Far-right will drive the GOP over a cliff

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"Michael Stafford is a former Republican Party officer and the author of “An Upward Calling.”"
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GOP Stuck in a Conservative Wonderland
By Michael Stafford, March 7, 2012

The Republican presidential primary field has been reduced to four candidates- Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul. Together, they are a veritable four horsemen of the political apocalypse- a quadrilateral of doom, despair, division, and diminished horizons. These candidates offer nothing positive for America’s future, and are an indictment of the political party that produced them.

The election of President Obama seems to have pushed the far-right wing of the GOP across some sort of political event horizon and into its own version of Wonderland. Like Lewis Carroll’s original, this Conservative Wonderland is home to all sorts of strange creatures- Randologists, goldbugs, neo-Confederates, birthers, science deniers, and sundry survivalist bunker denizens. In this magical place, it’s perfectly reasonable to think that evolution is an unproven theory, that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by Al Gore and a cabal of scientists, that immigrants are a marauding criminal horde, that the free market is omniscient and that President Obama is a foreign-born Marxist Muslim bent on destroying constitutional government in America. Perhaps most paradoxically, in this topsy-turvy realm, one can claim to be a patriot and to love the Constitution, while simultaneously hating the federal government that same document created, as well as the way it has been interpreted and applied by the courts since the time of John Marshall.

Conservative Wonderland even has its own versions of the Queen of Hearts- the doyens of the conservative entertainment complex on radio and cable that define ideological orthodoxy, and enforce compliance, while feeding a daily diet of misinformation, rage, and hysteria to their audiences. “Audit the fed!” instead of “off with her head!”- but the meaning is rather the same.

Unsurprisingly, as the far-right has become radicalized, it has abandoned any interest in actual governance and embraced instead the politics of emotional gratification. Consider, for example, the far-right’s response to Obamacare. Everyone agrees that rising health care costs are placing enormous strain on the economy, and on the federal budget. Controlling them is essential to putting the nation on a sound fiscal footing. And yet, rather than articulating its own reform plan, the far-right’s response to Obamacare can be surmised in a single word- repeal. Repeal, of course, is a slogan, not a program. Repeal Obamacare, and the problems it attempted to solve will still be with us. What, then, is the conservative solution?

Of course this is mere political theater; symbolism substituting for substance. The politics of emotional gratification does not result in progress in any policy area- it does not lead to solutions. It is simply a series of empty gestures strung together.

The far-right’s capture of the GOP has gone largely unchallenged by more responsible voices within the Party. Jon Huntsman, for example, was the sole presidential candidate willing to directly confront the prevailing orthodoxy on climate and evolution. Perhaps this isn’t surprising, given the viciousness of the attacks directed at dissenters. The passion for purging and purity, and the primaries that resemble nothing so much as heresy trials, highlight a critical fact about the far-right. In Conservative Wonderland, dissent- thoughtcrime- is the political version of a capital offense.

In the Republican Party, thought-criminals have a name: RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). And when it’s used, it’s always as a term of derision; as a slur.

However, far from being the political version of the Shirt of Nessus, the appellation RINO is a badge of honor. Today, a RINO is a person within the GOP who refuses, despite all the pressure, to say that two plus two equals five. Given the insanity of Conservative Wonderland, a RINO is a responsible Republican.

The ideological inquisitors have hounded far too many responsible Republicans out of the GOP; intimidated too many others into silence. We’ve been hunted to the brink of extinction. Now, those that remain must find their voice, and their courage. In American conservatism, thoughtcrime is life- it is the sole hope for a better future.

The far-right would drive the GOP over a cliff, and take America right along with it. It’s up to responsible Republicans to take back the wheel and steer a different course. Today, we have an opportunity to challenge the prevailing orthodoxies and articulate an alternative vision of conservatism- one that is forward-looking, intellectually honest, and solutions-based. One rooted in the real world, not Conservative Wonderland’s fantasies and hysteria.

If we’re RINOs, then it’s time for us to turn at bay, and charge!
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