The Problem with Republicans is…

Actually there are many problems with the Republican Party.  Instead I’d like to focus this post on one particular problem: the need to be ideologically pure.  And when I say ideologically pure I mean the candidate, the elected official, the spokesperson, whomever, has to be 100% conservative for every issue.   And by every issue I mean anything from foreign policy and pro-life views to having an uncle named Sam and saying, “Apple pie is ‘MURica’s pie!”  And yes, you do have to mispronounce America even though you believe English should be the official language of the country.

Okay, okay, so I might have exaggerated the last part there, but it is true that the GOP has witnessed a series of in-fighting about whether someone was truly Republican or a RINO, that is a liberal in Republican’s clothing.  Probably the biggest reason Gov. Romney had to nominate Congressman Paul Ryan as a running mate was to avoid such a debate about his legitimacy.  Members of the TEA Party, far-right voters, and some libertarians couldn’t stomach a moderate conservative who worked with a Democratic legislature that passed the precedent for Obamacare.  It didn’t matter how many Independents and conservative Democrats might have voted for him if Romney was allowed to be Romney.  The man had worked with the enemy and needed to be counter-balanced with someone more palatable for the party base.  The same happened to Sen. Rubio.  As a young senator from Florida with big dreams to take the presidency in 2016 and to reform the immigration process, he made the mistake of entertaining amnesty for the illegal immigrants currently in the country.  For that he was removed from the public view to allow “purer” conservatives to take the spotlight.  And as a result, the party lost a great opportunity to court Hispanics.  Even the  Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, is facing disfavor and must prove his credentials against a TEA Party opponent in the upcoming primary.  Not only is this a bad time for Kentucky Republicans to be having a civil war, but it is not fair to Kentuckians to lose such a powerful voice in the Senate.

Now to be fair, it isn’t unusual for members of a party to openly disagree with each other and even attack party leaders.  This is America after all, and Americans love to go head-to-head in politics.  But this isn’t just one small minority that has recently received some publicity.  No, this has been a growing movement since President Obama took office, and it gave Republicans the House in 2010.  And its ranks have been burgeoning ever since.  It has grown so strong, that the leaders felt they could force a stubborn President like Obama to acquiesce to their demands concerning the budget and his healthcare legislation. This of course ended with the government being shutdown for 16 days in October and a drop in the GOP’s approval rating.  The only saving grace was the troubled rollout for Obamacare that drew the nation’s attention away from the debacle.

So it is surprising to see some of the same Republicans complaining about the recent bill to raise the debt ceiling.  Sen. Cruz has particularly been outspoken on the issue.  According to the Huffington Post, the senator explained that “Historically, the debt ceiling has proven the most effective leverage for reining in spending; 28 times, Congress has attached meaningful conditions to debt ceiling increases. We should do so again…”  It is as if he’s already forgotten what happened in October and hopes the American people have as well.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what’s wrong with Republicans.

No one in leadership has the backbone or the clout to put the trouble-makers in their place.  And none of the “puritans” has the imagination to understand the concept of political suicide, let alone learning from one’s mistakes.  The only way this will change is if Republicans suffer another setback due to unreasonable ideology or if GOP voters start voting for moderate conservatives.  Unfortunately, the purist crowd is popular in the media.  Fox loves to talk about them and everyone else loves to attack them.  This wall-to-wall coverage allows their message to spread quickly and to large audiences.  And that message is pretty attractive.  Americans want their leaders to do and mean what they say.  It is even better if the officials hold the same values as staunchly as the constituents do.  And currently this new brand of Republicans does this very well.  It just doesn’t work when it comes to actually participating in government.

So this leaves us to witness another disaster for Republicans.  This would probably come in the form of another shutdown, particularly if cooler heads like Sen. McConnell lose to primary challenges like Matt Bevin, or if they fail to take the White House in 2016. Either of these events will demand review of GOP tactics and views, hopefully for the better.  However it occurs, Republicans better shape up or expect to be the Democrats punching bag for the next eight years.

Bi-Partisan Budget: a Lesson in Practical Politics

If you’ve been paying attention to the news the last few weeks or the Facebook status of your political friends, you may have heard about a certain budget bill that’s going through Congress.  It is a sad, red-haired, step-child of Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan, both chairs of their respective Budget Committees.  Among other things, the bill is supposed to lessen the severity of sequester cuts for 2014 and 2015 while decreasing the spending deficit by $23 billion over the next 10 years.  This modest compromise is supposed to prevent another government shutdown like the one in October from occurring at the beginning of next year.  Unfortunately it is meeting stiff resistance from the Republican Party.

More specifically, it is meeting skepticism and harsh from Republican Senators who are facing TEA Party primary challengers or promote TEA Party ideology.  The former can be represented by Sen. Mitch McConnell of KY, the current Minority Leader, who tends to play the political game smartly and safely.  This has earned him the wrath of a few disgruntled TEA Party enthusiasts who’ve accused of going along with Democratic schemes and playing “career politicians.”  While McConnell has proven to be a genius at campaign (he’s won about 5 consecutive terms), he understands what a politically charged media would do to him if he voted for a less than perfect bill.  On the other side of the coin is Sen. Rand Paul, a another Kentuckian, who takes a more ideological stance.  For him the bill doesn’t do enough to cut immediate spending.  According to the Wall Street Journal last Friday, the Senator was quoted to have said, “I think it’s a huge mistake to trade sequester cuts now for the promises of cuts later.”  And to be fair that does make sense.  Trade-offs should occur for things of equal value.

However, politics doesn’t always allow for happy endings or perfect situations.  A reality the TEA Party is starting to see but still failing to understand.  Ever since the GOP retook the House in 2010 with TEA Party support, they have been furiously at work to pass their uncompromising views as law.  For example, they’ve been trying to repeal Obamacare for the last three years without any success.  Some even see their part in the recent government shutdown as a point of honor instead of an exercise in futility.  And each time the debt ceiling needs to be raised, they ask for large cuts or major reforms of entitlement programs.  While programs like Social Security and Medicare are out of control and expected to deplete their tax funds in the next few years, sudden cuts and revisions can be just as harmful as doing nothing.

The recent shutdown and budget bill should be learning moments for ultra-conservatives about how politics work.  If you want to accomplish an agenda, you need more than just one house of Congress.  And if you don’t have that, then you need to realize that your agenda is going to have to take a back seat to whatever the party in power wants to do.  This is called practical politics.  You pick battles that you know you can win, even if it is a minor victory.  The “all or nothing mentality” only works if you hold all the cards and the Republican party does not.

Unfortunately, like those on the far-Left, ultra-conservatives follow the drum of pure ideology no matter where it follows.  One could hope that next year more moderate and business oriented Republicans will be elected to take back Congress.  Yet that would be a foolish hope as TEA Partiers have a better command of the news media, primarily Fox News, and are more charismatic to voters who feel disillusioned with how the federal government has been conducting itself for the last 8-12 years.  But however the elections turn out, this budget deal is a step in the right direction.