The Conservatives vs The Republicans

With the recent battle between Conservatives and Republicans taking place across the nation, the reenergized conservative movement may in fact “fix” the Republican Party.

But I wanted to look at the situation as whether this is good for the Republican Party, is it good for the Democratic Party, is it good for the American politics and the American people.

“The Tea Party”

Is it time for a new political party to be established?

We already have the Libertarian Party, The Green Party, there are a couple of other conservative parties, but nothing as strong as The Tea Party.

Has the Tea Party brought along a new nationally legitimate political organization?

Well many think so and many more are joining their ranks.

I don’t think the Republicans vs. the Conservatives feud will last much longer, pretty soon the Tea Party will merge back into the Republican Party or they will be left by the wayside.

According to the “teabaggers” themselves, the Tea Party movement is more to the right than the Republican Party.

This feud is about there being more people in Congress that believe in the things and therefore will vote on things that more right than the Republican Party has in the past.

They want a person in Congress that will vote more like the ideal conservative, instead of a centrist conservative.

This fight is easier to do in New York’s 23rd, than it will be in the rest of the country. The Republican running for office in the 23rd district is being labeled a Democrat in disguise,, a liberal in a conservative’s clothing.

The Tea Party has spent the summer attacking people that are more along the lines of a centrist, labeling them far left. And now the Republican Party is suffering from the same accusation. In the summer it was originally aimed at Democrats, whether they be centrist or leftist, but now the crosshairs of the Tea Party are on Republican centrists.

And when you are so far to the right that the center looks left, feuds like this emerge.

“Not Bad”

This movement is not bad for the Republican Party, at least not yet. It may be bad if the movement continues to run against the Republican Party in 2010. But in my opinion the Tea Party will have accomplished its goal by that time.

The Tea Party angst is definitely doing harm to the Republican running for office in New York and also the lesser mentioned Florida candidate. But in the end the people elected by the Tea Party will ultimately side with the Republicans on the most part.

Much like Bernie Sanders sides with Democrats on most issues.

Newt GingrichNewt Gingrich, former Republican holder of the position now being occupied by the Democrat Nancy PelosiNancy Pelosi, perhaps put it best by saying that you can not win elections with 20% of the vote. You can not win an election nationally with only 20% of the votes.

This situation is viewed by liberals as almost the same way as Newt views it.

Newt thinks that if the Tea Partiers don’t join with the Republican Party instead of fight the Republican Party, it just means that there will be more Democrats in office after 2102 and Obama will still be the President after 2012.

I don’t view it the same way.

After losing a couple of seats to the Tea Partiers the Republican Party will find a way to get the Tea Partiers to joins their ranks again. The passion and the noise the Tea Partiers have are undeniably needed by the Republicans and they will rally for it.

And if the Tea Party movement can produce a few fresh faces, the Republican Party will find itself with a few new leaders. Perhaps even one that will beat Obama in 2012.

Just as the Tea Party has the potential of destroying the chances of Republicans getting into office, it also has the potential to bring a Republican into the President’s seat.

When the Green Party was successful in achieving enough voters to “steal” the election away from the Democrat Al GoreAl Gore to the Republican George W. BushGeorge W. Bush, the blame on the Green Party was ridiculous.

If the Democratic nominee had been a stronger nominee, the Green Party nominee never would have won the votes he did.

If the nation hadn’t changed its mind as to what it wanted, the Democratic nominee would have had more votes.

The Green Party had not stolen the election away from the Democrats, the Democrats did it themselves, with a little help from the Republicans.

The failure and success of the Tea Party movement will depend on what lessons the Republicans learned from the 2000 election.

“This is good for America”

Every so often, I believe, it is necessary for political parties to realign themselves with their base and the rest of the American people. After 2000 it was the Democrats that had to realign themselves, after 2008 it’s the Republican’s turn.

The Democrats reemerged stronger from the realignment and so will the Republicans.

I believe it was the man who said “it’s the economy stupid” who said Democrats can’t win elections acting like Republicans.

The same may be true for the Republicans acting like Democrats.

It seems to me that the Tea Partiers are trying to get the Republicans to start acting like Republicans should act like. A Republican should have been much more fiscally responsible than the previous Republican President.

This feud is good for America because ultimately the Republican Party will emerge looking more like Conservatives as opposed to Conservatives-lite.

A stronger Republican Party makes the political process stronger.

In the end, the Tea Party will look less like the Tea Party of now, and the Republican Party will look less like the Republican Party of now. They will both have learned important lessons.

“More to it”

There is more to this than I’ve actually talked about. The potential of hurting the GOP is there, especially in next year’s election.

But overall and in the long term, I think the Tea Party will have made the GOP stronger.

Epilogue:

Before the left celebrates the breaking up of the Republican Party, it should be noted that the Democratic Party though united just little over a year ago, is now arguing with itself without the help of any other political party emerging from the left.

The Democratic Party has the majority in the House and the Senate, as well as a member in the White House, but where is the public option that would have covered every single person that could not afford health insurance?

Why are we not out of Iraq yet?

Where are the Wall Street regulations?

And why are my student loans and tuitions still escalating at a rate higher than the nation’s deficit?

Why are there so many state governments going bankrupt?