Big Tent Falling

What in the world is going on with the Republican party? Four years ago they were the "big tent party." You could hardly tune into a cable news show without a Republican Senator, Congressman, Governor or operative telling you that they take all kinds. That if the Democrats don't want this type of person, or that type of voter, the Republicans would happily welcome them in. "We're open and we're accepting all applicants." How things have changed. And in such a surreal way. Aside from Republicans losing control of Congress and President Bush just nosediving in all possible public confidence categories, there was still the assumption that the Republican party, the party of cohesion, organization and voter turnout, would get things together by '08 and bring forth a viable and formidable candidate. Then the candidates appeared for the first time, all twenty-seven of them. And of all the men that started out to get the nomination for the party, none seemed to fit the mold just right. Still, most thought that by the time things were widdled down to less than a handful of candidates, the party would rally behind the front-runner, choose a nominee early as they always do, and support that candidate to the hill. But here we are, the day after Super Tuesday and this has yet to happen. And it may never happen at all.

There have been grumblings that the far right does not like John McCain for quite some time. In fact, grumblings is a giant euphemism. There is a strong dislike that sometimes bubbles over into hatred for the man. He supports campaign finance reform. He didn't sign on to Bush's first few tax cuts (although he has signed on to all the rest and talks incessantly about making them permanent). He's soft on immigration. And last, but probably most infuriating and least likely to ever be forgotten, he bashed the Christian right eight years ago for being "agents of intolerance."

Who knew they'd never forget? But before we get to them, let's talk for a moment about right wing radio and their views on McCain. For people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, one would have thought that nothing was more important to them than the Republican party winning every election in every town and every state, every time. I always viewed them as crazy, but they were nothing if not party loyalists. Now, it's no secret that Limbaugh doesn't like McCain. He doesn't like each and every point where McCain has swayed from his party. So Limbaugh backing Romney and taking shots at McCain was really no surprise this election season. What has been unexpected is the level to which the right wing crazies are going to destroy McCain, and therefore their own party. Limbaugh openly dislikes McCain, but he hasn't said flat out that he wouldn't vote for him in a general election. He just won't vote. Ann Coulter, on the other hand, (who if you don't know is the tall, skinny, venom spewing blonde who is against all things left of center) has come out publicly and said that if McCain wins the nomination she'll vote for Hillary! Let me say that one more time: Ann Coulter will vote for Hillary Clinton!!! Don't these people care at all about the party they've been backing for... X number of decades? Maybe they only care about themselves and their totally narrow-minded views??? Or maybe, just maybe, they're being shown for the the people they are: opportunists who care only about the ratings their hate generates on talk radio and the profits their books make through outright lies. Money matters more than party. Limbaugh, Coulter; true colors: check.

But it's not just the talk show crazies. The Citizens United Political Victory Fund has bankrolled an ad in which a number of positions are shown on the screen in front of Hillary Clinton's face, but at the end her face moves left and you realize they've been talking about....John McCain? Hillary=McCain is the point they're trying to get across. McCain is a liberal, they're saying. My question, from a completely pragmatic point of view is this: Why now? Why a day after McCain took total control of the election by gaining the most delegates on Super Tuesday do you run an attack ad against him? If you're bashing your frontrunner, what possible good will this do for your party in November? Even with Mike Huckabee winning a few states last night, there's still no chance he gets the nomination, so what are you fighting for at this point if not to destroy your own party from within?

As for Huckabee, what he was able to do last night was largely the result of people who think it's more important to vote for a good Christian than a good potential president. And this brings me back to McCain "insulting" them back in 2000. They're willing to sacrifice the party as well, but they do it because they don't answer to party loyalty, they answer to a higher power. This portion of the electorate has brought many victories to the Republican side, but for the first time in 28 years, the Republican candidate for president is not going to be the one endorsed by the Christian Coalition. And they don't like it. So rather than be adults, rather than engage in the political process as it is, as opposed to the way they'd like it to be, rather than think about things in a rational, common sense manner, they have decided instead to show their true colors as radicals. These people aren't about family values and they never were. John McCain was right, they were always agents of intolerance. Intolerant of you, of me, of anyone who's not at their church every Sunday sharing exactly their views and exactly their God. They don't really care about the Republican party. They never have. All they care about is that every baby gets born and that gay people don't get any of them. They will burn the Republican party to save it, much the same as God was forced to destroy the Sodomites in the book of Genesis. Wonder if they were gay too or that's just a coincidence....? Moving on.

So what does this mean for the future? We'll have to wait and see. Wounds may well be slashed so deep between now and November that the Republican party may splinter completely. Or McCain may become president and push the interests of the Christian Coalition so far to the back burner that the last 20 years become an afterthought in American politics. Or a third party candidate may jump in the race, siphon votes from McCain and put Hillary or Obama in office, essentially out of spite. In a time of turmoil the Big Tent Party has turned on itself, stopped accepting applicants and starting looking out for number one. Burning the village to save it; sounds an awful lot like 'taking my ball and going home' to me.