If you peruse the multiple online Republican (as opposed to conservative) political forums you will find a common theme - the outrage by grassroots Republicans that the Republican Party is once again betraying them. They post article after article of big government Republican politicians and pundits blaming “them” for the Party’s presidential loss. They lament the fact that they are being scapegoated and used as an excuse for the Republican Party to move even further to the left than it already has. Day after day they bitch, moan and whine about their betrayal. They swear they will never vote Republican again. They threaten to leave the Republican Party. These are nothing but crocodile tears. They are meaningless statements which no one but themselves believes. The Republican Party isn’t buying it. Most of these same people have been making the same empty threats for years, sometimes decades, yet every election cycle they not only dutifully march into the voting booth and vote Republican, they mercilessly attack and attempt to intimidate those who refuse to follow their lead.
The Republican Party knows this which is why they completely ignore the whining and the threats in between election cycles and consistently capitulates to the Democratic Party and why they run left-wing candidates for president. They have the votes of the Republican faithful locked up. No matter what the Party does, the overwhelming majority are going to vote for them. If the George W. Bush years didn’t cause them to leave the Republican Party then nothing will. This leaves the Republican Party free to do whatever it takes to attract more voters. The last several presidential elections proves that the Republican Party has determined that the best way to attract new voters is by moving to the left, hence Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. By moving to the left on social issues, welfare, and immigration the party hopes to garner votes from authoritarian and pro-war Democrats.
So is there a solution to this problem? As long as the Republican faithful care more about beating Democrats than they do about the values and beliefs they claim to hold I do not believe there is a solution. There is a chance that eventually the Republican Party will die off. The Democratic Party has become as authoritarian and war-loving as the present day Republican Party so it will become harder for them to pull authoritarian, pro-war votes from the Democrats by moving to the left. Plus, every election cycle produces a very small minority that has had enough and actually goes through on their threats and vote’s third party or stays at home. With any luck eventually those small minorities will add up over time. The question is do we have the time? Between the police state both parties are aggressively creating and the economy both parties are aggressively destroying, I have my doubts. By the time that minority grows large enough to become meaningful it may be too late.