“The philosophy you hear from time to time...is one of exclusion rather than inclusion..."

[babylonsister]

A Party of Factions Gathers, Seeking Consensus

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: August 26, 2012 227 Comments


snip//

Some leaders expressed worry that the turn to contentious social issues in the days leading up to the Republican National Convention, where the party platform is likely to embrace a tough anti-abortion stance and strict curbs on immigration, could undercut the party’s need to broaden its appeal. Many of them said they feared it was hastening a march to becoming a smaller, older, whiter and more male party.

“The Republican Party needs to re-establish its philosophy of the big tent with principles,” said Dan Quayle, the Republican former vice president. “The philosophy you hear from time to time, which is unfortunate, is one of exclusion rather than inclusion. You have to be expanding the base, expanding the party, because compared to the Democratic Party, the Republican Party is a minority party.”

George E. Pataki, the Republican former governor of New York, said he agreed with the Tea Party’s principle of reducing taxes and the size of the government. But he said he was concerned that antigovernment sentiments advocated by some Tea Party activists could push it out of the political mainstream.

“What I fear is that that very positive desire to limit the power and the role of the federal government could turn into a philosophy that is antigovernment,” Mr. Pataki said. “Sometimes, those who I fear have that antigovernment view, as opposed to the limited-government view, rise to the center of the nominating process. I think that is not a good thing for the Republican Party.”

snip//

There are evangelicals, Tea Party adherents, supply-siders who would accept no tax increases and a dwindling band of deficit hawks who might. There are economic libertarians who share little of the passion that social conservatives hold on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. There are neoconservatives who want a hard line against Iran and the Palestinians, and realists who are open to diplomatic deal-cutting.

More than anything, the party is racked by the challenge to the establishment from Tea Party outsiders, who are demanding a purge of incumbents who play by a set of rules that many of these Republicans reject.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/us/politics/republicans-worry-about-keeping-factions-reined-in.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[JDPriestly]

1. In short, the Republican Party is splitting into countless factions.

That happened to the Democratic Party after Kennedy's assassination.

[babylonsister]

2. But their factions are all so 'out there'. Was that the case in the 60s? nt

[CTyankee]

3. It was tough. We had to deal with the racists in the Southern Dem Party but to our

credit we threw the bastids out of OUR Democratic Party. Unlike the shameful Republican Party who gleefully picked them up.

We had to put together a whole new constituency and it has been difficult ever since. But it was the right thing to do...

[babylonsister]

5. Thanks for educating me; I was too young to even

know what the Democratic party was back then, but I'm glad we threw the bastids out!

[JDPriestly]

4. Well, back then the Southern Democrats were a part of our party.

Women and minorities were struggling within the party as was the anti-war movement.

We were a bunch of factions back then. It wasn't as severe a fragmentation as we see in the Republican Party, but it really hurt us at election time.

[babylonsister]

6. Thanks for the background. We may have been a bunch

of factions, but it doesn't sound like we were batshit crazy like these nuts do (of course, I'm biased).

[CTyankee]

7. No, we had the anti-Vietnam War contingency which emerged triumphant eventually.

But we paid for it in the incessant, Republican taunts about amnesty, abortion and acid. It's been uphill ever since...

[JDPriestly]

8. True.