The Republican Party is really two Parties. The Republican Party and the Tea Party. Republicans are petrified of being "primaried" by conservatives on their right, so as we've seen in the last session of Congress, the recent fiscal cliff negotiations and even the normally slam-dunk of a disaster relief aid package debacle, the GOP is having all sorts of problems.
Conservatives from Peter King to Chris Christie are screaming mad at their Republican leadership, mostly for delaying a vote on the Hurricane Sandy relief package. Gov. Christie said, "Shame on you. Shame on Congress. It's absolutely disgraceful, and I have to tell you, this used to be something that was not political. Disaster relief was something you didn't play games with. But in this current atmosphere, it's a potential piece of bait for the political game. It is why the American people hate Congress." At another point, he said of Republicans in Congress: "We've got people down there who use the citizens of this country like pawns on a chessboard."
Rep. King also voiced his displeasure..."I can’t imagine that type of indifference, that type of disregard, that type of cavalier attitude being shown to any other part of the country.” “People in my party, they wonder why they’re becoming a minority party,” he continued. “They’ve written me off and they’re going to have a hard time getting my vote.” King also added that anyone in New York or New Jersey who gives money to the House Republican campaigns, "needs to have their heads examined."
A political party can't expect to fare very well in upcoming elections if they keep driving people away. The hard core conservatives will, of course, stay true. But its hard to imagine droves of Independents rushing to vote for the GOP next election. To piss off women and young people and Hispanics/Latinos and gay rights groups and labor groups and climate/environmental interests, etc. is quite something.
It really is.
They have time of course to make some changes and several fresh attractive faces like Marco Rubio ready to take on an expanded role in the party, but with the recent mis-steps, one wonders how long before the reset button has to be pressed on a national level. Someone or some group will have to find a way to save the Republican Party from itself. It won't be easy as the Tea Party are pulling from the right, which makes moving the Party to the left, almost impossible.
Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-defined-by-a-sandy-sidestep/2013/01/02/b7b11b10-5532-11e2-bf3e-76c0a789346f_story.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-chris-christie-sandy-aid-congress-20130102,0,4385141.story
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