Rebuilding period

Considering the media’s belief that the way in which the primaries ended would divide and fracture the Democratic Party, it’s only slightly ironic that the way in which the general election ends may end up doing the same thing to the Republican Party. It appears likely that it will actually happen to the Republicans, unlike the Democrats, but one similarity remains: it will end up better for both parties in the long run.

The crux of the dispute is, shockingly enough, Sarah Palin. The Republican Party appears to be dividing into two factions – those who steadfastly support Palin, and those who do not. The latter group includes most of the intellectual core of the party, and the former is made up mostly of people like Rush Limbaugh.

Team Palin, however, is still in control, technically, and so the dissenters are the ones who will take the brunt of the “punishment.” According to Jim Nuzzo, who was evidently an aide of some nature to George H.W. Bush, the people who’ve noticed that Palin is unfit to hold the second-highest office in the land are traitors, giving “aid and comfort to the enemy,” and will essentially be excommunicated from the party. “David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party,” says Nuzzo. “The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?”

Brooks called Palin a “fatal cancer to the Republican Party.” Noonan said that Palin is a “symptom and expression of a new vulgarisation of American politics.” Maybe a little harsh, but not necessarily wrong. All Frum did was say that she’s not ready to be president. You can add Christopher Buckley, George Will, Kathleen Parker, Colin Powell, Charles Krauthammer, and Matthew Dowd to the list of people who oppose Palin. Ken Adelman, Scott McClellan, and Dowd, Buckley, and Powell have actually gone as far as to endorse Obama.

There’s even a split among those working within the McCain campaign, with advisers referring to Palin as a “diva” and saying that she “takes no advice from anyone.” Another Republican referred to her recent actions as “going rogue.”

So evidently these people are all kicked out of the party, according to Nuzzo. This is a really bad idea, because the people I just named – also known as “the smart Republicans” – are the ones the party will need in order to reform itself. Frum actually has some pretty good ideas about how to do that – create an economic policy that focuses on the middle class instead of the rich, and avoid catering solely to the rural white base, among other things. These are good steps, and will be crucial.

The Republicans need to regain their strength soon, because one-party government – even when it’s the party I prefer – scares me. It’s essentially what we had for the first six years of the Bush administration, and we all know how that worked out. The Democrats will be far better than that, but need a check, in the form of a rational Republican Party like we haven’t seen in a while.