Republican Party to split, according to people who would never split the party

I think we’ve all seen the stories by now. In the wake of the Shutdownpalooza, which was either a death knell for conservatives or an incredible victory, depending who you ask, there was one thing for sure. The GOP is not just divided and arguing.. it’s headed for a full blown civil war from which one of the warring tribes will depart the field. Is there any truth to this? Depends who you ask, I suppose, but Matt Kibbe, the head of FreedomWorks, is at least admitting the possibility.

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“I think that’s a real possibility because you’re seeing this clash between the new generation and — to me, it’s not just the old wing of the Republican Party versus the new wing — you’re really seeing a disintermediation in politics. It’s already happened with the Democratic Party,” Kibbe said. “It’s happening with the Republican Party now. And grassroots activists have an ability to self-organize, to fund candidates they’re more interested in, going right around the Republican National Committee and senatorial committee.”…

“As you know by now,” Kibbe said in the video, “Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have partnered with Harry Reid to pass a blank check to the president on this budget fight. There is no reform of Obamacare, there’s no defunding, there’s no delays. Um…we lost.”

He went on to say that the amount of vitriol directed at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Heritage Action, FreedomWorks and other agitators for further shutdowns and a debt default indicates that, in fact, the far-right is winning the fight against Obamacare and asks that donors send money to fund the insurrection against moderate Republicans.

Maybe it’s just me, but this is one of those questions which is much like Mark Twain’s view of the weather. Everybody talks about it, but nobody is going to do anything about it. It’s one of those areas where you seem to get a much better sense of the temperature by reading the comments at various conservative web sites than you do from the front page content, to say nothing of the cable news shows. If you spend some time – as we tend to do here – browsing the reader views and guest diaries at not only good ole’ Hot Gas, but at Red State, Right Wing News, National Review and others, you can develop a fairly unified perception: the RINOs have already cost the movement one election after another and have essentially destroyed the Republican Party.

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Of course, if you look at the results of elections – particularly in House races – around the nation, it’s not really a unanimous call. There are a lot of districts, especially in the Northeast and the west coast, where Republicans win elections, but they are the kind of GOP candidates who are constantly reviled in forums such as those mentioned above. But hey.. somebody must be voting for them. And yet, you don’t see huge online conclaves for the so called “moderates” in the party. But they’re out there in numbers significant enough to win a lot of elections.

So if Matt is right, what’s holding everyone back? If there are these two huge groups dividing the GOP in half and they hate each other so much, why is there still just one Republican Party in America? Why hasn’t the Tea Party already bolted to form a new group of True Grassroots Conservatives? Why haven’t the moderates taken their Chris Christie bumper stickers and marched out to start up the “Reasonable Republican Coalition” across the land?

Because it’s not going to happen.

The Democrats have their own internal scuffles, it’s true. But they show up when it’s time to vote. They don’t always win, but you don’t see a “True Liberal Party” marching off the field to take their ball and go home. And the GOP is facing a boat roughly the same size as their own in this bathtub. If you cut the Republican pie in half, you get devoured by a bunch of fist bumping Left wingers. The various legs of the conservative stool are stuck with each other, let’s face it. And what’s more, they can’t survive without each other. It’s probably time to face up to that and begin figuring out a way to keep the marriage together.

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You know… for the children.

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