America’s two-party political system provides voters with a relatively easy choice of the direction they think the country should take to move forward. Although, the conservatives in the Republican Party never believe in moving forward, but rather, actively seek ways to drive the country back to the mid-nineteenth century. If there is one lesson to take away from Tuesday’s Iowa caucus voting, it is that among conservatives, there are at least three factions jockeying for supremacy to define the party in time for the general election in November and the three top finishers represent a party that is out of touch with mainstream America.
The deep ideological divide between Republicans struggling to find one identity and candidate to garner support to defeat President Obama is centered around corporatism, religion, and no government. The fact that Willard “Mitt” Romney won the caucus by only 8 votes over Rick Santorum after spending millions of dollars reveals that Republicans are still searching for a post-Bush identity even though the combination of Romney, Santorum, and Paul is all George W. Bush. More than anything though, lacking an idealistic conservative standard bearer to tap into traditional anti-government conservative values means the GOP will remain divided; the beneficiaries are the American people who get to hear the extremism within the Republican Party throughout the primary season and they will realize how divisive and dangerous Republicans are.
Ron Paul has support from Republicans who are anti-government and anti-taxes, but other than that demographic, he loses the war-mongers in the party who are panting to start another war to kill Muslims. The truth is that on some level, although extremely dangerous, Paul represents the opposite of mainstream Republicans who love big government spending on the wealthy and corporations and traditionally increase the size of government despite their claims to the contrary. At best, Mr. Paul will serve as a foil to Romney and Santorum who advocate for more government control of Americans’ lives with the threat of a constitutional amendment to define marriage, as well as attempts to ban contraceptive use. Traditional Republicans will not tolerate a candidate who thinks government already plays too important a role in everyday Americans’ lives.
Rick Santorum’s strong showing is not surprising to political observers who understand the depth of conviction inherent in conservative thought that religious freedom means strong adherence to Christian tenets as found in the bible. Santorum easily wins the anti-choice and anti-gay vote, but his war on contraception will not win over the Republican women’s vote and connection to the Bush administration’s unrestrained spending damages his chances with the teabagger element of the party. Santorum’ passionate conservative label, although an oxymoron, will continue to divide the Republicans who may be conflicted and confused with Romney’s ever-changing position on abortion, gay rights, universal healthcare, and climate science.
Romney is well-funded and well-organized, but he cannot legitimately stake a claim as the great unifier the Republicans need to win in November. He represents the corporatist element of the Republican Party that supports the 1% over the rest of the country, but his ever-changing position on every other issue leaves him vulnerable as a charlatan who will say anything to get elected. Regardless of what one thinks about Republicans in general, they like principled candidates who unite the party and Romney is not that candidate. Sure, he will start a war with Iran, give trillions in tax cuts to the wealthy, and privatize Medicare and cut Social Security, but his intransigence on core conservative issues like denying climate science, opposing health care for all, and same-sex marriage will not attract the kind of universal support Republicans need to win in November.
As the candidates fight throughout the primary process, the eventual nominee will be left with a fractured party that may not support the winner because they do not fit into the idealized version of a conservative. There is little doubt the three top finishers in Iowa are conservatives, but what kind of conservative? The Iowa caucuses did not give Americans a centrist candidate that the country can lean towards, but instead represents the right, the hard right, and the far, far right. In essence, there is one business man, one preacher, and one anti-government candidate and together they create deeper divisions within Republican ranks. What that means for Americans is a carnival of errors and deceit where each candidate outdoes each other to appear more extreme, and a new set of lies about Obama and each other between now and the Republican convention.
The problem Republicans also face is that America now knows Barack Obama and there is nothing Romney, Paul, or Santorum can say that will ring true with mainstream American voters. As the contenders seek to demean the President with more baseless accusations and outright lies, they will appear as divisive as teabaggers who nearly caused a government shutdown and default on its credit. The divided Republicans who have promised to privatize Medicare, widen the income gap between rich and peasants, and dictate bible edicts disguised as congressional legislation give President Obama the centrist position most Americans identify with. The Republicans also have the unenviable position of living down their anti-payroll tax cut position and unrelenting tax cuts for the wealthy. The only unifying position Republicans can coalesce around is giving more wealth to the rich, and after thirty years of fallacious trickle-down economic theory, most Americans know it has not, does not, and will not work.
The Iowa caucuses did not really provide any surprises and except for eliminating perennial moron Michele Bachmann from the race, were a waste of time. Romney only won by 8 votes, but it may as well have been a draw because he did not distinguish himself any more than in 2008 when he garnered more votes than on Tuesday. Each of the three leading vote-getters is divisive on their own, but in concert, they represent a fractured party that will struggle to find an identity. Romney’s changing positions has engendered such distrust among conservatives that it will be surprising if some Republicans do not go all out to derail his candidacy to ensure conservative purity. The good news is that the longer the Republicans fight amongst themselves, the farther they will drift from the center and although that is acceptable for staunch conservatives, Americans who are in the center, the independent voters, will be repulsed. America may be a center right-leaning country, but there is only so much Republican crazy they will tolerate and if the past three months is any indication, Americans are in for a steady dose of extremism, deceit, and divisive rhetoric from Republicans that make radical Islam look reasonable.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
Never underestimate the density of the American voter. Nonetheless, the rank bigotry of the Refoxican party has driven away a good many somewhat conservative voters who used to vote Republican, but who happen to belong to now-designated outgroups. One only hopes the Refoxicans haven’t come up with some scheme where they don’t need real voters – only the appearance of them.
