Whither the GOP

Watching the continuing pissing contests between Rudy and Mitt about who is "tougher" on immigration is really quite sad. The entire GOP nomination contest thus far seems like a race to the bottom to corner the market on the religious fanatic and crypto-fascist voting blocs which, apparently are now necessary to secure the Republican nomination.

All to the good in my opinion. The Republican party in its present form could use eight, twelve or sixteen years in the political wilderness.

Former John McCain political strategist, Patrick Hynes, takes a magnifying glass to his own party's increasing fragmentation.

First, let’s be clear, American conservatism has devolved from a movement into an identity group. After my client Sen. John McCain decided not to attend this year Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) a great many of my friends demanded to know why. Now, these were my friends and I knew which of them did and did not support Sen. McCain (or were ever even likely to support Sen. McCain), so I countered their demands with a simple question: But you don’t like Sen. McCain and you have said you would never vote for him under any circumstances; why would you even want him here? Without exception the reply came back as some variation of the following: Because he needs us and if he expects us to support him he needs to come to us, we’re not going to go to him.

This is the language of an identity group, not a movement. This is the identical sentiment expressed by the NAACP when Bob Dole decided not to speak at their conference in 1996. My conservative friends were not the least bit interested in John McCain’s 24-year pro-life voting record or his stalwart fight again corrupting pork and profligate spending. No, they were interested in being shown respect.

But respect is a two-way street, which brings me to my second point: Identity-group conservatives have shown a shocking lack of respect for fellow conservatives who stray on a particular issue or two. I have personally had my patriotism questioned by (ex-) friends because I believe in a comprehensive approach to immigration reform. National Review infamously lambasted non-Iraq War supporting conservatives as “Unpatriotic” in 2003. A healthy movement can withstand the occasional division on key issues; a chauvinistic identity group cannot...

Of course, winning the War on Terror - whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Boston, New York or wherever — is vitally important. I’m not warning my conservative friends off the idea of furthering the cause of global freedom; but we need to acknowledge that the public is simply not with us on the Iraq War and growing more distrustful of us by the day on the broader conflict against radical Islamism. If we are going to insist that national security is one of our two signature issues, we ought to, at the very least, have credibility on it...

When it comes to our issues matrix in the present political environment, I have to be the bearer of bad news to my rightwing friends: The party of torture and immigration restriction is not a majority party and doesn’t have much of a future.