Fractured Fairy Tales

I must confess to a certain amount of perverse glee as I watch the self immolation that is the Republican Party. With only one in five Americans willing to call themselves members of the G.O.P. these days, those being principally angry white evangelicals from the south, the party is evidently searching for it's soul.

Yesterday, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, one of the most intelligent senators in Congress, faced down hecklers at the South Carolina GOP Convention. Graham almost passes for a moderate in today's republican party. Although I don't agree with the majority of views, he is a man of integrity who calls issues fairly, sometimes going against his party mainstream.  He has been dogged by nasty rumours about his personal life.

Graham's fellow senator from the  Palmetto State, Jim DeMint, has been croaking lately about party purity and maintaining firm ideological convictions, even if it means losing 10 more Senate seats. Graham counters that they are losing demographically in every region including the south and that there has to be room for divergent opinions.

Pro Lifers have made clear that they will never accept Pro Choice candidates in the party. Dick Cheney is making snide remarks about Colin Powell.  Rush Limbaugh is making fun of the Eric Cantor led  listening parties.

In short, we have internecine warfare from a dwindling, exclusionary party that was just a couple of years ago trumpeting (through Karl Rove) that they were on the eve of a permanent majority.

Am I supposed to pretend this isn't fun?  Is it in bad taste to point fingers and laugh at these people?  Truthfully, things change so fast politically in our world and parties in power tend to act so corruptly, that it's only a matter of time until they once again will enter the halls of power with victory laurels on their brows.  As a wise sage once said - never underestimate the stupidity of the American public.

Moderates feel like the Club for Growth is backing candidates who are too conservative to win general elections. If I had to bet, I would surmise that the countervailing winds within the party are too strong and that no real changes will occur in the GOP in the next several years.