Chopping at the Tent Poles

The tensions I viewed within the Outagamie County Republican Party, the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and the national Republican/conservative movement are bursting into fatricidal warfare.

There is a tension between the tent and the tentpoles. One side has big cash the other side has zeal and time. One side poo-poos social concerns the other side from time to time veers into the poison of economic populism. One side derides the others as "blue blazer Republicans" or Country Club Republicans the other uses terms like ignorant and intolerant yahoos.

Now, many try to paint the fight as the far right getting too big for its breeches but what happens if the far right stays home? What happens is the still GOP loses and of late the social conservatives are feeling not excessively included but are finding their concerns being given short shrift. The arrogance Mr. Bartlett expresses is not done with the above comment but he goes on:

However, if the Republican party loses everyone except religious zealots, gun nuts, anti-tax extremists, and pro-life absolutists, then it is not going to win any national elections. That’s not a comment on the rightness or wrongness of the views of those I just listed...

Source: National Review Online Dealing with a Democratic Advantage
(The price of purity is political powerlessness.) a column by Bruce Bartlett What caught my eye was That’s not a comment on the rightness or wrongness of the views of those I just listed Then why do you use the following terms religious zealots, gun nuts, anti-tax extremists, and pro-life absolutists? That clearly expresses an attitude on on the rightness or wrongness of the views.

However, Mr. Bartlett has to consider the fact a Republican Party bereft of religious zealots, gun nuts, anti-tax extremists, and pro-life absolutists is every bit as bereft of electoral victory as a Republican Party bereft of big money.