President Obama Gave Some Great Advice To The GOP - Here's How They Should Use It
Those were the words President Obama directed towards the Republican Party today as he further emphasized that this was the end of debt-ceiling hostage-taking. If the Republican Party doesn't like the president or his policies, it should take its message to the American people and win elections. It's a simple argument and it also applies to moderate Republicans. If they want to take back their party, win elections. Defeat Tea Party candidates in primaries.
Liberals are hopeful that this complete and utter defeat of the Republican Party in the debt-ceiling battle will lead to a change of GOP strategy. The theory goes that the Tea Party will see that its extreme tactics don't work and will look for more practical methods to fight the president. This is highly unlikely to happen.
Boehner did an excellent job keeping his members unified, but grassroots organizations around the country have had about enough. Molly Ball has a great story today about how many conservative activists are ready to leave the GOP and want to primary every Republican who voted for the bill. Their belief is that Republican tactics didn't fail, their leadership did. For the moment, there's a gap between the opinions of these activists and the Tea Party members in Congress. These congressmen had nothing, but positive things to say about the speaker yesterday while Eric Erickson, Rush Limbaugh and other notable conservatives weren't so kind. That gap will disappear soon enough as those congressmen look to stay on the good side of Erickson and Co.
Many reform conservatives were appalled with the Tea Party's tactics. Ross Douthat hopes this was a learning exercise for the party so that it won't "pull this kind of stunt again." David Frum is ready for the Tea Party to exit altogether. He's not alone in that opinion.
But Boehner and Republican leaders know that as much as they want to do that, they can't. Whether they like it or not, the Republican Party needs the Tea Party as much as they need the moderates. They are listening to the Tea Party and not the moderates, because the Tea Party has no problem declaring war on the establishment and jumping ship. That may be electoral suicide, but the right wing doesn't fear those consequences. The moderates do. It's the same reason the hard-liners didn't fear the political consequences of a futile government shutdown or the economic consequences of breaching the debt ceiling. It's a game of chicken between the moderates and radicals. Whoever is willing to ditch the party and cause electoral defeat for both has control. Right now, that's the Tea Party.
That's why Boehner can't simply cast aside his conservative members. It's why he must do everything in his power to keep them happy and listen to them.
The way moderates take back the party is not through a civil war, but by defeating them in elections. As these extreme tactics fail, the moderate Republicans will earn more support from the marginal Tea Party voter. Slowly, they will win back their trust. This won't be an overnight change. It will take at least the 2014 election cycle, probably longer and there's nothing either party can do to speed it along. It's deeply frustrating for Democrats to look across the aisle and see a party held captive by a small fraction of extreme members. For Republicans, it's even more frustrating to be the ones held captive by those members. But casting aside those members in a nasty civil war will be political suicide for both the establishment and the Tea Party. The best thing moderate Republicans can do is win elections.