Ron Paul does not resonate with the majority of Americans simply because they know that a country with limited government and no taxes cannot work. There is no such utopia on earth. In a country of 310 million people, Ron Paul is trying to build a government that might work for several million spread across the country. That is not to say the government is all encompassing beneficial to Americans, but it does provide the services that the 310 million people need.Rep. Paul’s voting record for Americans is absolutely atrocious.
http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/ron-pauls-racism-isnt-worst-thing
as far as Santorum goes I am shocked that the people of Iowa were so willing to give up birth control and almost all of their rights concerning their own body so easily. Santorum has come out on record as being for eradicating Muslims. That simply means that he would be at war in no time. With any kind of luck even the Republican Congress would stop that but I doubt it. His religious beliefs are even more extreme than Michelle Bachmann’s and she was a total wacko. Her constant lying about the president having socialized medicine in place should’ve been an embarrassment to the Republican Party but it wasn’t.
Romney is no fool but neither is he a president.
For those of you who have experienced several presidential primaries and elections, can you remember any that have equalled this one with regard to “pandering”? It seems to me that The Democrats will have an abundance of material with which to shoot down every possible GOP position, no matter who wins the nomination. Looking from the outside in, I cannot believe that so great a country as the U.S. has any one of these idiots and liars in the primaries. They truly insult the intelligence of the voters.
I think the Republicans have moved so far right, they’re in the land of irrelevancy (as I state in my latest blog) and that the caucuses in Iowa are right in there with them. The only thing that has been accomplished so far is that Michelle Bachmann dropped out, but she’s not even the most extreme of the wingnuts (Santorum wins that one). Rick Perry is apparently going to slog on, proving once more how out of touch with reality–and the mainstream–Republicans currently are.
Well done article. I could not have said it better. We won in 2008, and we will win again in 2012.
http://obamaachievements.org/list
Well said! You have pretty well reconfirmed my observations and beliefs as far as the presidential election goes… But I am more concerned about what needs to be done in the congressional contests to ensure that we get the teabagger jihadists sent home, along with all of the Grover Norquist pledge signing obstructionistas! Extremism is the threat wherever it comes into power, whether in the middle east, far east, or right here in our own back yard! We are at a crucial juncture as far as what direction the country takes, and giving Obama a Congress that is responsive to its constituency and to the changes that need to take place in order to restore democracy over the kleptocracy we now are having to deal with is key to seeing the right steps are taken!
After all has been said & done by the teathugs to bring down the middleclass,there are still SOME who will vote against their best interests and fail to realize they will not be a part of the one percent,sad but true.
Hear hear, I concur. My chief worry about the Presidential election is that it will be so down and dirty that it will turn of voters of all persuasions. However, it is the Congress where the real action lies. My hope is that Obama will pull a Truman upset against this do-nothing Congress.
PLENTY of republicans–the very conservative as well as the not so conservative–have been hurt by the unbridled power of the banks. And plenty of them now know that they have loved ones who are gay. Those two realities cannot augur well for any of the jackasses running for the republican nomination.
You do know that Ron Paul wants to ban contraceptives and abortion rights too, don’t you?
And repeal healthcare reform? Suddenly a lot of single mothers with babies they were forced to bear would be left high and dry without medical care. Sorry, but the ER doesn’t cut it with ongoing care requirements of pregnancy and pediatrics.
He’d also kill the Dept. of the Interior (goodbye USDA — do you really trust that chicken salad?), Dept. of Education (imagine two thirds of the country teaching Creationism, the rest teaching Darwin), and take us out of the U.N. (goodbye UNESCO and UNICEF)?
A carnival of horrors. The mutant horde will have a hard time picking which delusional asshole to choose. We have a marvelous president that has been showing up these idiots for four years. He is smart and is doing the best he can in his own way…let him have another four years and then let’s get Hilary in to finish the damn repubs for good.
Ron Paul wants no government. He would give this country to the highest bidder between the fundies and the Koch
Between the destructive shenanigans of the Congressional Republicans that culminated in the debacle surrounding the extension of the payroll tax cut, and the equally destructive stupidity of the GOP nomination candidates, they have exposed themselves to such a degree that only someone willfully blind could miss it. The fact that they have told so many lies about the president is just as transparent as the fact that they are about absolutely nothing.
I’v always enjoyed the articles and comments on the Politicus site, and this is no exception. Thanks to the folks who wrote these terrific comments. I agree with you, and also learn from you. Well said. In fact, I may “borrow” some terms in mu discussions!
We will prevail in 2012!!