being outright antagonistic. Add a Democratic congressional leadership which suddenly looked hopelessly behind the times and one has a recipe for significant political change.
But the reason the Republicans won is because to a large degree they stopped being Republicans. The GOP in many instances effectively articulated Tea Party populist positions, that is positions held by the increasingly vast libertarian/conservative coalition, to the broader electorate. Surprise surprise voters were receptive to it.
That isn’t to say that the GOP has suddenly become some small government minarchist party. That ain’t happening any time soon. But progress toward a legitimately smaller government party was made last Tuesday. And one gets the sense that the American people will have the GOP under a microscope going forward. The first real fit of bigovernmentitis and activists all over the country will unleash their wrath.
The question is whether the vestiges of the old GOP (who still hold most of the power within the party) will be able to placate the torch holders. My bet is the neocon wing of the GOP will seek to split the populists apart with war in an effort to push back against the small government tide within the party. Watch out for that because it’s coming.
But the message should be clear to the GOP. Embrace a smaller government, forward thinking, pro-free market, positive disposition and win. Embrace a big government, socially conservative, negative, fear laced, Bushite position and lose. McCain, Romney, Bush (all of them) are of another era. Let them go.
The GOP would be wise to ACTUALLY become a small government party for the first time in 80 years. It’s how they will win.
Saying all of this Gary Johnson has said that he will run for president as a Libertarian and if over the next 2 years the GOP strays from the small government path I think the Governor Johnson will have a fantastic year in 2016 one way or the other. Voters are not playing GOP. They’ll make you pay too. Don’t think that just because they voted for you that the people like you. That would be a big mistake.
http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2014/11/so-what-happened-to-the-dying-republican-party/
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