Will the Republican Party split into Christo-Fascist and big business wings?

[Alexander]

As you may or may not be aware, the Democratic Party in the 1960s initially split over the issue of civil rights, with many Dems, particularly from the north, backing Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey's civil rights platform, and many blue-collar and southern Dems backing George Wallace in both the 1964 and 1968 elections.

And then, in 1968, it split and fractured even more. The break consisted of:

-Party machine officials, pro-Vietnam war Democrats and labor unions supporting Lyndon Johnson and then Hubert Humphrey

-Anti-war Democrats and college students supporting Eugene McCarthy

-In addition to a mini-split where many anti-war Dems and college kids pulled for both candidates, impoverished Americans, Catholics, blacks and minorities supporting Robert Kennedy

-Blue-collar Democrats, white southerners and segregationists supporting George Wallace

Already we're seeing Republicans in Kansas come over to the Democratic side, and Republicans eating their own after losses in Iowa. But we're also seeing a factional split within the Republican Party, the likes of which have never been seen:

-(Mainly Protestant) Christian fundamentalists who want their view of God to be all over the public square, supported Bush because he was "born-again". Now that word is leaking out that Bush, Rove et al. pissed all over them, they're mad as hell, and they didn't turn out as enthusiastically for the Republicans this year.

-Big business, for-profit Republicans who supported Bush because of his tax cuts and giveaways to the rich. Now that the economy is in the toilet and Bush is being pressured to crack down on illegal immigration (which they love, cheap labor), they may take their money elsewhere, and a post-election article seems to confirm this.

So...will the Wall Street Republicans and the Jesusland Republicans clash to the point where we could see a third-party candidate run for president in 08?

[Mark E. Smith]

1. Pretty good assessment

The evangelists are not going to vote for either McCain or Rudy G in the 2008
Republican primaries. This time they will only trust people that they know are
truly their own

The 2008 GOP ticket? Frist/Brownback.

Then we'll see which party it is that's going the way of the Whigs..

[Warpy]

4. Possibly, but don't count Felix out

because the fundies absolutely adore him. Once he goes down in flames and party infighting reaches a peak, my guess is that the fundies will either turn apolitical or split off to form their own party.

The GOP will never kick them out because that's the voting bloc that has kept them in power. They'll have to stomp off in a huff.

Sooner or later, they will.

[AlinPA]

2. They will pay more attention to their Christian right-wing. They can promise legislation to

remove gay people from government, to force prayer in schools, to stop teaching science in schools. This would bring them out. They won't accomplish these things but they will get the bible thumpers out to vote.

[kenny blankenship]

3. If the rightwing fundamentalists feel they must form their own party

I just want to say that Jesus and me are OK with that.

[Jed Dilligan]

5. Perot split the Republicans in 92

Though I'm not sure it happened along the same lines as you mention. I think a fed-up reformist coalition, whose only platform is that business-as-usual has become appalling, could actually split both parties in 08.

[SutaUvaca]

6. Just had a vision

of a Pat Robertson style candidate running in 08. It would have to be sicker and more hilarious that than Kat Harris.
Now I must go wash the scuz off the back of my brain.


edit a typo

[clichemoth]

7. One hand washes the other...

They can't split because both machines require the support of the other to even exist. A Republican Party that relied solely on one side or the other would eventually become about as irrelevant as the Libertarians.

The fundies need money. Without it, they'd be preaching in canvas tents in vacant lots. Those megachurches and satellite transponders don't come cheap. I've read a lot of books about the various scandals that beset folks like Bakker and Swaggart in the 80s(have you noticed how every similar story since then has gotten immediately buried until this Ted Haggard thing?) and one thread runs through that whole sordid mess: big right-wing money. The folks who got nailed by the scandals weren't ultra-conservatives, but the ones who replaced them in the pantheon (Robertson, Falwell, Dobson, etc.) were.

The corporate media is at their beck and call. Shows get cancelled because some preacher calls for a boycott. No news outlet has the fortitude to call them on their hypocrisy and lies because they're afraid of losing ad dollars. Meanwhile, the televangelists get to pay for gobs of airtime to preach from that copy of Atlas Shrugged that they slipped a Bible cover onto and broadcast RW propaganda.

No one who isn't ultra-rich would support the Wall Street agenda without something to cover up the bitter taste of feudalism. If it was placed in front of the public without spin, it would fail miserably because it benefits no one, not even the silver-spoon crowd that created it. Nothing conceals bad policy quite like some old-fashioned bigotry, so they run on homophobia and misogyny and angry white males eat it up like fried ice cream.

Meanwhile, both sides are willing to take big bucks from Moon and his brainwashing cult and nobody raises a stink about that either despite the long and messy history of the Unification Church.

And then you have the people who can't be pigeonholed into either group: The conservative non-charismatic Catholics, Buchananite paleocons, the constitutionalists, and so forth. They're the ones who voted for Ross Perot and still haven't fully rejoined the GOP, but won't support Dems because they still buy into the "tax and spend", "they'll take our guns", and "soft on crime/terror" memes. It'd probably be easier to win them over with a true progressive than it would be with a blue dog DINO, but the DLC doesn't think so.